Sandra Cobena

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Montmorency—Charlevoix. The Liberals have been in power for 11 years. Canadians are living through an affordability crisis and they deserve a government that acknowledges it. Whenever we stand up for Canadians who cannot afford their groceries or rent, the Liberals respond with a laundry list of programs. They tell us how much money they have announced, how many benefits they have created and how many Canadians are receiving this government assistance, but we have to stop and think. When the government will stop measuring success by how many Canadians need government assistance and start measuring it by how many no longer do? Canadians want to get ahead. They want their hard work to mean something. They want to pay their bills and have something left to build a future. In Newmarket—Aurora, I hear from people who work hard and manage their money carefully. They budget, but they still cannot make ends meet. These Canadians are doing their part and asking why, after 11 years, the Liberal government is not doing its part. I take particular pride in hearing from my constituents, not only at the doors, but through their responses to mailers, in emails, phone calls and text messages, and even when they stop me at events. I would like to take a moment to share their stories and concerns here today. Patricia from Newmarket wrote to me and said Canadian salaries do not rise to meet the cost of living. She rarely buys beef and eats as economically as possible. She is already shopping carefully and choosing less food and less expensive food. How much more is she supposed to cut? In the same light, Canadians have told me they pay taxes at every turn. They pay tax when they earn a paycheque, own something, buy something, fill the tank in their car and buy a drink, and they may even pay tax when they die, yet the Liberal government still cannot balance the budget. How much more does the government want from them? They are living within their means and do not understand why the Liberal government cannot live within its means. I have another story that I would like to share. Mary Jane from Newmarket wrote to say she and her family and are struggling with rent costs and the price of food. The most recent statistic is that the bottom quartile of Canadians are spending 110% of their income on just shelter and basic necessities. These Canadians will not be able to get ahead. This short message from Mary Jane tells this House everything it needs to know. This is a family struggling with the costs of shelter and food. These are the basics. They are the things a household needs before it can even think about anything else. That is why our opposition motion today asks this House to recognize exactly what Canadians are living. It is quite simple. It says: (a) the Liberals have been in power for 11 years; and (b) Canada is in an affordability crisis. There are two lines and two simple facts. Members do not have to agree on every policy to acknowledge that Canadians are struggling and that families cannot afford the essentials, but if the Liberal government cannot even acknowledge the problem, how can we expect it to fix it? The government must stop gaslighting Canadians and listen to them instead. These are their cries. There are endless stories of what Canadians are living through, and they must be at the heart of the decisions the Liberal government makes. Joanna from Newmarket wrote to say she and her partner are struggling to stay afloat with their son in university, their mortgage and working overtime. They are both in their late fifties now and these are bad times. Two Canadians are working overtime and struggling to pay their mortgage because they are helping their child through university. Why has it become so difficult to stay afloat? These are people who have spent years working and contributing. They should be able to look ahead with some confidence. Instead, they are working more just to keep up. A line I hear time and time again from Canadians is, “We are the working poor.” When a family works overtime and still cannot get ahead, the Liberal government should be asking some questions. What is making their life so expensive? How can we change that? What costs can we remove? What barriers can we reduce? What can we do to help their paycheques go further? Instead, we get another spending announcement with very little implementation and another laundry list of government programs. Canadians keep making sacrifices. How much more can they really sacrifice when families are already struggling to cover rent and groceries? That is not normal. The Liberal government is asking them to be impressed by more announcements and more spending, but announcements do not pay Joanna's mortgage, for example. Their talking points do not put groceries in Mary Jane's kitchen. We should judge the results by what Canadians can actually afford. Can they pay their rent? The answer is no. Can they buy groceries? They are cutting back. Can they save for an emergency? They cannot when the basics take 110% of what they make. Can they finish the month without taking on more debt? No. An MNP report this week confirmed that 44% of Canadians are just $200 away from insolvency. Newmarket Today reported that York region food pantries have seen a rise of 57% since 2020 and that one in three who attend are children. There is a whole generation of children who are now watching their parents not have the dignity to provide for them. That is a failure. Today, every member in this House has an opportunity to acknowledge what Canadians are telling us every day. Recognize that the Liberals have been in power for 11 years and recognize that Canada is in an affordability crisis. Canadians already know it because they are living it. Let us listen to these families. Canadians are doing their part. It is time for the government to do its part so that a hard-earned paycheque can once again pay the bills.

Mr. Speaker, I think the member is missing the point. I wish the Liberals would listen. The member, again, is saying to these families they should be happy they have this government program to depend on. He is not saying the government wants them to provide for themselves, it wants their hard work to mean something and it wants them to get back on their own two feet. He and the Liberals are telling them to be happy they depend on the government and to be happy the Liberals are there to fix a problem that they themselves created. Canadians want the dignity to provide for themselves.

Mr. Speaker, yes, I share those thoughts. We are talking about an affordability crisis. The funny thing is that the country is in a massive deficit, but the Prime Minister has changed accounting definitions so that he can take a marker, cross off those expenses and label them as investments. Canadians do not have that luxury. Unfortunately, under the Liberal government, that luxury is reserved for the Liberal government only. Meanwhile, Canadians have real bills to pay and they cannot make them disappear. This is an affordability crisis, and the Liberal government is refusing to recognize that.

Mr. Speaker, there have been two questions from the Liberal benches and not once have the Liberals recognized that there is an affordability crisis, which is at the heart of the problem today. The Liberals can get up and list all of the government programs, but what Canadians are saying, which the Liberals refuse to listen to after sharing hundreds of stories from Canadians, is they want to be able to provide for themselves. They want the government to get out of the way and stop the overspending so that they can provide for themselves and get ahead, and the Liberals are refusing to recognize that.

Mr. Speaker, if a CEO took control of a company and invented new financial definitions to make the books look better, shareholders would have questions, but if he could not even apply those definitions consistently, they would ask if he even understood his own definitions. This is exactly what is happening with Canada's finances. The Prime Minister invented new definitions used nowhere else in the world. The PBO said that he relabelled $94 billion of operating expenses as investments. The IMF has called for greater alignment with international standards and independent verification. The new PBO says that classifications cannot be independently replicated and are being used inconsistently. In the financial world, this is completely unacceptable. I call on the Liberal government to scrap this fake accounting scheme.