Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with my very good friend, someone who is a very hard worker and a very patriotic Canadian, the hon. member for Calgary Skyview.

As the The Who says in its song Won't Get Fooled Again:

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss.

If the bill is any indication of how the government intends to make its legislation, we are going to see a repeat of all its old boss's habits of governing by platitudes and poorly thought-out legislation.

Do not get me wrong. Conservatives always support tax cuts; we are the party of tax cuts. In typical Liberal fashion, the Liberals' new boss tried to plagiarize Conservative policies, but just like the old guy, failed to do it right.

We all know that imitation is the best form of flattery. The fact that the Liberals are copying Conservative policies is a compliment to the hard work our members on this side of the House have been doing over the last few years. I cannot think of a better team than the Conservative MPs, staff and stakeholders who have put together world-class policies for the Liberals to steal.

I want to take this time to give a special thanks to Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre for finally getting the consumer carbon tax repealed once and for all, for all Canadians. After an eight-year fight, Conservatives axed the carbon tax scam for all Canadians, leaving more of Canadians' hard-earned money in their pockets, where it should have been in the first place.

In October 2024, we announced our GST rebate on new homes to save all homebuyers the cost of the GST on newly built homes. After the Liberals' disastrous job-killing capital gains tax hike announcement, Conservatives promised a “bring it home” tax cut for all Canadian workers, including an income tax cut. These were all things we included in our Conservative platform in the last election. Now we see in the bill we are debating today that the Liberals have taken a lot of our ideas but once again have not implemented them properly.

Let us go through the parts of the bill that we are concerned about. Part 1 of the bill would save Canadian workers only 1% on the lowest tax bracket, which for the average worker amounts to about $420 a year. In contrast, Conservatives proposed cutting income tax by 15%, which would lower the first tax bracket to 12.75%. That would save the average worker $900 a year. That is more than double what the Liberals have.

Thanks to Liberal inflation, interest rate hikes, other taxes and the skyrocketing cost of living, wages have not kept up with the rising cost of food, shelter or clothing. Canadians are spending more on taxes than on food, shelter and clothing combined. Families are paying $10,000 more in taxes than they did in 2015. The average family will pay an extra $800 on food just this year, making the annual bill for groceries this year for an average family about $17,000.

Young Canadians are giving up on the dream of home ownership. Young Canadians are paying for basic necessities by borrowing more and more on their credit card. Now, more than ever, there are more missed credit card payments and mortgage delinquencies, and business insolvencies are on the rise. Household debt in Canada has reached $2.5 trillion, up from $1.9 trillion in 2015. Unemployment is on the rise; it is currently at 7% and could go higher, according to TD Bank, but of course the Liberals think a 1% tax cut will make all of that go away.

The Conservative plan to restore affordability more than doubled the income tax cut, and it also included lowering the cost of government, unleashing the economy and energy sectors, and axing the industrial carbon tax. Part 3 of the bill would eliminate only the consumer carbon tax. That would still leave the tax on the producers of oil and gas that powers everything from our trucks to our tractors. An industrial carbon tax means steel and aluminum manufacturers, loggers, natural gas producers and the agricultural sector will all continue to be burdened by this tax, and that tax will be passed down to the end user.

It makes these industries less competitive and less attractive for investment, and it affects their bottom line. That cost is again passed on to the economy through weaker production, less job creation, higher prices and lower productivity.

If Liberals truly wanted to make life more affordable for Canadians, they would have adopted the full Conservative plan, which is to lower the first income tax bracket to 12.75% and finally get rid of the industrial carbon tax for good. This is the same carbon tax, the industrial carbon tax, that has made sure investment has left the country.

It is the energy industry killing policies like the ones in Bill C-69, the no new pipelines bill, that have made Canada weaker and more dependent on others. It is policies like the ones in Bill C-48, the tanker ban, where we can get our product to the west coast, but it cannot go anywhere because of a tanker ban. As well, there is of course the job-killing oil and gas cap, which, according to Deloitte, will kill around 110,000 good-paying energy sector jobs.

Only Conservatives will continue to stand up for our world-class energy sector, which will not only make Canada an energy superpower but also allow it to become independent so we can sell our product. What we have under our feet in Canada is what the world needs. It is good for the environment, and it is great to give Canadians good powerful paycheques.

The last part of the bill that I want to go over is the GST rebate for first-time homebuyers purchasing a new home. The Building Industry and Land Development Association in the GTA said:

Unfortunately, this limitation to first-time buyers only will have a very small impact, as very few new home buyers are first time buyers. It will not substantially help address affordability, nor will it help significantly stimulate sales and construction.

That too is what the Parliamentary Budget Officer said this morning in his report. Only 140,000 new homes a year will be up for sale, and in the housing market, only 20% of homebuyers are first-time buyers. This means few homes will be eligible for this GST rebate.

There is also a time limit on the Liberal plan, as it is for homes purchased before 2031, construction started before 2031 and construction substantially completed by 2036. Conservatives proposed a much broader plan to include more Canadians buying new homes, for all homebuyers, which proposed that homes could be up to $1.3 million and would save homebuyers around $65,000 on the purchase of a new home. The plan would also boost the number of new homes built each year by 36,000 new homes annually.

House prices under the Liberals have skyrocketed, but housing starts cannot keep up with the out-of-control immigration system their new boss and Justin Trudeau supported. Even finance officials admitted the Liberal GST rebate could be inflationary as demand for homes continues to climb but not enough new homes are being built in this country. Meanwhile, the Conservatives' plan would lower home prices for all buyers and spur the construction of new homes.

The new boss is just like the old boss, and this bill makes this very clear.

Conservatives will support the tax relief Canadians need, but we want it to go even further. We need to get this country back on track. After 10 years of these Liberals, whether it was the old guy or this new guy, the policies are all the same and the ministers who sat around the old cabinet table and now sit around the new one are all the same, and this does not change anything.

The cost of living is higher than it has ever been before. Housing prices are higher than they have ever been before. Under the Liberals, housing prices have doubled, whether someone rents or has a mortgage. The cost of groceries is higher than it has ever been before. It is the highest cost in the entire G7.

We can then talk about other things, such as the crime that is out of control. These failed Liberal policies have caused all this devastation on Canadians and changed the look of what Canada has become.

When it comes to Bill C-4, we will propose common-sense amendments to make sure this bill actually provides Canadians with the relief they desperately need.

Jasraj Singh Hallan

$589,771.00