Lianne Rood

Mr. Speaker, harvest is here and families in London and across rural Middlesex are being squeezed. Diesel is nearly double what it was last year. Combines use hundreds of litres a day. Farmers say the year looks bleak. One in three households in Middlesex—London is food-insecure. Grocery prices keep climbing because fuel, fertilizer and trucking costs get passed down the line. After years of Liberal taxes, carbon taxes and anti-development laws, work pays less and life costs more. Manufacturers, truckers and farm families pay first. Conservatives would scrap the industrial carbon tax on fertilizer and fuel, repeal the laws that block Canadian energy and housing, and deliver the fastest permits and lowest taxes, so that we can grow food, build homes and create jobs here at home. Conservatives would save Canadians money. Our economic action plan would put paycheques and affordability first. Canadians in London and rural Canada deserve a country where they can actually afford to live.

Mr. Speaker, I am excited to welcome everyone to Middlesex—London this summer for the Canadian Plowing Championships in Strathroy. As the member of Parliament for this area, I am proud to extend a warm southwestern Ontario welcome to all of the competitors, families and visitors who have come from across Canada to take part in this national event. This championship is a wonderful celebration of the skill, precision and innovation of Canadian farmers. Whether someone is a returning competitor or attending for the first time, they will enjoy exciting plowing competitions, hands-on exhibits and demonstrations of the latest agriculture techniques, all in the spirit of our rural community and hospitality. I want to thank the volunteers, organizers and board members whose dedication makes this event possible. Welcome to Strathroy. I hope everyone has a fantastic time at the Canadian Plowing Championships this summer.

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is the only G7 leader and Canada is the only G20 country that is currently in a recession. Full-time workers are living in RVs because they cannot afford homes. Families are spending over 120% of their income on food and rent, and two in five Canadians are struggling to put food on their tables, all while a record 2.2 million Canadians are having to rely on food banks. The recession is not global forces; it is Liberal choices. Will the Prime Minister reverse his costly policies so Canadians can afford to live?

Mr. Speaker, Liberal claims of success are completely detached from reality. Canadians are crowdfunding their way through this cost of living crisis, and the Prime Minister has blown nearly $1 million on luxury inflight catering on just 14 flights, including $175,000 on one single flight. That bill could feed a family in Middlesex—London for 55 years. Canadians cannot afford groceries, so will the Prime Minister stop his outrageous luxury lifestyle, on the taxpayer's dime, and reverse his policy so Canadians can afford to live again?

Mr. Speaker, I just want to thank my colleague. I am one of the rare people in this chamber who had an opportunity to work with her as a staff member. Actually, I was a volunteer afterwards, when I left the Hill and being a staffer. She was chair of the National Prayer Breakfast for four years. I just want to thank her for her service on that as well. She really brought a lot of meaning to that role as chair, and I admire her faith, her conviction and how she is not afraid to share that with everybody else. I thank her for being such a great example to me and other staffers on the Hill as well. We will miss seeing her here. Congratulations.

Mr. Speaker, every other G20 nation is facing the same global headwinds as Canada is, yet under the Liberal Prime Minister, Canada is the only G20 nation facing a recession. In the last few days, we have learned even more about the dire state of our economy under his watch. The economy has shrunk in three of the last four quarters, per capita GDP is stagnating, and our productivity has hit a seven-year low. Will the Prime Minister admit that his failed policies have caused this recession, or will he keep denying the reality lived by millions of Canadians who are suffering under his watch?

Mr. Speaker, Canadians cannot trust the half-truths or honeyed words coming off the lips of any of the Liberals right now. The Parliamentary Budget Officer gives a less than 1% chance that the Liberal government will meet its own fiscal anchor. Banks forecast growth of 0.5% in 2026. Will the Prime Minister take responsibility for delivering Canada's last-place economy, or will he keep borrowing and keep spending so he can take credit for our economic collapse?

Mr. Speaker, in March 1974, a 16-year-old girl from a Polish immigrant family went on a school trip to Greece. She was an adventurer with no fear. On that trip, she met a 19-year-old Dutch boy, also from an immigrant family. Back home, he asked her out on their first date and took her to the boys' athletic club, of which he was the president. Even though he taught her how to drive a motorcycle, her parents approved of the nice Dutch boy. She graduated high school in June 1976 and two weeks later, on July 10, they were married. From starting out farming Dutch sets together and losing their entire crop to later farming with her family, they built a produce farm that became the first farm in Canada to market many potatoes. They raised three children on their own and then welcomed a fourth when he was 14. They volunteer in churches and are an example of putting faith first in all they do. This incredible couple, Diane and Theo Rood, are celebrating 50 years of marriage on July 10. It is a milestone we seldom see. I am incredibly proud to call them Mom and Dad. I thank them for their support and for always being an example of faith, family and love. Jeremy, Anna and I love them. Congratulations, and happy 50th anniversary, Mom and Dad.

Mr. Speaker, StatsCan confirmed another $17-billion exodus for the start of the year. That is more money leaving Canada than is coming in. Over $1 trillion has left since 2015. The Prime Minister is pitching Canada as an investment hub, all while his policies are the most restrictive in the G7 for foreign capital. It is almost like he does not know what he is doing. Let us start with the basics. Do the Liberals believe that Canada should be a country that is a magnet for jobs and capital, or do they think that Canada should be a country where ambitions go to die?

Mr. Speaker, let me make this simple for my colleague, who just totally missed the point. The Prime Minister, his boss, holds 91% of his personal investments in the United States. Deep down, it feels like the Liberals know that they have purposely built a failing economy that is driving jobs, capital and opportunity straight out of Canada, straight to the United States, where the Prime Minister keeps his money. Let me ask this: Are they doing this to help him cash in and get rich quick, while the rest of us take the hit?

Mr. Speaker, hard-working Canadian families are being financially crushed by the government, and it is no accident. A mountain of reckless inflationary spending and wasteful Liberal policies are what is weighing them down. The government blew $300 million on the failed PrescribeIT app that never worked and $200 million on a Nova Scotia spaceport that is no more than a concrete pad. It spent over $1 billion a year propping up the CBC productions that, quite frankly, nobody watches or wants to watch. Billions get wasted on foreign aid that promotes ideological agendas, props up corrupt foreign officials or gets diverted to terrorist groups like Hamas. It spent $19 billion on insider consultants and nearly $1 billion on deluxe health benefits for fake refugees. This reckless spending is driving up grocery bills and mortgages. Conservatives demand an end to this behaviour. Let us cut the waste, balance the budget, keep our tax dollars in Canada and deliver real results for Canadians.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the hard-working small business owners, farmers and families in my riding of Middlesex—London, I say enough is enough. Bill C-30, the Liberal government's spring economic update implementation bill, does little to improve the quality of life for Canadians but does saddle them with lost investment opportunities and more generational debt. After months of the Prime Minister promising real change, Canadians are receiving more of the same temporary band-aids and half measures that fail to address the root causes of the affordability crisis, which is making life more expensive for every family across the country. Let me be perfectly clear from the outset: This is not a serious economic policy but a collection of short-term, worthless political gestures designed to create headlines while the Liberals avoid making the hard decisions that Canada needs to get our economy back on track. What does Bill C-30 actually deliver? It provides a temporary suspension of the federal excise tax on gasoline and diesel, but only until September 7. That is just four and a half months of partial relief. After that, the taxes snap right back, so families will be struggling at the pumps, small businesses will still face high operating costs and farmers will still have to pay more to bring food to our tables. For those in Middlesex—London, where our rural roads stretch for kilometres and agriculture is the backbone of our local economy, this bill provides no relief at all. Farmers rely on diesel to run tractors, combines and transport trucks. Truckers haul our produce to market. Families drive long distances just to get to the city to buy groceries, go to a medical appointment or go to the grocery store. What the Liberal government is offering is not meaningful support. The bill gives it the opportunity for photo ops, plain and simple. It is a short-term gimmick to distract from the real pain that Canadians are facing every single day. Conservatives have been crystal clear. We want the permanent removal of all federal taxes on fuel for the remainder of 2026 and beyond. That would deliver real, tangible results and savings of roughly 25¢ per litre at the pumps for families, truckers and farmers right across the country. That is about $1,200 a year for an average family. That is real help for the producers who keep our grocery store shelves stocked. Instead, the Liberals are offering this fleeting discount and calling it leadership. I call it what it is, which is insufficient and insulting to people who are struggling. This pattern of temporary fixes repeats throughout the bill. There are minor tweaks to tax deductions for tradespeople, short extensions to EI benefits, small adjustments to the Canada pension plan and a few technical changes, such as an enhanced capital cost allowance. These may sound good in Liberal press releases and offer some temporary minor relief to some Canadians, but they do nothing to solve the real root causes of the problems, which are reckless Liberal spending, exploding Liberal deficits and a government that refuses to live within its means. The so-called hero banker PM has run the federal deficit nearly double in less than a year, and there is nothing to show for it. We are now looking at the largest deficit, outside of the pandemic, in our history. The national debt exceeds $1.3 trillion. Interest payments alone now cost taxpayers more than $59 billion annually, more than we spend on health transfers to the provinces. Every Canadian family is effectively paying over $3,400 a year just to service this debt. That is money that could go toward schools and hospitals, or back into the pockets of hard-working Canadians, the ones who earned it. While families in Middlesex—London are being forced to choose between filling their gas tank or their grocery cart and between paying the hydro bill or the mortgage, the Liberals are busy creating new funds and new ways to spend the money we do not have. They call it an “investment in the future”, but Canadians, especially rural Canadians, call that more debt being passed on to our children and grandchildren. As someone who comes from a farming background, I hear every week from constituents that high fuel costs, with carbon taxes layered on top, and red tape are threatening the family farms that have been in operation for generations. These are the people who work from dawn to dusk to produce the food we all depend on, yet the government continues to punish them with policies that drive up their input costs while grocery prices keep climbing for everyone else. The bill captures the Liberal approach perfectly: It manages the crisis instead of solves it and offers temporary relief instead of structural reform. The Liberals spend more, tax more and regulate more, and then hope no one notices when the bill is due. If I were not a responsible, functioning adult, I might think that was a good idea. The Conservatives offer a fundamentally different vision, one grounded in common sense and fiscal responsibility. We believe that the government should live within its means, just as families and farmers across Middlesex—London do every single day. That starts with permanently axing the carbon tax, not just the consumer portion but the entire carbon tax, including the industrial backstop that is driving up the cost of fuel, fertilizers and natural gas for drying grain and heating barns. The Conservatives would cut wasteful bureaucracy and the billions of dollars that are being squandered to consultants. We would repeal antidevelopment laws, such as Bill C-69, that block pipelines, energy projects and resource development. We would get serious about building homes by slashing red tape, speeding up approvals, incentivizing municipalities to build faster and removing the barriers that have made home ownership a distant dream for young families in our communities. Only the Conservatives would unleash our natural resources responsibly so that Canada could be a leader in affordable, reliable energy, not just for ourselves but also for our allies around the world. By developing our oil and gas and critical minerals responsibly, we could create good jobs in ridings like mine that are rich in nearby manufacturing and development. We could also lower energy prices at home, strengthen our economic sovereignty and ensure that Canada is no longer held hostage by foreign supply chains. I reject the idea that Canadians must keep paying higher taxes so that Ottawa can keep spending recklessly. I believe hard-working families deserve to keep more of their own money. I believe farmers and small businesses should not be punished for producing the foods and goods that keep this country running. I believe that the best way to help people is not through more government programs and subsidies, but through lower taxes, less red tape and real economic growth that creates opportunities for everyone. Bill C-30 would fail the test on every level. It is another chapter in the long, Liberal story of big promises and small results. It is more illusions of affordability, more illusions of fiscal irresponsibility and more credit card budgeting that would leave future generations to pay the price. I am fed up. Canadians are fed up. They are tired of seeing their grocery and gas bills and their receipts go up, while their paycheques stay the same and their purchasing power shrinks. They are tired of broken promises from a government that talks about hope but purposely does nothing in its power to keep people from feeling hopeless. Canadians are tired of being told to just wait, while cynical Liberal politicians in Ottawa play games with their hard-earned money and their children's futures. In Middlesex—London, the stories are the same. There are young couples unable to afford their first home, small business owners going bust because people cannot afford to go out anymore and seniors stretching fixed incomes to cover rising utilities. The people of Canada deserve better. They deserve a government that puts families first, respects taxpayers and focuses on the real priorities. They deserve affordable homes, lower costs at the pump and the grocery store, safer communities, and a strong, self-reliant Canada that stands on its own two feet. That is exactly what Conservatives would deliver. We would bring common sense back to Ottawa. We would make life more affordable for every Canadian family. We would cut taxes, build homes that Canadians need, fix the budget and unleash the energy and resources that power our prosperity. We would rebuild Canada, where the next generation could actually get ahead and not just get by. The choice before the House and before Canadians is clear. They can accept temporary gimmicks or demand a permanent solution. They can accept more debt or demand real relief. They can accept illusions or demand results. The Conservatives have chosen common sense. Will the Liberals listen to us?

Mr. Speaker, the member's question fails to address something I can speak to, as I am someone who works in the agriculture industry and works daily with people in the agriculture industry. I can say that, since the carbon tax was implemented in Canada, our costs have gone up exponentially. Every single input cost in this country has gone up, and that started long before any conflict started around the globe. I hear this from farmers every single day. Fuel costs are through the roof and fertilizer costs are through the roof. The government continues to pile on red tape and more bureaucracy that tie the hands of our producers, the ones who feed us. We should all be doing all we can to make sure it is easier to produce food in this country.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her very thoughtful question. Recently I have had the opportunity to sit down in London with homebuilders, developers and people who actually want to buy a home. I am hearing the same thing across my riding and across the country. We need to cut bureaucracy and red tape to make homes more affordable. Builders cannot build if they have to pay too many taxes. If the cost of a home now has hundreds of thousands of dollars in development charges, young families cannot afford to buy their first home. We need to work together with municipal governments to find a way to cut red tape, cut taxes and incentivize builders to build homes that Canadians can afford.

Mr. Speaker, I hear from constituents every day. Tony from Denfield wrote to me and said, “The Prime Minister says that Canadians need to suffer for a little while. Why can't the Liberals take half reduction in income so that they can feel the effects?” John from Newbury said, “Cost of living is too high. People cannot afford groceries, let alone housing. What happened to fiscal responsibility? Tired of being forgotten.” Ted from Putnam says, “Please keep fighting for the everyday taxpayer, and never forget who pays the bills. It seems like the other parties have forgotten where the buck stops.” Well, I could not agree more with that. Conservatives will continue fighting every day to make sure that Canadians are not forgotten and that we hold this Liberal government to account.

Mr. Speaker, I am deeply honoured today to table petition e-7025. This petition, initiated by a concerned Canadian from Glencoe in my riding of Middlesex—London, calls on Parliament to amend the Parliament of Canada Act. It asks that any member of Parliament who crosses the floor to join another party must vacate their seat and trigger a by-election in their riding. This is important because Canadians elect MPs under a specific party banner to represent their values and priorities. Unrestricted or unintentionally sought-out floor crossings erode voter trust and undermine the democratic will of the constituency each MP represents. I am proud to stand for greater accountability alongside the 111,158 Canadians from across the country who signed in support of this important call to strengthen our democracy.

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals continue to blame global factors for skyrocketing gas and grocery prices while offering Canadians only a partial, temporary tax cut. They have been playing with matches for years, printing money and hiking the carbon tax and the fuel standard tax. Now they act surprised that their house is on fire. Canadians see through their excuses in repeated speeches offering more illusions. When will they stop the blame game, take responsibility and give families real relief by removing all federal taxes on gas and diesel for the rest of the year?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister warned Canadians about making hard sacrifices, but now he is refusing to show up at the bargaining table with our largest trading partner. Liberal taxes make Canadians pay 20% more for gas. His fearmongering is making relations worse and hurting our economy. He is deliberately pitting Canadians against the United States, all while the Liberals cozy up to the CCP. We could be expanding our resource industry and building our nation as a global leader. Instead, we get state-sponsored propaganda to cover up all the Liberal failures. When will the Prime Minister stop making excuses and take responsibility?

Mr. Speaker, I am deeply troubled by the profound tragedy that occurred Sunday at Sarnia's Lambton College campus. My heart goes out to his family and all who knew 20-year-old Dane Nisbet, a promising young former junior hockey player who was taken far too soon, and also to the two others who were injured. This senseless and unnecessary act of violence has shaken the community. We all know it could have been prevented. The primary suspect was already under a court order prohibiting him from possessing firearms and has a rap sheet a mile long. He was arrested in March for assault with a weapon and failure to comply. Last May, he was arrested on two counts of assault with a weapon and a breach of order, and he was previously charged with assaulting an elderly man. This guy should never have been on the streets. It is absolutely insane how he was not in jail. Who bears the responsibility for this? It is the Liberal catch-and-release bail policies that continue to place dangerous offenders back on our streets instead of keeping them behind bars. We must fix these failed policies now to protect innocent lives. Canadians deserve safer—

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, when asked about rising gas prices, the Prime Minister said that he is still looking at how to help cushion the blow for Canadians. Let me help him out. The reality is that the federal government will collect more royalties than it would cost to eliminate all of the federal fuel taxes for the rest of the year. Conservatives have proposed cutting these taxes to save 25¢ a litre at the pump for Canadians. Will the Liberals help Canadians, adopt our Conservative plan and just cut the taxes?