:
Mr. Speaker, I would like to summarize what I have been presenting over the course of the last number of minutes for Canadians, because I know Canadians want to hear what this government is trying to do to ensure that all of us continue to have the good fortune that we expect.
We come into budget 2019 having had very positive economic results over the last three and a half years. We made the decision in 2015 to invest in Canadians. Those investments in Canadians—the addition of the Canada child benefit, for example, and the introduction of the Canada workers benefit—have had important impacts on where we found ourselves economically.
We find ourselves today with the lowest unemployment rates we have seen for 40 years. We have higher workforce participation for women. We have higher workforce participation for disabled people. We have higher workforce participation for indigenous people. We have higher workforce participation for new immigrants. We have higher workforce participation for youth.
That is the position from which we start in thinking about how we can continue to invest in middle-class Canadians. We know that even with those important efforts over the last three and a half years, people remain anxious about the future. They worry about the changes in the global economy. They worry about the things that they and their families are facing today and tomorrow.
Therefore, we know that our work is not done. We know that need to deal with those anxieties and those challenges in a real and important way so that people can continue to have confidence in the future, and that is what budget 2019 is doing.
First and foremost, we thought about our housing market. We have made important efforts over the last three and a half years to make our market more stable. That has been important.
We know that through our investment in affordable housing, we have created more housing units across the country. That is important.
We also know that millennials still see that the possibility of getting into the home market is very challenging, so we have moved forward this year with some important measures to deal with that. We have moved forward with measures that are going to enable people to get into housing because they are going to be able to have a less expensive mortgage.
[Translation]
If someone wants to buy a new condo for $400,000, for example, they could use the incentive to finance 10%, or $40,000. This makes it a little easier for people to buy their first home. This extra money up front reduces the size of their insured mortgage, lowering their mortgage payments by more than $225 a month, or more than $2,700 per year.
That is real help for people who want to own their own home. It is real help for young people, for families and for Canadians who need just that little extra help to make their dream of owning a home a reality.
We have also heard from Canadian workers who are anxious about the changing world of work. This includes young and unemployed Canadians who need help getting into the job market. It also includes more experienced workers, who worry that their existing skills might not be enough for them to find and keep good jobs until it is time to retire, or who want new skills so that they can move up in their current jobs.
[English]
Our government believes that Canadians at all stages in their working lives should have the opportunity to learn new skills to take control of their future. To help working Canadians get these skills, we are introducing a new program: the Canada training benefit.
It is a personalized, portable benefit that will help people plan for and get the training they need. It consists of a training credit that will give working Canadians $250 every year to put toward the cost of future training, a credit that will add up to as much as $5,000 over a career.
It also includes a training support benefit, operated through the employment insurance program. With this support, workers will not have to choose between their training needs and their family's needs. They can take the time they need to learn new skills, knowing they have help to cover their living expenses along the way.
Finally, we intend to move forward with leave provisions in conjunction with provinces and territories so that workers can take the time they need for training without worrying about losing their jobs.
Taken together, this means that working Canadians will get four weeks for training every four years with up to $1,000 to help pay for the training, income support to cover lost income and the security of knowing they will have a job to come back to when their training is done. It will give working Canadians greater confidence about their ability to provide for their families down the road.
[Translation]
For employers, it will mean a workforce that has the skills and confidence needed to help grow their businesses and our economy. To make sure that small businesses will not have to pay the price for this new benefit, we will introduce a new EI small business premium rebate.
While the Canada training benefit will help working Canadians succeed, we also know that more needs to be done to help young Canadians get a good start in their working lives. That is why we are taking steps to make education more affordable by lowering the interest rate on Canada student loans and Canada apprentice loans. For the 99% of student borrowers who have a floating interest rate on their Canada student loans, the interest they pay will be lowered to the prime lending rate. That will be very important to students, young people and our economy.
We know that young people want more opportunities to learn while they work and to work while they learn, so we are expanding the student work placement program. This will enable students in all fields, not just those in math and science fields, to find good work placements and get the experience they need.
With this budget, we are setting a target of creating up to 84,000 new student work placements per year across Canada in five years' time. We will be working closely with businesses to create long-term benefits for Canadians. This will be a significant step toward ensuring that, 10 years from now, every young Canadian who wants a work placement will be able to get one.
[English]
We have also heard from Canadians who believe strongly, as does our government, that no Canadian should have to go without the medication they need simply because they cannot afford it, yet that is the reality for too many of our friends and neighbours, who struggle under the weight of some of the highest drug costs in the world. When people cannot afford the medicine they need, they are less healthy and less able to contribute in their families, in their work and in their communities, and that costs all of us. Therefore, guided by the early work of the advisory council on the implementation of national pharmacare, we are taking action.
First we will work with provinces and territories on the creation of the Canadian drug agency, which could use its bulk buying power to negotiate better prescription drug prices on behalf of all Canadians.
This would help individual Canadians and seniors and families afford the medicines they need. It would also support the sustainability of the drug plans they rely on today and pave the way for national pharmacare tomorrow.
Second, to help Canadians access the prescription drugs they need no matter where they live, this new agency will work with the provinces and territories to determine which medicines represent the best value for money for Canadians right across the country.
Third, to help Canadians with rare diseases access the drugs that they need, we will take steps to help make some of the most expensive drugs more accessible through a national strategy for high-cost drugs for rare diseases.
Parents of children with rare diseases know these costs all too well. It is not just dollars and cents to these moms and dads: It is nights spent sleeping by a hospital bed, it is a constant worry that never goes away, and it is knowing how much happier and healthier their kids could be if they could just get the treatment that they need.
We know that these measures alone will not fully close the gap for people who need prescription drugs and cannot afford them, but they do mark important first steps on the way to a system that helps all Canadians to get the medicine that they need.
Our publicly funded universal health care system is a source of pride for Canadians and a source of strength for our country. It is a legacy that we are building on with this budget.
We look forward to receiving the advisory council's final report later this spring as we move towards national pharmacare for Canada.
[Translation]
With this budget, we are also doing more for Canada's seniors. Women and men who have worked hard their entire lives deserve a secure and dignified retirement, free of financial worries. These are the Canadians we have helped with the increase to the guaranteed income supplement top-up for single seniors, which boosted benefits for nearly 900,000 low-income seniors and lifted about 57,000 seniors out of poverty.
We also helped to put thousands of dollars back in the pockets of Canadians as they become seniors, by restoring the eligibility age for old age security and the guaranteed income supplement back to 65, after the previous government forced people to wait an extra two years before they could receive those benefits.
[English]
With this budget we are taking additional steps to make retirement more financially secure for more Canadians.
To ensure that all Canadian workers receive the full value of the Canada pension plan benefits to which they have contributed, we will proactively enrol Canada pension plan contributors who are 70 or older and who have not yet applied to receive their retirement benefits. With this one change, as many as 40,000 seniors will begin to receive an average of an extra $300 per month starting next year.
To help low-income working seniors, we are enhancing the guaranteed income supplement earnings exemption so that seniors who wish to work can keep more of their pay and benefits.
As important as it is to our shared success that we continue to invest in people, we also know that it is vitally important that we also invest in building a better Canada. That means building strong communities, and one of the ways we do that is by making sure that our cities and our towns have the resources they need to invest in local priorities, whether it is expanding a public transit route, repairing potholes in the spring or building a new playground or community garden.
To give our communities the help they need and to ensure that money earmarked for communities is invested as intended, we will be giving a one-time boost to municipalities through a municipal infrastructure top-up, doubling this year's federal commitment through the gas tax fund.
Transferring funds to communities gets projects built, projects like the Minto Park concession building in Dawson City; the Emerald Park soccer facility in Edenwold, Saskatchewan; and the Armand-Lavoie Amphitheatre in Tracadie, New Brunswick.
[Translation]
Canada's communities are a priority. We promised this help, and we are delivering it.
We also know that in today's connected world, it is more important than ever that Canadians have fast and reliable access to the Internet. This includes everyone, from small businesses looking to reach customers around the world, to seniors who want to stay in touch with family and friends, to college students who want to move home for the summer but still be able to take online courses or apply for work.
For all these people, high-speed Internet is a necessity, not a luxury. That is why, in today's budget, we are announcing a new national plan to get us there.
[English]
By 2030, every Canadian home and small business will have access to high-speed Internet, no matter where they are located.
For those people who say 2030 is a long time away, I want to make sure they know that work is already under way. Supported by the accelerated investment incentive introduced last fall, service providers are already working to bring high-speed Internet to more Canadian homes in rural and remote locations.
Building a better Canada also means helping people be part of the clean economy, with energy bills that they can afford and cleaner ways to get around.
That is why, with this budget, we are taking steps to make zero-emission vehicles more affordable for more Canadians, with a new federal purchase incentive of up to $5,000 for electric battery or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for Canadians who want to make the switch and pay less at the pump. We will also provide immediate expensing to a full range of zero-emission vehicles, so that businesses that want to switch over their fleet can recoup that investment sooner.
To help make monthly electricity bills more affordable, we will enter into a partnership with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to offer funds to make homes and businesses more energy efficient. This will help support retrofits, like new hot water systems or rooftop solar panels, that can help lower monthly bills.
At the same time, we know that building a better Canada must, by definition, include advancing reconciliation with indigenous peoples. That is why budget 2019 includes important new measures to help advance self-determination and improve the quality of life for first nations, Inuit and Métis Nation peoples.
It includes new investments to better uphold Jordan’s principle, so that first nations children can get the help they need, when they need it, where they need it. It includes new support for indigenous languages, for indigenous entrepreneurs and businesses, for mental health and home care, and for emergency response, all critical parts of healthy and successful indigenous communities.
Most critically, it includes continued investments to make sure that these communities have clean, safe water. There are, today, children living on reserve in Canada who cannot safely drink or bathe in or even play in the water that comes out of their taps. That is not okay.
We will continue to work hard and make the investments that are needed to finally make this right. So far, we have lifted more than 80 long-term water advisories, and we are on track to eliminate all of the advisories in the next two years.
[Translation]
I have shared some details about what budget 2019 will mean for the middle class and people working hard to join it, for working Canadians, young Canadians, seniors and indigenous peoples.
However, I also want to be very clear that this is a budget for people and for communities all across this country.
That includes people who come together to learn, work and pray. Wherever we gather, Canadians should always feel safe. That is why, with this budget, we are doubling our investments to protect our communities from crimes motivated by intolerance and hate.
To better counter racism in Canada, we are moving forward with a new anti-racism strategy. These two measures are especially important right now in our country.
Also, in recognition of the United Nations Decade for People of African Descent, we will work with community leaders to help celebrate and raise awareness of black Canadian communities.
To give more people here in Canada and around the world a chance to see, hear and appreciate our talented and diverse artists, we are making new investments that will help support our musicians and bring festivals and performing arts series to more communities across the country.
[English]
Canada is also a country where we take care of each other in our times of need, including times of serious and life-threatening mental distress. To support people who need immediate crisis support, we will work with experienced and dedicated partners to support, across Canada, a suicide prevention service. It will be available in English and French by phone, text or chat, 24-7, so that no one who needs help goes without.
For people in the prairie provinces and parts of western Canada who are critically ill or injured and need emergency medical help, we are investing $65 million in new emergency ambulance helicopters for the region's Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service, or STARS.
Because we know that our prairie provinces are especially vulnerable to the extreme weather events that go hand-in-hand with climate change, and because we value our hard-working farmers and ranchers who help to feed us and keep our economy strong, we will work with our western partners on a plan to protect water and soil in the Prairies.
[Translation]
To ensure that Canada's dairy, poultry and egg farmers can continue to provide Canadians with high-quality products in a world of freer trade, we will make available an income protection program for supply-managed farmers, along with a measure to protect the value of quota investments these farmers have already made.
In the east, to maintain safe and reliable ferry services that people in Atlantic Canada rely on, we will extend support for existing services and look to procure three new modern ferries.
[English]
Even for those who do not speak French, that is a good measure.
In communities all across the country, we know that hundreds of thousands of Canadians are living with cancer. Every single day, about 565 people receive a cancer diagnosis and around 220 people die from cancer. It is something that touches every community and most of our families. To help give more cancer patients and their families help and hope, we will provide the Terry Fox Research Institute with up to $150 million to establish a national Marathon of Hope cancer centres network.
Another illness that touches the lives of millions of Canadians is dementia. With this budget, we are investing $50 million to support Canada’s first national dementia strategy. This will give people living with dementia a better quality of life and ensure that their caregivers, who are primarily women, get the help and support they need as well.
[Translation]
To ensure that our asylum system is fair and effective, supporting Canada's reputation as a country that is welcoming as well as governed by the rule of law, we will invest in a comprehensive border enforcement strategy, to better detect and intercept people who cross into Canada irregularly and those that attempt to exploit our immigration system.
[English]
We will also renew our Middle East strategy for another two years to support humanitarian, development, stabilization, security, intelligence and diplomatic activities across the region, in addition to our military contribution.
To ensure greater fairness in our tax system, we will take action to limit the benefit of the stock option deduction for executives of large, long-established corporations, while ensuring that everyday employees are not affected and that start-ups and emerging Canadian businesses can continue to grow, attract talent and create more good jobs.
We live in a world that is changing and changing quickly. Canadians know that we cannot stop the trends that are already transforming the world around us, things like new technologies and more automation. All that they ask for is a chance to find their way in this new world, with help from the government so that they can have their best shot at building a good future for themselves, their children and their grandchildren.
[Translation]
That is what we are doing with this budget. We are investing in the middle class and in their future, so that when young people graduate from school, they already have the experience they need to get a good job, with student debt they can afford to pay down and a real chance at owning their own home.
We are investing in the middle class so that when seniors retire, they can look forward to spending their time with family and friends, not worrying about how they will pay their bills every month.
[English]
We have invested so that every Canadian can feel good about what the future holds, be confident about their place in the changing world and so that Canadian kids, like the ones I spent time with last week in Toronto, can grow up in a country where nothing holds them back.
That is what is at stake. That is what we can accomplish together when we invest in the middle class.
:
Mr. Speaker, the is covering up his corruption under $41 billion of brand new spending, which he will pay for with higher taxes if he is re-elected. This must be the biggest and most expensive cover-up in the history of cover-ups. It is the new Liberal two-step: Use massive deficits to get out of a big scandal before Canadians vote, and then hit them with tax hikes after they vote.
It is interesting, the irony that is in the air today, because it was a year ago that this stood in this place to introduce a budget and failed to mention a tiny little detail that he wanted to sneak into the eventual 600-page omnibus budget bill that he would introduce. That was an amendment to the Criminal Code. It was discovered in the finance committee as members from all parties were leafing through this massive tome of paper and stumbled upon an amendment to the Criminal Code.
The reaction was astonishment by all sides. In fact, the Liberal member for said it left a bad taste in his mouth. He said that he had the impression, in reading the amendment, that if he stole just $10 he would be in trouble, but that if he stole $10 million he would be just fine. That was how he interpreted the 's amendments to the Criminal Code.
What boggled us all was the question of who was asking for this. We had travelled around our communities and we had not stumbled upon a single person who was interested in helping corporate crooks get off without conviction, so why would the finance minister slip such a measure into that budget? We found out, did we not?
In February of this year, The Globe and Mail broke a story that the had personally and politically pressured his in order to shelve the charges against a Liberal-linked corporation, SNC-Lavalin. Lavalin was known to everyone as the company that gave $100,000 of illegal donations to the Liberal Party, having been caught and having to return that money. It was known for prominent links through its massive army of lobbyists, who swarm around the Hill and spend inordinate amounts of time, according to the public lobbyist registry, with people like the and the staff of the Prime Minister.
The said that none of it was true, that it was all a lie. As proof that it was all a lie, he said that his was in his cabinet, and if she was so upset, why did she not leave? The next day she did. She resigned from his cabinet.
Eventually, we learned more. After a massive pressure campaign to let her speak, the backed down and lifted—partially—the gag order on the . He allowed her to appear before the justice committee and to speak, but not too much. She was only allowed to testify about events that occurred before she was removed as attorney general. Anything that happened after that period was to remain a secret. She did not have legal authorization as a former minister to say anything.
Therefore, when the was asked why she resigned, she indicated she could not say. When she was asked about her meetings with the in January and February, she told us she could not say. She did name seven senior officials in the current Liberal government who she says “interfered”, “made veiled threats”, “hounded”, and “pressured” her to shelve the charges into SNC-Lavalin. She even went as far as to compare it to the “Saturday Night Massacre”, a reference to Richard Nixon's Watergate firings.
What did the government do then? Soon afterward, there were attacks on her. Senior Liberals, including a former deputy Liberal Prime Minister, attacked her for her indigenous roots and for her gender.
The Liberals then sent out Michael Wernick to give a partisan speech. This is the 's supposedly non-partisan top public service official. He turned the top public service official into a partisan actor, and we have seen the scandal unfold from there.
So far, it has been an incredible spectacle. The former has resigned. The has resigned. The top public servant in the Liberal government has resigned, and the 's principal secretary and best friend, his most important adviser, has resigned. Everyone has resigned, but no one did anything wrong, the Liberals assure us.
Today, just to make sure, the Conservatives put forward a motion at the justice committee to continue the investigation, to allow the former to complete her testimony and to call the full list of top government officials she says pressured her so that they could be questioned under oath. The sent his majority members and shut down the investigation to make sure that the truth would not come to light.
We know that the justifications the Liberals have given for all these cover-ups and scandals make no sense. They claimed that it was all about jobs. The claimed that the headquarters of the company would leave immediately if the former did not interfere and shelve the charges. We now know that this is impossible. The company must stay headquartered in Montreal on the basis of a $1.5-billion loan agreement with the Quebec pension plan.
We also know that SNC-Lavalin is responsible for the five biggest construction projects in Canada, worth $52 billion, which physically can only be done here in Canada. We cannot have a rail transit system for the city of Ottawa built in London, England, or in Beijing and then dropped out of a helicopter onto the nation's capital. It obviously has to be done here, and therefore, the jobs not only are going nowhere but can go nowhere.
Furthermore, we know that the is working on an exemption so that even if the company is convicted, it will still be allowed to bid on federal contracts. Therefore, this is not about jobs. This is about protecting corporate cronies of the .
Today the carried out another abuse of power. The first was when he tried to interfere with the justice system, and today he interfered with the justice committee to shut down the investigation and cover up what is to be—