This Week Conservatives Put the Cost of Living Crisis Front and Centre
Plus the CSFN Conference, supporting our veterans, school visit in Cranston, National Day for Truth & Reconciliation and more...
This Week Conservatives Put the Cost of Living Crisis Front and Centre
After the summer break, one would have thought the Liberal government would have become more receptive to tackling the cost of living crisis and runaway inflation with meaningful and comprehensive policy responses, but this was not the case during the first week of the parliamentary Fall session.
The debacle at the passport offices that prevented many from going on their summer vacation after two difficult pandemic years, the skyrocketing cost-of-living crisis as inflation continues unabated especially on groceries and the interest rate hikes are pushing Canadians into making hard decisions to manage their debt loads. The $4.6 billion affordability plan put forward by the Liberal government is anything but a credible response. Let’s go over the main measures. It includes a doubling of the GST rebate for low-income Canadians, a one-time $500 cheque to low-income renters, and the introduction of a dental care plan through the tax system to fulfill part of the coalition deal signed with the NDP. Conservatives have announced that we will be supporting the first GST rebate as part of the C-30 legislation, also know as the Cost of Living Relief Act I, and we will be opposing the half-baked dental plan in the tax system being created in C-31, Cost of Living Relief Act II, that also includes the poorly thought out one-time rental benefit. The total cost of these measures will be $4.5 billion of federal government spending of which $3.2 billion is entirely new spending not planned for in the now out-of-date Liberal budget 2022 from earlier this year.
Let’s consider the housing proposal in C-31. If the Liberal government was serious about solving the housing crisis, they would listen to Conservative proposals to increase the supply of housing. Instead, their one-time cheque of $500 will do nothing to help those in need. In Vancouver, renters are paying almost $2,600 for a one-bedroom apartment. In Toronto, that number is $2,300. Closer to home, and most relevant to Calgarians, the average two bedroom unit was $1,319 according to the Alberta economic dashboard and I know that rents in the southeast are particularly high for families. More than six out of ten renters will not qualify for the rental cheques being sent out, and of those that do qualify, it represents about only a third of one month’s rent for residents renting in Calgary Shepard. This is not a meaningful or comprehensive response. It’s a band aid. Renters sign year long agreements and face sticker shock at rental renewal time when landlords faced with their own squeezing margins and rising interest rates forcing them to increase rents. Printing more money for a one-time benefit is more ad hoc, short-term fiscal responses that will not address the underlying economy wide inflationary pressures.
Let’s look at the GST rebate proposal embedded in C-30. As a conservative, I am supportive of any measure that provide tax relief to Canadians and am reminded that it was Stephen Harper’s conservatives that lowered the GST from 7% to 5% a decade ago. Offering a temporary GST rebate to low-income Canadians is a good idea during an inflationary spiral upwards and shows at least a partial admission by the federal government that our economy is unwell. The GST rebate relief amounts to $467 for an eligible family of four, but it is well below the $1,200 more a year being spent by families to put food on the table due to the drastic increase in food prices from inflation. Additionally, more than 70% of families with children will not receive this support.
How about dental care? It is important to recognize that what the federal government announced is not a dental plan. The proposed law would create a two-year annual tax benefit worth between $260 and $650 for uninsured kids who qualify. It is age limited to those under 12 and a family income below $90,000 with severe draw down of the benefit between $70,000 and $90,000. This is not a credible plan or even an attempt at one. It simply involves direct, tax-free payments for dental expenses. In other words, more cheques being mailed out from a “government program” that simply isn’t one. What the federal government fails to recognize is dental care programs for low-income children already exist in all provinces and territories except Manitoba and the Northwest Territories and almost 70 per cent of Canadians have dental coverage. To pay for these proposals, Conservatives called upon the government to find savings to avoid further costs of government being incurred. Scrapping the $25 million ArriveCan app, the $35 billion Infrastructure Bank that has not produced one project, and cancelling corporate welfare programs that only help large and powerful companies were some ideas Conservatives put forth. The federal government is nearly a half a trillion dollar operation and had the federal government been serious about reducing inflationary pressures its spending is causing then they could have found savings in their budgeted spending to offer up these measures. They chose not to. It is not too much to ask the federal government to find 1% of unnecessary spending to re-orient it to new measures and it would reduce total spending. This pay-as-you-go concept to federal budgeting will be part of the conservative plan to address our out of control federal spending.
The federal conservative response has been to move two motions this week and force the federal government to vote on our proposals to provide actual relief to Canadians. The first motion called on the government to cancel all planned tax increases, including payroll tax hikes planned for January 1st and tax hikes on gas, groceries and home heating on April 1st. This moratorium on new taxes would have provided meaningful help to citizens, small businesses and everyone equally across our economy. The second motion was to stop the planned tripling of the carbon tax that will raise indirectly the costs of gas, home heating and groceries and that will fuel inflation. The Parliamentary Budget Officer reported the carbon tax costs 60% of households more than they get back. This is the same report that many months ago I reported back to constituents that in the case of Alberta, by 2030, 100% of Alberta households will pay more in carbon taxes then they get back in rebates.
The federal carbon tax is set to rise to $65 a tonne in 2023, an increase from the current rate of $50. It is scheduled to rise by $15 a tonne per year until reaching $170 a tonne in 2030. The cost of these increases will be more inflation. The Fraser Institute reported in 2021 that if the Ottawa Liberals follow through on their plan to increase the carbon tax by 2030, Canada will lose 202,000 jobs and experience a 2.1% drop in GDP. The net cost to Albertans of this carbon tax when it is fully implemented will be $2,282 per household. In Saskatchewan, it will be $1,464 per household, and in Manitoba, it will be $1,145 per household. These are the net costs, factoring in the rebates promised by the federal government. However, for the six provinces that do not get a rebate, residents there will be even worse off.
By printing and borrowing more cash, the Liberal government’s inflationary spending does nothing to help Canadians struggling to make ends meet. Uncontrolled spending, with borrowed cash at higher interest rates, will make all Canadians feel the pain of more inflation and higher prices, making it harder for workers, families and seniors to live. The conservative proposed solution is to stop the carbon tax increases, freeze all other tax increases baked into the Liberal 2022 budget, and compel all future spending to be constrained to find $1 of saving for every $1 dollar of new spending.
Motion #1
Motion #2
5th Annual Canadian Walk for Veterans
On Saturday, I joined with my conservative colleagues to recognize the sacrifice of our military, veterans, first responders and their families. We made sure they were well hydrated for their walk. Thank you for how you serve your communities and this country!
Canada Strong and Free Network Conference and Podcast
Thanks to everyone who attended the CSFN event in Red Deer. Encouraged to see so many conservative-minded people looking to strengthen Canada’s democracy. I was interviewed by journalist Andrew Lawton on by private member’s bill on the blight called woke capitalism (also known as stakeholder capitalism) and how my proposal will help return businesses to their traditional pursuit of profit on behalf of their owners and shareholders. Listen below.
Christ The King School Visit
Thank you to Ms. Howe for the invite to meet all your Grade 9 classes at Christ The King Catholic School on September 26th.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
Today is Canada’s 2nd anniversary of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. September 30th is the day our country takes time to reflect on the negative impacts Canada’s residential school system had on First Nations, Inuit and Métis Survivors and their families and communities and how we move forward in reconciliation.
The enactment of this day came in June 2021, responding to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s call to action number 80 by creating the federal holiday.
Stop perpetuating unproven narratives surrounding Residential schools. Research is being done, demand investigation into alleged grave sites.