Parliamentary Speeches
1,014 speeches by François-Philippe Champagne — Page 7 of 21
Government Orders
Mr. Chair, first of all, let me congratulate you on your role as the Chair this evening. As well, I thank the officials for being with us tonight. As the member should know, we had the largest countermeasures to face—
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Madam Chair, since 1994, five budgets have been tabled after the fiscal year began, and a number of times it has been under a Conservative government.
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Madam Chair, the member for Mirabel knows things. What we want is to avoid having tariffs. To date, we have already collected $1.7 billion, but the end goal is to have no tariffs. That way, there will be no retaliatory measures against the tariffs imposed by the United States. We will always be there to defend industry.
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Madam Chair, one thing every member in the House should be careful about is being authentic. When members vote against measures that help the people they represent, they cannot stand in the House and moralize to other members. The member has voted against measures to help Canadians, and he knows that very well.
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Madam Chair, the goal is to reduce them, not increase them. We will therefore continue to work together, particularly with our colleagues in the public service, to be as efficient as possible and to provide Canadian citizens with the best possible services.
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Madam Chair, as I said, I have a lot of respect for the member for Mirabel. I am not here to tell him things that he already knows.
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Madam Chair, my colleague will have to wait for the budget to be tabled. I know that he is looking forward to it. It is coming in the fall. When fall arrives, he will be very happy to see a budget that will build a strong and ambitious Canada.
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Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for her excellent speech. She truly gave us an overview of all the measures. She is an experienced colleague who has been serving the people of New Brunswick for a long time. I understand why the people of New Brunswick are proud to have her as their MP. She truly presented all the important things. She talked about the transfers we deliver to the provinces. She t…
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Madam Chair, I am sure the member will appreciate that the government's first order of business was to reduce taxes for 22 million Canadians. There are people in her riding watching tonight, and they will be happy to see that she voted to reduce their taxes and support the Liberal government.
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Madam Chair, I know my colleague is eager to hear the numbers, I can see it in his eyes, but he will have to wait a little longer. He will get them when we present a budget in the fall. I can say that he will be proud to present the people of Richmond—Arthabaska with an ambitious budget that will build Canada. I know he wants to build Canada too, because I know him.
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Mr. Chair, that is not what I said. Seven is seven, and I know the member is able to count to seven.
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Madam Chair, once again, my colleague, who is very experienced, can look in the “Fiscal Monitor” for the period from April 2024 to March 2025 and he will see the deficit is listed as $43.2 billion.
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Madam Chair, I thank the member for Mirabel. I really appreciate his question, because this is one of the issues I have discussed with various industry representatives. Like me and my colleagues on the other side, we all want to promote national, local and regional media. Yes, this issue is very important to me. I sincerely thank him for this question, because it is an issue that concerns me perso…
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Madam Chair, that is not the case at all. On the contrary, Canadians will be proud of this budget. My colleague must know that there is a great deal of economic uncertainty at the moment. Major decisions need to be made between now and then. I know he is impatient and looking forward to reading this document. He is going to have to wait just a little longer, but he will be so proud. He will be abl…
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Mr. Speaker, there is no inaction. We are taking action over here. Just talk to people in industry. They know what a tool box is and they know that in our Liberal tool box, there are tools to help them.
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Madam Chair, I find there is a lot of wisdom in the words spoken by the member for Marc‑Aurèle‑Fortin. That is why, as my colleague saw, we said during the election campaign that we would balance the government's operating budget within the next three years. That is good news. I can already see it in my colleague's smile that he is pleased to see that he could speak to the people in his riding abo…
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Mr. Speaker, I have shared several numbers tonight. To date, we have raised $1.7 billion from the retaliatory measures. It is important to note that we have imposed tariffs on $95 billion worth of goods imported from the United States. We have implemented historic measures to protect our industries and respond to this American threat to Canadian industry.
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Madam Chair, I want to thank my colleague for mentioning my colleague from Marc-Aurèle-Fortin. I had an excellent dinner with my colleague from Marc-Aurèle-Fortin. We had a great discussion about budgetary measures. We are going to continue in that vein because I know my colleague is eager to see the budget. He will have to wait just a little longer, but he will be so proud. He will be able to tel…
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Madam Chair, we have tried to reduce the use of consultants and focus on the ample expertise and experience available to us within the Canadian public service.
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Mr. Chair, as I am sure we hope, and as all Canadians hope, there would be no tariffs. Therefore, as we would appreciate, this is not something we wish—
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Madam Chair, very briefly, it would be great. What can I say? It would be great for Canadians, and even the Conservatives are smiling tonight. What more can we ask for?
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Madam Chair, I would first like to salute my colleague from Louis-Saint-Laurent—Akiawenhrahk. He has a lot of experience and he knows that I have a great deal of respect for him. I am pleased to see that he is keeping track of the number of days I have been Minister of Finance. I always learn something from my colleague. I just learned that it has been 88 days. I can tell him that I plan to keep o…
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Madam Chair, let us look at the numbers. I know he is eager to get to that. Ninety-nine percent of the content in the Department of Finance estimates is statutory spending. Only 1% is operating expenditures for the Department of Finance. That accounts for over $200 million. That is a direct transfer to Newfoundland and Labrador for the Hibernia project. I am sure my colleague is happy about gettin…
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Madam Chair, an experienced colleague like the member for Louis-Saint-Laurent—Akiawenhrahk knows that, when a minister is appointed to a new portfolio, they have several discussions with departmental officials. What I told them was to build—
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Madam Chair, for the people of Mirabel and Saint-Maurice-Champlain who are tuning in, I am going to keep this simple. People at home understand that when they go to the grocery store, they are spending money, and when they buy a house, they are investing money. People at home understand the difference in no uncertain terms. We will be extremely transparent about the accounting rules we apply.
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Madam Chair, as I was saying, I am always learning from my colleague. He tells me that it has been 3,073 days. I intend to remain the Minister of Finance for a long time yet, although I can tell him that he knows very well that the figures that he is referring to come from the “Fiscal Monitor”, which looks backward. I am forward‑looking.
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Mr. Chair, the number is in the document.
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Madam Chair, I want to take this opportunity to thank all the public servants here with us this evening. They are doing a tremendous job. What we said was that we are going to be responsible. The Prime Minister has already spoken on this issue. We deeply appreciate the work of the public service, but at the same time, we want to make a service—
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Madam Chair, first I would like to welcome the member. I think he is a new member, and I want to welcome him to the House. I look forward to answering his questions. I think we are going to be together for another two or three hours.
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Madam Chair, as I said, in the tariff world, things move very quickly. If the member wants to make a prediction, I am sure Canadians are willing to listen to him on—
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Mr. Speaker, it is clear that we need to bring our natural resources to market, and that includes different things. We are going to be supporting that. It is why we had a great meeting. I wish the member would have been in Saskatoon. Maybe next time we should think of having him with us, because he would have seen how the Canadian premiers—
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Madam Chair, what I can commit to is working hard for the sector. I have been in touch with the leaders and the unions because we want to fight for the steel and aluminum sector in this country. It is important that we have them to build Canada strong.
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Madam Chair, my colleague raised a very important question. The Prime Minister has been clear from day one that we are going to fight. We are going to fight the unjustified and illegal tariffs that have been imposed on Canada, on our communities, on our workers and on our industries. At the same time, we are going to protect our workers and our industries, because we said we will have their back; …
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Madam Chair, I am not in the job of guessing. I will let the member guess in front of Canadian viewers tonight if he wants to make projections.
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Mr. Chair, the member is an experienced member of this House. He will know that we have countertariffs in place and that we have collected money. We have been very clear that these sums will be used to support workers and industry in Canada.
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Madam Chair, I do not need to confirm what is being done in the United Kingdom. It is public information.
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Madam Chair, every member of the House knows that the tariffs are hurting our workers across the nation and our industry. That is why the Prime Minister and my colleagues are seized with fighting against the tariffs.
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Madam Chair, we have rebuilt the auto sector in many parts of the country, and we are going to continue to work with the leadership and the union—
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Madam Chair, this is public data that the member for Mirabel, who is very experienced in doing his own research, is free to access.
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Madam Chair, as I said, what folks watching at home want is to have a government that has their back. That—
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Mr. Chair, I am happy to respond as to what the deficit number is today. With respect to the future, the member will have to be patient.
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Madam Chair, I am happy to confirm what the member can read in “The Fiscal Monitor”. The number in “The Fiscal Monitor”, from April 2024 to March 2025, in terms of a budget deficit, is $43.2 billion.
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Madam Chair, I would never claim to be an expert in British law, but I know that it is a unitary country. We recently welcomed King Charles III, who was here with us for the Speech from the Throne. I think that my colleague was very pleased to be able to listen to the Speech from the Throne.
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Madam Chair, my colleague would be pleased, because I know he is a man who likes the numbers, to see that we have the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7, a great position—
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Mr. Speaker, that is a very important question. Like I said, when we had the G7 meeting, we had the opportunity to show the world that Canada and the other G7 finance colleagues were standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine. In fact, there is good news in the main estimates: There is an increase in the development and financial intermediary response for Ukraine of $200 million. What the Ukrainia…
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Madam Chair, again, the member will be very pleased to know that there are only two countries in the G7 that have a AAA credit rating and that Canada is one of them. He should be very proud of that.
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Mr. Speaker, we support in principle all forms of transportation that can bring our natural resources to market, including pipelines, energy corridors and transmission lines. We have been very clear on that. Not only that, the premiers have come together to say that they want to do more to support our natural resources getting to market. The member should be rejoicing about that. The premiers have…
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Madam Chair, the member would be pleased to see that in 2023-24, the percentage of the public debt chart, as a percentage of nominal GDP, was 1.8%. This is a great position to be in as a country—
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Mr. Speaker, I like this line of questioning. The Government of Canada owns a pipeline. It is called TMX. There is no news there. We have been in the business of bringing our resources to market—
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