Mike Lake

Mr. Speaker, a year ago this week, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences released a report commissioned by the Liberal government that identified significant gaps in diagnosis, coordination and access to supports for Canadians with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, or FASD. Since then, virtually nothing has been done to address the critical issues raised by the experts. Why pay for this report in the first place if the government did not intend to use the findings?

Mr. Speaker, it was interesting to hear the hon. member, in response to a question from our side, very clearly distance himself from the 10 years of government that he was a part of. Here are some facts on those 10 years. Since 2015, human trafficking has increased by 84%, sexual assaults increased by 76% and violent crime increased by 55%. I wonder if the hon. member might want to take this opportunity to express his regret for the role he played in passing laws that led to those horrific results.

Mr. Speaker, there was another speech made today, probably a little more watched than this one, from our leader, in Calgary, talking about national unity. When I look at the financial situation facing Canada today, one of the things I cannot help but think about is how different things would be had pipelines, which were already under way in 2015, been built to completion. Right now, we are in a circumstance where our country is bringing in billions of dollars' worth of oil from countries like Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, to the east coast, and the regulations at play are not nearly as rigorous for that oil as they are for oil coming from Alberta and Saskatchewan. I am wondering if the hon. minister thinks that is fair and if he has some thoughts on the impact that has on the Canadian economy.

Mr. Speaker, in 2015, the last year of the Harper government, Canada's national debt was $616 million. Today, under the Liberals, it is an astonishing $1.4 trillion, and Canada is the only G20 country in recession. In 2015, Canada had a balanced budget and the richest middle class in the world. Today, we spend more on federal debt interest than we do on the Canada health transfer, and we are now forced to subsidize groceries for a full third of the population. While Liberals debate terminology to describe the economic crisis, today's consequences are the result of a decade of deliberate Liberal choices, such as the choice to take on mountains of debt early on; the choice to use the cover of a global pandemic to undertake a massive, permanent expansion in inflationary spending; and the choice to kill private sector oil and gas projects that would have provided immense economic and security benefits to Canadians today. JFK once famously said, “Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.” It is time someone in the Liberal government took some responsibility for the economic disaster it has made to happen here in Canada.

Mr. Speaker, I would point out that while spending as much money as the government is spending right now, perhaps we could at least maintain quorum in the House of Commons. I do not think there are enough members.

Mr. Speaker, one thing that would help Canada's fiscal situation substantially and would help our national unity situation substantially is if we were allowed to sell our resources from Alberta around the world. Currently, because of policies put in place by this member's government over the last 10 years, oil shipped from Alberta is subject to more rigorous emission standards than oil imported from Saudi Arabia and Nigeria to Canada. Does the member think it is okay that oil coming from Nigeria, Saudi Arabia or Algeria is subject to less rigorous standards than oil and gas coming from Alberta?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have shortened debate on this really important amount of spending they are doing, and they cannot even be bothered to show up to have quorum. I would like to make sure we have quorum.

Mr. Speaker, in 2015, The New York Times reported that Canada had the richest middle class in the world. In 2015, we had a balanced budget and the richest middle class in the world. Fast-forward to today. We have more than doubled our national debt. The Liberals brag about the fact that we are subsidizing groceries for a third of the population. That is the situation we are in. We are spending more on interest than we are on the Canada health transfer, and the Liberals' own financial statements indicate that by 2030‑31, the entire deficit would be used to pay interest on the debt. How did we get here?

Mr. Speaker, I listened closely to the hon. parliamentary secretary's speech. At one point she did ask what we would cut. Let me be very clear, because she also referenced my home province of Alberta in kind of a flippant way. The first things we would cut would be Bill C-69 and Bill C-48, which have made it impossible to compete in the global environment where, believe it or not, oil coming to Canada from Algeria, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia faces fewer restrictions and less rigorous regulation around reporting than oil coming from Alberta being sold in our own country. Bill C-69 and Bill C-48 are where we would start cutting.

I know the member is heckling me, Mr. Speaker, but I do want to talk about something fairly serious to me. She made the assertion that Conservatives do not care about the most vulnerable. The member is new to the House and is mocking me as she smiles. The member might not know that I have a son with autism. He is 30 years old. I talk about this a lot in the House. In 1995, when we were in a similar situation to what we are in now and we had a Liberal government dealing with a generation after the 14 out of 15 deficits that the former Trudeau government had run, that Liberal government, under Paul Martin, was forced to cut 32% from transfers for health, social services and education. Every province in the country and every vulnerable Canadian in the country had to pay the consequences of those devastating cuts. Those devastating cuts happened for exactly the same reason, because of the exact same type of fiscal policy that the current Liberal government is running. We have massive deficits, a situation I mentioned a few minutes ago in which we are paying more on interest today than we are on the Canadian health transfer. Because of deliberate spending decisions made by the member's government, today we are spending more on interest than we are on the Canadian health transfer. The Liberals' own budget documents presented in the spring economic statement indicate that by 2030, we are going to be using the entire deficit to pay off interest on the debt. It is the equivalent of going to a bank, getting a mortgage and convincing the bank to allow payment of only the interest on that mortgage, not paying off any of the principal but only making interest payments on the mortgage. That is the situation we are in today. Another Liberal member just called that the best fiscal situation in the world. That is laughable. There is no Canadian who believes that right now. I have a quote from C.S. Lewis. This goes back a while, but I find it a perfect quote for where we are right now. Lewis said: We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the [one] who turns back soonest is the most progressive.... We need to turn back. We need to get this country's fiscal situation back on track. We need to have a plan, at least someone on the government side who indicates that it is important to one day get back to a balanced budget and a time when we have the flexibility to make the best decisions we can for all Canadians, including the most vulnerable.

Mr. Speaker, in 2015, Canada had a balanced budget and the richest middle class in the world. Coming out of a global economic meltdown, Canada's federal debt stood at $616 billion. Yesterday, we found out that after a decade of Liberal economic experiments funded on the national credit card, our debt this fiscal year will hit $1.4 trillion. The Liberals are trading away Canadians' future prosperity to fund this tiresome daily Liberal QP routine of riffing off ever-increasing lists of things they are charging to the national credit card. Is there someone over there with the courage to stand up and say, “enough is enough”?

Mr. Speaker, in a mythical Liberal world, budgets balance themselves. In the current Prime Minister's theoretical world, the national credit card has no limit and the bill never comes due, but we live in the real world, where the Liberal government's addiction to borrowing has real consequences. This Prime Minister is now spending more on interest than on the Canada health transfer. According to his own economic update, and this is quite astonishing, in 2030, the entire deficit would go to paying interest on debt that the Liberals have added since being elected. In this new world, Liberal debt becomes self-generating. When will this experiment end?

Mr. Speaker, April is World Autism Month, and it has now been 28 years since my son Jaden was diagnosed. Today Jaden is 30 and an enthusiastic extrovert, but back then he seemed almost completely stuck in his own world. Our instinct at the time was to try to help him by pulling him into our world, and it did help. I have since gravitated to a slightly different approach. These days I spend more time in Jaden's world, getting down close to him, looking at what he is looking at and tuning in to what holds his attention in the moment. When I intentionally pause, put the phone away and just sit still with Jaden, I experience things I normally miss, like the sense of wonder gazing out a train window, the value of non-verbal communication or the strength of connection through physical contact: a hug, a tussle, a tickle or Jaden's famous high-five. We too often default to defining people like Jaden by the help they need, but in my experience, I have learned many of the most important things in my life from him. Jaden has helped me, I hope, to be a better person than I would have been without him, and for that, I am truly thankful.

Mr. Speaker, real leaders take ownership of their mistakes. They learn and they change. Contrast that with the daily Liberal approach in the House of blame, blame, blame. The fact is that the Prime Minister's signature election promise was to “build the strongest economy in the G7.” That exact phrase appeared, word for word, 10 times in the Liberal platform. Today we learned that Canada has the only shrinking economy in the G7. Our global competitors, faced with the same global challenges, are all doing better. Will someone take some ownership over there and admit that record Liberal spending is crushing the Canadian economy?

Mr. Speaker, speaking of misinformation, let us talk about the Liberal promises in the last election. Ten months ago, Canadians trusted the Liberal Prime Minister when he promised a budget deficit of only $62 billion. Five months ago, that number ballooned to $78 billion and, again this month, they added billions more, which is a promise clearly broken. Ten months ago, Canadians trusted the Liberal Prime Minister when he promised “to build the strongest economy in the G7.” Today, we have the weakest economy in the G7, and it is actually shrinking, another promise clearly broken. Why should Canadians believe anything anyone over there has to say now?

Mr. Speaker, less than a year ago, the Liberal election platform promised that the federal deficit would be limited to an already eye-popping $62 billion. That deficit exploded to $78 billion in the fall, with billions more added since. Our federal debt is now nearly two and a half times what it was just a decade ago. Meanwhile, the Toronto Star is warning this morning that Canadian household debt has risen to a record $2.6 trillion. How have we gone, in just a decade, from a country with a balanced budget and the richest middle class in the world to a country where Canadians are taking on record personal debt to pay off the bills passed down to them by their own federal government?

Mr. Speaker, under the Liberals' new leadership, Canada's multifront economic crisis has gotten objectively worse. The Liberal Prime Minister himself promised the $62-billion deficit. Their own budget shattered that promise, adding $16 billion in new debt, and they have added billions more in recent weeks. Young Canadians are taking on record personal debt to pay the bill. According to RBC, “64% of Millennials are anxious about their financial future as monthly costs squeeze budgets”. Which Liberal minister will stand now to explain to those young Canadians why they should take on more personal liability and stress to cover ever-increasing Liberal debt?