Jasraj Hallan
Calgary East, Alberta · Conservative · Canada
“This is not to mention that ours is the only country in the entire G20 to be in a recession. The Conservatives are wholeheartedly against shutting down this motion. I sit on the finance committee.”
“The Liberals are ideologically obsessed with the carbon tax. There's the clean fuel standard. We do not want to include the GST on top of that, which would have saved Canadians 25¢ per litre, or $1,200 for a family.”
“Mr. Speaker, before I begin, I want to inform you that I am splitting my time with my good friend from Saskatoon West , who brought me to his riding. I remember it was -40°C. He promised me he would show me an ice rink. I did not know he was talking about the roads in Saskatoon, not an actual ice rink.”
“Those are our jobs and factories or growth that could have happened here, but high Liberal taxes and regulation have driven them away. The Liberal Prime Minister has driven out, as a net loss, $20 billion of investment outside Canada. He is the guy who said he would fix everything.”
“The Liberals are adding another $68 billion in new spending. The PBO came out with a scathing report just two weeks ago, saying the Liberal government has a “less than 1 per cent” chance of meeting one of its own fiscal anchors, and debunking the other fiscal anchors the government had put in place.”
“The opposition's job, which Canadians sent us to this place to do, is to expose the endless, reckless spending by the Prime Minister and the Liberal government. It is not just us saying things are bad right now.”
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“(1625) It makes these industries less competitive and less attractive for investment, and it affects their bottom line. That cost is again passed on to the economy through weaker production, less job creation, higher prices and lower productivity. If Liberals truly wanted to make life more affordable for Canadians, they would have adopted the full Conservative plan, which is to lower the first income tax bracket to 12.75% and finally get rid of the industrial carbon tax for good. This is the same carbon tax, the industrial carbon tax, that has made sure investment has left the country. It is the energy industry killing policies like the ones in Bill C-69 , the no new pipelines bill, that have made Canada weaker and more dependent on others.”
“Unemployment is on the rise; it is currently at 7% and could go higher, according to TD Bank, but of course the Liberals think a 1% tax cut will make all of that go away. The Conservative plan to restore affordability more than doubled the income tax cut, and it also included lowering the cost of government, unleashing the economy and energy sectors, and axing the industrial carbon tax. Part 3 of the bill would eliminate only the consumer carbon tax. That would still leave the tax on the producers of oil and gas that powers everything from our trucks to our tractors. An industrial carbon tax means steel and aluminum manufacturers, loggers, natural gas producers and the agricultural sector will all continue to be burdened by this tax, and that tax will be passed down to the end user.”
“Thanks to Liberal inflation, interest rate hikes, other taxes and the skyrocketing cost of living, wages have not kept up with the rising cost of food, shelter or clothing. Canadians are spending more on taxes than on food, shelter and clothing combined. Families are paying $10,000 more in taxes than they did in 2015. The average family will pay an extra $800 on food just this year, making the annual bill for groceries this year for an average family about $17,000. Young Canadians are giving up on the dream of home ownership. Young Canadians are paying for basic necessities by borrowing more and more on their credit card. Now, more than ever, there are more missed credit card payments and mortgage delinquencies, and business insolvencies are on the rise. Household debt in Canada has reached $2.5 trillion, up from $1.9 trillion in 2015.”
“After the Liberals' disastrous job-killing capital gains tax hike announcement, Conservatives promised a “bring it home” tax cut for all Canadian workers, including an income tax cut. These were all things we included in our Conservative platform in the last election. Now we see in the bill we are debating today that the Liberals have taken a lot of our ideas but once again have not implemented them properly. Let us go through the parts of the bill that we are concerned about. Part 1 of the bill would save Canadian workers only 1% on the lowest tax bracket, which for the average worker amounts to about $420 a year. In contrast, Conservatives proposed cutting income tax by 15%, which would lower the first tax bracket to 12.75%. That would save the average worker $900 a year. That is more than double what the Liberals have.”
“The fact that the Liberals are copying Conservative policies is a compliment to the hard work our members on this side of the House have been doing over the last few years. I cannot think of a better team than the Conservative MPs, staff and stakeholders who have put together world-class policies for the Liberals to steal. I want to take this time to give a special thanks to Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre for finally getting the consumer carbon tax repealed once and for all, for all Canadians. After an eight-year fight, Conservatives axed the carbon tax scam for all Canadians, leaving more of Canadians' hard-earned money in their pockets, where it should have been in the first place. In October 2024, we announced our GST rebate on new homes to save all homebuyers the cost of the GST on newly built homes.”
“Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with my very good friend, someone who is a very hard worker and a very patriotic Canadian, the hon. member for Calgary Skyview . As the The Who says in its song Won't Get Fooled Again : Meet the new boss Same as the old boss. If the bill is any indication of how the government intends to make its legislation, we are going to see a repeat of all its old boss's habits of governing by platitudes and poorly thought-out legislation. Do not get me wrong. Conservatives always support tax cuts; we are the party of tax cuts. In typical Liberal fashion, the Liberals' new boss tried to plagiarize Conservative policies, but just like the old guy, failed to do it right. We all know that imitation is the best form of flattery.”
“Mr. Speaker, as the Minister of Finance, will he commit to ensuring that any company Brookfield is invested in and the Prime Minister has interest in will not unfairly receive government grants, loans or funding?”
“Mr. Speaker, I can assure the minister that no one has enough time to watch him. The minister cannot answer if these types of actions would be caught. The Prime Minister set this up in 2022 and 2024, when he was a financial adviser to Justin Trudeau. Was there a government effort to turn a blind eye to this tax evasion, yes or no?”
“Mr. Speaker, I would be happy if the minister could actually answer a question. Of the funds the Prime Minister set up, one was headquartered at a local bike shop. Would the government's actions cover this type of tax evasion, yes or no?”
“Mr. Speaker, the minister is evading the question altogether. When the Prime Minister was at Brookfield, he set up offshore funds in the most notorious tax havens, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Did the government's offshore crackdown cover the Prime Minister 's shady activities, yes or no?”
“Mr. Speaker, when the minister was a Trudeau minister, his government claimed to crack down on wealthy Canadians evading taxes by moving money offshore. Did the government's efforts capture the current Prime Minister 's actions, setting up offshore investment funds worth $25 billion?”
“Madam Chair, is it fair, according to the minister, that bankers and bondholders are getting more money than what goes to the provinces for health care transfers? Is that compassionate, according to the minister?”
“Madam Chair, the Parliamentary Budget Officer is projecting that in year 2029-2030, the debt servicing costs will be $70 billion. Last year, the debt servicing was more than what goes to health care transfers to the provinces. Can the minister confirm whether, at $70 billion, that will be more, or less, than what gets transferred to the provinces in health care transfers?”
“Madam Chair, obviously the number must be very bad, because the minister keeps avoiding answering a very simple question. The current Prime Minister is projected to spend more than Justin Trudeau did, by more than $225 billion over the next five years. How big will the debt servicing costs get, just the number?”
“Madam Chair, that was not my question. In the FES, the total debt shows as $1.27 trillion. That means the amount that is going to be borrowed will be half of the total debt that Canada has. Can the minister confirm whether the debt interest costs in the budget will go up, or down?”
“Madam Chair, the Prime Minister , in the throne speech, said that the Liberals would cap government spending at 2%. It took only an hour and a half after that, and when the main estimates were released by the minister, they said that they were going to spend at 8%. Can the minister confirm that the deficit will not be larger than the $46.8 billion that was projected in the Liberal platform?”
“Mr. Chair, I will be splitting my time three ways. During the election, the Prime Minister said he would collect $20 billion in U.S. tariffs. Can the minister confirm on what date they will be fully collected?”
“We took zero dollars from any government, because it was funded by small businesses. Small businesses support their communities; they always want to give back. That is why we need to support small businesses.”
“Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my great colleague, who is a great pancake-flipper when he helps out at my Stampede breakfast every single year. Not only his daughter but his granddaughter lives in my riding. I will answer his question in a different way, with my own personal experience. I came from small business. We were home builders before this. We were building homes at a time when there was a common-sense Conservative government. We had lower taxes, and we saw an energy industry that was supported, which meant that more houses were being built and more people were moving to Canada. There was more competition, and because more was getting built in this country, there were good, powerful paycheques. What did that do? It helped the small businesses. We used to run an after-school program for at-risk youth.”
“Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague and congratulate him on coming back to the House. There are a number of things that can be done. We can get rid of the industrial carbon tax. The Liberal government can stop attacking our farmers, so that we can bring down the cost of what it costs to farm in this country. We need to increase competition, and we are only going to do that if we get rid of the red tape and all the barriers that the government created. Getting rid of bills like Bill C-69 and Bill C-48 , the oil and gas cap, would be a signal to the world that we are serious. We can lower taxes on businesses and corporations and lower personal taxes so that we can bring more competition into this country, which the Liberals have driven away. Those are some of the concrete steps we can take to lower the grocery bills.”
“Mr. Speaker, these are the same Liberal ego and hypocrisy. Canadians sent me to this House; my constituents sent me to this House, and I will continue to be their voice. In fact, more Canadians, over eight million Canadians, voted for the Conservatives and their plan. If that member was so sure, why did the Liberals start stealing our ideas? As I said before, if they really wanted to, they should take all of our good ideas so we can get Canada back on track.”
“If we already know the Prime Minister is spending more than Justin Trudeau, how much higher are taxes going to go? What is the government's plan to get the economy going, if it is not going to get rid of Bill C-69 , Bill C-48 or the oil and gas cap? Canadians need to know. They deserve to know. We are once again calling on the government to release a spring budget and be clear and transparent with Canadians on what kind of plan it has. We have already said before that the Liberals have already started to steal some of the Conservatives' ideas. Why not steal all of them so that Canadians can actually get back the country we used to have? Once again, it is time for the government to be transparent and deliver a budget this spring. If it really wants to lower the cost of groceries, it needs to bring more competition into this country.”
“(1110) We know Canadians are paying some of the highest grocery bills in the world. Canadians are paying the highest cellphone bills in the world and the highest banking fees in the world because investment keeps fleeing because of the incompetent policies from the Liberal government. That is not to mention that, overall, after the government doubled the national debt, it put strain on Canadians. In fact, as I said, now Canadians are borrowing more and more. They have more credit card debt and debt overall. That is why Canadians needed a plan. The Prime Minister promised one but did not deliver. He is just like the old guy. They could have delivered a plan through a budget this spring, because Canadians need to know how much worse things are going to get.”
“The fertilizer tax the government put in and the cap are the types of bad policies that drove investment away and made things more expensive here, because if it is more expensive to produce or farm, then obviously it is going to be more expensive at the end of the day. We need to get rid of the bad bills and make Canada open for business again. We need to get rid of Bill C-69 , Bill C-48 and the oil and gas cap to show the world that we are serious and are open for business and so that one of our most important industries can help contribute to making Canada the great country it once was before the Liberals. It will give Canadians the most powerful paycheques, which will have an effect on other industries, like housing, and on competition overall, as with groceries.”
“As I said before, it drove away half a trillion dollars of good Canadian investment. That meant jobs, people and equipment. Good Canadian money ran away from Canada because the government made it impossible for anyone to want to invest here. In fact, Canada looks closed for business. Trying to kill one of our most important industries, the energy sector, signalled this to the world: If the Liberal government cannot even support our most important industry and puts barriers up and tries to choke it, what hope does any other industry have? What is the effect of that? It affects our farmers. The industrial carbon tax and the carbon tax the government had before made it more and more expensive for our farmers to farm.”
“Canada used to be one of those countries where people could put in hard work and get by. They could, on one income, afford their housing costs and groceries and put their kids in tutoring or sports, but after 10 years of the incompetent Liberal government, Canadians cannot do the same anymore. There are double-income earners going to food banks, with stats we have never heard before. People who used to volunteer at food banks are standing in line at food banks for food. That is the record of the Prime Minister 's advice over the last five years and what the Liberal government has done to Canadians and the reputation of Canada. It has diminished under the government over the last 10 years. When we talk about grocery prices overall, we have to acknowledge the productivity crisis and the competition crisis the government created.”
“We could easily get a week or maybe two weeks of groceries before this government took over. Now $200 does not get us very far or many bags of groceries. In fact, $200 might even be two bags of groceries that last two to three days. Families and single moms are making some very tough decisions. They are having to buy less nutritious food for their kids, and for the first time in Canadian history, one in four Canadians is skipping meals because they cannot afford groceries. A third of those people are children. On top of all that, we are seeing more and more food bank usage. In fact, it is the most in Canadian history. More than two million Canadians are going to a food bank in a single month. These stats do not sound like a first-world country. It is not the kind of country that my family or other people moved to or grew up in.”
“The government did a great job of driving Canadian investment out of Canada, which has meant paycheques are not as powerful as they used to be. With all the money-printing and borrowing, the Liberals also had to raise taxes to collect from Canadians. Therefore, not only did they double housing costs, which has meant that for some families, up to 80% of their paycheque goes toward housing, but they have left less and less for other essentials and goods. What are Canadian families doing now to compensate? Well, they are taking on more debt. Credit card debt is up. More and more families are now borrowing money from loved ones and friends, and they are not able to pay those debts back. (1105) It does not take much to realize how much more expensive things are at the grocery store. We all remember how far $200 used to go at the grocery store.”
“The average family this year will spend about $17,000 at the grocery store on average. That is $800 more this year that they will have to spend. We hear all across the board that families are already suffering because the Liberal government, under the current Prime Minister 's advice, doubled housing costs, which made more of a Canadian's paycheque go toward housing. Before I continue, I want say that I am splitting my time with my new, great colleague from Richmond—Arthabaska . After the Liberal government, under the current Prime Minister 's advice, doubled housing costs, whether for mortgages or rents, more and more of each Canadian's paycheque is going toward housing. What does that do? It puts a strain on Canadians' paycheques, because wages have not gone up; they have not kept up with inflation.”
“There is no way he can get away with saying that he is new here; he is the one who helped cause all the pain and suffering among Canadians over the last five years, the worst in Canadian history, in fact. Let us take a look at what happened with all the spending of Canadian taxpayer money the government did. After doubling the national debt and printing massive amounts of money, inflation soared. With inflation, came food inflation. If we look at the government's record since the Liberals took office in 2015, we see that food inflation has grown 38%. Here are some new, alarming statistics about household groceries: Vegetable oil is up 50%, butter is up 45%, chicken breast is up 41%, ground beef is up 40%, milk is up 33%, bread is up 30% and eggs are up 28%.”
“It did not take very long for the Liberals to expose that this guy is much worse than the old guy, Justin Trudeau. It is because he is already spending more than Justin Trudeau did, and things are only going to get worse. We have to remember the Prime Minister said that he is a man with a plan, so let us look at his track record. He might say he is new, but had been advising the old guy for the last five years. What happened in the last five years? Canadians were hit after the Liberal government doubled the national debt and caused the worst inflationary crisis in Canadian history. Along with that, Canadians were hit with the most rapid interest rate hikes in Canadian history. Food bank usage doubled under this guy in his advisory role to Justin Trudeau.”
“First and foremost, I want to thank the great people of Calgary East for giving me, for the third time, the opportunity and great honour to represent them in the House of Commons and to represent all Canadians and, most importantly, Albertans, who are screaming out loud that once again the government is attacking not only Alberta but our energy sector. I also want to thank my entire campaign team, all the volunteers and everyone who put in all the hours to help me get re-elected. I want to congratulate you, Mr. Speaker, on your new role as Speaker. I heard, door by door, in my constituency and in many others that the cost of groceries today is not only alarming but devastating for most families, which are just barely getting by.”
“moved: Motion That, given that, (i) the Prime Minister said he will be held to account by prices Canadians pay at the grocery store, (ii) under the Liberal government, food inflation continues to rise, forcing families to eat less nutritious foods, (iii) Canadian families will pay $16,834 for food this year, an $800 increase from last year, the House call on the government to present a fiscally responsible budget before the House adjourns for the summer, that reverses Liberal inflationary policies so Canadians can afford to put food on the table. He said: Mr. Speaker, since this is my first time rising to my feet in this 45th Parliament, I want to take the time to thank some important people.”
“Mr. Speaker, that guy should apologize for collecting carbon tax for the last 10 years. Now the OECD says Canada will be hit the hardest in a looming global slowdown as investment fees, unemployment and core inflation climb. The Prime Minister already broke his promise of capping spending at 2%. Instead, he will spend 8% and half a trillion dollars in inflationary spending. Why do the Liberals not table a budget today and show Canadians exactly how much more economic vandalism they will do than Justin Trudeau did?”
“Mr. Speaker, the government's budgetary watchdog is sounding the alarm bells that interest on the federal debt will soar past $70 billion in four years. Debt interest payments already exceed provincial health care transfers, military spending or total GST revenue. However, the Prime Minister wants to spend even more money than Justin Trudeau did without tabling a budget. Canadians want to know, on what date will the Liberals table a budget?”