Parliamentary Speeches

Mr. Speaker, there are times in Canada's national life when families experience terrible tragedies. The Prime Minister has just brought one of those tragedies to my attention. He would like to speak on behalf of all Canadians to offer his condolences to a treasured member of the public service who tragically lost her life. I would invite him to stand in his place and share his love, affection and prayers with the family.

Mr. Speaker, we Conservatives also offer our condolences to the family of Ms. Ben Salem. We are fighting to save Canadians money. The Liberals are costing Canadians more. Canada is facing a serious diesel price crisis. The national average price is now $2.74 a litre, which is going to drive up the cost of everything. One farmer in Bruce County had to spend $3,000 on one day's fuel. We are now paying 30¢ a litre more here in Canada than in the United States. Will the Prime Minister remove his taxes and other government costs to lower the cost of diesel now?

Mr. Speaker, Conservatives are here to save Canadians money while Liberals are costing Canadians more. It is not an exaggeration to say that we are now facing a full-scale diesel price crisis. Right now, diesel prices are around $2.76 a litre, an all-time high. One farmer in Bruce County had to spend $3,000 on one day's fuel. The Prime Minister loves to blame foreign factors, but Canadians are paying 32¢ a litre more than are Americans. If it is really a global issue, why are we paying so much north of the border?

Mr. Speaker, it is all talk, no results, and more excuses after broken promises. Let us convert diesel prices around the world, in the U.S. and here in Canada into Canadian dollars. Diesel prices in the U.S. are $2.44 a litre. The global average diesel price is $2.33 a litre. Here in Canada, it is $2.76 a litre. Canadians are paying 41¢ more than the world and 32¢ more than the U.S. With the fourth biggest supply of oil on earth, why do we not have the lowest prices anywhere in the world?

Mr. Speaker, how totally out of touch. He blames the provinces for inflation under his leadership. He highlights a bill that has been in place for a year and a half and has not built a single project. He did not answer the question. There are three reasons why Canadians are paying more for diesel in the world. One, the Prime Minister has given us a weak dollar despite high oil prices. Two, by his very admission in this House, we do not have the refining capacity because his government will not get out of the way and let Canadians build. Three, he continues to tax fuel with the GST and the fuel standard tax. Will the Prime Minister stop pretending to be so powerless and get prices down for Canadians?

Mr. Speaker, he is literally bragging about promises that he has made and broken. Now the U.S. President is blustering ridiculously about a diesel export plan. Even if that bluster is meaningless, we should not have to rely on the Americans to give us diesel that comes out of our own ground. That is why Conservatives are acting today. We are calling for an emergency diesel price relief plan to, one, eliminate all diesel taxes until at least Canada Day and, two, have emergency pre-permitting and tax relief for the construction of diesel transportation and refining. Will he take up our plan to lower prices for Canadians?

Again, he is talking about projects that were approved long before he got here, Mr. Speaker. To protect us from President Trump's threats, make Canada affordable and independent and save money, the Conservatives are calling for a diesel price relief plan that involves eliminating all diesel taxes until July 1, 2027, and having emergency pre-permitting and tax relief to accelerate investment in diesel refining and transportation. Will the Prime Minister take our plan to lower prices and make Canada more independent?

Mr. Speaker, the other day, the Prime Minister said that his fuel standard tax added zero cost at the pump. Today he claimed that there were no federal taxes. Again, this is the Liberal tradition of telling Canadians that Liberal taxes will make them richer. I have here a study from his own environment department that has the impact of the clean fuel standard on gasoline and diesel prices. It shows that this year it is seven cents, and next year it will be eight cents, then 10¢, then 13¢ and then 17¢ a litre. Why did the Prime Minister mislead the House? Was it to cover up the cost of his tax or because he did not do his homework?

Mr. Speaker, I am sure if he were a farmer, he would be out standing in his field, scratching his head about why he is forced to pay $5,000 a day for diesel costs, diesel costs that are made worse by the Prime Minister's additional taxes. Earlier this week, he said that the clean fuel standard would cost nothing. I quoted documents from his own department showing that it will rise to as much as 17¢ a litre. Should the farmers who are actually out in the field believe the Prime Minister, or should they believe his own department documents, which show that his tax will cost them more?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister cannot stand and answer a question once his statements collide with the facts from his own government. He claimed that his tax would cost nothing. Then he claimed hilariously, as Liberals often do, that taxes would make people even better off. When I confronted him with the facts, showing that the tax he has imposed is seven cents a litre now, rising to 17¢ a litre in just over three years, he would not even stand and take accountability. If the Prime Minister is so proud of his latest tax increase and if it is so good for farmers, why can he not stand up and defend the tax that he is making them pay?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister told the House on March 25 of this year that “Affordability is the best it has been in over a decade.” Markita might disagree. She wrote me a letter recently saying that she is on chemotherapy, but she is going to have to stop her cancer treatments so that she can go back to work because she cannot afford to pay her bills. She cannot afford her rent and her groceries. Will the Prime Minister look into the camera now and tell Markita that affordability is the best it has been for her in over a decade?

Mr. Speaker, when Conservatives hear stories of suffering Canadians, we stand up, and the Prime Minister sits down. He cannot answer to Markita, who cannot pay her bills a year and a half after he promised to make life affordable, but maybe he can answer to Robin. She measures affordability by whether she can afford the three-dollar snack that her children ask for, or whether she has to tell them that this week is rent week. All the spending and promises and programs in the world have not helped her. Will the Prime Minister stand up now, look her in the eye and tell her that affordability is the best it has been in a decade?

Mr. Speaker, if the Prime Minister does not want to answer to Robin or Markita, maybe he will answer to Mike, who is working as a small businessman and a firefighter, on top of his wife's job. They had to pay $879,000 for a home. They wrote to say they are barely keeping their heads above water as homebuilding declines and housing costs become more out of reach for Canadians. Will the Prime Minister look Mike in the eye and make his ridiculous claim that affordability has never been better in the last decade?

Mr. Speaker, if only the government did not inflate food costs and deprive kids of the ability to eat, if only a record number of kids were not lined up at food banks, maybe Liberal promises and bureaucracy would mean something. I think of Jennifer. Jennifer says she has to make up recipes at the end of the month because she is living on her four final dollars to get through to her final paycheque. The Prime Minister is out of touch and Jennifer is out of money. Instead of sitting there and doing nothing, will he stand up and tell Jennifer how she is going to pay the bills?

Mr. Speaker, it is déjà vu all over again. A year and a half ago, the Prime Minister came storming into the House of Commons with a cape on his back, saying that he had a new bill, Bill C-5, which was going to bring in sweeping legislative changes to build at speeds not seen in generations. The media declared that we would build the unimaginable with this bill. Here we are, 18 months later, and how many projects has it built?

Mr. Speaker, did I hear “zero”? Is there any dispute on the other side? They are dead quiet on the other side. The answer is “zero”. How many permits have been issued by the new office? Zero. How many employees are working on those projects? It is zero, zip, nada, nothing, after 18 months, but do not worry. Today the Liberals have come in and announced another sweeping bill, which the media has regurgitated unfiltered, as though it were gospel truth, and this time the Liberals are repeating exactly the same promises. It is not just that the Liberals have approved and built nothing. There are 500 projects, at least, waiting on the Prime Minister's desk. I say 500, because the Impact Assessment Agency has that number of significant projects, but there are also countless other projects at other departments, which are too dispersed among too many agencies for anyone to tell us how many projects the federal government is waiting to approve. Still, 18 months later, none of them are approved. Not a single Trudeau-era, antidevelopment law or tax has been removed. Not a single inch of oil pipeline has been built. Remember, the Prime Minister said that we are in an existential crisis. That is to say that if we do not get it right, we will not even exist in his terms, that we are in a “war”. Is this the speed of war? Imagine this: If we had travelled at this speed back in the Second World War, we would not have gotten the Lancaster built in two years. In fact, the plane would not be off the ground even today. There have been dozens of announcements, summits, speeches, signing ceremonies and other illusions. We have heard lots about this project or that, which will be designated, declared or listed. Pipelines do not go on lists; they go in the ground. Shovels do not go on designations; they go in the ground. Energy does not go in an MOU; it goes in a tanker to another market. Unfortunately, none of those things are happening. It is all talk, no results; all show, no go; and all theatre, no reality. Here is the reality and the result: Gushing media headlines aside, there has been nothing in 18 months. The previous bill was called the Building Canada Act. It built nothing. Today we have a bill called the building Canada strong act, so in 18 months, the Liberals have managed to add one word. One word on a piece of paper is 18 months' worth of achievement. The only thing the Prime Minister has built is 14 new government agencies. Now, here we go again. We have another bill, and it would not repeal Bill C-69, Justin Trudeau's antidevelopment law. It would not eliminate the industrial carbon tax, and it would not ultimately change the obstacles that are in the existing legal framework. For example, let us take the administrative burden created by Liberal Bill C-69, Trudeau's antidevelopment law. Even if the bill before the House were to pass today, we would still have on the books requirements that anybody who applies for a project include analysis on “the intersection of sex and gender with other identity factors”, as if that has anything to do with mines, pipelines or marine ports. My favourite is that projects, even if the bill before the House today were to pass, would still have to take into account “any other matter relevant to the impact assessment that the Agency requires to be taken into account.” That means there is no limit on the number of things that the bureaucracy would consider before a project were approved. How can the Liberals even talk about regulatory certainty with that kind of ambiguity? The Liberals are claiming that it will help get things built, but they promised this the last time, so we should not hold our breath. Does it reduce the number of vexatious or irrelevant obstructions from hard-core foreign-funded interest groups that have been killing projects for over 10 years? Well, the bill maintains a wide-open approach to consultation about projects that would allow literally anyone to have their comments and testimony included in hearings before a project can actually occur, so we could have American interests that want to keep Canada down, the ones that helped Justin Trudeau get elected with massive foreign funding in the 2015 election, fund antidevelopment groups against the interests of Canada to block things from happening. It is elbows up, indeed. That would not change under this law. Mr. Speaker, I am just wondering if I can ask for a favour. Could you pause the clock so that I can speak for longer than 10 minutes but still come in under the 10-minute limit?

No, it turns out we cannot. However, Mr. Speaker, under this bill, the one-year time limit could be paused at any time. The regulator could stop the clock so that it would not count within the one-year time limit. We could waste seven or eight years and still claim that it all happened under one. Under this bill, the bureaucrats could use three or four different excuses to hit the pause button on the clock, meaning that the famous one-year turnaround time on the decision that the minister advertised to the media is nothing in reality except an illusion. On top of that, the minister sitting before me could actually add 90-day extensions to the time it takes to get a permit for a project. If that is still not enough for government bureaucrats, they could go to cabinet and get a permanent extension on the consideration of a bill. Who in their right mind, as a company, would put aside billions of dollars for a major project knowing that a Liberal cabinet, which has spent the last decade blocking projects, would have the legal power to delay the approval of or even a decision on a project forever? Under the current system, the legislative timeline does not start until the proponent has done lengthy mandatory preplanning and consultations. That does not even come into the existing legislative time frames. Under Bill C-39, the proponent would have to gather and produce even more information, all the detailed engineering and scientific data necessary not only for the impact assessment, but also for whatever permitting processes apply to the project. That would all happen before the clock starts running on the one-year limit. Mr. Speaker, if you would like me to stand up and speak for an hour before the clock starts on my 10-minute speech, I am sure the Liberals would love for that to happen. However, in reality, there is no one-year timeline for a project. In sum, this is once again all talk and no action. The one-year timeline is smoke and mirrors, another illusion. The reality is that there would still be many years before concept can lead to construction. There is ultimately no limit whatsoever. This bill appears once again to be all talk and no results, headlines without deadlines. Meanwhile, there are real consequences for the Prime Minister to continue along with the same policies of the Liberal government of the prior decade. Despite him claiming in the House of Commons that affordability is the best it has been in more than a decade, all he proved by saying that is that he is out of touch while Canadians are out of money. The Prime Minister promised the fastest-growing economy in the G7. It was all talk and no results. Instead, today we got information from the OECD that we will be fourth out of seven, and our economic growth for the present year was downgraded by a quarter, down to a pathetic 0.9%. Inflation is outgrowing wages, meaning Canadians are getting poorer in real time. Liberals are costing us more. Canadian households are now the most indebted in the G7, as interest rates rise on their mortgages, and rising prices at the grocery store ultimately leave our people behind. We have a better way, and that is for the government to get out of the way and pass our economic action plan, which would scrap Bill C-69, the antidevelopment law. It would repeal the ban on shipping oil off the west coast of British Columbia. It would eliminate the industrial carbon tax. Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have? It is unlimited. It is kind of like the timing on the Liberal approval for projects: It is unlimited. They can take as much time as they want. We can see why the Emiratis, who wanted to invest $90 billion in Canadians, came back six months later and said they could not find a project that was approved for them to invest in under the government. The Conservatives have a way to fix that. It is called the “one and done” plan. It is very simple: one project, one approval, one year, and better yet, one page. Members may say that it is impossible, but it has been done. Under Prime Minister Harper's government, in the 2008-09 world financial crisis, then minister John Baird told his bureaucrats that he wanted to get the application form for a project down to one page. They said they could never do it, that it was impossible. They came back saying that he would be very happy because they got it down to 100 pages. He said that he wanted one page, and he told them to get out of his office. They came back, saying that the minister was going to be thrilled because they got it down to 50 pages, which had never been done. He told them to get out of his office and said that he wanted one page. They came back, saying that the minister was going to be thrilled because they got it down to 10 pages. He told them to get out of his office and said that he wanted one page. Finally they came back and told him it was one page. Then he told them he wanted one approval for each project. They came back and delivered one approval. Guess what happened. We finished 23,500 projects, from concept to completion, in under two years. Despite grave warnings from the Liberal opposition at the time that this would destroy safety and the environment, the environment commissioner did a full audit of 23,500 projects, and not one came back with a safety or environmental problem, so “one and done” can be done. What was funny was that the NDP got up and waved around a document saying that the environment commissioner had found a problem with a project that the feds had approved in Kanata, so we looked into it. It turned out that this project had not been part of the “one and done” plan but had taken seven years to approve and had the worst environmental outcome. That proves that all the paper, process and delays have nothing to do with the environment, and everything to do with feeding an insatiable bureaucracy that creates work and money for itself by getting in the way, a bureaucracy that the government has allowed to metastasize over the last decade. We need a real bill that will truly cap the consideration time for a project at under a year and set a target of six months. A year should be the worst-case scenario. In fact, why not bring all the first ministers and all the mayors into a room to sign a document that we in Canada should be the fastest place on earth to get a building permit? No matter what someone wants to build, it should be faster to build it in Canada than anywhere else on earth. The Prime Minister could set the example today by granting permits for the 500 projects we have identified that are waiting in the impact assessment office. He could also get rid of the capital gains tax for reinvestments in Canada so we could bring back the trillion dollars of investment the Liberals have driven out of our country. That would be an avalanche of investment that would come pouring back into construction. It would be possibly one of the most patriotic tax cuts ever. We will look very carefully at this 250-page Liberal bill, but we are not going to believe all the rhetoric, the hype and the talking points, because we have heard it all before. The Liberals have been repeating the same promises since the Prime Minister took office. We are going to study the bill, but we have reservations about the outcome. The Liberals have made similar promises before. So far, they have not gotten rid of Liberal anti-development laws, Liberal anti-development taxes or Liberal anti-development bureaucracy. We want to remove these barriers so that we can build in earnest and make our country affordable, safe and independent here at home. We will study the bill, and we will do so based on the criteria of whether it meets our mission of a country that is affordable, safe and independent here at home. Our mission is to save Canadians money, save jobs and put Canada first. We have a real plan to do it. We ask the government to steal our plan. Perhaps what it should do is just take our plan and amend it over this bill. That way we would actually get some results. At the end of the day, the Prime Minister does not need to do, he needs to stop doing. He needs to stop blocking, stop taxing, stop obstructing and stop signing meaningless MOUs. He needs to get out of the way, get off the backs of our people and let our builders build, our workers work and our investors invest. We should be the richest, most affordable country on earth. We have been blessed with an abundance that is unmatched in the history of humanity in geography, oceans and resources and, of course, the best people on planet earth. Let us unleash their potential and let us fulfill the promise of this country that anybody who works hard gets a great life, an affordable home, a fridge full of groceries and a bank account that is overflowing at the same time. That is the promise this country made to every single person. That is our country's promise. That is what we are fighting for. That is the fight we are having on behalf of all Canadians, so let us get the job done. There has been enough talk. It is time for some action.

Mr. Speaker, I think the minister missed the speech. Maybe I should give it all over again, but before I do, let me just point out that he says they have “started” on five projects. They have started looking at five projects, not actually building anything, and that is the reality. The Liberals think that if they imagine something, that if they say something or that if the Prime Minister gives a speech or the media gives him gushing praise, it is the equivalent of that thing actually happening, when in fact single moms cannot eat the Prime Minister's speeches if they are low on money for groceries. People cannot pay their rent with the Prime Minister's fake MOUs. They cannot fill their tanks with Liberal rhetoric and promises. We need reality. Yes, I do have comments on the bill, and I will repeat them. The bill would actually allow the government to violate its own promised one-year time limitation by delays at the front, delays in the middle and delays at the end. That is just one of the many criticisms that this bill deserves.

Mr. Speaker, even if the bill before us passes, the Liberal government will continue to block and tax the projects Canada needs, with endless delays, excessive red tape and taxes that discourage investment. That is why we are saying that it does not go far enough. The government needs to get out of the way. That is what it comes down to. This federal government does not build projects. It blocks them. It is investors, businesses and workers who build projects. The problem is that the government is blocking them, and that has to stop. I know it is hard for the Bloc Québécois not to block everything, but we want the government to stop blocking projects in Canada.

Mr. Speaker, the pattern is that the government confuses the problem with the solution. The problem is the government. It is not the solution. The government inflates food prices with high taxes, inflationary deficits and red tape on farm production. It then says that the solution to that must be even more government spending and bureaucracy, which drive up the cost of food and everything else. The reason we have high housing costs is that government bureaucracy and taxes drive up housing. The Liberals say that the solution must be even more government programs to fix the problem that they caused. It is like the doctor who administers a poison so that he can administer the antidote and then claim to have saved one's life. Why did he not just do neither in the first place? The patient would be fine without the government doing the damage in the first place. We have had 11 years of this. People cannot eat, heat or house themselves. Why do we not try something different? Why do we not get the government out of the way and off one's back?

Mr. Speaker, I think the answer is in the member's question. He says that his constituents are coming into his office to say how much they are struggling with the cost of living. This is after all of these wonderful programs that they have brought in. Maybe he should listen to his constituents, who are telling him that their empty stomachs, empty fridges and empty bank accounts prove that Liberal programs are not working.

Mr. Speaker, of course we want corridors for projects, but the Liberals have not created any. They have had 18 months since the passage of Bill C‑5, which would have allowed the Prime Minister to set up corridors and provide building permits to build pipelines, power lines and other projects. The Prime Minister did not use those powers to issue a single permit. The difference between us and the Liberals is that, yes, the Prime Minister repeats our words, but without acting on them. He is all talk and no action.

Mr. Speaker, this is the top-down crony capitalism that the Prime Minister has brought to our economy. It is an economy of carve-outs, bailouts and handouts to special corporate power brokers, and taxes, red tape and inflation for small business. As such, yes, I am very concerned about the idea that politicians will hand-pick winners and losers and that profit will be determined by who has the best lobbyists, not who has the best product; and by who has the most political influence, not the best product for Canadians. We need free market, bottom-up capitalism, not top-down—

Mr. Speaker, allow me to quote Robin, a widowed mother who wrote to me on Canada Day. She said that people talk about affordability in numbers but that she measures it differently. She measures it by the moments her kids ask, “Mom, can I have a three-dollar snack?”, and she says, “No, it's rent week.” I also heard from Jennifer LaFramboise, a mother of four, who said that she owns a home and is working three jobs, one full-time and two part-time, trying to make ends meet. There are days when she has to invent new meals for her family to eat because she has four dollars left in her bank account until her next paycheque. She gets food only on apps such as Flashfood now, because that is all she can afford: discounted meals. She lives less than pay to pay, because her pay is never enough to meet anything on her bills. Mike, a firefighter, business owner and father of three who lives in metro Vancouver, said that he and his wife work full-time. His wife is an educational assistant in the public school system, supporting teachers and children with diverse needs every day. Mike serves his community as a firefighter while also operating a small landscaping business. Between them, they are effectively working the equivalent of three jobs while raising three kids. Mike said that, despite all their efforts, it was only recently that they managed to purchase their first home, a modest 1,200-square-foot townhouse that cost $879,000. He says that they are doing everything society asks of them: They work hard, pay their taxes and raise their children. They contribute to their community. However, they are barely keeping their heads above water. Mike says that he is burning the candle at both ends and is running out of candle. Another single mother says that she has worked hard her entire life. She does not receive child support, and she does not expect handouts. She wants hard work to mean something again. The Prime Minister tells Robin, Jennifer, Mike and the single mother that “Affordability is the best it has been in over a decade.” He said those words in March on the floor of the House of Commons. On behalf of them and all the hard-working Canadians who are scraping and scratching to survive in this terrible inflationary economy, let me say that the Prime Minister is out of touch and Canadians are out of money. If he thinks these are just selective anecdotes, I have hundreds, probably thousands, more in my correspondence. All the members of the Conservative caucus could share stories just like these ones. These are the people we bump into on Main Street. They are the people who show up at food banks. They are the people who are still courageously and heroically volunteering for local charities while they can barely afford to feed themselves. These are the people we will not meet on the summit floor, nor will we see them at a salon in Davos nor on the Prime Minister's private jet, where he spends thousands of other people's tax dollars on meals. No, these are the people on the ground, and they are the people for whom we as Conservatives will fight every day and every way on the floor of the House of Commons. If the Prime Minister does not like stories, then let us go with some statistics. Rising prices at the grocery store have doubled food insecurity from 5.1% in 2017 to 10.5% last year, according to the Agri-Food Analytics Lab. A Royal Bank study found that more than half of parents with adult children aged 18 to 40 provide financial support, contributing, on average, $6,100 a year. Nearly one in five elderly people is forced to give $10,000 to support their adult children. According to the Telus mental health index, cost of living is the top financial stressor for two-thirds of workers. The federal government's largest national count found that homelessness was 59% higher in 2022, with unsheltered homelessness up 89%. Consumer insolvencies in the second quarter of this year, the most recently reported one, were 37,523. That is the number of people who are selling everything so they do not have to declare bankruptcy. In fact, insolvencies are now at their highest level since the great global recession. The Prime Minister dares tell these people who are losing their homes and everything they worked so hard to acquire that they have never had it so good, and that affordability is the best it has been in a decade. These are the stories the government would love to silence, that it would like to gaslight out of existence by telling us affordability is great. These are the stories we do not hear from the mainstream media, which would have covered it all up in order to protect the Liberal government. We will not be silenced. We as Conservatives will be telling these stories on the floor of the House of Commons and offering real solutions to save Canadians money on gas, groceries, rent and mortgage payments. That includes tackling the inflationary taxes and deficits of the Prime Minister, which have worsened under his leadership. In fact, the deficit has doubled since he took office. The Liberals inherited a large deficit from themselves, and they managed to double it in a very short period of time. We are relieved to see that our efforts to fight gas taxes have led to a temporary pause on part of those taxes. The Liberals we know would not have cut one penny off the gas tax for one minute had it not been for the relentless fighting and advocacy of the Conservatives on this side of the House, and we will keep fighting. We are only getting started. The reality is that there are three taxes on gas. There is the excise tax, which we have forced the government to pause. There is the GST, which the government continues to collect and from which it continues to profit on higher gas prices because it is a percentage-based tax. Then, of course, there is the fuel standard tax. The Prime Minister said on the floor of the House of Commons yesterday that this tax adds zero to gas prices. His own Environment Canada website says that it is seven cents per litre right now and that within three and a half years it will be 17¢ per litre, the same rate as the previous Liberal consumer carbon tax. The only difference is that this carbon tax does not have a rebate, which makes it even worse. Our message is to get rid of the fuel standard tax and the industrial carbon tax forever, and to get rid of the other gas taxes until at least Canada Day. This would save Canadians 25¢ a litre, 20 bucks a fill-up, and about $1,000 total, money that real people who are fighting every day just to raise their families could definitely use in order to build their lives. The Prime Minister said yesterday as well that the industrial carbon tax has zero impact on food prices. I am not surprised that he is confused on this, because he famously said that Canadians do not use steel anymore. Let me tell the House that not only do Canadians use steel, but farmers use steel. Their equipment is made out of steel. When we tax the steel that goes into farm equipment and then tax the fertilizer that goes on the crops, which the Prime Minister has done, we tax all the food that comes from those crops. That is why, while there are some global factors, the reality is that Canada has had the worst food price inflation for most of the Prime Minister's tenure in office, worse than the U.S., worse than the U.K., and worse than Italy, Japan, Germany and France. It is worse because his policies are worse. By reversing all of these taxes, we could bring down the cost of food and everything else. Furthermore, do members know what else lowers the price when we purchase something? It is having a stronger dollar. We have a weak dollar right now because of the decade-long policy of the Liberal government to try to keep our most valuable export, oil and gas, in the ground. The Prime Minister was the global champion of net zero, saying that we needed to keep half of oil and gas in the ground. He promised that he would reverse himself on these policies, but since the last election, what have we seen? Yesterday he introduced a bill that he promised is going to speed up projects. That is what he promised 18 months ago. He introduced a bill called the Building Canada Act. What did it do? In 18 months, it has not approved a single, solitary project across this country. We do not need another announcement. We do not need another press conference or summit. We need a real bill that would scrap all the antidevelopment laws, approve the 500 projects that are waiting for permits, and unlock and unblock our resources so we can bring them to the surface and bring strength to our dollar and purchasing power to the Canadian people so the hard-working people whose stories I told at the beginning will be rewarded, and so the promise of Canada will mean they can have a beautiful house, food on the table, a safe street and a mortgage they can pay down.

Madam Speaker, it is because the entire package the Liberal government has brought forward is bankrupting Canadians. They cannot afford to pay the cost of the Liberal government. If any of those programs actually worked, we would not have double the number of people lined up at food banks, a number that has gone up by 100% since 2019 and continues to go up under the Prime Minister. If his whole basket of programs were actually working, we would not be getting letters from people such as Robin, Mike and Jennifer, who say they cannot pay their bills. We would not have the devastating statistics showing how many people are going hungry and homeless. What we want is more results and less talk. We will fight every day and every way for Canada and for Canadians.

Madam Speaker, absolutely, benefits should be indexed to the real cost of living. Absolutely, we will always support measures to make life affordable for our seniors, to save seniors money. That is the opposite of what the Liberal government has done over the last decade by inflating the cost of living with record deficits. This year, the deficit is the biggest it has ever been outside COVID. Government spending as a share of GDP is the highest it has been since 1996. That inflation is destroying the savings and purchasing power of our hard-working seniors. They are getting less for the money they set aside. On top of that, their adult children have to come asking for help for a down payment or just to avoid rent eviction. We are fighting for these seniors, for their kids, for all generations and for Canada's promise.

Madam Speaker, Canadians are running for their lives to try to pay their bills. I would note that we could fight wildfires if we had water bombers instead of spending half a trillion dollars fighting oil and gas and fighting against Canadians using gas at the pump, as the member suggests. However, I can understand why she is heartbroken. For a decade, the Liberal Prime Minister said that he supported net-zero policies, that he wanted to keep more than half our oil and gas in the ground and that he wanted even higher and broader carbon taxes. He now claims to have changed his mind. He never believed it. It was all a money grab from the very start. We on this side have been consistent. We are fighting for affordability, for low energy prices and for the massive production of our oil, gas and other resources.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday night on Yom Kippur, the holiest night in Judaism, gunfire erupted at a synagogue in Belleville. Congregants of Sons of Jacob were forced to take cover, and a courageous constable, Jeff Smith, was injured while saving countless lives. The Jewish people deserve to live in peace and freedom as they express their faith. Will the Prime Minister join with me in offering prayers and love for this courageous constable and support for the Jewish community and condemn all forms of violence?

Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome the Prime Minister back as well as the Canadians who are watching us now. The Conservatives' message to them is that we will fight on their behalf—to save them money on gas and groceries, on their mortgages and rent—because they work hard. This Liberal Prime Minister is costing them. This Prime Minister has driven up inflation by doubling the deficit and raising certain taxes. Does the Prime Minister still believe that affordability is the best it has been in a decade, as he said, or will he admit that Canadians are paying more than ever before?

Mr. Speaker, to the Prime Minister, welcome back to Parliament. To the Canadian people, the message of Conservatives is that we will fight to save Canadians money this session of Parliament: save them money on their rent and mortgage, save them money on gas and groceries and save them money here at home at their kitchen table, where they are paying more than ever for food because the Prime Minister is costing them. He doubled the deficit and has increased industrial carbon taxes and other fuel taxes, driving up their cost of living. The Prime Minister said in March that affordability was the best it has been in a decade. Does he believe that, or would he admit that people are paying more than ever?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has proven once again that he is absolutely out of touch and Canadians are absolutely out of money. All they have gotten from him is big talk around the world and big bills here at home. Lalita, for example, from Mississauga, told me this morning that she has to work two jobs now, one as a waitress and one as an insurance broker, to pay the insane grocery prices the Prime Minister promised he would reduce. She cannot eat speeches, summits or signing ceremonies. Will the Prime Minister admit that affordability is not the best it has been in a decade and that in fact Lalita is paying more than ever before?

Mr. Speaker, “and beyond”, the Prime Minister doubled the deficit, contributing to inflation. He has introduced a new fuel tax, partially offsetting the one that we forced him to put on hold. He is increasing the industrial carbon tax. Today, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business revealed that 20% of its members say their businesses are “weak” or “critical”. Only 18% said they would recommend other people start businesses. Fifty per cent say not to start a business right now because the costs are too high. Conservatives want to save money and jobs through small business. Will the Prime Minister reverse his inflationary policies so we can bring down the costs on our small business consumers and workers?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's own environment department's report reveals that the impact of the fuel standard is seven cents this year, rising to 17¢ per litre by the end of the decade, so he should check his own documents, or he should listen to Justin, who told me in a letter on August 11, “I cannot afford to eat properly. I skip meals and rely on cereal for breakfast. I'm incredibly frugal, but my debts are still growing faster. I constantly stress and cry over my financials. The middle class is being eliminated.” Will the Prime Minister look Justin in the eye and tell him that affordability is the best it has been in a decade?

Mr. Speaker, I will be careful about the fact that the Prime Minister cannot defend the cost of living, which is skyrocketing, or the Liberal recession, which is the only one in the entire G20. Instead of offering illusions and making excuses, he should take accountability. Will he stand up in the House of Commons and tell everyone when life will become more affordable and when the Liberal recession will end?

Mr. Speaker, as the Prime Minister ends his third session, I ask this question: Are our groceries, gas and mortgage payments more affordable than they were a year ago, and are our streets safer or more riddled with crime? Aside from his endless announcements, excuses and promises, the Prime Minister has doubled the deficit and increased housing costs. Homebuilding is actually down. Gas, groceries and mortgage payments are nearing record highs. Will the Prime Minister put aside the illusions and stand up in this House of Commons now and defend his disastrous results?

Mr. Speaker, no, we do not plan for a restful summer. We plan to fight all summer long against the Liberal recession, Liberal inflation, the rising Liberal cost of living and the rising Liberal crime crisis in our streets. Let us take, for example, investment. The Liberal Prime Minister promised he would increase it. He has delivered five consecutive quarters of declining investment. This is the only G7 country to have done that. It is one of the reasons that our country is in a recession, which means paycheques are down and the cost of living is up. The Canadian people deserve accountability and results. Will the Prime Minister stand and deliver both now?

Mr. Speaker, that is not just an illusion; that is a hallucination. The government's own statistical agency says the economy is shrinking. It shrunk this quarter, and it shrunk the quarter before that. In fact, it shrunk three out of the last four quarters. We cannot be the second-fastest growing when we are shrinking, as the Minister of Finance might appreciate and relate to. My question is for the Prime Minister, who has delivered the only recession in the G7 with the consequence of higher costs for Canadians. Will he stand and defend the results instead of—

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Prime Minister cannot defend his disastrous record. It is the same path and journey with him every single time. He takes on a big, fancy job, then he causes disastrous costs for people and then he moves on before he can be held accountable. He caused the worst inflation in the G7 as the governor of the Bank of England, along with a housing crisis. He was Justin Trudeau's economic adviser, doubling housing costs, debt and food bank line-ups. Now he has delivered the only G7 recession, and he is unable to defend his results. Will the Prime Minister stand today and give accountability and results to hard-working Canadians?

Mr. Speaker, instead of being accountable for Liberal inflation and the Liberal recession, the Prime Minister is now making his 12th announcement on housing. This comes after he led us to a 6% reduction in homebuilding, and his own housing agency expects that it will fall another 18%. Finally, the Prime Minister has given us the biggest increases in costs in housing anywhere in the G7. Instead of another illusion or another announcement, will the Prime Minister stand and take accountability for the costly failures that have denied Canadians home ownership?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals already had a revolution. The Liberal government doubled housing costs. To solve the problem, the Liberal Prime Minister picked the former mayor of Vancouver, who made that city the most expensive housing market in the world. Since promising to double homebuilding, the Prime Minister has delivered a 6% reduction in construction, and his own housing agency expects it will drop another 18%. Instead of another promise or illusion, will the Prime Minister do his job, stand in this House and be accountable for his failures?

Mr. Speaker, the government is at war with its own statistical agencies. It is incredible. The CMHC, the Liberals' housing agency, says construction is down by 6%. Their housing agency says it will drop another 18%. Instead of another photo op, another announcement or another dazzling speech, will the Prime Minister go over to the CMHC and find out how he is pulling back on homebuilding by another 18%?

Mr. Speaker, politicians do not build homes. Carpenters, electricians and plumbers build homes. What one does is have the policies that get out of the way so they can do that. If the member wants some stats, when I was minister, there were 200,000 homes built in one year. The average cost was $450,000. The average rent was $950. Today, it is nearly double that on both counts. The Prime Minister has claimed that he would increase homebuilding by 100%, but it is down 6%, so enough with the illusions. Canadians cannot afford their rent or their mortgage. Will the Prime Minister defend his disastrous results?

Mr. Speaker, at least the Liberals listened for once. I explained to them that houses are built by plumbers, electricians and carpenters, and the members stood up and said that the building trades build homes. We know who builds homes, but do we know who blocks homes? The Liberals block homes. They have been blocking homes so badly for so long that now we have the most expensive real estate in the G7, and under the Prime Minister, homebuilding has actually dropped while he has increased the spending on bureaucracy. Will the Prime Minister get out of the way of home builders, stand in the House and take accountability for his homebuilding failures?

Mr. Speaker, do people know why the Prime Minister cannot stand to answer a question in the House of Commons? It is because he has been wrong about every single economic issue of the last decade. He was wrong to push bigger and broader carbon taxes. He was wrong to say that we should keep half our oil in the ground. He was wrong to say that COVID would lead to deflation or dropping prices. He was wrong to say that governments should print hundreds of billions of dollars, the reason we have the inflation. Now he is wrong again, as the only G20 leader out of 20 countries to lead his country in a recession. Does the Prime Minister realize that when he gets it wrong, Canadians pay the price?

Mr. Speaker, I will tell the member what we are for. We are for an affordable Canada, a Canada with growing paycheques and safer streets, which is the exact opposite of what the Prime Minister has delivered. This is his record: Count them; there have been five consecutive quarters of declining investment. In three of the last four quarters, the economy has declined. In fact, the GDP of Canada today is smaller than when he became Prime Minister. In fact, the GDP was bigger on the last day of Justin Trudeau in office. We now have the most expensive real estate, the highest household debt and the second-highest unemployment in the G7. Is that why the Prime Minister is afraid to stand in the House and answer a question?