Tamara Jansen
Cloverdale—Langley City, British Columbia · Conservative · Canada
“We call on the government to accept the committee's recommendation and support Bill C-218 , which is already before the House and which would accomplish the policy objective the committee recommends. Conservatives are prepared to work collaboratively with the government to that end.”
“Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the Conservative members of the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying to table, in both official languages, our supplementary opinion.”
“Spending is increasing faster than inflation and faster than economic growth. He promised economic renewal. Canada remains the only G20 country in recession. He promised to build faster, yet despite his creating new offices, new agencies and new approval processes, Canadians are still waiting to see any results.”
“When a government finds $25 billion for a brand-new sovereign debt fund, only weeks after presenting a budget, Parliament should begin to wonder if perhaps these programs are not emerging from a coherent economic plan, but are being invented on the fly whenever the government finds itself in need of a new announcement.”
“What makes this particularly troubling is that all of this is happening while Canada stands alone among the G20 countries as the only one in recession. The government continues to insist that more spending is the solution, yet with all that spending, Canada is the only G20 nation that has managed to achieve this disastrous distinction.”
“At some point, governments must be judged not by the announcements they make but by the results they achieve. Now the government has asked Parliament to spend less time examining legislation at the very moment it is asking Canadians to accept more spending, more borrowing and more debt. That is backwards.”
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“However, Mr. Szafron refused. He insisted on joining the tour, dismissing our concerns by saying, “No one will know who I am. I'm just a guy in a polo shirt.” I disagreed. Inmates and staff definitely know who the assistant warden is. We asked who had instructed him to impose this condition, and he claimed that it came from the warden directly. We then asked to speak with the warden ourselves, but we were told that she was unavailable. We asked for a phone call. We were refused. We asked if our safety was at risk, and he said no. We asked again if we could proceed with the uniformed officers already present. Again, he said no, and all the while his tone was aggressive, his posture was intimidating and his behaviour was wholly inappropriate.”
“On July 28, I attended the Fraser Valley Institution, a women's prison in the Abbotsford region, with the intention of fulfilling what I feel is my most important duty as a member of Parliament: to ensure that all Canadians, including those in federal custody, are treated with dignity, care and humanity. Unfortunately, that oversight was aggressively and intentionally obstructed. When I arrived with my colleague, the shadow minister for public safety , we were told that our tour would be accompanied by Mr. Chris Szafron, the assistant warden of management services. My colleague and I clearly explained that we wished to tour with only uniformed correctional officers so that inmates and staff would feel free to speak openly with us. We made it clear that the presence of senior management would inhibit transparency and hinder trust.”
“When I am blocked from fulfilling my role, it is not just an inconvenience; it is an abuse of power. It strips vulnerable women of their voice and strips the public of their right to know what is being done in their name with their tax dollars under the banner of justice. Denying elected officials access to see how inmates are treated without the filter of management is a serious breach of trust. If I can be shut out, then so can accountability, and when transparency dies, abuse thrives. I rise today to bring to the attention of the House this very serious breach of privilege by Corrections Canada.”
“Mr. Speaker, I am here to speak to the question of privilege that was raised yesterday by my colleague, the member for Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola and shadow minister for public safety. It is my responsibility to ensure the well-being of Canadians, including those behind prison walls, so why was I stymied from entering the Fraser Valley women's prison freely this past summer? What are they hiding behind those walls? As their representative in Parliament, it is my duty, not a courtesy or a request, to verify first-hand that incarcerated women, many of whom are dealing with mental illness, abuse and trauma, are being treated humanely and with dignity. Parliament gave me this responsibility because oversight matters. It is one of the few safeguards we have for ensuring the state does not abuse its power behind locked doors.”
“Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Prime Minister swaggered in promising a massive surge in homebuilding, with half a million new homes a year. After all that hype, Vancouver families are still staring at million-dollar price tags. That surge has not even made a ripple. Projects are stalled and permits crawl through red tape, and the only thing going up faster than prices is the bureaucracy he is building. Now that big pledge has shrunk to just 4,000 homes at a cost of $4 billion in yet another Liberal broken promise. When will the Liberals stop building bureaucracy that makes homes more expensive for Canadians?”
“Mr. Speaker, I am wondering what my esteemed colleague thinks is the cause of all the broken promises we have seen from the new Liberal government. Does he think it might have something to do with the ministerial musical chairs we have seen going on in the Liberal cabinet? Who on earth promotes failed team leaders in the real world and expects better results?”
“Mr. Speaker, the message the government is sending is that struggling Canadians, trauma survivors and those battling depression, schizophrenia or PTSD are being told that death is a solution we are now willing to offer in response to a life of suffering, often compounded by harm this very society has caused them. That is not health care. That is not compassion. It is abandonment. Mental illness is treatable, and recovery is possible, but only if we show up and help. Canadians are watching. They need us to stand up for life, dignity and hope. It is my honour and privilege to rise today and introduce an act to amend the Criminal Code on medical assistance in dying. (Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)”
“It is because medical experts and legal scholars have raised the alarm again and again, saying that it is impossible to implement safely. Clinical experts have warned that there is no evidence-based way to determine if someone with a mental illness would get better. Most do. Still, the government is moving forward. The message it is sending is that struggling Canadians, trauma survivors and those battling depression—”
“Bill C-218. Introduction and first reading moved for leave to introduce Bill C-218, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying) . She said: Mr. Speaker, imagine that someone's son or daughter has been battling depression for some time after losing their job or maybe due to a broken relationship. Imagine they feel a loss so deep that they are convinced the world would be better off without them. Now imagine this. Starting in March 2027, under Canadian law, they could walk into a doctor's office and ask them to end their life. Under our law, the system could legally do just that. Our society could end a person's life for solely a mental health challenge. That is not a future scenario; it is the law right now waiting to take effect. The Liberal government has already had to delay this law twice. Why?”
“Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister just voted to ban gas-powered vehicles, adding up to $20,000 to the cost of a new car. Families are already drowning in bills, and now he is making it even harder to get to work or drop off the kids. Is it just a coincidence that Brookfield stands to profit off this mandate? When will the Prime Minister stop treating public money like his personal investment portfolio and finally be transparent about the deals he stands to benefit from?”
“Mr. Speaker, it has been over 100 days and the Prime Minister still has not set up an ethics screen to deal with his business interests. Just imagine a local school board trustee voting for a multi-million dollar contract, then going to his business partner to build a school without telling anyone he is going to profit from it. Canadians would be outraged, and they should be. When will the Prime Minister show some basic ethics and stop treating public office like a private opportunity?”
“Mr. Speaker, how many women have to be beaten half to death before the government stops giving repeat offenders a free pass? Hugh Mason is 34 years old with a violent history that reads like a warning label: assault, assault with a weapon, uttering threats, resisting arrest, theft, breaching probation. Over and over again, in just three years, he has been hauled into court and released 37 times, and now he is on video shoving a woman into the street, brutally kicking and punching her as she crawls away for her life. That happened last week, just a few kilometres from my home in Langley. I walk those streets. My kids and grandkids walk those streets. It is happening because the government is protecting violent criminals rather than innocent Canadians.”
“Mr. Speaker, the housing minister is not starting with a clean slate. His record in Vancouver is well known. As investigative journalist Sam Cooper documented in his book Wilful Blindness , his city hall was part of what he calls the Vancouver model, where laundered crime money, foreign cartels and offshore investment fuelled skyrocketing housing prices while honest families were locked out. Now he claims to lead the most robust housing agenda in history. With that track record, I am sorry, but Canadians do not believe it. Ten years of Liberal broken promises and only 309 homes to show for millions in investment. They can spin all they like, but credibility matters. He should build trust first, because right now, his reputation precedes him. Why would Canadians believe a word he says?”
“This is not going to be the most robust housing agenda in Canadian history. It is going to be more smoke and mirrors. The government has failed to build homes and failed to protect the people who need them most. This former mayor failed Vancouver. He turned a blind eye while a housing crisis exploded and working families were pushed out. There is no reason to believe he will do any better on a national scale. In fact, there is every reason to believe it will be far worse under his direction. If he could not fix the housing crisis for one city, why on earth would Canadians trust him with the entire country?”
“These programs are not built to fix the problem. They are built to protect the insiders, to keep the system working for people like him while everyone else is left behind: the single moms, the seniors and the working-class Canadians who just want a fair shot and get nothing. Forgive us, Mr. Speaker, if we do not believe him, because this is not about slogans. It is about people, real people who have been failed again and again by those who are supposed to lead. The minister can stand up and repeat his talking points all he wants, but Canadians have lived through the reality. They see the truth clearly now. The few homes being built are not truly affordable. The numbers do not match the promises. Most importantly, the trust that Canadians once had in their leaders is gone.”
“Instead, they used market rents during a housing crisis, which was sky-high, and just knocked off a few dollars. This means that in Vancouver or Toronto, if the market rent is, say, $3,000, they would call $2,400 affordable. However, for the people who actually need help, that is not affordable at all. It is not affordable for low-income seniors, not for young families trying to start out and not for immigrants working two jobs to make ends meet. Calling something affordable does not make it true. The minister knows full well that these programs do not create truly affordable housing. He is a clever man and a wealthy man. He owns multiple properties. Would he ever build housing based on what low-income Canadians can actually afford? Of course not, he would not make the big returns. That is the real issue here.”
“He smeared the critics. He chose to protect the developers, the insiders and the money men. He let the crisis grow, and hard-working families paid the price. That is not just failure; that is a complete lack of integrity. Now that same man wants us to trust him to solve Canada's housing crisis. He is not a man who builds trust. He is a man who abandons it and the people who depend on it every time. Not only that, but the Liberal programs that the minister now defends simply do not work. They do not look good on paper, and they certainly do not work in practice. Just ask the families trying to get their first home. Ask the single moms stuck in rentals that drain every last dime. Those programs did not even base affordable housing on what people actually earn.”
“Mr. Speaker, the housing minister claims to have the most robust housing agenda in the history of the House, but Canadians have heard this story before. The man making that claim was also the mayor of Vancouver during one of the most disgraceful chapters in Canadian housing history. Under his watch, Vancouver became a global hot spot for money laundering, shady real estate deals and housing speculation. Drug cartel money flowed freely through casinos and into luxury condos. Homes were not being built for families. They were being used as safe deposit boxes for dirty money. Where was he? He was not taking action. He was not standing up for working Canadians. He turned a blind eye. When researchers exposed what was happening, when members of Vancouver's own Chinese community raised the alarm, he did not listen. He dismissed the findings.”
“Mr. Speaker, extortion is up 357%, and those are the ones we know about. In Surrey, criminals are shooting up businesses and bragging about it online because they know they will not face serious jail time. People are terrified, and these gangsters are running the show. What did the Liberals do? They voted against mandatory minimums for extortion. They made it easier for violent criminals to get back on the street. Will the government support the common-sense Conservative plan to crack down on violent extortionists, or will it keep putting criminals ahead of Canadians?”
“Mr. Speaker, I attended the public safety forum in Surrey this weekend. I have to say that I felt like we were living in a violent video game: the Reflections banquet hall, shot up; Hub Insurance, shot up; strip mall, shot up. Now, in Fleetwood, an honest businessman was gunned down in his office in broad daylight, which was possibly tied to extortion. The message from these criminals is clear: “Pay up or your family will pay the price.” What is the government doing? It has wasted hundreds of millions going after licensed gun owners while gangsters roam free. Will the Liberals commit to protecting Canadians from violent extortionists?”
“Mr. Speaker, it was the previous Liberal government, which is now the new Liberal government, that turned away eight countries when they asked for LNG, so, no, I am sorry, we do not have what we need. We have been turning away many dollars, and we need to actually get our resources to market.”
“Mr. Speaker, we have been asking constantly to finally have a budget. It is with a budget that we would better understand where the money is going and how we are going to pay for it, and it would let Canadians truly understand the actual situation that we are facing.”
“Mr. Speaker, we have been watching the legislation come through the House. It has harmed the entire Canadian economy, and we have asked over and over that the Liberal government, this old Liberal government, actually reverse those painful and destructive bills. The hon. member is absolutely right. We need to get rid of the tanker ban. We need to make sure that we can build pipelines. We need to get our energy to market. Yes, we need to get the Liberals to actually do the right thing. That would be the way to get our economy back on track.”
“Mr. Speaker, I can tell members where Canadians are making cuts. I have had conversations with families in my riding who are cutting back on groceries, skipping meals and putting off their bills. The government wants them to believe that a few tweaks to these policies are going to make the difference, but the truth is that the pain is still here. The carbon tax is still driving up prices. The debt is still ballooning, and the bill does nothing to stop that. Canadians need relief that lasts, not just relief that polls well.”
“They are working harder than ever, and they are falling further behind. Instead of bold action, Bill C-4 gives them a series of half measures that copy Conservatives' ideas without the conviction or the follow-through: a carbon tax that is half removed, a tax cut that barely buys a daily coffee and a housing rebate that helps one in 20. This is not leadership. It is damage control. The government has spent 10 years creating a cost of living crisis, and now it wants credit for tossing out a few band-aids. Canadians do not want slogans. They want solutions, and Conservatives are the ones who will deliver.”
“Even for those who do qualify, this applies only to brand new homes, not resale homes and not older homes, which might have been more affordable for someone. People who are hoping to rent out a suite to help pay the mortgage do not qualify either. This rebate is like offering a life jacket to a handful of people while the rest are left to tread water in a sea of rising prices and shrinking hope. I have talked to families in my riding who are doing everything right. They are working hard and saving what they can, but they still feel like home ownership is slipping further and further out of reach. This plan will not fix that. It barely even tries. It is clear. The Liberals copied our homework, but they got the answers wrong. Canadians deserve better than this half-baked rebate. Canadians are exhausted.”
“According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, this program will cost $1.9 billion over six years. That sounds like a lot, but only about 5% of new homes will actually qualify. That means more than nine out of 10 Canadians will not get any help at all. (1840) Also, it is only for first-time homebuyers, so if a family is growing and they need a bigger place, too bad. If they have gone through a divorce and need to start fresh, sorry, they are not included. That is not fair. That is not real help. Even for newcomers to Canada, if they are a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident and have not owned or lived in a home anywhere in the world in the last five years, they can qualify. If they are still waiting for their permanent residency, even if they have never owned a home, they are out of luck.”
“In fact, when we add this all up, including the billions it plans to spend on fancy consultants, which will cost families around $1,400, Canadians will be losing ground, so while they are getting back $420, they are paying more than triple to fund Liberal waste. That is not a tax break; it is a bad joke. This tax cut is not about helping Canadians. The Liberals did not do this because it is good policy. They did it because they were losing support and hoping Canadians would not notice. Canadians actually know the real thing when they see it, and this is not it. Now we come to the GST rebate. It sounds nice, but it helps almost no one. The Liberals say they are helping first-time homebuyers by giving them a new GST rebate, but the truth is that it will not help most people.”
“I have talked to a lot of families who are barely getting by, and now the Liberals want people to believe that this tax cut will fix things. Let us be honest. It is a weak copy of the Conservative tax cut we promised in our platform, and it does not even start until halfway through the year. That means the cut is only 0.5% in 2025. Most people will get about $420 back. That is not help; it is barely enough for a coffee a day. Meanwhile, the Liberals are spending money like there is no tomorrow. They are handing out billions in consulting contracts, even though the Auditor General just exposed that many of these contracts cannot even prove value for money. Canadians are being squeezed at every turn, and the government keeps throwing cash at well-connected firms while offering working families crumbs.”
“They are removing the part that shows up on the receipt, hoping that if people cannot see it, they will not notice that it is still buried in the price of everything else. The reality is that the tax is still here. From the farmer growing the food to the truck delivering it and the shelf at the grocery store, every single step still gets hit, and Canadians still pay. This is not relief; it is optics. It was an election year, and it is a gimmick dressed up as a policy. After years of punishing working Canadians, the Liberals now want credit for copying our plan while leaving the pain in place. How is that anything but a slap in the face? There is a tax cut in Bill C-4 , which, unfortunately for Canadians, is all smoke and no fire.”
“Let us talk about the removal of the consumer carbon tax. The bill proves what Conservatives have been saying all along: The carbon tax is driving up the cost of living. The Liberals basically copied it straight out of the Conservative election platform, finally admitting what they spent years denying, that the carbon tax is hurting Canadians. It is making life more expensive, especially for the people who can least afford it. They did not suddenly have a change of heart; they had a change in polling. Canadians were fed up, and in all honesty, it is Pierre Poilievre who made this a national fight. It was that pressure that forced the Liberals to act, not principle. Here is the problem, though. They did not scrap the tax; they just made the visible part disappear. That is it.”
“Mr. Speaker, Bill C-4 is being presented to Canadians as a solution, a path toward affordability and relief in a time of real struggle, but when we peel back the layers, it becomes painfully clear that this bill is not a bold plan but a political strategy. It is a collection of half measures cobbled together from Conservative ideas, watered down and repackaged by a government that has spent the last 10 years creating the very problems it is now trying to solve. Canadians are smart. They know when they are being sold a talking point instead of a real fix, and they know that these issues, the cost of living, the housing crisis, the damage done by the carbon tax, did not come out of nowhere. They were caused by the very people now claiming to fix them. Let us look at what is really in Bill C-4 .”
“Mr. Speaker, according to yesterday's AG report, the government built nearly 40% of its so-called affordable homes in the wrong places. We cannot make this up. Here is the truly shocking thing: It did not base affordability on income, not on what people actually earn. Instead, it used current market rent in the middle of a housing crisis. That means low-income families, seniors and newcomers cannot even afford the homes that were supposed to help them. After 10 years of failure, will the minister admit that this plan has completely failed the people who need it most?”
“Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the AG delivered a damning report that exposed the truth. After 10 years of the Liberal government's housing promises, only 309 homes have been built under the federal lands initiative. It set a target of 4,000 and what Canadians got was smoke and mirrors: inflated numbers, misleading reporting and a government more focused on press releases than people. Can the minister explain how, after a decade of delays, this scandal has left single moms and young families still without a place to call home?”
“Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for the story about growing up on farmland. The costs being driven up by red tape are absolutely astronomical. In my speech, I specifically talked about inflation rates. That is such an incredible extra cost on every farmer that we cannot afford. If we continue to spend with recklessness, we will continue to see inflation rates rise.”
“Mr. Speaker, this is a great question. Every family in Cloverdale—Langley City knows what it means to budget. Parents sit at the kitchen table every week deciding what they can and cannot afford. Meanwhile, the government racks up half a trillion in spending without even producing a budget. The more the Liberals borrow, the more it drives up interest rates, and that hits mortgages and grocery prices. It hits everyone. My constituents are not asking for luxury; they are asking for stability, but what they are getting is debt, inflation and empty cupboards. That not leadership; that is failure.”
“Mr. Speaker, while I appreciate the question, I ran out of time to spotlight another huge issue, red tape, which is really impacting food affordability. Maurizio Zinetti, owner of Zinetti Foods in Cloverdale, recently approached me regarding an issue that will seriously impact food affordability. He reached out to share just how serious the impact of the new front-of-package labelling rules are for his business, and I have to say that I left that conversation very frustrated. This is a Canadian-owned company doing everything right: producing high-quality food, employing Canadians and helping families across this country. Now, thanks to new packaging rules and regulations that are not even about food safety, he is staring down a $2.2-million compliance bill. He is not alone.”
“They are not asking for much, just a government that lives within its means and helps them to do the same. Let me close with this. No parent should have to choose between a power bill and putting food on the table. After years of broken Liberal promises, it is time to put Canadians first.”
“Debt servicing for the farm is already a major cost. It is one of the highest costs for farmers and they cannot afford more. When the government refuses to lead or even show a plan, every Canadian is left holding the bag, paying more at the grocery store, on their bills and in their taxes. Across the country, Canadians are doing everything right. They work hard, they budget carefully and they make sacrifices, but the government taxes the farmer who grows the food and spends without restraint while inflation skyrockets. When Parliament demands a budget, the Liberals shrug and say they will take note. Well, Canadians deserve better than that. In Cloverdale—Langley City, I have seen seniors line up for food banks and parents skip meals. Families wonder how much longer they can keep stretching their dollar.”
“Canada's 10-year bond yields have already jumped over 50 basis points since April, hitting around 3.3%. Investors are getting nervous, and they are starting to demand higher returns before they will lend Canada money. That means long-term borrowing is going to get a lot more expensive, and fast. Without a budget, no one knows how much the government plans to borrow or what it will spend it on, and that makes investors nervous. When they see runaway spending and no plan to pay for it, they demand higher returns to cover the risk. That drives up interest rates, and the cost of borrowing goes through the roof. When a government borrows more, it means less money left over for hospitals, schools and roads. Inflation drives up interest rates. Higher interest rates drive up food production costs.”
“Mr. Speaker, while inflation continues to drive food prices higher, the government still has not taken the one step that could start to restore confidence. We are coming perilously close to summer, and Canadians still do not have a budget. Parliament voted unanimously for the government to bring a budget forward in April. Instead, all the Prime Minister says he will do is take note of the vote. That is not leadership; that is disrespect, and it is not acceptable. Here is why a budget matters, especially right now. Investors are concerned, and if they are concerned, we have a problem. Canada's debt issuance is set to surpass $628 billion this fiscal year, beating even the pandemic-era high. That is a massive pile of debt. As the government borrows more, markets demand higher interest to compensate for rising risk.”
“To top it off, on the very same day the Prime Minister promised in his throne speech to cap operating spending at 2%, his government introduced a bill to increase spending by 8%. That was just two hours later. Canadians are forced to make hard decisions every single day, cutting back on groceries and downsizing their lives, yet their government cannot even produce a basic budget to show how it is going to pay for it all. If we want to get food inflation under control and food prices down, it starts here. Stop the reckless spending. Put Canadians first, not consultants—”
“While the government racks up debt, Canadians are paying the price at the checkout line. When the government spends beyond its means, it drives up inflation. That is not theory; it is a reality. Every reckless dollar Ottawa spends makes that dollar in our wallet worth less. Just ask the single mom trying to buy fresh fruit for her kids, or the senior on a fixed income watching groceries eat through their pension. They budget before they spend, but somehow the “man with the plan” cannot do the same. (1250) Let us not forget where those reckless dollars are going. Consultants are getting a record-breaking $26.1 billion in this plan, which works out to $1,400 per Canadian household. This is not for housing and not for food, but for consultants.”
“Once food makes it off the field, it runs headfirst into another Liberal-made problem: inflation driven by out-of-control spending. It is hard to believe, but the new Liberal government has managed to outdo even itself. The Prime Minister inherited a bloated, reckless government, and rather than tighten the belt, he made it worse. Despite his promise to spend less, his first major bill spends 8% more than Trudeau's last year in office. That is not restraint; it is a runaway train. This is a half-a-trillion-dollar spending spree with no budget, and the consequences are very real. Experts are now warning that government borrowing is set to hit record highs, even higher than during the pandemic. That means higher interest rates, higher borrowing costs and more pressure on an already-fragile economy.”
“One-third of the clients are children, and nearly one in five is a person who is employed but still cannot afford groceries. This is what happens when government policy punishes the very people who produce our food. We cannot tax the farmer who grows the food and the trucker who ships the food, and then act surprised when Canadians cannot afford to eat the food. The government says it cares about affordability, but its actions are showing the exact opposite. It is time to stop making life harder for those who feed us. If we want to lower prices at the checkout, then we have to axe the industrial tax for farmers and Canadians across Canada. Let them do what farmers do best, which is to feed the country, and let Canadians finally catch a break at the grocery store. The damage does not end at the farm gate.”
“These are not luxuries; they are essential parts of growing and storing our food. That tax gets passed along to every Canadian family at the checkout counter. We must not forget that our competitors in the U.S. and Mexico are not paying these hidden taxes, and their production costs are already lower. Why are we punishing our farmers, putting us at a major competitive disadvantage? In Cloverdale—Langley City, both the Cloverdale Community Kitchen and Langley Food Bank are overwhelmed. Demand is growing so fast that they have had to ask seniors to cut back their visits from weekly to every two weeks, just to make space for all the new families showing up. This is not just a local issue, though; across Canada, more than two million visits were made to food banks in a single month. That is double what we saw five years ago.”
“It is making it worse with taxes on food production, with out-of-control inflationary spending and with a refusal to table a responsible budget. Today I want to speak for the people who are being left behind and call on the government to start putting Canadians first. If we want to fix food prices, we need to start at the source: our producers, farmers right across Canada. The government will tell us that it has removed the carbon tax, but let us be honest; that is just spin. What the Liberals have removed are the visible portions of carbon tax, the part that showed up on our fuel bill, but the tax is still there, buried in the cost of producing and transporting food. Farmers still pay the industrial carbon tax on natural gas, propane and heating, for everything from drying grain to heating barns.”
“Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister said he would be judged by the prices Canadians pay at the grocery store. Well, Canadians are holding him to that, and what they are seeing is shocking. Grocery prices are through the roof, food banks are overwhelmed, and more and more families are skipping meals, not because they want to but because they have to. In Cloverdale—Langley City, seniors who once relied on the food bank weekly now have to ration their visits to make room for new families in need. Across the country, people are working full-time jobs and still cannot afford basic groceries. It has never been clearer that affordability is not just an issue but that it is a crisis. What is the government doing in response?”
“Madam Speaker, my colleague says that the Liberals ran on a plan but Canadians are still waiting to see it. The new Prime Minister came in with the weight of big promises, fiscal discipline, economic competence and leadership in uncertain times, but since then, spending has jumped 8%. There is still no budget. Canadians are facing real struggles and they deserve more than campaign slogans. Canadians deserve a government that takes its responsibility seriously, and that starts with a budget. Will the Liberals bow to the will of the House and produce a budget before this spring, as we all voted for?”
“For families who already own, mortgage payments are falling behind, groceries and gas are eating up what is left of the paycheque, and our young people, kids just starting out, are drowning in credit card debt. No business would ever let a new CEO get away with this. The board would demand a budget, and Canadians deserve the same.”