Most toxic speeches
Mr. Speaker, approximately six million Jews perished at the hands of the Nazis during the Second World War. It was an incredibly dark moment in human history, and serves as a reminder to all Canadians that we must continue to fight anti-Semitism wherever we find it.Many are persecuted here and around the world for simply being a Jew. I trust all members agree that we must all stay vigilant to protect their fundamental human rights.Today I will be joining the Prime Minister at the dedication of Canada's national Holocaust memorial. Could the Prime Minister inform the House about the importance of working together on this issue, and will he join me in congratulating all those who helped make the dream of a memorial a reality?
Mr. Speaker, just a quarter of the requests were answered within the normal 30-day time limit, and a third of all the requests included in the audit received no response. When journalists do get answers, the documents are totally redacted, pages and pages of black ink.Open by default is what we were promised. Will the Prime Minister admit that he messed this up?
Mr. Speaker, hundreds of people across Atlantic Canada have been coming out to town halls and public consultations because they are legitimately concerned about the Prime Minister's own proposals. They know this is going to have such a negative impact, because so many of them are local business owners. These use these measures legitimately to pass on the family farm or the fishing boat.Today, all four Atlantic opposition leaders are denouncing the Prime Minister's plan, because they know that under his administration, middle-class Canadians are paying more. It is even worse in Atlantic Canada, where provincial Liberal taxes are already killing jobs and opportunities.Will the Prime Minister finally listen to his Atlantic Canadian friends, and even his own caucus, and cancel these unfair tax hikes?
Mr. Speaker, does the Prime Minister really want us to look at the promises he has made? Let us look at another one of his promises. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered the Prime Minister three times to put an end to the racial discrimination against first nations children.Rather than comply, the Prime Minister insists on fighting indigenous children.Why is the Prime Minister so determined to perpetuate his government's discrimination against first nations children?
Mr. Speaker, here is another question on the Liberals' wastage of hard-earned tax dollars in trying to cover up political problems. There was $10 million in an attempted secret payoff to Omar Khadr, millions to fight indigenous children and women in court, and almost half a million dollars to a defeated Liberal candidate for a PR campaign to fight a tribunal ruling in favour of indigenous children.Why is the Prime Minister robbing the middle class to pay for Liberal profligacy?
Mr. Speaker, one should not be able to stand in the House and just make things up.
Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate all members of the House from all parties who came together to make sure that this monument got built. This is an important commemoration of the six million Jewish men, women, and children, as well as the five million other victims, who were murdered during the Holocaust.It will recognize those who survived, many of whom made their way to countries around the world, including Canada, and it will stand as a reminder of the dangers of hatred, racism, and intolerance, while affirming respect for human rights, dignity, and resilience.With this monument, we all stand together and say solemnly Never again.
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is raising taxes on the middle class. He has cancelled popular tax credits, everything from public transit to children's activities. He is threatening a carbon tax that will raise the cost of everything. Now, on top of payroll taxes that will make it harder for businesses to hire and expand, he is threatening them with a cash grab, but protecting family fortunes like his own and the Minister of Finance's.That is not fair. Nobody voted for that in the last election.When will the Prime Minister finally listen to all those who create jobs in our communities, and stop his unfair tax grab?
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has gone across the country accusing our small businesses of avoiding paying their fair share, attacking them as wealthy cheats. Those are the words of the Prime Minister. Now he wants us to cry crocodile tears for him because people are asking questions about the bills that he is going to have to pay under these proposals.Under the proposals, a small business owner will pay as much as 73% of his passive income, whereas the Prime Minister will pay almost one-third less on his public pension. How is that fair?
Mr. Speaker, there it is. The Liberal government will actually be increasing greenhouse gas emissions.The Prime Minister is fond of lecturing everyone else, but he is the process of following Stephen Harper's plan, on Stephen Harper's timeline, using Stephen Harper's targets. However, he will never be able to meet them, because he has no plan for reducing greenhouse gases. If we do not reduce greenhouse gases, anything else we do will be pointless.When is the Prime Minister going to be able to look Canadians in the eye and say, Yes, we are going to reduce GHGs in this country?That is the question. He needs to stop dodging.
Mr. Speaker, I understand the member opposite's outrage at the settlement in the Omar Khadr case. I understand Canadians' outrage. I understand how angry I am that we had to settle that. The fact is that we should all be outraged, and remain outraged, that Canadian governments violated a Canadian's fundamental rights. If we stay angry enough for long enough, maybe no future government will ever violate a Canadian's fundamental rights that way again.
Mr. Speaker, what we see from these Conservatives are the politics of fear, anxiety, insecurity, and scaremongering. We stand here to commit to Canadians that we will support the middle class and those working hard to join it, that hard-working small business owners will get benefits, and that the wealthiest will pay their fair share. That is what Canadians asked us to do. That is what we are staying focused on, despite the tactics of the opposition.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians watch these Conservatives stay focused on me, while I stay focused on Canadians. We are focused on small business owners who need help.
Mr. Speaker, these Conservatives will always call out rank hypocrisy when we see it. We know that under the current Liberal government, the middle class is paying higher taxes. Farmers, tradespeople, and small business owners across Canada are worried, and crippling new tax proposals from the government could see them paying even more. They pay more while the Prime Minister, the finance minister, and their family fortunes will remain untouched. Why should hard-working farm families see their taxes increase, when the wealthy elites, like this Prime Minister, will continue to have their family fortunes sheltered?
Mr. Speaker, the reality is that 81% of middle class families pay more taxes today than they did under the previous Conservative government. Now the Prime Minister is directly attacking our local businesses. His tax reform will destroy jobs across Canada by taking more money from small businesses and the middle class.Is the new slogan of the Liberal Party and the Prime Minister, who will not even be affected by his own tax reform, do as I say, not as I do?
Mr. Speaker, thousands of Canadians are worried about their jobs. Yesterday, we had a reality check with the Trump administration in Washington when it imposed ridiculously high tariffs on Bombardier, but it is not just the employees of Bombardier who are worried. Across Canada, companies that are part of its supply chain have every reason to be concerned. What concrete action will the Prime Minister take to save those Canadian jobs?
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives cannot help themselves, they keep talking about me. I am going to stay focused on Canadians. I am going to stay focused on the fact that 80% of the money in passive investment in private corporations across this country is held by less than 2% of those private corporations.We know, Canadians all know, that the system gives advantages to wealthy Canadians. It encourages wealthy Canadians to use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is not fair, and that is what we are staying focused on.
Mr. Speaker, 100 years ago, the wartime government of Robert Laird Borden introduced an income tax. Believe it or not, Liberals actually opposed the new taxbut wait: Liberals opposed the new income tax because it was not high enough.The Liberal whip of the day said that it would be a mere flea-bite, and complained that the new tax does not take from men enough to make it hurt.I give them full marks for consistency, but after 100 years of Liberals continually pressing to raise taxes, is it not time to stop making it hurt so much?
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to inform the House that our Minister of Foreign Affairs brought up this issue directly with trade representative Lighthizer today during the NAFTA negotiations. We will continue to stand up for Canadian jobs every step of the way, defend our workers in the aerospace industry in Quebec, and right across the country. We know the punitive actions taken by Boeing are completely unfounded and without merit. We continue to stand by the Canadian aerospace industry, and we will fight for it every step of the way.
Mr. Speaker, the government House leader said this about the about the Liberal tax hikes: The longer we're talking about this, the more people are concerned that they will be impacted, which is really raising a fear. Well, she is right. Entrepreneurs, small business owners, farmers, and their employees are worried sick about the impact of these Liberal tax changes. Here is the real slap in the face: these tax changes will have no impact on wealthy investments like those of the Prime Minister's.Why are the Prime Minister's investments and business revenues untouched by these tax changes?
Mr. Speaker, it is always a question whether the Conservatives actually believe what they are saying or they just choose to make it up as they go along, because the numbers they put forward have absolutely no basis in reality. We are focused on the fact that the system we inherited from the Conservatives encourages wealthy Canadians to use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians, and that is not fair. We are going to fix that because that is what Canadians expect of this government. That is what we are going to stay focused on.
Mr. Speaker, at yesterday's meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, experts confirmed that the Prime Minister's plan to raise taxes on local businesses is going to hurt the middle class. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has admitted that his own family fortune will not be touched by these tax hikes. It is hardly surprising that small business owners are up in arms.When is the Prime Minister going to stop taking money away from local business owners and start listening to them instead?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians expect quality service from Canada Post, and that is what we have promised to deliver. We all know the world is changing. We placed a moratorium on new community mailboxes. We recognize the need for more conversations about how best to serve Canadians and to ensure that Canada Post is meeting our expectations and fulfilling our responsibilities. We are working very hard on that.
Watching the government deal with Trump is like watching Bambi deal with Godzilla, Mr. Speaker. It is not an even fight.Is that the Prime Minister's answer? Tens of thousands of jobs across the country are in jeopardy.When will the Prime Minister finally stand up and fight for aerospace jobs here in Canada?
Mr. Speaker, yesterday tax experts confirmed that the Prime Minister's unfair tax hikes would include terrible disincentives that will stall innovation and hurt the middle class. They also condemned the Liberals' negative tone and offensive branding of business owners as tax cheats, and even the Liberal member for Edmonton Centre agrees with that one.Will the Prime Minister listen to entrepreneurs, experts, and even his own caucus members, apologize to business owners, and stop this unfair tax grab?
Mr. Speaker, here is the reality. The Prime Minister promised a nation-to-nation relationship and to stop taking first nations children to court. Rather than comply with the Human Rights Tribunal's three separate rulings, two years into his mandate he is still spending millions of dollars to fight first nations children in court. That is the reality.What those children want to know is this: why is the Prime Minister still fighting them in court?
It is not just us who are upset, Mr. Speaker. We are here as the voice of the millions of Canadians who are going to be hurt by his tax cuts. The Conservative record on this is clear. Even the parliamentary budget officer agreed that Conservative changes have been more progressive overall, and that under the Conservative government, low and middle income earners have benefited more, in relative terms, than higher income earners. Let us talk about the wealthy. The Prime Minister spent Monday with a Chinese billionaire, and last week he met for the third time with the CEO of BlackRock. Why does the Prime Minister love spending so much time with his billionaire friends, but then he locks the door on hard-working middle-class Canadians?
Mr. Speaker, we stand up every day to defend jobs here in Canada, and we will continue to do so.In our dealings with the U.S. and countries around the world, we know that standing up for workers' interests and for the Canadian economy's ability to be innovative and grow is essential for the future success of Canada and the world.We will continue to defend aerospace jobs across Canada, and we will continue to stand against the irresponsible actions of Boeing and the U.S.
Mr. Speaker, here is what the Liberal platform promised: an overdue and wide-ranging review of the over $100 billion in increasingly complex tax expenditures that now exist. That is precisely what we in the NDP are calling for, to widen the consultations and go after tax havens and stock option loopholes like the Liberals promised, but the government refuses. The Minister of Finance said that that issue is not something that we've backed away from. It's just not something we've moved forward on.Will the Liberals respect their own platform and finally go after tax scams for the rich?
Mr. Speaker, close to half a million dollars is an extraordinary amount of money for what appears to be a public relations exercise. That is what Cindy Blackstock said when trying to understand the payment of $500,000 to a failed Liberal candidate and Liberal Party donor for eight months of work. The Prime Minister rewarded his entitled friend with a gold-plated contract, while indigenous children continue to go without needed care.Will the Prime Minister admit that $500,000 would have been better spent directly on the needs of Canada's indigenous children, rather than going into the pocket of a Liberal insider?
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government paid $437,000 to former Liberal candidate Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux for only a few months of work. This former Liberal candidate is very unapologetic with regard to this gesture. However, Cindy Blackstock described this half-million-dollar cash grab as nothing more than a public relations exercise. There appears to be a discrepancy in viewpoints here. Does the Prime Minister agree with his former candidate or with Cindy Blackstock?
Mr. Speaker, there is a pattern with the Prime Minister talking about himself. He takes away child care benefits from families across Canada saying wealthy families like his do not need help with their child care. Then, he gets two full-time nannies paid for by, guess who, the taxpayer. He then says the rich should pay more, and he taxes all of our local businesses while his investment is protected.Why is the Prime Minister always creating policy that protects him, and making hard-working Canadians pay his bills?
Mr. Speaker, we have significantly increased support to first nations education and to young indigenous people in difficult situations, but we know there is a lot more work to do. That is why we have taken the historic, concrete step toward moving beyond the Indian Act once and for all by separating Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada into two distinct departments, one for the nation-to-nation relationships and the other for indigenous service delivery. This is a meaningful, concrete step that is going to make a real impact in the lives and the future of millions of Canadians across this country.
Mr. Speaker, for 10 years the Conservative government tried to create economic growth by giving tax breaks to the wealthy, but that did not work. That is why Canadians asked our government to fix the system, to make it fairer and more equitable, by raising taxes on the wealthy and lowering them on the middle class. We will always support the middle class. We will always support our small businesses, but we want our system to be fair. That is why we are asking the wealthy to pay more.
Mr. Speaker, the issue is not with people not following the rules, because people are following the rules. The problem is that the rules favour wealthier Canadians over the middle class. Those are the rules we inherited from the Conservatives, and that is part of why Canadians chose this party, this government to make those changes to the system. The first thing we did was lower taxes on the middle class and raise them on the wealthiest 1%. We then delivered a Canada child benefit that would help nine out of 10 Canadian families with the high cost of raising their kids by not sending those benefits to millionaire families.
Mr. Speaker, if the members opposite want to talk about how Canadian families are doing, they need to acknowledge the Canada child benefit, which the Fraser Institute completely overlooked. The Canada child benefit delivers more money to nine out of 10 Canadian families, and it has been doing so for over a year now. Not only is it lifting hundreds of thousands of kids out of poverty across this country, reducing child poverty by 40%, but it is also creating growth in our economy by putting more money in the pockets of the middle-class families who need it. These are the things we are doing that the Conservatives never did, and that they opposed.
Mr. Speaker, more and more people are standing up against the Liberals' ad hoc tax reform: our local businesses, business associations, chambers of commerce, the provinces, and now even some Liberal members on that side of the House.Will those members across the aisle have the courage to stand up and tell this Prime Minister that enough is enough, that he must not raise taxes on business people, who create jobs for themselves and their employees?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians have seen this movie before. It was the 2015 election campaign when the Conservatives were focused on me and on protecting wealthy Canadians. We were focusing on listening to Canadians and helping the middle class and those working hard to join it.For 10 years that party gave tax breaks and advantages to wealthy Canadians and did not worry about the middle class. We changed that, and we will continue to change that. No matter how much the Conservatives shout, we will keep standing up for the middle class and those working hard to join it.
Mr. Speaker, I was pleased to talk on Monday about the opportunities that small businesses across this country have to sell to the growing market in China. Our government is working hard to be able to ensure that small producers, whether they be ice wines or cherries, lobsters or apparel, be able to pierce the Chinese market, and get good returns for their communities, for their country, and grow the economy. These are the kinds of things we are busy working hard on to benefit directly the middle class, those working hard to join it, workers across this country, and yes, small business owners, who we know are the heart of growth in this country.
Mr. Speaker, these Liberal tax proposals were carefully crafted to protect those who matter most to the Liberals, themselves. Under the current Liberal government, wealthy insiders are always taken care of. The finance minister's billion-dollar family business, Morneau Shepell, is protected. The Prime Minister's family fortune and taxpayer-paid nannies will be sheltered while small businesses are forced to pay more. Can the Prime Minister confirm he will not lose a single cent of his family fortune because of these Liberal tax changes?
Mr. Speaker, the only distortions are the ones brought forward by the member opposite, who is trying to scare small business owners and torque an issue to defend the approach the Conservatives have always taken of benefiting the wealthy and ignoring the hard-working Canadians who will work every day to build this country.We committed to help the middle class and those working hard to join it, and that is what we are doing.I might ask the member opposite why he voted against lowering taxes on the middle class and raising them on the wealthiest 1%. That is something we are proud we did. Unfortunately, the members opposite voted against it.
Mr. Speaker, the member opposite has been listening to the consultations, as we have, and has been talking with Canadians and engaging in a broad range of listening activities with folks. However, it disturbs me that he still thinks that we are applying this to every single small business owner. We are looking at the fact that wealthy individuals use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is not fair.We are going to continue to support small businesses and help middle-class Canadians. It is what we got elected to do. It is what we are going to stay focused on, despite all the fears from the other side.
Mr. Speaker, no one talks a better game than the Prime Minister when it comes to climate change, at the UN and during NAFTA negotiations, name it. The Liberal Party promises that Canada will respect its commitments, but there is a problem. In order to meet our obligations under the Paris accord, our greenhouse gas emissions actually have to start going down at some point. After increasing greenhouse gas emissions during his first two years in office, can the Prime Minister promise Canadians that these will decrease over the next two years, yes or no?
Mr. Speaker, from the Liberal platform, We will make Parliament open by default. We will ensure that access to information applies to the Prime Ministers and Ministers offices. From an audit released today on how open the government truly is, ...even worse than in the latter years of the former Stephen Harper government. Yesterday, the Access to Information Commissioner said she was very disappointed with the government. As a former teacher, what grade would the Prime Minister give his government's performance on access to information?
Mr. Speaker, we are deeply committed to achieving our marine conservation targets. I am pleased to announce in this House today that we are taking one more step toward reaching our goal by creating two marine refuges on the east coast, including one in Miramichi Bay, in my colleague's riding.This is just one more example of our real action to protect our oceans for future generations.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, these Conservatives love to talk about me, but I want to talk about Canadians. I want to talk about those small business owners. I want to talk about hard-working Canadians who did not get a break for 10 years under a Conservative government. We are going to continue to create benefits for the middle class and those working hard to join it, not just because it is the right thing to do but because that is what grows the economy. The Canada child benefit and the tax break for the middle class, these are the things that have led to the economic growth we are seeing now.
Again, Mr. Speaker, we see that the Conservative Party has one approach: personal attacks. We are not going to engage in that. We are going to focus on helping Canadians
Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member wants to talk numbers, then let us be clear. There are 1.8 million private corporations in Canada. Of those 1.8 million, 30,000 hold 80% of the net investment. We think that those 30,000 corporations should pay their share of taxes. That is why we are making the system fairer. We are supporting the middle class, we are supporting small businesses, but we are going to ask the wealthy to pay their fair share.
Mr. Speaker, if he has a problem with our numbers, this is a Prime Minister who said he would raise $3 billion in additional taxes from the wealthy, but just last week his own finance department produced a report showing that revenues from the wealthiest taxpayers actually went down by $1 billion. In a report this week, the Fraser Institute showed that taxes actually went up by $800 for the average middle-class family. Why is everything that should be going down going up, and everything that should be going up going down?
Mr. Speaker, we do not believe in raising taxes on anyone. The member across the way believes in raising them on middle-class small business owners, putting them at a comparative disadvantage versus the wealthiest multinational corporations that trade on Bay Street, companies like Morneau Shepell. Those companies will now be able to outbid our middle-class small business owners and farmers for assets in the marketplace. Why is the Prime Minister creating distortions that favour the wealthiest elite at the expense of the middle class?
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister's speech to the UN General Assembly stressed the humiliation, neglect, and abuse that many indigenous people have suffered as a result of colonialism in Canada. The trauma experienced by those of us who attended residential schools has resulted in transgenerational addiction and mental health issues in Nunavut. These issues have contributed and continue to contribute to a suicide rate in Nunavut that is 10 times the national average. Can the Prime Minister inform the House of the government's plan to address this crisis?
Mr. Speaker, I can understand the NDP members' impatience. They always seem to be impatient about everything. We are working very, very hard to get just that. We have put close to one billion dollars to address tax avoidance and tax evasion by giving the Canada Revenue Agency the tools to be able to counter that. We continue to work hard on making our tax system fairer. That is why we put forward proposals that will ask wealthy Canadians to stop using the advantages that the system currently gives them. That is why we are changing the system. I would love to hear the NDP supporting us in that measure.
Mr. Speaker, over the past two years we have seen, after 10 long years of Conservative governance, positive signs of growth, job creation, and an economy on the upswing. A large part of that is because of the investments we made in our communities, in the middle class, and because we lowered taxes on the middle class and raised them on the wealthiest 1%. We brought in the Canada child benefit, which puts more money in the pockets of those who need it by not sending money to those who do not need it. We continue to be committed to making our tax system fairer for Canadians. That is exactly what we are doing with the recent measures we are discussing.
Mr. Speaker, we are happy to engage in ongoing consultations with Canadians on the details of how to move forward in the best way so that we make the tax system fairer. However, at the core of this government is a promise to support the middle class and those working hard to join it, and to help small businesses succeed in an increasingly disruptive globalized world. We are focused on helping Canadians, because for 10 years that government focused on the wealthiest.
Mr. Speaker, we all know that our oceans are absolutely essential to our planet's health.As Canadians, we are all connected to our oceans, which are significant to our heritage, our culture, and of course our economy. Canada is committed to protecting 5% of our marine and coastal areas by the end of this year, and 10% by 2020.Can the Prime Minister update this House on the government's progress toward these targets?
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. It is standard practice that whenever members make reference to government documents in the House of Commons, they table them. Earlier on during the debate, I made reference to the Annual Financial Report of the Government of Canada, which showed that the wealthiest Canadians paid less tax in the government's first full fiscal year in office, revenues from that group falling by roughly $1 billion. I quoted directly from page 16 of that document.The Prime Minister said that was all false. I am here today to table the document in question, and trust I will have unanimous and enthusiastic consent from the government.
Mr. Speaker, no relationship is more important to this government than our relationship with first nations and indigenous people. That is why we allocated an unprecedented $8.4 billion in our first year and $5 billion the following year to provide services to indigenous youth and to address the completely unacceptable gaps in these services.We know that there is a lot of work to do, and we will keep on doing it. Our new Minister of Indigenous Services has my full confidence; she will continue to keep that long-awaited promise and give our indigenous youth a better future.
Actually, I did not vote against that, Mr. Speaker; I voted against a plan that has seen the wealthiest Canadians pay less and the average middle-class Canadian pay $800 more.What I voted in favour of was the previous government's plan to lift a million people off the tax rolls altogether and to reduce the tax rate on people earning $30,000 a year by 80%. That is what I voted for.The Prime Minister is imposing a plan that will apply to every single person who owns a private business, including those with low income. It does not apply to the wealthiest shareholders, including those in his cabinet. Why not?
Mr. Speaker, can the Prime Minister please point to the section or the clause in his proposed legislation, or the sentence in his consultation paper, in which it clearly states that no one earning less than $150,000 a year will pay any of these new taxes?
Mr. Speaker, my constituents understand the importance of having sound evidence on which to base our decisions, the decisions that will affect the health and safety of Canadians. Our government was elected on a promise to restore evidence-based decision-making, beginning with the appointment of a chief science advisor, a position abolished by the previous government. Could the Prime Minister update the House on the important developments with this position?
Mr. Speaker, we are proud that Canada has competitive corporate tax rates. Indeed, it is part of our advantage. If the members opposite want to propose to raise corporate tax rates, they can do so in their next election platform. Until that time, we will continue to focus on growing the economy, supporting small businesses, and helping the middle class and those working hard to join it. That is what Canadians asked us to do. That is what we are going to continue to do.
Mr. Speaker, the World Anti-Doping Agency is located in Montreal. It is a very important organization, given its mission. Not only does it create good jobs in Montreal, but it also enhances its reputation on the world stage. Could the member for Papineau, the Prime Minister, please tell the House and Canadians about what the government has done to ensure that this agency stays in Montreal well into the future?
Mr. Speaker, if I were defending that plan, I think I might just sit down and be quiet as well. This is a plan that would impose a double tax on the passive savings that small business owners use to fund their retirement. That tax can reach as high as 73%. That double tax would not apply to the millionaire owners of multinational companies trading on Bay Street. Why not?
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister himself made a campaign promise to restore home mail delivery to those who lost it. Ten months ago, the House of Commons committee that includes a number of his MPs recommended restoring the service, but since then it has been radio silence from his government.Why will the Prime Minister not just admit that he broke his promise to restore home mail delivery?
Mr. Speaker, in 2015, Canadian companies hid nearly $40 billion in tax havens, which cost Canadian taxpayers between $5 billion and $8 billion in unpaid taxes. The Liberals claim to want a tax system in which everyone pays their fair share.When are they going to crack down on companies that take advantage of tax havens?
Mr. Speaker, we are enhancing government openness and transparency by bringing in the most significant changes to the Access to Information Act since 1983.We are empowering the Information Commissioner to order government information to be released. We are expanding the act to include a system of legislated proactive disclosure for ministers' offices, the Prime Minister's Office, and others. We are making key information, such as question period notes and briefing books for new ministers, available to all Canadians without anyone having to make an access to information request. When it comes to openness and transparency, we
Mr. Speaker, we are going to stay focused on what Canadians asked us to do: fix the system, so it is fairer; make the changes to the system that the Conservatives refused to make; and help the middle class and those working hard to join it. That is our focus. We are going to be supporting small businesses. We are going to be supporting hard-working Canadians. Let the Conservatives continue to fight for wealthy Canadians. We know that we grow the economy from the centre out.
Mr. Speaker, this government is always proud to stand up for, and stand with, our friends from Atlantic Canada.We know that creating economic growth and boosting small businesses that create economic opportunity across Atlantic Canada is a priority that this government shares with all Atlantic Canadians.That is why we are moving forward to make our tax system fairer. It is so that we can support small businesses as they work hard to grow our economy right across the country, and we can make sure that everyone pays their fair share of taxes.
Mr. Speaker, what Canadians understand is that in order to grow a strong economy we need to protect the environment, and in order to protect the environment we need to grow the economy. We need to do them both together.Members on the opposite side of the House have picked one or the other. They do not understand that we need to do them both together. That is why at the same time we are moving forward on an economic plan that creates good jobs and gets our resources to new markets, we are bringing in a national carbon pricing framework. We are creating a world-class oceans protections plan. We are incentivizing the creation of renewable energy
Mr. Speaker, nobody saw their child care benefit increase more than the Prime Minister, who now has two taxpayer funded nannies, despite the fact that he has a massive, multi-million dollar family fortune. A small business person earning just $50,000 a year would, under the proposed plan, pay a tax rate of 60% on his passive income. The Prime Minister would pay 53% on his passive income. Why is a small business person paying so much more than this millionaire Prime Minister?
Mr. Speaker, we are committed to a renewed nation-to-nation relationship and to closing the gap in health and mental wellness outcomes for first nations and Inuit peoples. We are investing more than $300 million each year in community programming to help address the mental wellness needs of first nations and Inuit populations. Budget 2017 also included $118.2 million over five years to supplement existing mental health programming for first nations and Inuit. There remains much more to do, but we are committed to supporting local communities in a true Inuit-to-crown relationship.
Mr. Speaker, this government takes tax evasion and tax avoidance very seriously. In the past two budgets, we invested nearly $1 billion to help the Canada Revenue Agency counter tax evasion and tax avoidance.We recognize that there is still work to be done, but we are working on it. We take this very seriously. Like all Canadians, we want our tax system to be fair and equitable for everyone.
Mr. Speaker, once again, the New Democrats think we are doing too much to create economic growth, and the Conservatives think we are doing too much to protect the environment.We are moving forward with a responsible plan that acknowledges our commitments under the Paris agreement as well as our responsibilities towards our children's future, and we are protecting the environment in a responsible way by creating the jobs of the future.That is what Canadians expect, and that is what we are always going to do.
Mr. Speaker, we are listening to small businesses and to Canadians. They tell us that they want our tax system to be fair and equitable. It is not fair that wealthy Canadians are able to incorporate so they can pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is why we made a commitment during the election campaign to raise taxes for the wealthy, cut taxes for middle-class Canadians, and help the middle class, including small businesses, succeed in our economy.
Mr. Speaker, I believe you will find unanimous consent for me to move the following motion: That the House acknowledge the importance of the aerospace industry and the fact that Bombardier is a major employer in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada, as well as reiterate the importance of standing up to protect the industry and jobs against Boeings unjustified complaint and the United States governments preliminary decision.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I was proud and delighted to announce, along with the Minister of Science, Canada's new chief science advisor, Dr. Mona Nemer. Dr. Nemer is a distinguished Canadian health researcher and a leading academic executive at the University of Ottawa. As chief science advisor, she will provide impartial scientific advice to me and the Minister of Science so we can make better decisions, based on evidence, on health and environmental issues that affect all Canadians.
Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to completely overhauling child and family services in full partnership with first nations communities. The minister's special representative has met with over 26 chiefs, experts, officials, advocates, and individuals with lived experience from coast to coast to coast to inform our commitment to first nations child welfare reform.We look forward to receiving her report and recommendations on how we can transform the system to better support and reflect the needs of first nations children and put their well-being first.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Bourassa for his question. The World Anti-Doping Agency is an important organization for Montreal, Quebec and all of Canada. The Minister of Transportation, the Minister of Global Affairs, the Minister ofInnovation, Science and Economic Development, as well as the Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, along with the Government of Quebec and the City of Montreal, are working hard to ensure the agency keeps its headquarters in Montreal. There is still work to do, but I am pleased to hear that the agency's executive committee is in negotiations to keep its headquarters in Montreal after 2021 for another 10 years.
Mr. Speaker, so many families in Atlantic Canada rely on local businesses
Mr. Speaker, we continue to raise the bar on openness and transparency by bringing forward the most significant changes to access to information since 1983. We are empowering the Information Commissioner to order information to be released. We are expanding the act to include a system of legislative proactive disclosure for ministers' offices, the Prime Minister's Office, administration institutions that support Parliament, and others. We have committed to making Parliament more open, accountable, and accessible to Canadians, and that is exactly what we are doing.
Mr. Speaker, moving forward with a nation-to-nation relationship in the spirit of reconciliation means consulting. It means listening to the affected people to understand how best to move forward. That is why the special representative has met with 26 chiefs, experts, officials, advocates, and individuals with extraordinary lived experiences from coast to coast to coast to inform how we are moving forward on completely renewing child and family services for first nations communities.
Mr. Speaker
Mr. Speaker, approximately six million Jews perished at the hands of the Nazis during the Second World War. It was an incredibly dark moment in human history, and serves as a reminder to all Canadians that we must continue to fight anti-Semitism wherever we find it.Many are persecuted here and around the world for simply being a Jew. I trust all members agree that we must all stay vigilant to protect their fundamental human rights.Today I will be joining the Prime Minister at the dedication of Canada's national Holocaust memorial. Could the Prime Minister inform the House about the importance of working together on this issue, and will he join me in congratulating all those who helped make the dream of a memorial a reality?
Mr. Speaker, just a quarter of the requests were answered within the normal 30-day time limit, and a third of all the requests included in the audit received no response. When journalists do get answers, the documents are totally redacted, pages and pages of black ink.Open by default is what we were promised. Will the Prime Minister admit that he messed this up?
Mr. Speaker, hundreds of people across Atlantic Canada have been coming out to town halls and public consultations because they are legitimately concerned about the Prime Minister's own proposals. They know this is going to have such a negative impact, because so many of them are local business owners. These use these measures legitimately to pass on the family farm or the fishing boat.Today, all four Atlantic opposition leaders are denouncing the Prime Minister's plan, because they know that under his administration, middle-class Canadians are paying more. It is even worse in Atlantic Canada, where provincial Liberal taxes are already killing jobs and opportunities.Will the Prime Minister finally listen to his Atlantic Canadian friends, and even his own caucus, and cancel these unfair tax hikes?
Mr. Speaker, does the Prime Minister really want us to look at the promises he has made? Let us look at another one of his promises. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered the Prime Minister three times to put an end to the racial discrimination against first nations children.Rather than comply, the Prime Minister insists on fighting indigenous children.Why is the Prime Minister so determined to perpetuate his government's discrimination against first nations children?
Mr. Speaker, here is another question on the Liberals' wastage of hard-earned tax dollars in trying to cover up political problems. There was $10 million in an attempted secret payoff to Omar Khadr, millions to fight indigenous children and women in court, and almost half a million dollars to a defeated Liberal candidate for a PR campaign to fight a tribunal ruling in favour of indigenous children.Why is the Prime Minister robbing the middle class to pay for Liberal profligacy?
Mr. Speaker, one should not be able to stand in the House and just make things up.
Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate all members of the House from all parties who came together to make sure that this monument got built. This is an important commemoration of the six million Jewish men, women, and children, as well as the five million other victims, who were murdered during the Holocaust.It will recognize those who survived, many of whom made their way to countries around the world, including Canada, and it will stand as a reminder of the dangers of hatred, racism, and intolerance, while affirming respect for human rights, dignity, and resilience.With this monument, we all stand together and say solemnly Never again.
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is raising taxes on the middle class. He has cancelled popular tax credits, everything from public transit to children's activities. He is threatening a carbon tax that will raise the cost of everything. Now, on top of payroll taxes that will make it harder for businesses to hire and expand, he is threatening them with a cash grab, but protecting family fortunes like his own and the Minister of Finance's.That is not fair. Nobody voted for that in the last election.When will the Prime Minister finally listen to all those who create jobs in our communities, and stop his unfair tax grab?
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has gone across the country accusing our small businesses of avoiding paying their fair share, attacking them as wealthy cheats. Those are the words of the Prime Minister. Now he wants us to cry crocodile tears for him because people are asking questions about the bills that he is going to have to pay under these proposals.Under the proposals, a small business owner will pay as much as 73% of his passive income, whereas the Prime Minister will pay almost one-third less on his public pension. How is that fair?
Mr. Speaker, there it is. The Liberal government will actually be increasing greenhouse gas emissions.The Prime Minister is fond of lecturing everyone else, but he is the process of following Stephen Harper's plan, on Stephen Harper's timeline, using Stephen Harper's targets. However, he will never be able to meet them, because he has no plan for reducing greenhouse gases. If we do not reduce greenhouse gases, anything else we do will be pointless.When is the Prime Minister going to be able to look Canadians in the eye and say, Yes, we are going to reduce GHGs in this country?That is the question. He needs to stop dodging.
Mr. Speaker, I understand the member opposite's outrage at the settlement in the Omar Khadr case. I understand Canadians' outrage. I understand how angry I am that we had to settle that. The fact is that we should all be outraged, and remain outraged, that Canadian governments violated a Canadian's fundamental rights. If we stay angry enough for long enough, maybe no future government will ever violate a Canadian's fundamental rights that way again.
Mr. Speaker, what we see from these Conservatives are the politics of fear, anxiety, insecurity, and scaremongering. We stand here to commit to Canadians that we will support the middle class and those working hard to join it, that hard-working small business owners will get benefits, and that the wealthiest will pay their fair share. That is what Canadians asked us to do. That is what we are staying focused on, despite the tactics of the opposition.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians watch these Conservatives stay focused on me, while I stay focused on Canadians. We are focused on small business owners who need help.
Mr. Speaker, these Conservatives will always call out rank hypocrisy when we see it. We know that under the current Liberal government, the middle class is paying higher taxes. Farmers, tradespeople, and small business owners across Canada are worried, and crippling new tax proposals from the government could see them paying even more. They pay more while the Prime Minister, the finance minister, and their family fortunes will remain untouched. Why should hard-working farm families see their taxes increase, when the wealthy elites, like this Prime Minister, will continue to have their family fortunes sheltered?
Mr. Speaker, the reality is that 81% of middle class families pay more taxes today than they did under the previous Conservative government. Now the Prime Minister is directly attacking our local businesses. His tax reform will destroy jobs across Canada by taking more money from small businesses and the middle class.Is the new slogan of the Liberal Party and the Prime Minister, who will not even be affected by his own tax reform, do as I say, not as I do?
Mr. Speaker, thousands of Canadians are worried about their jobs. Yesterday, we had a reality check with the Trump administration in Washington when it imposed ridiculously high tariffs on Bombardier, but it is not just the employees of Bombardier who are worried. Across Canada, companies that are part of its supply chain have every reason to be concerned. What concrete action will the Prime Minister take to save those Canadian jobs?
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives cannot help themselves, they keep talking about me. I am going to stay focused on Canadians. I am going to stay focused on the fact that 80% of the money in passive investment in private corporations across this country is held by less than 2% of those private corporations.We know, Canadians all know, that the system gives advantages to wealthy Canadians. It encourages wealthy Canadians to use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is not fair, and that is what we are staying focused on.
Mr. Speaker, 100 years ago, the wartime government of Robert Laird Borden introduced an income tax. Believe it or not, Liberals actually opposed the new taxbut wait: Liberals opposed the new income tax because it was not high enough.The Liberal whip of the day said that it would be a mere flea-bite, and complained that the new tax does not take from men enough to make it hurt.I give them full marks for consistency, but after 100 years of Liberals continually pressing to raise taxes, is it not time to stop making it hurt so much?
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to inform the House that our Minister of Foreign Affairs brought up this issue directly with trade representative Lighthizer today during the NAFTA negotiations. We will continue to stand up for Canadian jobs every step of the way, defend our workers in the aerospace industry in Quebec, and right across the country. We know the punitive actions taken by Boeing are completely unfounded and without merit. We continue to stand by the Canadian aerospace industry, and we will fight for it every step of the way.
Mr. Speaker, the government House leader said this about the about the Liberal tax hikes: The longer we're talking about this, the more people are concerned that they will be impacted, which is really raising a fear. Well, she is right. Entrepreneurs, small business owners, farmers, and their employees are worried sick about the impact of these Liberal tax changes. Here is the real slap in the face: these tax changes will have no impact on wealthy investments like those of the Prime Minister's.Why are the Prime Minister's investments and business revenues untouched by these tax changes?
Mr. Speaker, it is always a question whether the Conservatives actually believe what they are saying or they just choose to make it up as they go along, because the numbers they put forward have absolutely no basis in reality. We are focused on the fact that the system we inherited from the Conservatives encourages wealthy Canadians to use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians, and that is not fair. We are going to fix that because that is what Canadians expect of this government. That is what we are going to stay focused on.
Mr. Speaker, at yesterday's meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, experts confirmed that the Prime Minister's plan to raise taxes on local businesses is going to hurt the middle class. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has admitted that his own family fortune will not be touched by these tax hikes. It is hardly surprising that small business owners are up in arms.When is the Prime Minister going to stop taking money away from local business owners and start listening to them instead?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians expect quality service from Canada Post, and that is what we have promised to deliver. We all know the world is changing. We placed a moratorium on new community mailboxes. We recognize the need for more conversations about how best to serve Canadians and to ensure that Canada Post is meeting our expectations and fulfilling our responsibilities. We are working very hard on that.
Watching the government deal with Trump is like watching Bambi deal with Godzilla, Mr. Speaker. It is not an even fight.Is that the Prime Minister's answer? Tens of thousands of jobs across the country are in jeopardy.When will the Prime Minister finally stand up and fight for aerospace jobs here in Canada?
Mr. Speaker, yesterday tax experts confirmed that the Prime Minister's unfair tax hikes would include terrible disincentives that will stall innovation and hurt the middle class. They also condemned the Liberals' negative tone and offensive branding of business owners as tax cheats, and even the Liberal member for Edmonton Centre agrees with that one.Will the Prime Minister listen to entrepreneurs, experts, and even his own caucus members, apologize to business owners, and stop this unfair tax grab?
Mr. Speaker, here is the reality. The Prime Minister promised a nation-to-nation relationship and to stop taking first nations children to court. Rather than comply with the Human Rights Tribunal's three separate rulings, two years into his mandate he is still spending millions of dollars to fight first nations children in court. That is the reality.What those children want to know is this: why is the Prime Minister still fighting them in court?
It is not just us who are upset, Mr. Speaker. We are here as the voice of the millions of Canadians who are going to be hurt by his tax cuts. The Conservative record on this is clear. Even the parliamentary budget officer agreed that Conservative changes have been more progressive overall, and that under the Conservative government, low and middle income earners have benefited more, in relative terms, than higher income earners. Let us talk about the wealthy. The Prime Minister spent Monday with a Chinese billionaire, and last week he met for the third time with the CEO of BlackRock. Why does the Prime Minister love spending so much time with his billionaire friends, but then he locks the door on hard-working middle-class Canadians?
Mr. Speaker, we stand up every day to defend jobs here in Canada, and we will continue to do so.In our dealings with the U.S. and countries around the world, we know that standing up for workers' interests and for the Canadian economy's ability to be innovative and grow is essential for the future success of Canada and the world.We will continue to defend aerospace jobs across Canada, and we will continue to stand against the irresponsible actions of Boeing and the U.S.
Mr. Speaker, here is what the Liberal platform promised: an overdue and wide-ranging review of the over $100 billion in increasingly complex tax expenditures that now exist. That is precisely what we in the NDP are calling for, to widen the consultations and go after tax havens and stock option loopholes like the Liberals promised, but the government refuses. The Minister of Finance said that that issue is not something that we've backed away from. It's just not something we've moved forward on.Will the Liberals respect their own platform and finally go after tax scams for the rich?
Mr. Speaker, close to half a million dollars is an extraordinary amount of money for what appears to be a public relations exercise. That is what Cindy Blackstock said when trying to understand the payment of $500,000 to a failed Liberal candidate and Liberal Party donor for eight months of work. The Prime Minister rewarded his entitled friend with a gold-plated contract, while indigenous children continue to go without needed care.Will the Prime Minister admit that $500,000 would have been better spent directly on the needs of Canada's indigenous children, rather than going into the pocket of a Liberal insider?
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government paid $437,000 to former Liberal candidate Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux for only a few months of work. This former Liberal candidate is very unapologetic with regard to this gesture. However, Cindy Blackstock described this half-million-dollar cash grab as nothing more than a public relations exercise. There appears to be a discrepancy in viewpoints here. Does the Prime Minister agree with his former candidate or with Cindy Blackstock?
Mr. Speaker, there is a pattern with the Prime Minister talking about himself. He takes away child care benefits from families across Canada saying wealthy families like his do not need help with their child care. Then, he gets two full-time nannies paid for by, guess who, the taxpayer. He then says the rich should pay more, and he taxes all of our local businesses while his investment is protected.Why is the Prime Minister always creating policy that protects him, and making hard-working Canadians pay his bills?
Mr. Speaker, we have significantly increased support to first nations education and to young indigenous people in difficult situations, but we know there is a lot more work to do. That is why we have taken the historic, concrete step toward moving beyond the Indian Act once and for all by separating Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada into two distinct departments, one for the nation-to-nation relationships and the other for indigenous service delivery. This is a meaningful, concrete step that is going to make a real impact in the lives and the future of millions of Canadians across this country.
Mr. Speaker, for 10 years the Conservative government tried to create economic growth by giving tax breaks to the wealthy, but that did not work. That is why Canadians asked our government to fix the system, to make it fairer and more equitable, by raising taxes on the wealthy and lowering them on the middle class. We will always support the middle class. We will always support our small businesses, but we want our system to be fair. That is why we are asking the wealthy to pay more.
Mr. Speaker, the issue is not with people not following the rules, because people are following the rules. The problem is that the rules favour wealthier Canadians over the middle class. Those are the rules we inherited from the Conservatives, and that is part of why Canadians chose this party, this government to make those changes to the system. The first thing we did was lower taxes on the middle class and raise them on the wealthiest 1%. We then delivered a Canada child benefit that would help nine out of 10 Canadian families with the high cost of raising their kids by not sending those benefits to millionaire families.
Mr. Speaker, if the members opposite want to talk about how Canadian families are doing, they need to acknowledge the Canada child benefit, which the Fraser Institute completely overlooked. The Canada child benefit delivers more money to nine out of 10 Canadian families, and it has been doing so for over a year now. Not only is it lifting hundreds of thousands of kids out of poverty across this country, reducing child poverty by 40%, but it is also creating growth in our economy by putting more money in the pockets of the middle-class families who need it. These are the things we are doing that the Conservatives never did, and that they opposed.
Mr. Speaker, more and more people are standing up against the Liberals' ad hoc tax reform: our local businesses, business associations, chambers of commerce, the provinces, and now even some Liberal members on that side of the House.Will those members across the aisle have the courage to stand up and tell this Prime Minister that enough is enough, that he must not raise taxes on business people, who create jobs for themselves and their employees?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians have seen this movie before. It was the 2015 election campaign when the Conservatives were focused on me and on protecting wealthy Canadians. We were focusing on listening to Canadians and helping the middle class and those working hard to join it.For 10 years that party gave tax breaks and advantages to wealthy Canadians and did not worry about the middle class. We changed that, and we will continue to change that. No matter how much the Conservatives shout, we will keep standing up for the middle class and those working hard to join it.
Mr. Speaker, I was pleased to talk on Monday about the opportunities that small businesses across this country have to sell to the growing market in China. Our government is working hard to be able to ensure that small producers, whether they be ice wines or cherries, lobsters or apparel, be able to pierce the Chinese market, and get good returns for their communities, for their country, and grow the economy. These are the kinds of things we are busy working hard on to benefit directly the middle class, those working hard to join it, workers across this country, and yes, small business owners, who we know are the heart of growth in this country.
Mr. Speaker, these Liberal tax proposals were carefully crafted to protect those who matter most to the Liberals, themselves. Under the current Liberal government, wealthy insiders are always taken care of. The finance minister's billion-dollar family business, Morneau Shepell, is protected. The Prime Minister's family fortune and taxpayer-paid nannies will be sheltered while small businesses are forced to pay more. Can the Prime Minister confirm he will not lose a single cent of his family fortune because of these Liberal tax changes?
Mr. Speaker, the only distortions are the ones brought forward by the member opposite, who is trying to scare small business owners and torque an issue to defend the approach the Conservatives have always taken of benefiting the wealthy and ignoring the hard-working Canadians who will work every day to build this country.We committed to help the middle class and those working hard to join it, and that is what we are doing.I might ask the member opposite why he voted against lowering taxes on the middle class and raising them on the wealthiest 1%. That is something we are proud we did. Unfortunately, the members opposite voted against it.
Mr. Speaker, the member opposite has been listening to the consultations, as we have, and has been talking with Canadians and engaging in a broad range of listening activities with folks. However, it disturbs me that he still thinks that we are applying this to every single small business owner. We are looking at the fact that wealthy individuals use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is not fair.We are going to continue to support small businesses and help middle-class Canadians. It is what we got elected to do. It is what we are going to stay focused on, despite all the fears from the other side.
Mr. Speaker, no one talks a better game than the Prime Minister when it comes to climate change, at the UN and during NAFTA negotiations, name it. The Liberal Party promises that Canada will respect its commitments, but there is a problem. In order to meet our obligations under the Paris accord, our greenhouse gas emissions actually have to start going down at some point. After increasing greenhouse gas emissions during his first two years in office, can the Prime Minister promise Canadians that these will decrease over the next two years, yes or no?
Mr. Speaker, from the Liberal platform, We will make Parliament open by default. We will ensure that access to information applies to the Prime Ministers and Ministers offices. From an audit released today on how open the government truly is, ...even worse than in the latter years of the former Stephen Harper government. Yesterday, the Access to Information Commissioner said she was very disappointed with the government. As a former teacher, what grade would the Prime Minister give his government's performance on access to information?
Mr. Speaker, we are deeply committed to achieving our marine conservation targets. I am pleased to announce in this House today that we are taking one more step toward reaching our goal by creating two marine refuges on the east coast, including one in Miramichi Bay, in my colleague's riding.This is just one more example of our real action to protect our oceans for future generations.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, these Conservatives love to talk about me, but I want to talk about Canadians. I want to talk about those small business owners. I want to talk about hard-working Canadians who did not get a break for 10 years under a Conservative government. We are going to continue to create benefits for the middle class and those working hard to join it, not just because it is the right thing to do but because that is what grows the economy. The Canada child benefit and the tax break for the middle class, these are the things that have led to the economic growth we are seeing now.
Again, Mr. Speaker, we see that the Conservative Party has one approach: personal attacks. We are not going to engage in that. We are going to focus on helping Canadians
Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member wants to talk numbers, then let us be clear. There are 1.8 million private corporations in Canada. Of those 1.8 million, 30,000 hold 80% of the net investment. We think that those 30,000 corporations should pay their share of taxes. That is why we are making the system fairer. We are supporting the middle class, we are supporting small businesses, but we are going to ask the wealthy to pay their fair share.
Mr. Speaker, if he has a problem with our numbers, this is a Prime Minister who said he would raise $3 billion in additional taxes from the wealthy, but just last week his own finance department produced a report showing that revenues from the wealthiest taxpayers actually went down by $1 billion. In a report this week, the Fraser Institute showed that taxes actually went up by $800 for the average middle-class family. Why is everything that should be going down going up, and everything that should be going up going down?
Mr. Speaker, we do not believe in raising taxes on anyone. The member across the way believes in raising them on middle-class small business owners, putting them at a comparative disadvantage versus the wealthiest multinational corporations that trade on Bay Street, companies like Morneau Shepell. Those companies will now be able to outbid our middle-class small business owners and farmers for assets in the marketplace. Why is the Prime Minister creating distortions that favour the wealthiest elite at the expense of the middle class?
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister's speech to the UN General Assembly stressed the humiliation, neglect, and abuse that many indigenous people have suffered as a result of colonialism in Canada. The trauma experienced by those of us who attended residential schools has resulted in transgenerational addiction and mental health issues in Nunavut. These issues have contributed and continue to contribute to a suicide rate in Nunavut that is 10 times the national average. Can the Prime Minister inform the House of the government's plan to address this crisis?
Mr. Speaker, I can understand the NDP members' impatience. They always seem to be impatient about everything. We are working very, very hard to get just that. We have put close to one billion dollars to address tax avoidance and tax evasion by giving the Canada Revenue Agency the tools to be able to counter that. We continue to work hard on making our tax system fairer. That is why we put forward proposals that will ask wealthy Canadians to stop using the advantages that the system currently gives them. That is why we are changing the system. I would love to hear the NDP supporting us in that measure.
Mr. Speaker, over the past two years we have seen, after 10 long years of Conservative governance, positive signs of growth, job creation, and an economy on the upswing. A large part of that is because of the investments we made in our communities, in the middle class, and because we lowered taxes on the middle class and raised them on the wealthiest 1%. We brought in the Canada child benefit, which puts more money in the pockets of those who need it by not sending money to those who do not need it. We continue to be committed to making our tax system fairer for Canadians. That is exactly what we are doing with the recent measures we are discussing.
Mr. Speaker, we are happy to engage in ongoing consultations with Canadians on the details of how to move forward in the best way so that we make the tax system fairer. However, at the core of this government is a promise to support the middle class and those working hard to join it, and to help small businesses succeed in an increasingly disruptive globalized world. We are focused on helping Canadians, because for 10 years that government focused on the wealthiest.
Mr. Speaker, we all know that our oceans are absolutely essential to our planet's health.As Canadians, we are all connected to our oceans, which are significant to our heritage, our culture, and of course our economy. Canada is committed to protecting 5% of our marine and coastal areas by the end of this year, and 10% by 2020.Can the Prime Minister update this House on the government's progress toward these targets?
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. It is standard practice that whenever members make reference to government documents in the House of Commons, they table them. Earlier on during the debate, I made reference to the Annual Financial Report of the Government of Canada, which showed that the wealthiest Canadians paid less tax in the government's first full fiscal year in office, revenues from that group falling by roughly $1 billion. I quoted directly from page 16 of that document.The Prime Minister said that was all false. I am here today to table the document in question, and trust I will have unanimous and enthusiastic consent from the government.
Mr. Speaker, no relationship is more important to this government than our relationship with first nations and indigenous people. That is why we allocated an unprecedented $8.4 billion in our first year and $5 billion the following year to provide services to indigenous youth and to address the completely unacceptable gaps in these services.We know that there is a lot of work to do, and we will keep on doing it. Our new Minister of Indigenous Services has my full confidence; she will continue to keep that long-awaited promise and give our indigenous youth a better future.
Actually, I did not vote against that, Mr. Speaker; I voted against a plan that has seen the wealthiest Canadians pay less and the average middle-class Canadian pay $800 more.What I voted in favour of was the previous government's plan to lift a million people off the tax rolls altogether and to reduce the tax rate on people earning $30,000 a year by 80%. That is what I voted for.The Prime Minister is imposing a plan that will apply to every single person who owns a private business, including those with low income. It does not apply to the wealthiest shareholders, including those in his cabinet. Why not?
Mr. Speaker, can the Prime Minister please point to the section or the clause in his proposed legislation, or the sentence in his consultation paper, in which it clearly states that no one earning less than $150,000 a year will pay any of these new taxes?
Mr. Speaker, my constituents understand the importance of having sound evidence on which to base our decisions, the decisions that will affect the health and safety of Canadians. Our government was elected on a promise to restore evidence-based decision-making, beginning with the appointment of a chief science advisor, a position abolished by the previous government. Could the Prime Minister update the House on the important developments with this position?
Mr. Speaker, we are proud that Canada has competitive corporate tax rates. Indeed, it is part of our advantage. If the members opposite want to propose to raise corporate tax rates, they can do so in their next election platform. Until that time, we will continue to focus on growing the economy, supporting small businesses, and helping the middle class and those working hard to join it. That is what Canadians asked us to do. That is what we are going to continue to do.
Mr. Speaker, the World Anti-Doping Agency is located in Montreal. It is a very important organization, given its mission. Not only does it create good jobs in Montreal, but it also enhances its reputation on the world stage. Could the member for Papineau, the Prime Minister, please tell the House and Canadians about what the government has done to ensure that this agency stays in Montreal well into the future?
Mr. Speaker, if I were defending that plan, I think I might just sit down and be quiet as well. This is a plan that would impose a double tax on the passive savings that small business owners use to fund their retirement. That tax can reach as high as 73%. That double tax would not apply to the millionaire owners of multinational companies trading on Bay Street. Why not?
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister himself made a campaign promise to restore home mail delivery to those who lost it. Ten months ago, the House of Commons committee that includes a number of his MPs recommended restoring the service, but since then it has been radio silence from his government.Why will the Prime Minister not just admit that he broke his promise to restore home mail delivery?
Mr. Speaker, in 2015, Canadian companies hid nearly $40 billion in tax havens, which cost Canadian taxpayers between $5 billion and $8 billion in unpaid taxes. The Liberals claim to want a tax system in which everyone pays their fair share.When are they going to crack down on companies that take advantage of tax havens?
Mr. Speaker, we are enhancing government openness and transparency by bringing in the most significant changes to the Access to Information Act since 1983.We are empowering the Information Commissioner to order government information to be released. We are expanding the act to include a system of legislated proactive disclosure for ministers' offices, the Prime Minister's Office, and others. We are making key information, such as question period notes and briefing books for new ministers, available to all Canadians without anyone having to make an access to information request. When it comes to openness and transparency, we
Mr. Speaker, we are going to stay focused on what Canadians asked us to do: fix the system, so it is fairer; make the changes to the system that the Conservatives refused to make; and help the middle class and those working hard to join it. That is our focus. We are going to be supporting small businesses. We are going to be supporting hard-working Canadians. Let the Conservatives continue to fight for wealthy Canadians. We know that we grow the economy from the centre out.
Mr. Speaker, this government is always proud to stand up for, and stand with, our friends from Atlantic Canada.We know that creating economic growth and boosting small businesses that create economic opportunity across Atlantic Canada is a priority that this government shares with all Atlantic Canadians.That is why we are moving forward to make our tax system fairer. It is so that we can support small businesses as they work hard to grow our economy right across the country, and we can make sure that everyone pays their fair share of taxes.
Mr. Speaker, what Canadians understand is that in order to grow a strong economy we need to protect the environment, and in order to protect the environment we need to grow the economy. We need to do them both together.Members on the opposite side of the House have picked one or the other. They do not understand that we need to do them both together. That is why at the same time we are moving forward on an economic plan that creates good jobs and gets our resources to new markets, we are bringing in a national carbon pricing framework. We are creating a world-class oceans protections plan. We are incentivizing the creation of renewable energy
Mr. Speaker, nobody saw their child care benefit increase more than the Prime Minister, who now has two taxpayer funded nannies, despite the fact that he has a massive, multi-million dollar family fortune. A small business person earning just $50,000 a year would, under the proposed plan, pay a tax rate of 60% on his passive income. The Prime Minister would pay 53% on his passive income. Why is a small business person paying so much more than this millionaire Prime Minister?
Mr. Speaker, we are committed to a renewed nation-to-nation relationship and to closing the gap in health and mental wellness outcomes for first nations and Inuit peoples. We are investing more than $300 million each year in community programming to help address the mental wellness needs of first nations and Inuit populations. Budget 2017 also included $118.2 million over five years to supplement existing mental health programming for first nations and Inuit. There remains much more to do, but we are committed to supporting local communities in a true Inuit-to-crown relationship.
Mr. Speaker, this government takes tax evasion and tax avoidance very seriously. In the past two budgets, we invested nearly $1 billion to help the Canada Revenue Agency counter tax evasion and tax avoidance.We recognize that there is still work to be done, but we are working on it. We take this very seriously. Like all Canadians, we want our tax system to be fair and equitable for everyone.
Mr. Speaker, once again, the New Democrats think we are doing too much to create economic growth, and the Conservatives think we are doing too much to protect the environment.We are moving forward with a responsible plan that acknowledges our commitments under the Paris agreement as well as our responsibilities towards our children's future, and we are protecting the environment in a responsible way by creating the jobs of the future.That is what Canadians expect, and that is what we are always going to do.
Mr. Speaker, we are listening to small businesses and to Canadians. They tell us that they want our tax system to be fair and equitable. It is not fair that wealthy Canadians are able to incorporate so they can pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is why we made a commitment during the election campaign to raise taxes for the wealthy, cut taxes for middle-class Canadians, and help the middle class, including small businesses, succeed in our economy.
Mr. Speaker, I believe you will find unanimous consent for me to move the following motion: That the House acknowledge the importance of the aerospace industry and the fact that Bombardier is a major employer in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada, as well as reiterate the importance of standing up to protect the industry and jobs against Boeings unjustified complaint and the United States governments preliminary decision.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I was proud and delighted to announce, along with the Minister of Science, Canada's new chief science advisor, Dr. Mona Nemer. Dr. Nemer is a distinguished Canadian health researcher and a leading academic executive at the University of Ottawa. As chief science advisor, she will provide impartial scientific advice to me and the Minister of Science so we can make better decisions, based on evidence, on health and environmental issues that affect all Canadians.
Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to completely overhauling child and family services in full partnership with first nations communities. The minister's special representative has met with over 26 chiefs, experts, officials, advocates, and individuals with lived experience from coast to coast to coast to inform our commitment to first nations child welfare reform.We look forward to receiving her report and recommendations on how we can transform the system to better support and reflect the needs of first nations children and put their well-being first.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Bourassa for his question. The World Anti-Doping Agency is an important organization for Montreal, Quebec and all of Canada. The Minister of Transportation, the Minister of Global Affairs, the Minister ofInnovation, Science and Economic Development, as well as the Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, along with the Government of Quebec and the City of Montreal, are working hard to ensure the agency keeps its headquarters in Montreal. There is still work to do, but I am pleased to hear that the agency's executive committee is in negotiations to keep its headquarters in Montreal after 2021 for another 10 years.
Mr. Speaker, so many families in Atlantic Canada rely on local businesses
Mr. Speaker, we continue to raise the bar on openness and transparency by bringing forward the most significant changes to access to information since 1983. We are empowering the Information Commissioner to order information to be released. We are expanding the act to include a system of legislative proactive disclosure for ministers' offices, the Prime Minister's Office, administration institutions that support Parliament, and others. We have committed to making Parliament more open, accountable, and accessible to Canadians, and that is exactly what we are doing.
Mr. Speaker, moving forward with a nation-to-nation relationship in the spirit of reconciliation means consulting. It means listening to the affected people to understand how best to move forward. That is why the special representative has met with 26 chiefs, experts, officials, advocates, and individuals with extraordinary lived experiences from coast to coast to coast to inform how we are moving forward on completely renewing child and family services for first nations communities.
Mr. Speaker
Most negative speeches
Mr. Speaker, I understand the member opposite's outrage at the settlement in the Omar Khadr case. I understand Canadians' outrage. I understand how angry I am that we had to settle that. The fact is that we should all be outraged, and remain outraged, that Canadian governments violated a Canadian's fundamental rights. If we stay angry enough for long enough, maybe no future government will ever violate a Canadian's fundamental rights that way again.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians watch these Conservatives stay focused on me, while I stay focused on Canadians. We are focused on small business owners who need help.
Mr. Speaker, from the Liberal platform, We will make Parliament open by default. We will ensure that access to information applies to the Prime Ministers and Ministers offices. From an audit released today on how open the government truly is, ...even worse than in the latter years of the former Stephen Harper government. Yesterday, the Access to Information Commissioner said she was very disappointed with the government. As a former teacher, what grade would the Prime Minister give his government's performance on access to information?
Mr. Speaker, yesterday tax experts confirmed that the Prime Minister's unfair tax hikes would include terrible disincentives that will stall innovation and hurt the middle class. They also condemned the Liberals' negative tone and offensive branding of business owners as tax cheats, and even the Liberal member for Edmonton Centre agrees with that one.Will the Prime Minister listen to entrepreneurs, experts, and even his own caucus members, apologize to business owners, and stop this unfair tax grab?
Mr. Speaker, here is another question on the Liberals' wastage of hard-earned tax dollars in trying to cover up political problems. There was $10 million in an attempted secret payoff to Omar Khadr, millions to fight indigenous children and women in court, and almost half a million dollars to a defeated Liberal candidate for a PR campaign to fight a tribunal ruling in favour of indigenous children.Why is the Prime Minister robbing the middle class to pay for Liberal profligacy?
Mr. Speaker, approximately six million Jews perished at the hands of the Nazis during the Second World War. It was an incredibly dark moment in human history, and serves as a reminder to all Canadians that we must continue to fight anti-Semitism wherever we find it.Many are persecuted here and around the world for simply being a Jew. I trust all members agree that we must all stay vigilant to protect their fundamental human rights.Today I will be joining the Prime Minister at the dedication of Canada's national Holocaust memorial. Could the Prime Minister inform the House about the importance of working together on this issue, and will he join me in congratulating all those who helped make the dream of a memorial a reality?
Actually, I did not vote against that, Mr. Speaker; I voted against a plan that has seen the wealthiest Canadians pay less and the average middle-class Canadian pay $800 more.What I voted in favour of was the previous government's plan to lift a million people off the tax rolls altogether and to reduce the tax rate on people earning $30,000 a year by 80%. That is what I voted for.The Prime Minister is imposing a plan that will apply to every single person who owns a private business, including those with low income. It does not apply to the wealthiest shareholders, including those in his cabinet. Why not?
Mr. Speaker, I believe you will find unanimous consent for me to move the following motion: That the House acknowledge the importance of the aerospace industry and the fact that Bombardier is a major employer in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada, as well as reiterate the importance of standing up to protect the industry and jobs against Boeings unjustified complaint and the United States governments preliminary decision.
Mr. Speaker, this government takes tax evasion and tax avoidance very seriously. In the past two budgets, we invested nearly $1 billion to help the Canada Revenue Agency counter tax evasion and tax avoidance.We recognize that there is still work to be done, but we are working on it. We take this very seriously. Like all Canadians, we want our tax system to be fair and equitable for everyone.
Mr. Speaker, my constituents understand the importance of having sound evidence on which to base our decisions, the decisions that will affect the health and safety of Canadians. Our government was elected on a promise to restore evidence-based decision-making, beginning with the appointment of a chief science advisor, a position abolished by the previous government. Could the Prime Minister update the House on the important developments with this position?
Mr. Speaker, if I were defending that plan, I think I might just sit down and be quiet as well. This is a plan that would impose a double tax on the passive savings that small business owners use to fund their retirement. That tax can reach as high as 73%. That double tax would not apply to the millionaire owners of multinational companies trading on Bay Street. Why not?
Mr. Speaker, just a quarter of the requests were answered within the normal 30-day time limit, and a third of all the requests included in the audit received no response. When journalists do get answers, the documents are totally redacted, pages and pages of black ink.Open by default is what we were promised. Will the Prime Minister admit that he messed this up?
Watching the government deal with Trump is like watching Bambi deal with Godzilla, Mr. Speaker. It is not an even fight.Is that the Prime Minister's answer? Tens of thousands of jobs across the country are in jeopardy.When will the Prime Minister finally stand up and fight for aerospace jobs here in Canada?
Again, Mr. Speaker, we see that the Conservative Party has one approach: personal attacks. We are not going to engage in that. We are going to focus on helping Canadians
Mr. Speaker
Mr. Speaker, we do not believe in raising taxes on anyone. The member across the way believes in raising them on middle-class small business owners, putting them at a comparative disadvantage versus the wealthiest multinational corporations that trade on Bay Street, companies like Morneau Shepell. Those companies will now be able to outbid our middle-class small business owners and farmers for assets in the marketplace. Why is the Prime Minister creating distortions that favour the wealthiest elite at the expense of the middle class?
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister himself made a campaign promise to restore home mail delivery to those who lost it. Ten months ago, the House of Commons committee that includes a number of his MPs recommended restoring the service, but since then it has been radio silence from his government.Why will the Prime Minister not just admit that he broke his promise to restore home mail delivery?
Mr. Speaker, 100 years ago, the wartime government of Robert Laird Borden introduced an income tax. Believe it or not, Liberals actually opposed the new taxbut wait: Liberals opposed the new income tax because it was not high enough.The Liberal whip of the day said that it would be a mere flea-bite, and complained that the new tax does not take from men enough to make it hurt.I give them full marks for consistency, but after 100 years of Liberals continually pressing to raise taxes, is it not time to stop making it hurt so much?
Mr. Speaker, it is always a question whether the Conservatives actually believe what they are saying or they just choose to make it up as they go along, because the numbers they put forward have absolutely no basis in reality. We are focused on the fact that the system we inherited from the Conservatives encourages wealthy Canadians to use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians, and that is not fair. We are going to fix that because that is what Canadians expect of this government. That is what we are going to stay focused on.
Mr. Speaker, can the Prime Minister please point to the section or the clause in his proposed legislation, or the sentence in his consultation paper, in which it clearly states that no one earning less than $150,000 a year will pay any of these new taxes?
Mr. Speaker, the only distortions are the ones brought forward by the member opposite, who is trying to scare small business owners and torque an issue to defend the approach the Conservatives have always taken of benefiting the wealthy and ignoring the hard-working Canadians who will work every day to build this country.We committed to help the middle class and those working hard to join it, and that is what we are doing.I might ask the member opposite why he voted against lowering taxes on the middle class and raising them on the wealthiest 1%. That is something we are proud we did. Unfortunately, the members opposite voted against it.
Mr. Speaker, close to half a million dollars is an extraordinary amount of money for what appears to be a public relations exercise. That is what Cindy Blackstock said when trying to understand the payment of $500,000 to a failed Liberal candidate and Liberal Party donor for eight months of work. The Prime Minister rewarded his entitled friend with a gold-plated contract, while indigenous children continue to go without needed care.Will the Prime Minister admit that $500,000 would have been better spent directly on the needs of Canada's indigenous children, rather than going into the pocket of a Liberal insider?
Mr. Speaker, the member opposite has been listening to the consultations, as we have, and has been talking with Canadians and engaging in a broad range of listening activities with folks. However, it disturbs me that he still thinks that we are applying this to every single small business owner. We are looking at the fact that wealthy individuals use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is not fair.We are going to continue to support small businesses and help middle-class Canadians. It is what we got elected to do. It is what we are going to stay focused on, despite all the fears from the other side.
Mr. Speaker, no one talks a better game than the Prime Minister when it comes to climate change, at the UN and during NAFTA negotiations, name it. The Liberal Party promises that Canada will respect its commitments, but there is a problem. In order to meet our obligations under the Paris accord, our greenhouse gas emissions actually have to start going down at some point. After increasing greenhouse gas emissions during his first two years in office, can the Prime Minister promise Canadians that these will decrease over the next two years, yes or no?
Mr. Speaker, what we see from these Conservatives are the politics of fear, anxiety, insecurity, and scaremongering. We stand here to commit to Canadians that we will support the middle class and those working hard to join it, that hard-working small business owners will get benefits, and that the wealthiest will pay their fair share. That is what Canadians asked us to do. That is what we are staying focused on, despite the tactics of the opposition.
Mr. Speaker, if he has a problem with our numbers, this is a Prime Minister who said he would raise $3 billion in additional taxes from the wealthy, but just last week his own finance department produced a report showing that revenues from the wealthiest taxpayers actually went down by $1 billion. In a report this week, the Fraser Institute showed that taxes actually went up by $800 for the average middle-class family. Why is everything that should be going down going up, and everything that should be going up going down?
Mr. Speaker, I was pleased to talk on Monday about the opportunities that small businesses across this country have to sell to the growing market in China. Our government is working hard to be able to ensure that small producers, whether they be ice wines or cherries, lobsters or apparel, be able to pierce the Chinese market, and get good returns for their communities, for their country, and grow the economy. These are the kinds of things we are busy working hard on to benefit directly the middle class, those working hard to join it, workers across this country, and yes, small business owners, who we know are the heart of growth in this country.
Mr. Speaker, we are proud that Canada has competitive corporate tax rates. Indeed, it is part of our advantage. If the members opposite want to propose to raise corporate tax rates, they can do so in their next election platform. Until that time, we will continue to focus on growing the economy, supporting small businesses, and helping the middle class and those working hard to join it. That is what Canadians asked us to do. That is what we are going to continue to do.
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government paid $437,000 to former Liberal candidate Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux for only a few months of work. This former Liberal candidate is very unapologetic with regard to this gesture. However, Cindy Blackstock described this half-million-dollar cash grab as nothing more than a public relations exercise. There appears to be a discrepancy in viewpoints here. Does the Prime Minister agree with his former candidate or with Cindy Blackstock?
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. It is standard practice that whenever members make reference to government documents in the House of Commons, they table them. Earlier on during the debate, I made reference to the Annual Financial Report of the Government of Canada, which showed that the wealthiest Canadians paid less tax in the government's first full fiscal year in office, revenues from that group falling by roughly $1 billion. I quoted directly from page 16 of that document.The Prime Minister said that was all false. I am here today to table the document in question, and trust I will have unanimous and enthusiastic consent from the government.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, these Conservatives love to talk about me, but I want to talk about Canadians. I want to talk about those small business owners. I want to talk about hard-working Canadians who did not get a break for 10 years under a Conservative government. We are going to continue to create benefits for the middle class and those working hard to join it, not just because it is the right thing to do but because that is what grows the economy. The Canada child benefit and the tax break for the middle class, these are the things that have led to the economic growth we are seeing now.
Mr. Speaker, the issue is not with people not following the rules, because people are following the rules. The problem is that the rules favour wealthier Canadians over the middle class. Those are the rules we inherited from the Conservatives, and that is part of why Canadians chose this party, this government to make those changes to the system. The first thing we did was lower taxes on the middle class and raise them on the wealthiest 1%. We then delivered a Canada child benefit that would help nine out of 10 Canadian families with the high cost of raising their kids by not sending those benefits to millionaire families.
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives cannot help themselves, they keep talking about me. I am going to stay focused on Canadians. I am going to stay focused on the fact that 80% of the money in passive investment in private corporations across this country is held by less than 2% of those private corporations.We know, Canadians all know, that the system gives advantages to wealthy Canadians. It encourages wealthy Canadians to use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is not fair, and that is what we are staying focused on.
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is raising taxes on the middle class. He has cancelled popular tax credits, everything from public transit to children's activities. He is threatening a carbon tax that will raise the cost of everything. Now, on top of payroll taxes that will make it harder for businesses to hire and expand, he is threatening them with a cash grab, but protecting family fortunes like his own and the Minister of Finance's.That is not fair. Nobody voted for that in the last election.When will the Prime Minister finally listen to all those who create jobs in our communities, and stop his unfair tax grab?
Mr. Speaker, we are going to stay focused on what Canadians asked us to do: fix the system, so it is fairer; make the changes to the system that the Conservatives refused to make; and help the middle class and those working hard to join it. That is our focus. We are going to be supporting small businesses. We are going to be supporting hard-working Canadians. Let the Conservatives continue to fight for wealthy Canadians. We know that we grow the economy from the centre out.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians have seen this movie before. It was the 2015 election campaign when the Conservatives were focused on me and on protecting wealthy Canadians. We were focusing on listening to Canadians and helping the middle class and those working hard to join it.For 10 years that party gave tax breaks and advantages to wealthy Canadians and did not worry about the middle class. We changed that, and we will continue to change that. No matter how much the Conservatives shout, we will keep standing up for the middle class and those working hard to join it.
Mr. Speaker, hundreds of people across Atlantic Canada have been coming out to town halls and public consultations because they are legitimately concerned about the Prime Minister's own proposals. They know this is going to have such a negative impact, because so many of them are local business owners. These use these measures legitimately to pass on the family farm or the fishing boat.Today, all four Atlantic opposition leaders are denouncing the Prime Minister's plan, because they know that under his administration, middle-class Canadians are paying more. It is even worse in Atlantic Canada, where provincial Liberal taxes are already killing jobs and opportunities.Will the Prime Minister finally listen to his Atlantic Canadian friends, and even his own caucus, and cancel these unfair tax hikes?
Mr. Speaker, these Conservatives will always call out rank hypocrisy when we see it. We know that under the current Liberal government, the middle class is paying higher taxes. Farmers, tradespeople, and small business owners across Canada are worried, and crippling new tax proposals from the government could see them paying even more. They pay more while the Prime Minister, the finance minister, and their family fortunes will remain untouched. Why should hard-working farm families see their taxes increase, when the wealthy elites, like this Prime Minister, will continue to have their family fortunes sheltered?
Mr. Speaker, these Liberal tax proposals were carefully crafted to protect those who matter most to the Liberals, themselves. Under the current Liberal government, wealthy insiders are always taken care of. The finance minister's billion-dollar family business, Morneau Shepell, is protected. The Prime Minister's family fortune and taxpayer-paid nannies will be sheltered while small businesses are forced to pay more. Can the Prime Minister confirm he will not lose a single cent of his family fortune because of these Liberal tax changes?
Mr. Speaker, over the past two years we have seen, after 10 long years of Conservative governance, positive signs of growth, job creation, and an economy on the upswing. A large part of that is because of the investments we made in our communities, in the middle class, and because we lowered taxes on the middle class and raised them on the wealthiest 1%. We brought in the Canada child benefit, which puts more money in the pockets of those who need it by not sending money to those who do not need it. We continue to be committed to making our tax system fairer for Canadians. That is exactly what we are doing with the recent measures we are discussing.
Mr. Speaker, nobody saw their child care benefit increase more than the Prime Minister, who now has two taxpayer funded nannies, despite the fact that he has a massive, multi-million dollar family fortune. A small business person earning just $50,000 a year would, under the proposed plan, pay a tax rate of 60% on his passive income. The Prime Minister would pay 53% on his passive income. Why is a small business person paying so much more than this millionaire Prime Minister?
Mr. Speaker, the government House leader said this about the about the Liberal tax hikes: The longer we're talking about this, the more people are concerned that they will be impacted, which is really raising a fear. Well, she is right. Entrepreneurs, small business owners, farmers, and their employees are worried sick about the impact of these Liberal tax changes. Here is the real slap in the face: these tax changes will have no impact on wealthy investments like those of the Prime Minister's.Why are the Prime Minister's investments and business revenues untouched by these tax changes?
Mr. Speaker, I can understand the NDP members' impatience. They always seem to be impatient about everything. We are working very, very hard to get just that. We have put close to one billion dollars to address tax avoidance and tax evasion by giving the Canada Revenue Agency the tools to be able to counter that. We continue to work hard on making our tax system fairer. That is why we put forward proposals that will ask wealthy Canadians to stop using the advantages that the system currently gives them. That is why we are changing the system. I would love to hear the NDP supporting us in that measure.
Mr. Speaker, the reality is that 81% of middle class families pay more taxes today than they did under the previous Conservative government. Now the Prime Minister is directly attacking our local businesses. His tax reform will destroy jobs across Canada by taking more money from small businesses and the middle class.Is the new slogan of the Liberal Party and the Prime Minister, who will not even be affected by his own tax reform, do as I say, not as I do?
Mr. Speaker, thousands of Canadians are worried about their jobs. Yesterday, we had a reality check with the Trump administration in Washington when it imposed ridiculously high tariffs on Bombardier, but it is not just the employees of Bombardier who are worried. Across Canada, companies that are part of its supply chain have every reason to be concerned. What concrete action will the Prime Minister take to save those Canadian jobs?
Mr. Speaker, we have significantly increased support to first nations education and to young indigenous people in difficult situations, but we know there is a lot more work to do. That is why we have taken the historic, concrete step toward moving beyond the Indian Act once and for all by separating Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada into two distinct departments, one for the nation-to-nation relationships and the other for indigenous service delivery. This is a meaningful, concrete step that is going to make a real impact in the lives and the future of millions of Canadians across this country.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Bourassa for his question. The World Anti-Doping Agency is an important organization for Montreal, Quebec and all of Canada. The Minister of Transportation, the Minister of Global Affairs, the Minister ofInnovation, Science and Economic Development, as well as the Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, along with the Government of Quebec and the City of Montreal, are working hard to ensure the agency keeps its headquarters in Montreal. There is still work to do, but I am pleased to hear that the agency's executive committee is in negotiations to keep its headquarters in Montreal after 2021 for another 10 years.
Mr. Speaker, once again, the New Democrats think we are doing too much to create economic growth, and the Conservatives think we are doing too much to protect the environment.We are moving forward with a responsible plan that acknowledges our commitments under the Paris agreement as well as our responsibilities towards our children's future, and we are protecting the environment in a responsible way by creating the jobs of the future.That is what Canadians expect, and that is what we are always going to do.
It is not just us who are upset, Mr. Speaker. We are here as the voice of the millions of Canadians who are going to be hurt by his tax cuts. The Conservative record on this is clear. Even the parliamentary budget officer agreed that Conservative changes have been more progressive overall, and that under the Conservative government, low and middle income earners have benefited more, in relative terms, than higher income earners. Let us talk about the wealthy. The Prime Minister spent Monday with a Chinese billionaire, and last week he met for the third time with the CEO of BlackRock. Why does the Prime Minister love spending so much time with his billionaire friends, but then he locks the door on hard-working middle-class Canadians?
Mr. Speaker, here is the reality. The Prime Minister promised a nation-to-nation relationship and to stop taking first nations children to court. Rather than comply with the Human Rights Tribunal's three separate rulings, two years into his mandate he is still spending millions of dollars to fight first nations children in court. That is the reality.What those children want to know is this: why is the Prime Minister still fighting them in court?
Mr. Speaker, we are listening to small businesses and to Canadians. They tell us that they want our tax system to be fair and equitable. It is not fair that wealthy Canadians are able to incorporate so they can pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is why we made a commitment during the election campaign to raise taxes for the wealthy, cut taxes for middle-class Canadians, and help the middle class, including small businesses, succeed in our economy.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to inform the House that our Minister of Foreign Affairs brought up this issue directly with trade representative Lighthizer today during the NAFTA negotiations. We will continue to stand up for Canadian jobs every step of the way, defend our workers in the aerospace industry in Quebec, and right across the country. We know the punitive actions taken by Boeing are completely unfounded and without merit. We continue to stand by the Canadian aerospace industry, and we will fight for it every step of the way.
Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member wants to talk numbers, then let us be clear. There are 1.8 million private corporations in Canada. Of those 1.8 million, 30,000 hold 80% of the net investment. We think that those 30,000 corporations should pay their share of taxes. That is why we are making the system fairer. We are supporting the middle class, we are supporting small businesses, but we are going to ask the wealthy to pay their fair share.
Mr. Speaker, does the Prime Minister really want us to look at the promises he has made? Let us look at another one of his promises. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered the Prime Minister three times to put an end to the racial discrimination against first nations children.Rather than comply, the Prime Minister insists on fighting indigenous children.Why is the Prime Minister so determined to perpetuate his government's discrimination against first nations children?
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has gone across the country accusing our small businesses of avoiding paying their fair share, attacking them as wealthy cheats. Those are the words of the Prime Minister. Now he wants us to cry crocodile tears for him because people are asking questions about the bills that he is going to have to pay under these proposals.Under the proposals, a small business owner will pay as much as 73% of his passive income, whereas the Prime Minister will pay almost one-third less on his public pension. How is that fair?
Mr. Speaker, we are committed to a renewed nation-to-nation relationship and to closing the gap in health and mental wellness outcomes for first nations and Inuit peoples. We are investing more than $300 million each year in community programming to help address the mental wellness needs of first nations and Inuit populations. Budget 2017 also included $118.2 million over five years to supplement existing mental health programming for first nations and Inuit. There remains much more to do, but we are committed to supporting local communities in a true Inuit-to-crown relationship.
Mr. Speaker, we all know that our oceans are absolutely essential to our planet's health.As Canadians, we are all connected to our oceans, which are significant to our heritage, our culture, and of course our economy. Canada is committed to protecting 5% of our marine and coastal areas by the end of this year, and 10% by 2020.Can the Prime Minister update this House on the government's progress toward these targets?
Mr. Speaker, what Canadians understand is that in order to grow a strong economy we need to protect the environment, and in order to protect the environment we need to grow the economy. We need to do them both together.Members on the opposite side of the House have picked one or the other. They do not understand that we need to do them both together. That is why at the same time we are moving forward on an economic plan that creates good jobs and gets our resources to new markets, we are bringing in a national carbon pricing framework. We are creating a world-class oceans protections plan. We are incentivizing the creation of renewable energy
Mr. Speaker, we stand up every day to defend jobs here in Canada, and we will continue to do so.In our dealings with the U.S. and countries around the world, we know that standing up for workers' interests and for the Canadian economy's ability to be innovative and grow is essential for the future success of Canada and the world.We will continue to defend aerospace jobs across Canada, and we will continue to stand against the irresponsible actions of Boeing and the U.S.
Mr. Speaker, more and more people are standing up against the Liberals' ad hoc tax reform: our local businesses, business associations, chambers of commerce, the provinces, and now even some Liberal members on that side of the House.Will those members across the aisle have the courage to stand up and tell this Prime Minister that enough is enough, that he must not raise taxes on business people, who create jobs for themselves and their employees?
Mr. Speaker, at yesterday's meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, experts confirmed that the Prime Minister's plan to raise taxes on local businesses is going to hurt the middle class. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has admitted that his own family fortune will not be touched by these tax hikes. It is hardly surprising that small business owners are up in arms.When is the Prime Minister going to stop taking money away from local business owners and start listening to them instead?
Mr. Speaker, this government is always proud to stand up for, and stand with, our friends from Atlantic Canada.We know that creating economic growth and boosting small businesses that create economic opportunity across Atlantic Canada is a priority that this government shares with all Atlantic Canadians.That is why we are moving forward to make our tax system fairer. It is so that we can support small businesses as they work hard to grow our economy right across the country, and we can make sure that everyone pays their fair share of taxes.
Mr. Speaker, in 2015, Canadian companies hid nearly $40 billion in tax havens, which cost Canadian taxpayers between $5 billion and $8 billion in unpaid taxes. The Liberals claim to want a tax system in which everyone pays their fair share.When are they going to crack down on companies that take advantage of tax havens?
Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate all members of the House from all parties who came together to make sure that this monument got built. This is an important commemoration of the six million Jewish men, women, and children, as well as the five million other victims, who were murdered during the Holocaust.It will recognize those who survived, many of whom made their way to countries around the world, including Canada, and it will stand as a reminder of the dangers of hatred, racism, and intolerance, while affirming respect for human rights, dignity, and resilience.With this monument, we all stand together and say solemnly Never again.
Mr. Speaker, here is what the Liberal platform promised: an overdue and wide-ranging review of the over $100 billion in increasingly complex tax expenditures that now exist. That is precisely what we in the NDP are calling for, to widen the consultations and go after tax havens and stock option loopholes like the Liberals promised, but the government refuses. The Minister of Finance said that that issue is not something that we've backed away from. It's just not something we've moved forward on.Will the Liberals respect their own platform and finally go after tax scams for the rich?
Mr. Speaker, if the members opposite want to talk about how Canadian families are doing, they need to acknowledge the Canada child benefit, which the Fraser Institute completely overlooked. The Canada child benefit delivers more money to nine out of 10 Canadian families, and it has been doing so for over a year now. Not only is it lifting hundreds of thousands of kids out of poverty across this country, reducing child poverty by 40%, but it is also creating growth in our economy by putting more money in the pockets of the middle-class families who need it. These are the things we are doing that the Conservatives never did, and that they opposed.
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister's speech to the UN General Assembly stressed the humiliation, neglect, and abuse that many indigenous people have suffered as a result of colonialism in Canada. The trauma experienced by those of us who attended residential schools has resulted in transgenerational addiction and mental health issues in Nunavut. These issues have contributed and continue to contribute to a suicide rate in Nunavut that is 10 times the national average. Can the Prime Minister inform the House of the government's plan to address this crisis?
Mr. Speaker, we are enhancing government openness and transparency by bringing in the most significant changes to the Access to Information Act since 1983.We are empowering the Information Commissioner to order government information to be released. We are expanding the act to include a system of legislated proactive disclosure for ministers' offices, the Prime Minister's Office, and others. We are making key information, such as question period notes and briefing books for new ministers, available to all Canadians without anyone having to make an access to information request. When it comes to openness and transparency, we
Mr. Speaker, so many families in Atlantic Canada rely on local businesses
Mr. Speaker, there it is. The Liberal government will actually be increasing greenhouse gas emissions.The Prime Minister is fond of lecturing everyone else, but he is the process of following Stephen Harper's plan, on Stephen Harper's timeline, using Stephen Harper's targets. However, he will never be able to meet them, because he has no plan for reducing greenhouse gases. If we do not reduce greenhouse gases, anything else we do will be pointless.When is the Prime Minister going to be able to look Canadians in the eye and say, Yes, we are going to reduce GHGs in this country?That is the question. He needs to stop dodging.
Mr. Speaker, we are happy to engage in ongoing consultations with Canadians on the details of how to move forward in the best way so that we make the tax system fairer. However, at the core of this government is a promise to support the middle class and those working hard to join it, and to help small businesses succeed in an increasingly disruptive globalized world. We are focused on helping Canadians, because for 10 years that government focused on the wealthiest.
Mr. Speaker, we are deeply committed to achieving our marine conservation targets. I am pleased to announce in this House today that we are taking one more step toward reaching our goal by creating two marine refuges on the east coast, including one in Miramichi Bay, in my colleague's riding.This is just one more example of our real action to protect our oceans for future generations.
Mr. Speaker, no relationship is more important to this government than our relationship with first nations and indigenous people. That is why we allocated an unprecedented $8.4 billion in our first year and $5 billion the following year to provide services to indigenous youth and to address the completely unacceptable gaps in these services.We know that there is a lot of work to do, and we will keep on doing it. Our new Minister of Indigenous Services has my full confidence; she will continue to keep that long-awaited promise and give our indigenous youth a better future.
Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to completely overhauling child and family services in full partnership with first nations communities. The minister's special representative has met with over 26 chiefs, experts, officials, advocates, and individuals with lived experience from coast to coast to coast to inform our commitment to first nations child welfare reform.We look forward to receiving her report and recommendations on how we can transform the system to better support and reflect the needs of first nations children and put their well-being first.
Mr. Speaker, the World Anti-Doping Agency is located in Montreal. It is a very important organization, given its mission. Not only does it create good jobs in Montreal, but it also enhances its reputation on the world stage. Could the member for Papineau, the Prime Minister, please tell the House and Canadians about what the government has done to ensure that this agency stays in Montreal well into the future?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians expect quality service from Canada Post, and that is what we have promised to deliver. We all know the world is changing. We placed a moratorium on new community mailboxes. We recognize the need for more conversations about how best to serve Canadians and to ensure that Canada Post is meeting our expectations and fulfilling our responsibilities. We are working very hard on that.
Mr. Speaker, for 10 years the Conservative government tried to create economic growth by giving tax breaks to the wealthy, but that did not work. That is why Canadians asked our government to fix the system, to make it fairer and more equitable, by raising taxes on the wealthy and lowering them on the middle class. We will always support the middle class. We will always support our small businesses, but we want our system to be fair. That is why we are asking the wealthy to pay more.
Mr. Speaker, we continue to raise the bar on openness and transparency by bringing forward the most significant changes to access to information since 1983. We are empowering the Information Commissioner to order information to be released. We are expanding the act to include a system of legislative proactive disclosure for ministers' offices, the Prime Minister's Office, administration institutions that support Parliament, and others. We have committed to making Parliament more open, accountable, and accessible to Canadians, and that is exactly what we are doing.
Mr. Speaker, there is a pattern with the Prime Minister talking about himself. He takes away child care benefits from families across Canada saying wealthy families like his do not need help with their child care. Then, he gets two full-time nannies paid for by, guess who, the taxpayer. He then says the rich should pay more, and he taxes all of our local businesses while his investment is protected.Why is the Prime Minister always creating policy that protects him, and making hard-working Canadians pay his bills?
Mr. Speaker, moving forward with a nation-to-nation relationship in the spirit of reconciliation means consulting. It means listening to the affected people to understand how best to move forward. That is why the special representative has met with 26 chiefs, experts, officials, advocates, and individuals with extraordinary lived experiences from coast to coast to coast to inform how we are moving forward on completely renewing child and family services for first nations communities.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I was proud and delighted to announce, along with the Minister of Science, Canada's new chief science advisor, Dr. Mona Nemer. Dr. Nemer is a distinguished Canadian health researcher and a leading academic executive at the University of Ottawa. As chief science advisor, she will provide impartial scientific advice to me and the Minister of Science so we can make better decisions, based on evidence, on health and environmental issues that affect all Canadians.
Mr. Speaker, one should not be able to stand in the House and just make things up.
Mr. Speaker, I understand the member opposite's outrage at the settlement in the Omar Khadr case. I understand Canadians' outrage. I understand how angry I am that we had to settle that. The fact is that we should all be outraged, and remain outraged, that Canadian governments violated a Canadian's fundamental rights. If we stay angry enough for long enough, maybe no future government will ever violate a Canadian's fundamental rights that way again.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians watch these Conservatives stay focused on me, while I stay focused on Canadians. We are focused on small business owners who need help.
Mr. Speaker, from the Liberal platform, We will make Parliament open by default. We will ensure that access to information applies to the Prime Ministers and Ministers offices. From an audit released today on how open the government truly is, ...even worse than in the latter years of the former Stephen Harper government. Yesterday, the Access to Information Commissioner said she was very disappointed with the government. As a former teacher, what grade would the Prime Minister give his government's performance on access to information?
Mr. Speaker, yesterday tax experts confirmed that the Prime Minister's unfair tax hikes would include terrible disincentives that will stall innovation and hurt the middle class. They also condemned the Liberals' negative tone and offensive branding of business owners as tax cheats, and even the Liberal member for Edmonton Centre agrees with that one.Will the Prime Minister listen to entrepreneurs, experts, and even his own caucus members, apologize to business owners, and stop this unfair tax grab?
Mr. Speaker, here is another question on the Liberals' wastage of hard-earned tax dollars in trying to cover up political problems. There was $10 million in an attempted secret payoff to Omar Khadr, millions to fight indigenous children and women in court, and almost half a million dollars to a defeated Liberal candidate for a PR campaign to fight a tribunal ruling in favour of indigenous children.Why is the Prime Minister robbing the middle class to pay for Liberal profligacy?
Mr. Speaker, approximately six million Jews perished at the hands of the Nazis during the Second World War. It was an incredibly dark moment in human history, and serves as a reminder to all Canadians that we must continue to fight anti-Semitism wherever we find it.Many are persecuted here and around the world for simply being a Jew. I trust all members agree that we must all stay vigilant to protect their fundamental human rights.Today I will be joining the Prime Minister at the dedication of Canada's national Holocaust memorial. Could the Prime Minister inform the House about the importance of working together on this issue, and will he join me in congratulating all those who helped make the dream of a memorial a reality?
Actually, I did not vote against that, Mr. Speaker; I voted against a plan that has seen the wealthiest Canadians pay less and the average middle-class Canadian pay $800 more.What I voted in favour of was the previous government's plan to lift a million people off the tax rolls altogether and to reduce the tax rate on people earning $30,000 a year by 80%. That is what I voted for.The Prime Minister is imposing a plan that will apply to every single person who owns a private business, including those with low income. It does not apply to the wealthiest shareholders, including those in his cabinet. Why not?
Mr. Speaker, I believe you will find unanimous consent for me to move the following motion: That the House acknowledge the importance of the aerospace industry and the fact that Bombardier is a major employer in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada, as well as reiterate the importance of standing up to protect the industry and jobs against Boeings unjustified complaint and the United States governments preliminary decision.
Mr. Speaker, this government takes tax evasion and tax avoidance very seriously. In the past two budgets, we invested nearly $1 billion to help the Canada Revenue Agency counter tax evasion and tax avoidance.We recognize that there is still work to be done, but we are working on it. We take this very seriously. Like all Canadians, we want our tax system to be fair and equitable for everyone.
Mr. Speaker, my constituents understand the importance of having sound evidence on which to base our decisions, the decisions that will affect the health and safety of Canadians. Our government was elected on a promise to restore evidence-based decision-making, beginning with the appointment of a chief science advisor, a position abolished by the previous government. Could the Prime Minister update the House on the important developments with this position?
Mr. Speaker, if I were defending that plan, I think I might just sit down and be quiet as well. This is a plan that would impose a double tax on the passive savings that small business owners use to fund their retirement. That tax can reach as high as 73%. That double tax would not apply to the millionaire owners of multinational companies trading on Bay Street. Why not?
Mr. Speaker, just a quarter of the requests were answered within the normal 30-day time limit, and a third of all the requests included in the audit received no response. When journalists do get answers, the documents are totally redacted, pages and pages of black ink.Open by default is what we were promised. Will the Prime Minister admit that he messed this up?
Watching the government deal with Trump is like watching Bambi deal with Godzilla, Mr. Speaker. It is not an even fight.Is that the Prime Minister's answer? Tens of thousands of jobs across the country are in jeopardy.When will the Prime Minister finally stand up and fight for aerospace jobs here in Canada?
Again, Mr. Speaker, we see that the Conservative Party has one approach: personal attacks. We are not going to engage in that. We are going to focus on helping Canadians
Mr. Speaker
Mr. Speaker, we do not believe in raising taxes on anyone. The member across the way believes in raising them on middle-class small business owners, putting them at a comparative disadvantage versus the wealthiest multinational corporations that trade on Bay Street, companies like Morneau Shepell. Those companies will now be able to outbid our middle-class small business owners and farmers for assets in the marketplace. Why is the Prime Minister creating distortions that favour the wealthiest elite at the expense of the middle class?
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister himself made a campaign promise to restore home mail delivery to those who lost it. Ten months ago, the House of Commons committee that includes a number of his MPs recommended restoring the service, but since then it has been radio silence from his government.Why will the Prime Minister not just admit that he broke his promise to restore home mail delivery?
Mr. Speaker, 100 years ago, the wartime government of Robert Laird Borden introduced an income tax. Believe it or not, Liberals actually opposed the new taxbut wait: Liberals opposed the new income tax because it was not high enough.The Liberal whip of the day said that it would be a mere flea-bite, and complained that the new tax does not take from men enough to make it hurt.I give them full marks for consistency, but after 100 years of Liberals continually pressing to raise taxes, is it not time to stop making it hurt so much?
Mr. Speaker, it is always a question whether the Conservatives actually believe what they are saying or they just choose to make it up as they go along, because the numbers they put forward have absolutely no basis in reality. We are focused on the fact that the system we inherited from the Conservatives encourages wealthy Canadians to use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians, and that is not fair. We are going to fix that because that is what Canadians expect of this government. That is what we are going to stay focused on.
Mr. Speaker, can the Prime Minister please point to the section or the clause in his proposed legislation, or the sentence in his consultation paper, in which it clearly states that no one earning less than $150,000 a year will pay any of these new taxes?
Mr. Speaker, the only distortions are the ones brought forward by the member opposite, who is trying to scare small business owners and torque an issue to defend the approach the Conservatives have always taken of benefiting the wealthy and ignoring the hard-working Canadians who will work every day to build this country.We committed to help the middle class and those working hard to join it, and that is what we are doing.I might ask the member opposite why he voted against lowering taxes on the middle class and raising them on the wealthiest 1%. That is something we are proud we did. Unfortunately, the members opposite voted against it.
Mr. Speaker, close to half a million dollars is an extraordinary amount of money for what appears to be a public relations exercise. That is what Cindy Blackstock said when trying to understand the payment of $500,000 to a failed Liberal candidate and Liberal Party donor for eight months of work. The Prime Minister rewarded his entitled friend with a gold-plated contract, while indigenous children continue to go without needed care.Will the Prime Minister admit that $500,000 would have been better spent directly on the needs of Canada's indigenous children, rather than going into the pocket of a Liberal insider?
Mr. Speaker, the member opposite has been listening to the consultations, as we have, and has been talking with Canadians and engaging in a broad range of listening activities with folks. However, it disturbs me that he still thinks that we are applying this to every single small business owner. We are looking at the fact that wealthy individuals use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is not fair.We are going to continue to support small businesses and help middle-class Canadians. It is what we got elected to do. It is what we are going to stay focused on, despite all the fears from the other side.
Mr. Speaker, no one talks a better game than the Prime Minister when it comes to climate change, at the UN and during NAFTA negotiations, name it. The Liberal Party promises that Canada will respect its commitments, but there is a problem. In order to meet our obligations under the Paris accord, our greenhouse gas emissions actually have to start going down at some point. After increasing greenhouse gas emissions during his first two years in office, can the Prime Minister promise Canadians that these will decrease over the next two years, yes or no?
Mr. Speaker, what we see from these Conservatives are the politics of fear, anxiety, insecurity, and scaremongering. We stand here to commit to Canadians that we will support the middle class and those working hard to join it, that hard-working small business owners will get benefits, and that the wealthiest will pay their fair share. That is what Canadians asked us to do. That is what we are staying focused on, despite the tactics of the opposition.
Mr. Speaker, if he has a problem with our numbers, this is a Prime Minister who said he would raise $3 billion in additional taxes from the wealthy, but just last week his own finance department produced a report showing that revenues from the wealthiest taxpayers actually went down by $1 billion. In a report this week, the Fraser Institute showed that taxes actually went up by $800 for the average middle-class family. Why is everything that should be going down going up, and everything that should be going up going down?
Mr. Speaker, I was pleased to talk on Monday about the opportunities that small businesses across this country have to sell to the growing market in China. Our government is working hard to be able to ensure that small producers, whether they be ice wines or cherries, lobsters or apparel, be able to pierce the Chinese market, and get good returns for their communities, for their country, and grow the economy. These are the kinds of things we are busy working hard on to benefit directly the middle class, those working hard to join it, workers across this country, and yes, small business owners, who we know are the heart of growth in this country.
Mr. Speaker, we are proud that Canada has competitive corporate tax rates. Indeed, it is part of our advantage. If the members opposite want to propose to raise corporate tax rates, they can do so in their next election platform. Until that time, we will continue to focus on growing the economy, supporting small businesses, and helping the middle class and those working hard to join it. That is what Canadians asked us to do. That is what we are going to continue to do.
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government paid $437,000 to former Liberal candidate Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux for only a few months of work. This former Liberal candidate is very unapologetic with regard to this gesture. However, Cindy Blackstock described this half-million-dollar cash grab as nothing more than a public relations exercise. There appears to be a discrepancy in viewpoints here. Does the Prime Minister agree with his former candidate or with Cindy Blackstock?
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. It is standard practice that whenever members make reference to government documents in the House of Commons, they table them. Earlier on during the debate, I made reference to the Annual Financial Report of the Government of Canada, which showed that the wealthiest Canadians paid less tax in the government's first full fiscal year in office, revenues from that group falling by roughly $1 billion. I quoted directly from page 16 of that document.The Prime Minister said that was all false. I am here today to table the document in question, and trust I will have unanimous and enthusiastic consent from the government.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, these Conservatives love to talk about me, but I want to talk about Canadians. I want to talk about those small business owners. I want to talk about hard-working Canadians who did not get a break for 10 years under a Conservative government. We are going to continue to create benefits for the middle class and those working hard to join it, not just because it is the right thing to do but because that is what grows the economy. The Canada child benefit and the tax break for the middle class, these are the things that have led to the economic growth we are seeing now.
Mr. Speaker, the issue is not with people not following the rules, because people are following the rules. The problem is that the rules favour wealthier Canadians over the middle class. Those are the rules we inherited from the Conservatives, and that is part of why Canadians chose this party, this government to make those changes to the system. The first thing we did was lower taxes on the middle class and raise them on the wealthiest 1%. We then delivered a Canada child benefit that would help nine out of 10 Canadian families with the high cost of raising their kids by not sending those benefits to millionaire families.
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives cannot help themselves, they keep talking about me. I am going to stay focused on Canadians. I am going to stay focused on the fact that 80% of the money in passive investment in private corporations across this country is held by less than 2% of those private corporations.We know, Canadians all know, that the system gives advantages to wealthy Canadians. It encourages wealthy Canadians to use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is not fair, and that is what we are staying focused on.
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is raising taxes on the middle class. He has cancelled popular tax credits, everything from public transit to children's activities. He is threatening a carbon tax that will raise the cost of everything. Now, on top of payroll taxes that will make it harder for businesses to hire and expand, he is threatening them with a cash grab, but protecting family fortunes like his own and the Minister of Finance's.That is not fair. Nobody voted for that in the last election.When will the Prime Minister finally listen to all those who create jobs in our communities, and stop his unfair tax grab?
Mr. Speaker, we are going to stay focused on what Canadians asked us to do: fix the system, so it is fairer; make the changes to the system that the Conservatives refused to make; and help the middle class and those working hard to join it. That is our focus. We are going to be supporting small businesses. We are going to be supporting hard-working Canadians. Let the Conservatives continue to fight for wealthy Canadians. We know that we grow the economy from the centre out.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians have seen this movie before. It was the 2015 election campaign when the Conservatives were focused on me and on protecting wealthy Canadians. We were focusing on listening to Canadians and helping the middle class and those working hard to join it.For 10 years that party gave tax breaks and advantages to wealthy Canadians and did not worry about the middle class. We changed that, and we will continue to change that. No matter how much the Conservatives shout, we will keep standing up for the middle class and those working hard to join it.
Mr. Speaker, hundreds of people across Atlantic Canada have been coming out to town halls and public consultations because they are legitimately concerned about the Prime Minister's own proposals. They know this is going to have such a negative impact, because so many of them are local business owners. These use these measures legitimately to pass on the family farm or the fishing boat.Today, all four Atlantic opposition leaders are denouncing the Prime Minister's plan, because they know that under his administration, middle-class Canadians are paying more. It is even worse in Atlantic Canada, where provincial Liberal taxes are already killing jobs and opportunities.Will the Prime Minister finally listen to his Atlantic Canadian friends, and even his own caucus, and cancel these unfair tax hikes?
Mr. Speaker, these Conservatives will always call out rank hypocrisy when we see it. We know that under the current Liberal government, the middle class is paying higher taxes. Farmers, tradespeople, and small business owners across Canada are worried, and crippling new tax proposals from the government could see them paying even more. They pay more while the Prime Minister, the finance minister, and their family fortunes will remain untouched. Why should hard-working farm families see their taxes increase, when the wealthy elites, like this Prime Minister, will continue to have their family fortunes sheltered?
Mr. Speaker, these Liberal tax proposals were carefully crafted to protect those who matter most to the Liberals, themselves. Under the current Liberal government, wealthy insiders are always taken care of. The finance minister's billion-dollar family business, Morneau Shepell, is protected. The Prime Minister's family fortune and taxpayer-paid nannies will be sheltered while small businesses are forced to pay more. Can the Prime Minister confirm he will not lose a single cent of his family fortune because of these Liberal tax changes?
Mr. Speaker, over the past two years we have seen, after 10 long years of Conservative governance, positive signs of growth, job creation, and an economy on the upswing. A large part of that is because of the investments we made in our communities, in the middle class, and because we lowered taxes on the middle class and raised them on the wealthiest 1%. We brought in the Canada child benefit, which puts more money in the pockets of those who need it by not sending money to those who do not need it. We continue to be committed to making our tax system fairer for Canadians. That is exactly what we are doing with the recent measures we are discussing.
Mr. Speaker, nobody saw their child care benefit increase more than the Prime Minister, who now has two taxpayer funded nannies, despite the fact that he has a massive, multi-million dollar family fortune. A small business person earning just $50,000 a year would, under the proposed plan, pay a tax rate of 60% on his passive income. The Prime Minister would pay 53% on his passive income. Why is a small business person paying so much more than this millionaire Prime Minister?
Mr. Speaker, the government House leader said this about the about the Liberal tax hikes: The longer we're talking about this, the more people are concerned that they will be impacted, which is really raising a fear. Well, she is right. Entrepreneurs, small business owners, farmers, and their employees are worried sick about the impact of these Liberal tax changes. Here is the real slap in the face: these tax changes will have no impact on wealthy investments like those of the Prime Minister's.Why are the Prime Minister's investments and business revenues untouched by these tax changes?
Mr. Speaker, I can understand the NDP members' impatience. They always seem to be impatient about everything. We are working very, very hard to get just that. We have put close to one billion dollars to address tax avoidance and tax evasion by giving the Canada Revenue Agency the tools to be able to counter that. We continue to work hard on making our tax system fairer. That is why we put forward proposals that will ask wealthy Canadians to stop using the advantages that the system currently gives them. That is why we are changing the system. I would love to hear the NDP supporting us in that measure.
Mr. Speaker, the reality is that 81% of middle class families pay more taxes today than they did under the previous Conservative government. Now the Prime Minister is directly attacking our local businesses. His tax reform will destroy jobs across Canada by taking more money from small businesses and the middle class.Is the new slogan of the Liberal Party and the Prime Minister, who will not even be affected by his own tax reform, do as I say, not as I do?
Mr. Speaker, thousands of Canadians are worried about their jobs. Yesterday, we had a reality check with the Trump administration in Washington when it imposed ridiculously high tariffs on Bombardier, but it is not just the employees of Bombardier who are worried. Across Canada, companies that are part of its supply chain have every reason to be concerned. What concrete action will the Prime Minister take to save those Canadian jobs?
Mr. Speaker, we have significantly increased support to first nations education and to young indigenous people in difficult situations, but we know there is a lot more work to do. That is why we have taken the historic, concrete step toward moving beyond the Indian Act once and for all by separating Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada into two distinct departments, one for the nation-to-nation relationships and the other for indigenous service delivery. This is a meaningful, concrete step that is going to make a real impact in the lives and the future of millions of Canadians across this country.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Bourassa for his question. The World Anti-Doping Agency is an important organization for Montreal, Quebec and all of Canada. The Minister of Transportation, the Minister of Global Affairs, the Minister ofInnovation, Science and Economic Development, as well as the Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, along with the Government of Quebec and the City of Montreal, are working hard to ensure the agency keeps its headquarters in Montreal. There is still work to do, but I am pleased to hear that the agency's executive committee is in negotiations to keep its headquarters in Montreal after 2021 for another 10 years.
Mr. Speaker, once again, the New Democrats think we are doing too much to create economic growth, and the Conservatives think we are doing too much to protect the environment.We are moving forward with a responsible plan that acknowledges our commitments under the Paris agreement as well as our responsibilities towards our children's future, and we are protecting the environment in a responsible way by creating the jobs of the future.That is what Canadians expect, and that is what we are always going to do.
It is not just us who are upset, Mr. Speaker. We are here as the voice of the millions of Canadians who are going to be hurt by his tax cuts. The Conservative record on this is clear. Even the parliamentary budget officer agreed that Conservative changes have been more progressive overall, and that under the Conservative government, low and middle income earners have benefited more, in relative terms, than higher income earners. Let us talk about the wealthy. The Prime Minister spent Monday with a Chinese billionaire, and last week he met for the third time with the CEO of BlackRock. Why does the Prime Minister love spending so much time with his billionaire friends, but then he locks the door on hard-working middle-class Canadians?
Mr. Speaker, here is the reality. The Prime Minister promised a nation-to-nation relationship and to stop taking first nations children to court. Rather than comply with the Human Rights Tribunal's three separate rulings, two years into his mandate he is still spending millions of dollars to fight first nations children in court. That is the reality.What those children want to know is this: why is the Prime Minister still fighting them in court?
Mr. Speaker, we are listening to small businesses and to Canadians. They tell us that they want our tax system to be fair and equitable. It is not fair that wealthy Canadians are able to incorporate so they can pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is why we made a commitment during the election campaign to raise taxes for the wealthy, cut taxes for middle-class Canadians, and help the middle class, including small businesses, succeed in our economy.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to inform the House that our Minister of Foreign Affairs brought up this issue directly with trade representative Lighthizer today during the NAFTA negotiations. We will continue to stand up for Canadian jobs every step of the way, defend our workers in the aerospace industry in Quebec, and right across the country. We know the punitive actions taken by Boeing are completely unfounded and without merit. We continue to stand by the Canadian aerospace industry, and we will fight for it every step of the way.
Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member wants to talk numbers, then let us be clear. There are 1.8 million private corporations in Canada. Of those 1.8 million, 30,000 hold 80% of the net investment. We think that those 30,000 corporations should pay their share of taxes. That is why we are making the system fairer. We are supporting the middle class, we are supporting small businesses, but we are going to ask the wealthy to pay their fair share.
Mr. Speaker, does the Prime Minister really want us to look at the promises he has made? Let us look at another one of his promises. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered the Prime Minister three times to put an end to the racial discrimination against first nations children.Rather than comply, the Prime Minister insists on fighting indigenous children.Why is the Prime Minister so determined to perpetuate his government's discrimination against first nations children?
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has gone across the country accusing our small businesses of avoiding paying their fair share, attacking them as wealthy cheats. Those are the words of the Prime Minister. Now he wants us to cry crocodile tears for him because people are asking questions about the bills that he is going to have to pay under these proposals.Under the proposals, a small business owner will pay as much as 73% of his passive income, whereas the Prime Minister will pay almost one-third less on his public pension. How is that fair?
Mr. Speaker, we are committed to a renewed nation-to-nation relationship and to closing the gap in health and mental wellness outcomes for first nations and Inuit peoples. We are investing more than $300 million each year in community programming to help address the mental wellness needs of first nations and Inuit populations. Budget 2017 also included $118.2 million over five years to supplement existing mental health programming for first nations and Inuit. There remains much more to do, but we are committed to supporting local communities in a true Inuit-to-crown relationship.
Mr. Speaker, we all know that our oceans are absolutely essential to our planet's health.As Canadians, we are all connected to our oceans, which are significant to our heritage, our culture, and of course our economy. Canada is committed to protecting 5% of our marine and coastal areas by the end of this year, and 10% by 2020.Can the Prime Minister update this House on the government's progress toward these targets?
Mr. Speaker, what Canadians understand is that in order to grow a strong economy we need to protect the environment, and in order to protect the environment we need to grow the economy. We need to do them both together.Members on the opposite side of the House have picked one or the other. They do not understand that we need to do them both together. That is why at the same time we are moving forward on an economic plan that creates good jobs and gets our resources to new markets, we are bringing in a national carbon pricing framework. We are creating a world-class oceans protections plan. We are incentivizing the creation of renewable energy
Mr. Speaker, we stand up every day to defend jobs here in Canada, and we will continue to do so.In our dealings with the U.S. and countries around the world, we know that standing up for workers' interests and for the Canadian economy's ability to be innovative and grow is essential for the future success of Canada and the world.We will continue to defend aerospace jobs across Canada, and we will continue to stand against the irresponsible actions of Boeing and the U.S.
Mr. Speaker, more and more people are standing up against the Liberals' ad hoc tax reform: our local businesses, business associations, chambers of commerce, the provinces, and now even some Liberal members on that side of the House.Will those members across the aisle have the courage to stand up and tell this Prime Minister that enough is enough, that he must not raise taxes on business people, who create jobs for themselves and their employees?
Mr. Speaker, at yesterday's meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, experts confirmed that the Prime Minister's plan to raise taxes on local businesses is going to hurt the middle class. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has admitted that his own family fortune will not be touched by these tax hikes. It is hardly surprising that small business owners are up in arms.When is the Prime Minister going to stop taking money away from local business owners and start listening to them instead?
Mr. Speaker, this government is always proud to stand up for, and stand with, our friends from Atlantic Canada.We know that creating economic growth and boosting small businesses that create economic opportunity across Atlantic Canada is a priority that this government shares with all Atlantic Canadians.That is why we are moving forward to make our tax system fairer. It is so that we can support small businesses as they work hard to grow our economy right across the country, and we can make sure that everyone pays their fair share of taxes.
Mr. Speaker, in 2015, Canadian companies hid nearly $40 billion in tax havens, which cost Canadian taxpayers between $5 billion and $8 billion in unpaid taxes. The Liberals claim to want a tax system in which everyone pays their fair share.When are they going to crack down on companies that take advantage of tax havens?
Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate all members of the House from all parties who came together to make sure that this monument got built. This is an important commemoration of the six million Jewish men, women, and children, as well as the five million other victims, who were murdered during the Holocaust.It will recognize those who survived, many of whom made their way to countries around the world, including Canada, and it will stand as a reminder of the dangers of hatred, racism, and intolerance, while affirming respect for human rights, dignity, and resilience.With this monument, we all stand together and say solemnly Never again.
Mr. Speaker, here is what the Liberal platform promised: an overdue and wide-ranging review of the over $100 billion in increasingly complex tax expenditures that now exist. That is precisely what we in the NDP are calling for, to widen the consultations and go after tax havens and stock option loopholes like the Liberals promised, but the government refuses. The Minister of Finance said that that issue is not something that we've backed away from. It's just not something we've moved forward on.Will the Liberals respect their own platform and finally go after tax scams for the rich?
Mr. Speaker, if the members opposite want to talk about how Canadian families are doing, they need to acknowledge the Canada child benefit, which the Fraser Institute completely overlooked. The Canada child benefit delivers more money to nine out of 10 Canadian families, and it has been doing so for over a year now. Not only is it lifting hundreds of thousands of kids out of poverty across this country, reducing child poverty by 40%, but it is also creating growth in our economy by putting more money in the pockets of the middle-class families who need it. These are the things we are doing that the Conservatives never did, and that they opposed.
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister's speech to the UN General Assembly stressed the humiliation, neglect, and abuse that many indigenous people have suffered as a result of colonialism in Canada. The trauma experienced by those of us who attended residential schools has resulted in transgenerational addiction and mental health issues in Nunavut. These issues have contributed and continue to contribute to a suicide rate in Nunavut that is 10 times the national average. Can the Prime Minister inform the House of the government's plan to address this crisis?
Mr. Speaker, we are enhancing government openness and transparency by bringing in the most significant changes to the Access to Information Act since 1983.We are empowering the Information Commissioner to order government information to be released. We are expanding the act to include a system of legislated proactive disclosure for ministers' offices, the Prime Minister's Office, and others. We are making key information, such as question period notes and briefing books for new ministers, available to all Canadians without anyone having to make an access to information request. When it comes to openness and transparency, we
Mr. Speaker, so many families in Atlantic Canada rely on local businesses
Mr. Speaker, there it is. The Liberal government will actually be increasing greenhouse gas emissions.The Prime Minister is fond of lecturing everyone else, but he is the process of following Stephen Harper's plan, on Stephen Harper's timeline, using Stephen Harper's targets. However, he will never be able to meet them, because he has no plan for reducing greenhouse gases. If we do not reduce greenhouse gases, anything else we do will be pointless.When is the Prime Minister going to be able to look Canadians in the eye and say, Yes, we are going to reduce GHGs in this country?That is the question. He needs to stop dodging.
Mr. Speaker, we are happy to engage in ongoing consultations with Canadians on the details of how to move forward in the best way so that we make the tax system fairer. However, at the core of this government is a promise to support the middle class and those working hard to join it, and to help small businesses succeed in an increasingly disruptive globalized world. We are focused on helping Canadians, because for 10 years that government focused on the wealthiest.
Mr. Speaker, we are deeply committed to achieving our marine conservation targets. I am pleased to announce in this House today that we are taking one more step toward reaching our goal by creating two marine refuges on the east coast, including one in Miramichi Bay, in my colleague's riding.This is just one more example of our real action to protect our oceans for future generations.
Mr. Speaker, no relationship is more important to this government than our relationship with first nations and indigenous people. That is why we allocated an unprecedented $8.4 billion in our first year and $5 billion the following year to provide services to indigenous youth and to address the completely unacceptable gaps in these services.We know that there is a lot of work to do, and we will keep on doing it. Our new Minister of Indigenous Services has my full confidence; she will continue to keep that long-awaited promise and give our indigenous youth a better future.
Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to completely overhauling child and family services in full partnership with first nations communities. The minister's special representative has met with over 26 chiefs, experts, officials, advocates, and individuals with lived experience from coast to coast to coast to inform our commitment to first nations child welfare reform.We look forward to receiving her report and recommendations on how we can transform the system to better support and reflect the needs of first nations children and put their well-being first.
Mr. Speaker, the World Anti-Doping Agency is located in Montreal. It is a very important organization, given its mission. Not only does it create good jobs in Montreal, but it also enhances its reputation on the world stage. Could the member for Papineau, the Prime Minister, please tell the House and Canadians about what the government has done to ensure that this agency stays in Montreal well into the future?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians expect quality service from Canada Post, and that is what we have promised to deliver. We all know the world is changing. We placed a moratorium on new community mailboxes. We recognize the need for more conversations about how best to serve Canadians and to ensure that Canada Post is meeting our expectations and fulfilling our responsibilities. We are working very hard on that.
Mr. Speaker, for 10 years the Conservative government tried to create economic growth by giving tax breaks to the wealthy, but that did not work. That is why Canadians asked our government to fix the system, to make it fairer and more equitable, by raising taxes on the wealthy and lowering them on the middle class. We will always support the middle class. We will always support our small businesses, but we want our system to be fair. That is why we are asking the wealthy to pay more.
Mr. Speaker, we continue to raise the bar on openness and transparency by bringing forward the most significant changes to access to information since 1983. We are empowering the Information Commissioner to order information to be released. We are expanding the act to include a system of legislative proactive disclosure for ministers' offices, the Prime Minister's Office, administration institutions that support Parliament, and others. We have committed to making Parliament more open, accountable, and accessible to Canadians, and that is exactly what we are doing.
Mr. Speaker, there is a pattern with the Prime Minister talking about himself. He takes away child care benefits from families across Canada saying wealthy families like his do not need help with their child care. Then, he gets two full-time nannies paid for by, guess who, the taxpayer. He then says the rich should pay more, and he taxes all of our local businesses while his investment is protected.Why is the Prime Minister always creating policy that protects him, and making hard-working Canadians pay his bills?
Mr. Speaker, moving forward with a nation-to-nation relationship in the spirit of reconciliation means consulting. It means listening to the affected people to understand how best to move forward. That is why the special representative has met with 26 chiefs, experts, officials, advocates, and individuals with extraordinary lived experiences from coast to coast to coast to inform how we are moving forward on completely renewing child and family services for first nations communities.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I was proud and delighted to announce, along with the Minister of Science, Canada's new chief science advisor, Dr. Mona Nemer. Dr. Nemer is a distinguished Canadian health researcher and a leading academic executive at the University of Ottawa. As chief science advisor, she will provide impartial scientific advice to me and the Minister of Science so we can make better decisions, based on evidence, on health and environmental issues that affect all Canadians.
Mr. Speaker, one should not be able to stand in the House and just make things up.
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Mr. Speaker, one should not be able to stand in the House and just make things up.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I was proud and delighted to announce, along with the Minister of Science, Canada's new chief science advisor, Dr. Mona Nemer. Dr. Nemer is a distinguished Canadian health researcher and a leading academic executive at the University of Ottawa. As chief science advisor, she will provide impartial scientific advice to me and the Minister of Science so we can make better decisions, based on evidence, on health and environmental issues that affect all Canadians.
Mr. Speaker, moving forward with a nation-to-nation relationship in the spirit of reconciliation means consulting. It means listening to the affected people to understand how best to move forward. That is why the special representative has met with 26 chiefs, experts, officials, advocates, and individuals with extraordinary lived experiences from coast to coast to coast to inform how we are moving forward on completely renewing child and family services for first nations communities.
Mr. Speaker, there is a pattern with the Prime Minister talking about himself. He takes away child care benefits from families across Canada saying wealthy families like his do not need help with their child care. Then, he gets two full-time nannies paid for by, guess who, the taxpayer. He then says the rich should pay more, and he taxes all of our local businesses while his investment is protected.Why is the Prime Minister always creating policy that protects him, and making hard-working Canadians pay his bills?
Mr. Speaker, we continue to raise the bar on openness and transparency by bringing forward the most significant changes to access to information since 1983. We are empowering the Information Commissioner to order information to be released. We are expanding the act to include a system of legislative proactive disclosure for ministers' offices, the Prime Minister's Office, administration institutions that support Parliament, and others. We have committed to making Parliament more open, accountable, and accessible to Canadians, and that is exactly what we are doing.
Mr. Speaker, for 10 years the Conservative government tried to create economic growth by giving tax breaks to the wealthy, but that did not work. That is why Canadians asked our government to fix the system, to make it fairer and more equitable, by raising taxes on the wealthy and lowering them on the middle class. We will always support the middle class. We will always support our small businesses, but we want our system to be fair. That is why we are asking the wealthy to pay more.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians expect quality service from Canada Post, and that is what we have promised to deliver. We all know the world is changing. We placed a moratorium on new community mailboxes. We recognize the need for more conversations about how best to serve Canadians and to ensure that Canada Post is meeting our expectations and fulfilling our responsibilities. We are working very hard on that.
Mr. Speaker, the World Anti-Doping Agency is located in Montreal. It is a very important organization, given its mission. Not only does it create good jobs in Montreal, but it also enhances its reputation on the world stage. Could the member for Papineau, the Prime Minister, please tell the House and Canadians about what the government has done to ensure that this agency stays in Montreal well into the future?
Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to completely overhauling child and family services in full partnership with first nations communities. The minister's special representative has met with over 26 chiefs, experts, officials, advocates, and individuals with lived experience from coast to coast to coast to inform our commitment to first nations child welfare reform.We look forward to receiving her report and recommendations on how we can transform the system to better support and reflect the needs of first nations children and put their well-being first.
Mr. Speaker, no relationship is more important to this government than our relationship with first nations and indigenous people. That is why we allocated an unprecedented $8.4 billion in our first year and $5 billion the following year to provide services to indigenous youth and to address the completely unacceptable gaps in these services.We know that there is a lot of work to do, and we will keep on doing it. Our new Minister of Indigenous Services has my full confidence; she will continue to keep that long-awaited promise and give our indigenous youth a better future.
Mr. Speaker, we are deeply committed to achieving our marine conservation targets. I am pleased to announce in this House today that we are taking one more step toward reaching our goal by creating two marine refuges on the east coast, including one in Miramichi Bay, in my colleague's riding.This is just one more example of our real action to protect our oceans for future generations.
Mr. Speaker, we are happy to engage in ongoing consultations with Canadians on the details of how to move forward in the best way so that we make the tax system fairer. However, at the core of this government is a promise to support the middle class and those working hard to join it, and to help small businesses succeed in an increasingly disruptive globalized world. We are focused on helping Canadians, because for 10 years that government focused on the wealthiest.
Mr. Speaker, so many families in Atlantic Canada rely on local businesses
Mr. Speaker, there it is. The Liberal government will actually be increasing greenhouse gas emissions.The Prime Minister is fond of lecturing everyone else, but he is the process of following Stephen Harper's plan, on Stephen Harper's timeline, using Stephen Harper's targets. However, he will never be able to meet them, because he has no plan for reducing greenhouse gases. If we do not reduce greenhouse gases, anything else we do will be pointless.When is the Prime Minister going to be able to look Canadians in the eye and say, Yes, we are going to reduce GHGs in this country?That is the question. He needs to stop dodging.
Mr. Speaker, we are enhancing government openness and transparency by bringing in the most significant changes to the Access to Information Act since 1983.We are empowering the Information Commissioner to order government information to be released. We are expanding the act to include a system of legislated proactive disclosure for ministers' offices, the Prime Minister's Office, and others. We are making key information, such as question period notes and briefing books for new ministers, available to all Canadians without anyone having to make an access to information request. When it comes to openness and transparency, we
Mr. Speaker, if the members opposite want to talk about how Canadian families are doing, they need to acknowledge the Canada child benefit, which the Fraser Institute completely overlooked. The Canada child benefit delivers more money to nine out of 10 Canadian families, and it has been doing so for over a year now. Not only is it lifting hundreds of thousands of kids out of poverty across this country, reducing child poverty by 40%, but it is also creating growth in our economy by putting more money in the pockets of the middle-class families who need it. These are the things we are doing that the Conservatives never did, and that they opposed.
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister's speech to the UN General Assembly stressed the humiliation, neglect, and abuse that many indigenous people have suffered as a result of colonialism in Canada. The trauma experienced by those of us who attended residential schools has resulted in transgenerational addiction and mental health issues in Nunavut. These issues have contributed and continue to contribute to a suicide rate in Nunavut that is 10 times the national average. Can the Prime Minister inform the House of the government's plan to address this crisis?
Mr. Speaker, here is what the Liberal platform promised: an overdue and wide-ranging review of the over $100 billion in increasingly complex tax expenditures that now exist. That is precisely what we in the NDP are calling for, to widen the consultations and go after tax havens and stock option loopholes like the Liberals promised, but the government refuses. The Minister of Finance said that that issue is not something that we've backed away from. It's just not something we've moved forward on.Will the Liberals respect their own platform and finally go after tax scams for the rich?
Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate all members of the House from all parties who came together to make sure that this monument got built. This is an important commemoration of the six million Jewish men, women, and children, as well as the five million other victims, who were murdered during the Holocaust.It will recognize those who survived, many of whom made their way to countries around the world, including Canada, and it will stand as a reminder of the dangers of hatred, racism, and intolerance, while affirming respect for human rights, dignity, and resilience.With this monument, we all stand together and say solemnly Never again.
Mr. Speaker, in 2015, Canadian companies hid nearly $40 billion in tax havens, which cost Canadian taxpayers between $5 billion and $8 billion in unpaid taxes. The Liberals claim to want a tax system in which everyone pays their fair share.When are they going to crack down on companies that take advantage of tax havens?
Mr. Speaker, this government is always proud to stand up for, and stand with, our friends from Atlantic Canada.We know that creating economic growth and boosting small businesses that create economic opportunity across Atlantic Canada is a priority that this government shares with all Atlantic Canadians.That is why we are moving forward to make our tax system fairer. It is so that we can support small businesses as they work hard to grow our economy right across the country, and we can make sure that everyone pays their fair share of taxes.
Mr. Speaker, at yesterday's meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, experts confirmed that the Prime Minister's plan to raise taxes on local businesses is going to hurt the middle class. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has admitted that his own family fortune will not be touched by these tax hikes. It is hardly surprising that small business owners are up in arms.When is the Prime Minister going to stop taking money away from local business owners and start listening to them instead?
Mr. Speaker, we stand up every day to defend jobs here in Canada, and we will continue to do so.In our dealings with the U.S. and countries around the world, we know that standing up for workers' interests and for the Canadian economy's ability to be innovative and grow is essential for the future success of Canada and the world.We will continue to defend aerospace jobs across Canada, and we will continue to stand against the irresponsible actions of Boeing and the U.S.
Mr. Speaker, more and more people are standing up against the Liberals' ad hoc tax reform: our local businesses, business associations, chambers of commerce, the provinces, and now even some Liberal members on that side of the House.Will those members across the aisle have the courage to stand up and tell this Prime Minister that enough is enough, that he must not raise taxes on business people, who create jobs for themselves and their employees?
Mr. Speaker, what Canadians understand is that in order to grow a strong economy we need to protect the environment, and in order to protect the environment we need to grow the economy. We need to do them both together.Members on the opposite side of the House have picked one or the other. They do not understand that we need to do them both together. That is why at the same time we are moving forward on an economic plan that creates good jobs and gets our resources to new markets, we are bringing in a national carbon pricing framework. We are creating a world-class oceans protections plan. We are incentivizing the creation of renewable energy
Mr. Speaker, we all know that our oceans are absolutely essential to our planet's health.As Canadians, we are all connected to our oceans, which are significant to our heritage, our culture, and of course our economy. Canada is committed to protecting 5% of our marine and coastal areas by the end of this year, and 10% by 2020.Can the Prime Minister update this House on the government's progress toward these targets?
Mr. Speaker, we are committed to a renewed nation-to-nation relationship and to closing the gap in health and mental wellness outcomes for first nations and Inuit peoples. We are investing more than $300 million each year in community programming to help address the mental wellness needs of first nations and Inuit populations. Budget 2017 also included $118.2 million over five years to supplement existing mental health programming for first nations and Inuit. There remains much more to do, but we are committed to supporting local communities in a true Inuit-to-crown relationship.
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has gone across the country accusing our small businesses of avoiding paying their fair share, attacking them as wealthy cheats. Those are the words of the Prime Minister. Now he wants us to cry crocodile tears for him because people are asking questions about the bills that he is going to have to pay under these proposals.Under the proposals, a small business owner will pay as much as 73% of his passive income, whereas the Prime Minister will pay almost one-third less on his public pension. How is that fair?
Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member wants to talk numbers, then let us be clear. There are 1.8 million private corporations in Canada. Of those 1.8 million, 30,000 hold 80% of the net investment. We think that those 30,000 corporations should pay their share of taxes. That is why we are making the system fairer. We are supporting the middle class, we are supporting small businesses, but we are going to ask the wealthy to pay their fair share.
Mr. Speaker, does the Prime Minister really want us to look at the promises he has made? Let us look at another one of his promises. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered the Prime Minister three times to put an end to the racial discrimination against first nations children.Rather than comply, the Prime Minister insists on fighting indigenous children.Why is the Prime Minister so determined to perpetuate his government's discrimination against first nations children?
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to inform the House that our Minister of Foreign Affairs brought up this issue directly with trade representative Lighthizer today during the NAFTA negotiations. We will continue to stand up for Canadian jobs every step of the way, defend our workers in the aerospace industry in Quebec, and right across the country. We know the punitive actions taken by Boeing are completely unfounded and without merit. We continue to stand by the Canadian aerospace industry, and we will fight for it every step of the way.
Mr. Speaker, we are listening to small businesses and to Canadians. They tell us that they want our tax system to be fair and equitable. It is not fair that wealthy Canadians are able to incorporate so they can pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is why we made a commitment during the election campaign to raise taxes for the wealthy, cut taxes for middle-class Canadians, and help the middle class, including small businesses, succeed in our economy.
Mr. Speaker, here is the reality. The Prime Minister promised a nation-to-nation relationship and to stop taking first nations children to court. Rather than comply with the Human Rights Tribunal's three separate rulings, two years into his mandate he is still spending millions of dollars to fight first nations children in court. That is the reality.What those children want to know is this: why is the Prime Minister still fighting them in court?
It is not just us who are upset, Mr. Speaker. We are here as the voice of the millions of Canadians who are going to be hurt by his tax cuts. The Conservative record on this is clear. Even the parliamentary budget officer agreed that Conservative changes have been more progressive overall, and that under the Conservative government, low and middle income earners have benefited more, in relative terms, than higher income earners. Let us talk about the wealthy. The Prime Minister spent Monday with a Chinese billionaire, and last week he met for the third time with the CEO of BlackRock. Why does the Prime Minister love spending so much time with his billionaire friends, but then he locks the door on hard-working middle-class Canadians?
Mr. Speaker, once again, the New Democrats think we are doing too much to create economic growth, and the Conservatives think we are doing too much to protect the environment.We are moving forward with a responsible plan that acknowledges our commitments under the Paris agreement as well as our responsibilities towards our children's future, and we are protecting the environment in a responsible way by creating the jobs of the future.That is what Canadians expect, and that is what we are always going to do.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Bourassa for his question. The World Anti-Doping Agency is an important organization for Montreal, Quebec and all of Canada. The Minister of Transportation, the Minister of Global Affairs, the Minister ofInnovation, Science and Economic Development, as well as the Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, along with the Government of Quebec and the City of Montreal, are working hard to ensure the agency keeps its headquarters in Montreal. There is still work to do, but I am pleased to hear that the agency's executive committee is in negotiations to keep its headquarters in Montreal after 2021 for another 10 years.
Mr. Speaker, we have significantly increased support to first nations education and to young indigenous people in difficult situations, but we know there is a lot more work to do. That is why we have taken the historic, concrete step toward moving beyond the Indian Act once and for all by separating Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada into two distinct departments, one for the nation-to-nation relationships and the other for indigenous service delivery. This is a meaningful, concrete step that is going to make a real impact in the lives and the future of millions of Canadians across this country.
Mr. Speaker, thousands of Canadians are worried about their jobs. Yesterday, we had a reality check with the Trump administration in Washington when it imposed ridiculously high tariffs on Bombardier, but it is not just the employees of Bombardier who are worried. Across Canada, companies that are part of its supply chain have every reason to be concerned. What concrete action will the Prime Minister take to save those Canadian jobs?
Mr. Speaker, the reality is that 81% of middle class families pay more taxes today than they did under the previous Conservative government. Now the Prime Minister is directly attacking our local businesses. His tax reform will destroy jobs across Canada by taking more money from small businesses and the middle class.Is the new slogan of the Liberal Party and the Prime Minister, who will not even be affected by his own tax reform, do as I say, not as I do?
Mr. Speaker, I can understand the NDP members' impatience. They always seem to be impatient about everything. We are working very, very hard to get just that. We have put close to one billion dollars to address tax avoidance and tax evasion by giving the Canada Revenue Agency the tools to be able to counter that. We continue to work hard on making our tax system fairer. That is why we put forward proposals that will ask wealthy Canadians to stop using the advantages that the system currently gives them. That is why we are changing the system. I would love to hear the NDP supporting us in that measure.
Mr. Speaker, the government House leader said this about the about the Liberal tax hikes: The longer we're talking about this, the more people are concerned that they will be impacted, which is really raising a fear. Well, she is right. Entrepreneurs, small business owners, farmers, and their employees are worried sick about the impact of these Liberal tax changes. Here is the real slap in the face: these tax changes will have no impact on wealthy investments like those of the Prime Minister's.Why are the Prime Minister's investments and business revenues untouched by these tax changes?
Mr. Speaker, nobody saw their child care benefit increase more than the Prime Minister, who now has two taxpayer funded nannies, despite the fact that he has a massive, multi-million dollar family fortune. A small business person earning just $50,000 a year would, under the proposed plan, pay a tax rate of 60% on his passive income. The Prime Minister would pay 53% on his passive income. Why is a small business person paying so much more than this millionaire Prime Minister?
Mr. Speaker, over the past two years we have seen, after 10 long years of Conservative governance, positive signs of growth, job creation, and an economy on the upswing. A large part of that is because of the investments we made in our communities, in the middle class, and because we lowered taxes on the middle class and raised them on the wealthiest 1%. We brought in the Canada child benefit, which puts more money in the pockets of those who need it by not sending money to those who do not need it. We continue to be committed to making our tax system fairer for Canadians. That is exactly what we are doing with the recent measures we are discussing.
Mr. Speaker, these Liberal tax proposals were carefully crafted to protect those who matter most to the Liberals, themselves. Under the current Liberal government, wealthy insiders are always taken care of. The finance minister's billion-dollar family business, Morneau Shepell, is protected. The Prime Minister's family fortune and taxpayer-paid nannies will be sheltered while small businesses are forced to pay more. Can the Prime Minister confirm he will not lose a single cent of his family fortune because of these Liberal tax changes?
Mr. Speaker, these Conservatives will always call out rank hypocrisy when we see it. We know that under the current Liberal government, the middle class is paying higher taxes. Farmers, tradespeople, and small business owners across Canada are worried, and crippling new tax proposals from the government could see them paying even more. They pay more while the Prime Minister, the finance minister, and their family fortunes will remain untouched. Why should hard-working farm families see their taxes increase, when the wealthy elites, like this Prime Minister, will continue to have their family fortunes sheltered?
Mr. Speaker, hundreds of people across Atlantic Canada have been coming out to town halls and public consultations because they are legitimately concerned about the Prime Minister's own proposals. They know this is going to have such a negative impact, because so many of them are local business owners. These use these measures legitimately to pass on the family farm or the fishing boat.Today, all four Atlantic opposition leaders are denouncing the Prime Minister's plan, because they know that under his administration, middle-class Canadians are paying more. It is even worse in Atlantic Canada, where provincial Liberal taxes are already killing jobs and opportunities.Will the Prime Minister finally listen to his Atlantic Canadian friends, and even his own caucus, and cancel these unfair tax hikes?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians have seen this movie before. It was the 2015 election campaign when the Conservatives were focused on me and on protecting wealthy Canadians. We were focusing on listening to Canadians and helping the middle class and those working hard to join it.For 10 years that party gave tax breaks and advantages to wealthy Canadians and did not worry about the middle class. We changed that, and we will continue to change that. No matter how much the Conservatives shout, we will keep standing up for the middle class and those working hard to join it.
Mr. Speaker, we are going to stay focused on what Canadians asked us to do: fix the system, so it is fairer; make the changes to the system that the Conservatives refused to make; and help the middle class and those working hard to join it. That is our focus. We are going to be supporting small businesses. We are going to be supporting hard-working Canadians. Let the Conservatives continue to fight for wealthy Canadians. We know that we grow the economy from the centre out.
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is raising taxes on the middle class. He has cancelled popular tax credits, everything from public transit to children's activities. He is threatening a carbon tax that will raise the cost of everything. Now, on top of payroll taxes that will make it harder for businesses to hire and expand, he is threatening them with a cash grab, but protecting family fortunes like his own and the Minister of Finance's.That is not fair. Nobody voted for that in the last election.When will the Prime Minister finally listen to all those who create jobs in our communities, and stop his unfair tax grab?
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives cannot help themselves, they keep talking about me. I am going to stay focused on Canadians. I am going to stay focused on the fact that 80% of the money in passive investment in private corporations across this country is held by less than 2% of those private corporations.We know, Canadians all know, that the system gives advantages to wealthy Canadians. It encourages wealthy Canadians to use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is not fair, and that is what we are staying focused on.
Mr. Speaker, the issue is not with people not following the rules, because people are following the rules. The problem is that the rules favour wealthier Canadians over the middle class. Those are the rules we inherited from the Conservatives, and that is part of why Canadians chose this party, this government to make those changes to the system. The first thing we did was lower taxes on the middle class and raise them on the wealthiest 1%. We then delivered a Canada child benefit that would help nine out of 10 Canadian families with the high cost of raising their kids by not sending those benefits to millionaire families.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, these Conservatives love to talk about me, but I want to talk about Canadians. I want to talk about those small business owners. I want to talk about hard-working Canadians who did not get a break for 10 years under a Conservative government. We are going to continue to create benefits for the middle class and those working hard to join it, not just because it is the right thing to do but because that is what grows the economy. The Canada child benefit and the tax break for the middle class, these are the things that have led to the economic growth we are seeing now.
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. It is standard practice that whenever members make reference to government documents in the House of Commons, they table them. Earlier on during the debate, I made reference to the Annual Financial Report of the Government of Canada, which showed that the wealthiest Canadians paid less tax in the government's first full fiscal year in office, revenues from that group falling by roughly $1 billion. I quoted directly from page 16 of that document.The Prime Minister said that was all false. I am here today to table the document in question, and trust I will have unanimous and enthusiastic consent from the government.
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government paid $437,000 to former Liberal candidate Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux for only a few months of work. This former Liberal candidate is very unapologetic with regard to this gesture. However, Cindy Blackstock described this half-million-dollar cash grab as nothing more than a public relations exercise. There appears to be a discrepancy in viewpoints here. Does the Prime Minister agree with his former candidate or with Cindy Blackstock?
Mr. Speaker, we are proud that Canada has competitive corporate tax rates. Indeed, it is part of our advantage. If the members opposite want to propose to raise corporate tax rates, they can do so in their next election platform. Until that time, we will continue to focus on growing the economy, supporting small businesses, and helping the middle class and those working hard to join it. That is what Canadians asked us to do. That is what we are going to continue to do.
Mr. Speaker, I was pleased to talk on Monday about the opportunities that small businesses across this country have to sell to the growing market in China. Our government is working hard to be able to ensure that small producers, whether they be ice wines or cherries, lobsters or apparel, be able to pierce the Chinese market, and get good returns for their communities, for their country, and grow the economy. These are the kinds of things we are busy working hard on to benefit directly the middle class, those working hard to join it, workers across this country, and yes, small business owners, who we know are the heart of growth in this country.
Mr. Speaker, if he has a problem with our numbers, this is a Prime Minister who said he would raise $3 billion in additional taxes from the wealthy, but just last week his own finance department produced a report showing that revenues from the wealthiest taxpayers actually went down by $1 billion. In a report this week, the Fraser Institute showed that taxes actually went up by $800 for the average middle-class family. Why is everything that should be going down going up, and everything that should be going up going down?
Mr. Speaker, what we see from these Conservatives are the politics of fear, anxiety, insecurity, and scaremongering. We stand here to commit to Canadians that we will support the middle class and those working hard to join it, that hard-working small business owners will get benefits, and that the wealthiest will pay their fair share. That is what Canadians asked us to do. That is what we are staying focused on, despite the tactics of the opposition.
Mr. Speaker, no one talks a better game than the Prime Minister when it comes to climate change, at the UN and during NAFTA negotiations, name it. The Liberal Party promises that Canada will respect its commitments, but there is a problem. In order to meet our obligations under the Paris accord, our greenhouse gas emissions actually have to start going down at some point. After increasing greenhouse gas emissions during his first two years in office, can the Prime Minister promise Canadians that these will decrease over the next two years, yes or no?
Mr. Speaker, the member opposite has been listening to the consultations, as we have, and has been talking with Canadians and engaging in a broad range of listening activities with folks. However, it disturbs me that he still thinks that we are applying this to every single small business owner. We are looking at the fact that wealthy individuals use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is not fair.We are going to continue to support small businesses and help middle-class Canadians. It is what we got elected to do. It is what we are going to stay focused on, despite all the fears from the other side.
Mr. Speaker, close to half a million dollars is an extraordinary amount of money for what appears to be a public relations exercise. That is what Cindy Blackstock said when trying to understand the payment of $500,000 to a failed Liberal candidate and Liberal Party donor for eight months of work. The Prime Minister rewarded his entitled friend with a gold-plated contract, while indigenous children continue to go without needed care.Will the Prime Minister admit that $500,000 would have been better spent directly on the needs of Canada's indigenous children, rather than going into the pocket of a Liberal insider?
Mr. Speaker, the only distortions are the ones brought forward by the member opposite, who is trying to scare small business owners and torque an issue to defend the approach the Conservatives have always taken of benefiting the wealthy and ignoring the hard-working Canadians who will work every day to build this country.We committed to help the middle class and those working hard to join it, and that is what we are doing.I might ask the member opposite why he voted against lowering taxes on the middle class and raising them on the wealthiest 1%. That is something we are proud we did. Unfortunately, the members opposite voted against it.
Mr. Speaker, can the Prime Minister please point to the section or the clause in his proposed legislation, or the sentence in his consultation paper, in which it clearly states that no one earning less than $150,000 a year will pay any of these new taxes?
Mr. Speaker, it is always a question whether the Conservatives actually believe what they are saying or they just choose to make it up as they go along, because the numbers they put forward have absolutely no basis in reality. We are focused on the fact that the system we inherited from the Conservatives encourages wealthy Canadians to use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians, and that is not fair. We are going to fix that because that is what Canadians expect of this government. That is what we are going to stay focused on.
Mr. Speaker, 100 years ago, the wartime government of Robert Laird Borden introduced an income tax. Believe it or not, Liberals actually opposed the new taxbut wait: Liberals opposed the new income tax because it was not high enough.The Liberal whip of the day said that it would be a mere flea-bite, and complained that the new tax does not take from men enough to make it hurt.I give them full marks for consistency, but after 100 years of Liberals continually pressing to raise taxes, is it not time to stop making it hurt so much?
Watching the government deal with Trump is like watching Bambi deal with Godzilla, Mr. Speaker. It is not an even fight.Is that the Prime Minister's answer? Tens of thousands of jobs across the country are in jeopardy.When will the Prime Minister finally stand up and fight for aerospace jobs here in Canada?
Again, Mr. Speaker, we see that the Conservative Party has one approach: personal attacks. We are not going to engage in that. We are going to focus on helping Canadians
Mr. Speaker
Mr. Speaker, we do not believe in raising taxes on anyone. The member across the way believes in raising them on middle-class small business owners, putting them at a comparative disadvantage versus the wealthiest multinational corporations that trade on Bay Street, companies like Morneau Shepell. Those companies will now be able to outbid our middle-class small business owners and farmers for assets in the marketplace. Why is the Prime Minister creating distortions that favour the wealthiest elite at the expense of the middle class?
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister himself made a campaign promise to restore home mail delivery to those who lost it. Ten months ago, the House of Commons committee that includes a number of his MPs recommended restoring the service, but since then it has been radio silence from his government.Why will the Prime Minister not just admit that he broke his promise to restore home mail delivery?
Mr. Speaker, just a quarter of the requests were answered within the normal 30-day time limit, and a third of all the requests included in the audit received no response. When journalists do get answers, the documents are totally redacted, pages and pages of black ink.Open by default is what we were promised. Will the Prime Minister admit that he messed this up?
Mr. Speaker, if I were defending that plan, I think I might just sit down and be quiet as well. This is a plan that would impose a double tax on the passive savings that small business owners use to fund their retirement. That tax can reach as high as 73%. That double tax would not apply to the millionaire owners of multinational companies trading on Bay Street. Why not?
Mr. Speaker, my constituents understand the importance of having sound evidence on which to base our decisions, the decisions that will affect the health and safety of Canadians. Our government was elected on a promise to restore evidence-based decision-making, beginning with the appointment of a chief science advisor, a position abolished by the previous government. Could the Prime Minister update the House on the important developments with this position?
Mr. Speaker, this government takes tax evasion and tax avoidance very seriously. In the past two budgets, we invested nearly $1 billion to help the Canada Revenue Agency counter tax evasion and tax avoidance.We recognize that there is still work to be done, but we are working on it. We take this very seriously. Like all Canadians, we want our tax system to be fair and equitable for everyone.
Mr. Speaker, I believe you will find unanimous consent for me to move the following motion: That the House acknowledge the importance of the aerospace industry and the fact that Bombardier is a major employer in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada, as well as reiterate the importance of standing up to protect the industry and jobs against Boeings unjustified complaint and the United States governments preliminary decision.
Actually, I did not vote against that, Mr. Speaker; I voted against a plan that has seen the wealthiest Canadians pay less and the average middle-class Canadian pay $800 more.What I voted in favour of was the previous government's plan to lift a million people off the tax rolls altogether and to reduce the tax rate on people earning $30,000 a year by 80%. That is what I voted for.The Prime Minister is imposing a plan that will apply to every single person who owns a private business, including those with low income. It does not apply to the wealthiest shareholders, including those in his cabinet. Why not?
Mr. Speaker, approximately six million Jews perished at the hands of the Nazis during the Second World War. It was an incredibly dark moment in human history, and serves as a reminder to all Canadians that we must continue to fight anti-Semitism wherever we find it.Many are persecuted here and around the world for simply being a Jew. I trust all members agree that we must all stay vigilant to protect their fundamental human rights.Today I will be joining the Prime Minister at the dedication of Canada's national Holocaust memorial. Could the Prime Minister inform the House about the importance of working together on this issue, and will he join me in congratulating all those who helped make the dream of a memorial a reality?
Mr. Speaker, here is another question on the Liberals' wastage of hard-earned tax dollars in trying to cover up political problems. There was $10 million in an attempted secret payoff to Omar Khadr, millions to fight indigenous children and women in court, and almost half a million dollars to a defeated Liberal candidate for a PR campaign to fight a tribunal ruling in favour of indigenous children.Why is the Prime Minister robbing the middle class to pay for Liberal profligacy?
Mr. Speaker, yesterday tax experts confirmed that the Prime Minister's unfair tax hikes would include terrible disincentives that will stall innovation and hurt the middle class. They also condemned the Liberals' negative tone and offensive branding of business owners as tax cheats, and even the Liberal member for Edmonton Centre agrees with that one.Will the Prime Minister listen to entrepreneurs, experts, and even his own caucus members, apologize to business owners, and stop this unfair tax grab?
Mr. Speaker, from the Liberal platform, We will make Parliament open by default. We will ensure that access to information applies to the Prime Ministers and Ministers offices. From an audit released today on how open the government truly is, ...even worse than in the latter years of the former Stephen Harper government. Yesterday, the Access to Information Commissioner said she was very disappointed with the government. As a former teacher, what grade would the Prime Minister give his government's performance on access to information?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians watch these Conservatives stay focused on me, while I stay focused on Canadians. We are focused on small business owners who need help.
Mr. Speaker, I understand the member opposite's outrage at the settlement in the Omar Khadr case. I understand Canadians' outrage. I understand how angry I am that we had to settle that. The fact is that we should all be outraged, and remain outraged, that Canadian governments violated a Canadian's fundamental rights. If we stay angry enough for long enough, maybe no future government will ever violate a Canadian's fundamental rights that way again.
Mr. Speaker, one should not be able to stand in the House and just make things up.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I was proud and delighted to announce, along with the Minister of Science, Canada's new chief science advisor, Dr. Mona Nemer. Dr. Nemer is a distinguished Canadian health researcher and a leading academic executive at the University of Ottawa. As chief science advisor, she will provide impartial scientific advice to me and the Minister of Science so we can make better decisions, based on evidence, on health and environmental issues that affect all Canadians.
Mr. Speaker, moving forward with a nation-to-nation relationship in the spirit of reconciliation means consulting. It means listening to the affected people to understand how best to move forward. That is why the special representative has met with 26 chiefs, experts, officials, advocates, and individuals with extraordinary lived experiences from coast to coast to coast to inform how we are moving forward on completely renewing child and family services for first nations communities.
Mr. Speaker, there is a pattern with the Prime Minister talking about himself. He takes away child care benefits from families across Canada saying wealthy families like his do not need help with their child care. Then, he gets two full-time nannies paid for by, guess who, the taxpayer. He then says the rich should pay more, and he taxes all of our local businesses while his investment is protected.Why is the Prime Minister always creating policy that protects him, and making hard-working Canadians pay his bills?
Mr. Speaker, we continue to raise the bar on openness and transparency by bringing forward the most significant changes to access to information since 1983. We are empowering the Information Commissioner to order information to be released. We are expanding the act to include a system of legislative proactive disclosure for ministers' offices, the Prime Minister's Office, administration institutions that support Parliament, and others. We have committed to making Parliament more open, accountable, and accessible to Canadians, and that is exactly what we are doing.
Mr. Speaker, for 10 years the Conservative government tried to create economic growth by giving tax breaks to the wealthy, but that did not work. That is why Canadians asked our government to fix the system, to make it fairer and more equitable, by raising taxes on the wealthy and lowering them on the middle class. We will always support the middle class. We will always support our small businesses, but we want our system to be fair. That is why we are asking the wealthy to pay more.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians expect quality service from Canada Post, and that is what we have promised to deliver. We all know the world is changing. We placed a moratorium on new community mailboxes. We recognize the need for more conversations about how best to serve Canadians and to ensure that Canada Post is meeting our expectations and fulfilling our responsibilities. We are working very hard on that.
Mr. Speaker, the World Anti-Doping Agency is located in Montreal. It is a very important organization, given its mission. Not only does it create good jobs in Montreal, but it also enhances its reputation on the world stage. Could the member for Papineau, the Prime Minister, please tell the House and Canadians about what the government has done to ensure that this agency stays in Montreal well into the future?
Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to completely overhauling child and family services in full partnership with first nations communities. The minister's special representative has met with over 26 chiefs, experts, officials, advocates, and individuals with lived experience from coast to coast to coast to inform our commitment to first nations child welfare reform.We look forward to receiving her report and recommendations on how we can transform the system to better support and reflect the needs of first nations children and put their well-being first.
Mr. Speaker, no relationship is more important to this government than our relationship with first nations and indigenous people. That is why we allocated an unprecedented $8.4 billion in our first year and $5 billion the following year to provide services to indigenous youth and to address the completely unacceptable gaps in these services.We know that there is a lot of work to do, and we will keep on doing it. Our new Minister of Indigenous Services has my full confidence; she will continue to keep that long-awaited promise and give our indigenous youth a better future.
Mr. Speaker, we are deeply committed to achieving our marine conservation targets. I am pleased to announce in this House today that we are taking one more step toward reaching our goal by creating two marine refuges on the east coast, including one in Miramichi Bay, in my colleague's riding.This is just one more example of our real action to protect our oceans for future generations.
Mr. Speaker, we are happy to engage in ongoing consultations with Canadians on the details of how to move forward in the best way so that we make the tax system fairer. However, at the core of this government is a promise to support the middle class and those working hard to join it, and to help small businesses succeed in an increasingly disruptive globalized world. We are focused on helping Canadians, because for 10 years that government focused on the wealthiest.
Mr. Speaker, so many families in Atlantic Canada rely on local businesses
Mr. Speaker, there it is. The Liberal government will actually be increasing greenhouse gas emissions.The Prime Minister is fond of lecturing everyone else, but he is the process of following Stephen Harper's plan, on Stephen Harper's timeline, using Stephen Harper's targets. However, he will never be able to meet them, because he has no plan for reducing greenhouse gases. If we do not reduce greenhouse gases, anything else we do will be pointless.When is the Prime Minister going to be able to look Canadians in the eye and say, Yes, we are going to reduce GHGs in this country?That is the question. He needs to stop dodging.
Mr. Speaker, we are enhancing government openness and transparency by bringing in the most significant changes to the Access to Information Act since 1983.We are empowering the Information Commissioner to order government information to be released. We are expanding the act to include a system of legislated proactive disclosure for ministers' offices, the Prime Minister's Office, and others. We are making key information, such as question period notes and briefing books for new ministers, available to all Canadians without anyone having to make an access to information request. When it comes to openness and transparency, we
Mr. Speaker, if the members opposite want to talk about how Canadian families are doing, they need to acknowledge the Canada child benefit, which the Fraser Institute completely overlooked. The Canada child benefit delivers more money to nine out of 10 Canadian families, and it has been doing so for over a year now. Not only is it lifting hundreds of thousands of kids out of poverty across this country, reducing child poverty by 40%, but it is also creating growth in our economy by putting more money in the pockets of the middle-class families who need it. These are the things we are doing that the Conservatives never did, and that they opposed.
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister's speech to the UN General Assembly stressed the humiliation, neglect, and abuse that many indigenous people have suffered as a result of colonialism in Canada. The trauma experienced by those of us who attended residential schools has resulted in transgenerational addiction and mental health issues in Nunavut. These issues have contributed and continue to contribute to a suicide rate in Nunavut that is 10 times the national average. Can the Prime Minister inform the House of the government's plan to address this crisis?
Mr. Speaker, here is what the Liberal platform promised: an overdue and wide-ranging review of the over $100 billion in increasingly complex tax expenditures that now exist. That is precisely what we in the NDP are calling for, to widen the consultations and go after tax havens and stock option loopholes like the Liberals promised, but the government refuses. The Minister of Finance said that that issue is not something that we've backed away from. It's just not something we've moved forward on.Will the Liberals respect their own platform and finally go after tax scams for the rich?
Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate all members of the House from all parties who came together to make sure that this monument got built. This is an important commemoration of the six million Jewish men, women, and children, as well as the five million other victims, who were murdered during the Holocaust.It will recognize those who survived, many of whom made their way to countries around the world, including Canada, and it will stand as a reminder of the dangers of hatred, racism, and intolerance, while affirming respect for human rights, dignity, and resilience.With this monument, we all stand together and say solemnly Never again.
Mr. Speaker, in 2015, Canadian companies hid nearly $40 billion in tax havens, which cost Canadian taxpayers between $5 billion and $8 billion in unpaid taxes. The Liberals claim to want a tax system in which everyone pays their fair share.When are they going to crack down on companies that take advantage of tax havens?
Mr. Speaker, this government is always proud to stand up for, and stand with, our friends from Atlantic Canada.We know that creating economic growth and boosting small businesses that create economic opportunity across Atlantic Canada is a priority that this government shares with all Atlantic Canadians.That is why we are moving forward to make our tax system fairer. It is so that we can support small businesses as they work hard to grow our economy right across the country, and we can make sure that everyone pays their fair share of taxes.
Mr. Speaker, at yesterday's meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, experts confirmed that the Prime Minister's plan to raise taxes on local businesses is going to hurt the middle class. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has admitted that his own family fortune will not be touched by these tax hikes. It is hardly surprising that small business owners are up in arms.When is the Prime Minister going to stop taking money away from local business owners and start listening to them instead?
Mr. Speaker, we stand up every day to defend jobs here in Canada, and we will continue to do so.In our dealings with the U.S. and countries around the world, we know that standing up for workers' interests and for the Canadian economy's ability to be innovative and grow is essential for the future success of Canada and the world.We will continue to defend aerospace jobs across Canada, and we will continue to stand against the irresponsible actions of Boeing and the U.S.
Mr. Speaker, more and more people are standing up against the Liberals' ad hoc tax reform: our local businesses, business associations, chambers of commerce, the provinces, and now even some Liberal members on that side of the House.Will those members across the aisle have the courage to stand up and tell this Prime Minister that enough is enough, that he must not raise taxes on business people, who create jobs for themselves and their employees?
Mr. Speaker, what Canadians understand is that in order to grow a strong economy we need to protect the environment, and in order to protect the environment we need to grow the economy. We need to do them both together.Members on the opposite side of the House have picked one or the other. They do not understand that we need to do them both together. That is why at the same time we are moving forward on an economic plan that creates good jobs and gets our resources to new markets, we are bringing in a national carbon pricing framework. We are creating a world-class oceans protections plan. We are incentivizing the creation of renewable energy
Mr. Speaker, we all know that our oceans are absolutely essential to our planet's health.As Canadians, we are all connected to our oceans, which are significant to our heritage, our culture, and of course our economy. Canada is committed to protecting 5% of our marine and coastal areas by the end of this year, and 10% by 2020.Can the Prime Minister update this House on the government's progress toward these targets?
Mr. Speaker, we are committed to a renewed nation-to-nation relationship and to closing the gap in health and mental wellness outcomes for first nations and Inuit peoples. We are investing more than $300 million each year in community programming to help address the mental wellness needs of first nations and Inuit populations. Budget 2017 also included $118.2 million over five years to supplement existing mental health programming for first nations and Inuit. There remains much more to do, but we are committed to supporting local communities in a true Inuit-to-crown relationship.
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has gone across the country accusing our small businesses of avoiding paying their fair share, attacking them as wealthy cheats. Those are the words of the Prime Minister. Now he wants us to cry crocodile tears for him because people are asking questions about the bills that he is going to have to pay under these proposals.Under the proposals, a small business owner will pay as much as 73% of his passive income, whereas the Prime Minister will pay almost one-third less on his public pension. How is that fair?
Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member wants to talk numbers, then let us be clear. There are 1.8 million private corporations in Canada. Of those 1.8 million, 30,000 hold 80% of the net investment. We think that those 30,000 corporations should pay their share of taxes. That is why we are making the system fairer. We are supporting the middle class, we are supporting small businesses, but we are going to ask the wealthy to pay their fair share.
Mr. Speaker, does the Prime Minister really want us to look at the promises he has made? Let us look at another one of his promises. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered the Prime Minister three times to put an end to the racial discrimination against first nations children.Rather than comply, the Prime Minister insists on fighting indigenous children.Why is the Prime Minister so determined to perpetuate his government's discrimination against first nations children?
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to inform the House that our Minister of Foreign Affairs brought up this issue directly with trade representative Lighthizer today during the NAFTA negotiations. We will continue to stand up for Canadian jobs every step of the way, defend our workers in the aerospace industry in Quebec, and right across the country. We know the punitive actions taken by Boeing are completely unfounded and without merit. We continue to stand by the Canadian aerospace industry, and we will fight for it every step of the way.
Mr. Speaker, we are listening to small businesses and to Canadians. They tell us that they want our tax system to be fair and equitable. It is not fair that wealthy Canadians are able to incorporate so they can pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is why we made a commitment during the election campaign to raise taxes for the wealthy, cut taxes for middle-class Canadians, and help the middle class, including small businesses, succeed in our economy.
Mr. Speaker, here is the reality. The Prime Minister promised a nation-to-nation relationship and to stop taking first nations children to court. Rather than comply with the Human Rights Tribunal's three separate rulings, two years into his mandate he is still spending millions of dollars to fight first nations children in court. That is the reality.What those children want to know is this: why is the Prime Minister still fighting them in court?
It is not just us who are upset, Mr. Speaker. We are here as the voice of the millions of Canadians who are going to be hurt by his tax cuts. The Conservative record on this is clear. Even the parliamentary budget officer agreed that Conservative changes have been more progressive overall, and that under the Conservative government, low and middle income earners have benefited more, in relative terms, than higher income earners. Let us talk about the wealthy. The Prime Minister spent Monday with a Chinese billionaire, and last week he met for the third time with the CEO of BlackRock. Why does the Prime Minister love spending so much time with his billionaire friends, but then he locks the door on hard-working middle-class Canadians?
Mr. Speaker, once again, the New Democrats think we are doing too much to create economic growth, and the Conservatives think we are doing too much to protect the environment.We are moving forward with a responsible plan that acknowledges our commitments under the Paris agreement as well as our responsibilities towards our children's future, and we are protecting the environment in a responsible way by creating the jobs of the future.That is what Canadians expect, and that is what we are always going to do.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Bourassa for his question. The World Anti-Doping Agency is an important organization for Montreal, Quebec and all of Canada. The Minister of Transportation, the Minister of Global Affairs, the Minister ofInnovation, Science and Economic Development, as well as the Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, along with the Government of Quebec and the City of Montreal, are working hard to ensure the agency keeps its headquarters in Montreal. There is still work to do, but I am pleased to hear that the agency's executive committee is in negotiations to keep its headquarters in Montreal after 2021 for another 10 years.
Mr. Speaker, we have significantly increased support to first nations education and to young indigenous people in difficult situations, but we know there is a lot more work to do. That is why we have taken the historic, concrete step toward moving beyond the Indian Act once and for all by separating Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada into two distinct departments, one for the nation-to-nation relationships and the other for indigenous service delivery. This is a meaningful, concrete step that is going to make a real impact in the lives and the future of millions of Canadians across this country.
Mr. Speaker, thousands of Canadians are worried about their jobs. Yesterday, we had a reality check with the Trump administration in Washington when it imposed ridiculously high tariffs on Bombardier, but it is not just the employees of Bombardier who are worried. Across Canada, companies that are part of its supply chain have every reason to be concerned. What concrete action will the Prime Minister take to save those Canadian jobs?
Mr. Speaker, the reality is that 81% of middle class families pay more taxes today than they did under the previous Conservative government. Now the Prime Minister is directly attacking our local businesses. His tax reform will destroy jobs across Canada by taking more money from small businesses and the middle class.Is the new slogan of the Liberal Party and the Prime Minister, who will not even be affected by his own tax reform, do as I say, not as I do?
Mr. Speaker, I can understand the NDP members' impatience. They always seem to be impatient about everything. We are working very, very hard to get just that. We have put close to one billion dollars to address tax avoidance and tax evasion by giving the Canada Revenue Agency the tools to be able to counter that. We continue to work hard on making our tax system fairer. That is why we put forward proposals that will ask wealthy Canadians to stop using the advantages that the system currently gives them. That is why we are changing the system. I would love to hear the NDP supporting us in that measure.
Mr. Speaker, the government House leader said this about the about the Liberal tax hikes: The longer we're talking about this, the more people are concerned that they will be impacted, which is really raising a fear. Well, she is right. Entrepreneurs, small business owners, farmers, and their employees are worried sick about the impact of these Liberal tax changes. Here is the real slap in the face: these tax changes will have no impact on wealthy investments like those of the Prime Minister's.Why are the Prime Minister's investments and business revenues untouched by these tax changes?
Mr. Speaker, nobody saw their child care benefit increase more than the Prime Minister, who now has two taxpayer funded nannies, despite the fact that he has a massive, multi-million dollar family fortune. A small business person earning just $50,000 a year would, under the proposed plan, pay a tax rate of 60% on his passive income. The Prime Minister would pay 53% on his passive income. Why is a small business person paying so much more than this millionaire Prime Minister?
Mr. Speaker, over the past two years we have seen, after 10 long years of Conservative governance, positive signs of growth, job creation, and an economy on the upswing. A large part of that is because of the investments we made in our communities, in the middle class, and because we lowered taxes on the middle class and raised them on the wealthiest 1%. We brought in the Canada child benefit, which puts more money in the pockets of those who need it by not sending money to those who do not need it. We continue to be committed to making our tax system fairer for Canadians. That is exactly what we are doing with the recent measures we are discussing.
Mr. Speaker, these Liberal tax proposals were carefully crafted to protect those who matter most to the Liberals, themselves. Under the current Liberal government, wealthy insiders are always taken care of. The finance minister's billion-dollar family business, Morneau Shepell, is protected. The Prime Minister's family fortune and taxpayer-paid nannies will be sheltered while small businesses are forced to pay more. Can the Prime Minister confirm he will not lose a single cent of his family fortune because of these Liberal tax changes?
Mr. Speaker, these Conservatives will always call out rank hypocrisy when we see it. We know that under the current Liberal government, the middle class is paying higher taxes. Farmers, tradespeople, and small business owners across Canada are worried, and crippling new tax proposals from the government could see them paying even more. They pay more while the Prime Minister, the finance minister, and their family fortunes will remain untouched. Why should hard-working farm families see their taxes increase, when the wealthy elites, like this Prime Minister, will continue to have their family fortunes sheltered?
Mr. Speaker, hundreds of people across Atlantic Canada have been coming out to town halls and public consultations because they are legitimately concerned about the Prime Minister's own proposals. They know this is going to have such a negative impact, because so many of them are local business owners. These use these measures legitimately to pass on the family farm or the fishing boat.Today, all four Atlantic opposition leaders are denouncing the Prime Minister's plan, because they know that under his administration, middle-class Canadians are paying more. It is even worse in Atlantic Canada, where provincial Liberal taxes are already killing jobs and opportunities.Will the Prime Minister finally listen to his Atlantic Canadian friends, and even his own caucus, and cancel these unfair tax hikes?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians have seen this movie before. It was the 2015 election campaign when the Conservatives were focused on me and on protecting wealthy Canadians. We were focusing on listening to Canadians and helping the middle class and those working hard to join it.For 10 years that party gave tax breaks and advantages to wealthy Canadians and did not worry about the middle class. We changed that, and we will continue to change that. No matter how much the Conservatives shout, we will keep standing up for the middle class and those working hard to join it.
Mr. Speaker, we are going to stay focused on what Canadians asked us to do: fix the system, so it is fairer; make the changes to the system that the Conservatives refused to make; and help the middle class and those working hard to join it. That is our focus. We are going to be supporting small businesses. We are going to be supporting hard-working Canadians. Let the Conservatives continue to fight for wealthy Canadians. We know that we grow the economy from the centre out.
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is raising taxes on the middle class. He has cancelled popular tax credits, everything from public transit to children's activities. He is threatening a carbon tax that will raise the cost of everything. Now, on top of payroll taxes that will make it harder for businesses to hire and expand, he is threatening them with a cash grab, but protecting family fortunes like his own and the Minister of Finance's.That is not fair. Nobody voted for that in the last election.When will the Prime Minister finally listen to all those who create jobs in our communities, and stop his unfair tax grab?
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives cannot help themselves, they keep talking about me. I am going to stay focused on Canadians. I am going to stay focused on the fact that 80% of the money in passive investment in private corporations across this country is held by less than 2% of those private corporations.We know, Canadians all know, that the system gives advantages to wealthy Canadians. It encourages wealthy Canadians to use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is not fair, and that is what we are staying focused on.
Mr. Speaker, the issue is not with people not following the rules, because people are following the rules. The problem is that the rules favour wealthier Canadians over the middle class. Those are the rules we inherited from the Conservatives, and that is part of why Canadians chose this party, this government to make those changes to the system. The first thing we did was lower taxes on the middle class and raise them on the wealthiest 1%. We then delivered a Canada child benefit that would help nine out of 10 Canadian families with the high cost of raising their kids by not sending those benefits to millionaire families.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, these Conservatives love to talk about me, but I want to talk about Canadians. I want to talk about those small business owners. I want to talk about hard-working Canadians who did not get a break for 10 years under a Conservative government. We are going to continue to create benefits for the middle class and those working hard to join it, not just because it is the right thing to do but because that is what grows the economy. The Canada child benefit and the tax break for the middle class, these are the things that have led to the economic growth we are seeing now.
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. It is standard practice that whenever members make reference to government documents in the House of Commons, they table them. Earlier on during the debate, I made reference to the Annual Financial Report of the Government of Canada, which showed that the wealthiest Canadians paid less tax in the government's first full fiscal year in office, revenues from that group falling by roughly $1 billion. I quoted directly from page 16 of that document.The Prime Minister said that was all false. I am here today to table the document in question, and trust I will have unanimous and enthusiastic consent from the government.
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government paid $437,000 to former Liberal candidate Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux for only a few months of work. This former Liberal candidate is very unapologetic with regard to this gesture. However, Cindy Blackstock described this half-million-dollar cash grab as nothing more than a public relations exercise. There appears to be a discrepancy in viewpoints here. Does the Prime Minister agree with his former candidate or with Cindy Blackstock?
Mr. Speaker, we are proud that Canada has competitive corporate tax rates. Indeed, it is part of our advantage. If the members opposite want to propose to raise corporate tax rates, they can do so in their next election platform. Until that time, we will continue to focus on growing the economy, supporting small businesses, and helping the middle class and those working hard to join it. That is what Canadians asked us to do. That is what we are going to continue to do.
Mr. Speaker, I was pleased to talk on Monday about the opportunities that small businesses across this country have to sell to the growing market in China. Our government is working hard to be able to ensure that small producers, whether they be ice wines or cherries, lobsters or apparel, be able to pierce the Chinese market, and get good returns for their communities, for their country, and grow the economy. These are the kinds of things we are busy working hard on to benefit directly the middle class, those working hard to join it, workers across this country, and yes, small business owners, who we know are the heart of growth in this country.
Mr. Speaker, if he has a problem with our numbers, this is a Prime Minister who said he would raise $3 billion in additional taxes from the wealthy, but just last week his own finance department produced a report showing that revenues from the wealthiest taxpayers actually went down by $1 billion. In a report this week, the Fraser Institute showed that taxes actually went up by $800 for the average middle-class family. Why is everything that should be going down going up, and everything that should be going up going down?
Mr. Speaker, what we see from these Conservatives are the politics of fear, anxiety, insecurity, and scaremongering. We stand here to commit to Canadians that we will support the middle class and those working hard to join it, that hard-working small business owners will get benefits, and that the wealthiest will pay their fair share. That is what Canadians asked us to do. That is what we are staying focused on, despite the tactics of the opposition.
Mr. Speaker, no one talks a better game than the Prime Minister when it comes to climate change, at the UN and during NAFTA negotiations, name it. The Liberal Party promises that Canada will respect its commitments, but there is a problem. In order to meet our obligations under the Paris accord, our greenhouse gas emissions actually have to start going down at some point. After increasing greenhouse gas emissions during his first two years in office, can the Prime Minister promise Canadians that these will decrease over the next two years, yes or no?
Mr. Speaker, the member opposite has been listening to the consultations, as we have, and has been talking with Canadians and engaging in a broad range of listening activities with folks. However, it disturbs me that he still thinks that we are applying this to every single small business owner. We are looking at the fact that wealthy individuals use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians. That is not fair.We are going to continue to support small businesses and help middle-class Canadians. It is what we got elected to do. It is what we are going to stay focused on, despite all the fears from the other side.
Mr. Speaker, close to half a million dollars is an extraordinary amount of money for what appears to be a public relations exercise. That is what Cindy Blackstock said when trying to understand the payment of $500,000 to a failed Liberal candidate and Liberal Party donor for eight months of work. The Prime Minister rewarded his entitled friend with a gold-plated contract, while indigenous children continue to go without needed care.Will the Prime Minister admit that $500,000 would have been better spent directly on the needs of Canada's indigenous children, rather than going into the pocket of a Liberal insider?
Mr. Speaker, the only distortions are the ones brought forward by the member opposite, who is trying to scare small business owners and torque an issue to defend the approach the Conservatives have always taken of benefiting the wealthy and ignoring the hard-working Canadians who will work every day to build this country.We committed to help the middle class and those working hard to join it, and that is what we are doing.I might ask the member opposite why he voted against lowering taxes on the middle class and raising them on the wealthiest 1%. That is something we are proud we did. Unfortunately, the members opposite voted against it.
Mr. Speaker, can the Prime Minister please point to the section or the clause in his proposed legislation, or the sentence in his consultation paper, in which it clearly states that no one earning less than $150,000 a year will pay any of these new taxes?
Mr. Speaker, it is always a question whether the Conservatives actually believe what they are saying or they just choose to make it up as they go along, because the numbers they put forward have absolutely no basis in reality. We are focused on the fact that the system we inherited from the Conservatives encourages wealthy Canadians to use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Canadians, and that is not fair. We are going to fix that because that is what Canadians expect of this government. That is what we are going to stay focused on.
Mr. Speaker, 100 years ago, the wartime government of Robert Laird Borden introduced an income tax. Believe it or not, Liberals actually opposed the new taxbut wait: Liberals opposed the new income tax because it was not high enough.The Liberal whip of the day said that it would be a mere flea-bite, and complained that the new tax does not take from men enough to make it hurt.I give them full marks for consistency, but after 100 years of Liberals continually pressing to raise taxes, is it not time to stop making it hurt so much?
Watching the government deal with Trump is like watching Bambi deal with Godzilla, Mr. Speaker. It is not an even fight.Is that the Prime Minister's answer? Tens of thousands of jobs across the country are in jeopardy.When will the Prime Minister finally stand up and fight for aerospace jobs here in Canada?
Again, Mr. Speaker, we see that the Conservative Party has one approach: personal attacks. We are not going to engage in that. We are going to focus on helping Canadians
Mr. Speaker
Mr. Speaker, we do not believe in raising taxes on anyone. The member across the way believes in raising them on middle-class small business owners, putting them at a comparative disadvantage versus the wealthiest multinational corporations that trade on Bay Street, companies like Morneau Shepell. Those companies will now be able to outbid our middle-class small business owners and farmers for assets in the marketplace. Why is the Prime Minister creating distortions that favour the wealthiest elite at the expense of the middle class?
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister himself made a campaign promise to restore home mail delivery to those who lost it. Ten months ago, the House of Commons committee that includes a number of his MPs recommended restoring the service, but since then it has been radio silence from his government.Why will the Prime Minister not just admit that he broke his promise to restore home mail delivery?
Mr. Speaker, just a quarter of the requests were answered within the normal 30-day time limit, and a third of all the requests included in the audit received no response. When journalists do get answers, the documents are totally redacted, pages and pages of black ink.Open by default is what we were promised. Will the Prime Minister admit that he messed this up?
Mr. Speaker, if I were defending that plan, I think I might just sit down and be quiet as well. This is a plan that would impose a double tax on the passive savings that small business owners use to fund their retirement. That tax can reach as high as 73%. That double tax would not apply to the millionaire owners of multinational companies trading on Bay Street. Why not?
Mr. Speaker, my constituents understand the importance of having sound evidence on which to base our decisions, the decisions that will affect the health and safety of Canadians. Our government was elected on a promise to restore evidence-based decision-making, beginning with the appointment of a chief science advisor, a position abolished by the previous government. Could the Prime Minister update the House on the important developments with this position?
Mr. Speaker, this government takes tax evasion and tax avoidance very seriously. In the past two budgets, we invested nearly $1 billion to help the Canada Revenue Agency counter tax evasion and tax avoidance.We recognize that there is still work to be done, but we are working on it. We take this very seriously. Like all Canadians, we want our tax system to be fair and equitable for everyone.
Mr. Speaker, I believe you will find unanimous consent for me to move the following motion: That the House acknowledge the importance of the aerospace industry and the fact that Bombardier is a major employer in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada, as well as reiterate the importance of standing up to protect the industry and jobs against Boeings unjustified complaint and the United States governments preliminary decision.
Actually, I did not vote against that, Mr. Speaker; I voted against a plan that has seen the wealthiest Canadians pay less and the average middle-class Canadian pay $800 more.What I voted in favour of was the previous government's plan to lift a million people off the tax rolls altogether and to reduce the tax rate on people earning $30,000 a year by 80%. That is what I voted for.The Prime Minister is imposing a plan that will apply to every single person who owns a private business, including those with low income. It does not apply to the wealthiest shareholders, including those in his cabinet. Why not?
Mr. Speaker, approximately six million Jews perished at the hands of the Nazis during the Second World War. It was an incredibly dark moment in human history, and serves as a reminder to all Canadians that we must continue to fight anti-Semitism wherever we find it.Many are persecuted here and around the world for simply being a Jew. I trust all members agree that we must all stay vigilant to protect their fundamental human rights.Today I will be joining the Prime Minister at the dedication of Canada's national Holocaust memorial. Could the Prime Minister inform the House about the importance of working together on this issue, and will he join me in congratulating all those who helped make the dream of a memorial a reality?
Mr. Speaker, here is another question on the Liberals' wastage of hard-earned tax dollars in trying to cover up political problems. There was $10 million in an attempted secret payoff to Omar Khadr, millions to fight indigenous children and women in court, and almost half a million dollars to a defeated Liberal candidate for a PR campaign to fight a tribunal ruling in favour of indigenous children.Why is the Prime Minister robbing the middle class to pay for Liberal profligacy?
Mr. Speaker, yesterday tax experts confirmed that the Prime Minister's unfair tax hikes would include terrible disincentives that will stall innovation and hurt the middle class. They also condemned the Liberals' negative tone and offensive branding of business owners as tax cheats, and even the Liberal member for Edmonton Centre agrees with that one.Will the Prime Minister listen to entrepreneurs, experts, and even his own caucus members, apologize to business owners, and stop this unfair tax grab?
Mr. Speaker, from the Liberal platform, We will make Parliament open by default. We will ensure that access to information applies to the Prime Ministers and Ministers offices. From an audit released today on how open the government truly is, ...even worse than in the latter years of the former Stephen Harper government. Yesterday, the Access to Information Commissioner said she was very disappointed with the government. As a former teacher, what grade would the Prime Minister give his government's performance on access to information?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians watch these Conservatives stay focused on me, while I stay focused on Canadians. We are focused on small business owners who need help.
Mr. Speaker, I understand the member opposite's outrage at the settlement in the Omar Khadr case. I understand Canadians' outrage. I understand how angry I am that we had to settle that. The fact is that we should all be outraged, and remain outraged, that Canadian governments violated a Canadian's fundamental rights. If we stay angry enough for long enough, maybe no future government will ever violate a Canadian's fundamental rights that way again.