Canadians getting ‘empty platitudes’ from opposition: Government House leader MacKinnon

The focus of debate here on Parliament Hill on day one very much where it was even a few month months ago pardon me on the cost of living crisis fa facing Canadians so what are the various parties prepared to do what are they advocating for to address that cost of

Living crisis Steve McKinnon is the government’s house leader hi Minister good to see you again thank you I appreciate you making the time today on on the first day um I wanted to ask about your approach going into this sitting and if you intended to focus more on the opposition than on new

Measures to help Canadians who are struggling with the cost of living crisis we intend to outline the measures that we’ve taken and the measures that we will take in terms of achieving better affordability for Canadians help for putting the groceries on the table better and lower and more accessible

Housing so we’re going to focus an awful lot of that but we’re going to point out the contradictions uh and the vag that the opposition has shown when it comes to what their plan is for Canadians today there was a lot more of the latter than the former though all I heard for

Example from the ministers who were tossed with giving a press conference on your economic measures was that you intend to implement what you announced two months ago in the fall economic statement the primary measures in that fall economic statement that were aimed at addressing affordability don’t even

Come into effect until 2025 how does that help people deal with affordability right now what you also heard of today was a brand new initiative to ensure better housing and more accessible and more housing for students for example again in the long run so again but a

Plank and and and as we’ve discussed many times just because something takes a while it doesn’t mean you don’t Implement good policy what you’ve seen is a series of good policy measures that are going to get prices down for Canadians that are going to build more

Homes that are going to change the way that cities deal with housing it’s going to help put uh Canadians put groceries in the fridge and on the table but as we talked about before for example around housing and even today and the reason I’m bring up again is because of both

You talking about the fall economic statement Friday I believe it was and the Minister of Finance today I mean the primary things that you set out in that may be very valid policy maybe worthwhile policy but they don’t even kick in from a budgetary perspective until 2025 perhaps even after the next

Election so are you trying to sort of falsely convince Canadians that you’re acting in their interests around affordability in the immediacy when when you know those again those policies could be valid but they don’t help right now I don’t accept that all of this stuff is delayed what first of all there

Have been a series of measures over a period of many years now through budgets and fall economic statements that are going to have the direct uh result of lowering costs for Canadians of making things more affordable making housing more plentiful and more accessible for Canadians so uh we we’re going to

Continue to put measures in place yes some of them will have some kind of implementation implementation lead up others will have more immediate effect we took the GST for example off Psychotherapy so a a mental health initiative that will be very very helpful for people you can see in all

Kinds of ways this government putting in place measures that are are going to make life easier for people all across this country what you’re not seeing is a plan in fact you got more base slogans from Mr PV today and from the opposition you’ve got no semblance of a plan uh in

Terms of helping Canadians in their day-to-day life just vitriol invective and a lot of uh empty platitudes but the the you know Mr Shear will be on your your counterpart from the conservatives I’ll have the opportunity to ask him about the kinds of things the conservatives would do or that what

You’re accusing them of not doing let’s take the example of the price of grocery prices right and we’ve talked about this before but you’re saying that your government is doing things to help lower the price what are those things because even asking the competition Bureau to more closely study for example the level

Of competition or strengthening the laws around it have not that has not materialized yet in additional competition nor lower prices mhm uh but what you’re also seeing is a full-on we had a grocery rebate we had for lowi income earners a GST uh enhanced rebate

We had a series of measures at the peak of at the peak of uh the inflationary uh cycle which is coming down now not not far enough but is coming down you’ve seen a series of measures that have been put in place to help Canadians what also helps helps Canadians child care costs

The Canada Child Benefits thousands of dollars uh per child for Canadian families so these things that Mr POV would cut because he says he’s going to cut what he calls inflationary spending he will cut these things how will that help Canadians put groceries on the table how will it help Canadians put

Groceries on the table when he’s taking away the a Child Care Program that is designed to get child care expenses down to $10 a day going do that to be fair yet I’ve asked the question they say that they’re going to talk about that stuff in the next campaign I understand

While you’re raising it but you’re accusing them taking it all away that has they haven’t confirm that will be when you say you’re going to cut inflationary spending that means you’re going to cut government spending you’re going to cut about programs services that Canadians have become accustomed to

Dental care you ask about other affordability measures you know Dental Care is something they voted against this is helping Canadians now as we speak not in 2025 not on a long implementation uh process there are people getting letters in the mail today uh where they can sign up and become

Eligible for dental care and Canada these are a series of things that until Mr PV comes clean with what he’s going to cut uh we are absolutely within our rights to point out that he’s going to be increasing the cost for Canadian the substance of my question though wasn’t

About what the opposition might or or might not do it’s about tangibly what can help grocery prices go down or just be stable which is a word that your government employed prior to Thanksgiving last year in which you said if they’re not stabilized and the Finance Minister told me directly that

Means they’ll stop going up that there will be something in store perhaps a tax is one of the things your government threatened for the Grocers they those prices continue to go up above headline inflation 4.7% compared to 3.4 in December and yet what has your government done to the Grocers nothing

This is something there’s a suite of policy options available to the minister and to the government and I know this is something we are following extremely closely we’re tracking the impact of Canadians on increased food costs we know that is a problem we know that uh food inflation is still tracking above

What’s called Head inflation or the or the basic inflation rate so we’re going to keep a very very close eye on on that and you can be sure that affordability and those measures that will realistically help Canadians in the short term with food costs we will be exploring them all with great respect

What does keeping an eye on food prices do for Canadians who cannot buy them right now well let me give you an example you know uh um the agriculture Minister has a series of measures whether it’s in the dairy industry whether it’s in grains whether it’s in

In climate change adaptation a series of measures that’ll help modernize our farming industry and our Agriculture and aggro food industry some uh um Dairy related Industries in my writing have benefited from that that too is a way to make sure Canadians innovate better in terms of Agriculture and food and food

Prices and that makes us uh a more competitive Nation when it comes to Agriculture and exports and indeed with supplying food for Canadians do I interpret from that that you don’t plan to for the Grocers to do anything I you should interpret from that that we’re watching every day the impact on the

Daily lives of Canadians of grocery prices and that there’s a minister who’s going to be watching that and I’m going to let him fill you in as uh as developments arise is an excess profit tax still on the table I’m going to again defer to the ministers who are responsible for deliberating and

Announcing those things and and uh you know whether or not whatever it is they might be considering uh you should ask them that directly okay um just before I let you go Minister I wanted to ask about a report in the star today that your government is going to Rebrand the

Price on carbon and in particular the rebate that is available to Canadians is that going to happen well you know eight out of 10 Canadians benefit get more money in a carbon rebate than uh in those provinces where the federal price applies the eight out of 10 families benefit uh when

Mr PV says ax the tax that means eight out of 10 Canadian families who are now uh in that program will be harmed so Mr PV has a lot of answering to do in terms of uh what is going to be the direct dollar impact how much is he going to

Cut from those households now uh in terms of how uh well understood I think the minister of the environment and others have been very very clear it’s easy to say act the tax what isn’t easy to say what pvas uh Mr PV has found it

Very hard to say is what is your climate change program when we put forward a climate change program it’s explained yes it takes several sentences to explain that so of course they’re always looking for ways to more uh clearly and better explain uh the impact on on real

Day-to-day Canadian life of uh of our climate change policies but you can be very sure that we will uh be uh coming forward with whatever uh those deliberations are in due course to be fair though Minister what the auditor general the environmental aspect of the office has pointed out very recently is

That the majority of your climate policy plan including the price on carbon does not specifically you your government has not specifically attached to it or shown Canadians to what degree it will impact or reduce carbon emissions you not actually said this is what the carbon tax will effectively do and this is the

Measure by which we will uh you know stack the program up don’t you have to be more clear with Canadians about why there is this tax in the first place we’re the first Canadian government to have measurable targets uh in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions we’ve we’ve established milestones and

Reporting on those milestones and I think any uh environmental or climate change expert would agree that indeed one of the more conservative Market signals uh uh methods of reducing greenhouse gas emissions is indeed a price on pollution a price on carbon what we have done in this government is

Apply a rebate to that to give in advance back to Canadians that money that they would spend on that why you haven’t said what the carbon they better choices uh and and reduce their carbon imprint if possible and keep the money keep the money in their pocket and what

Uh the Parliamentary budget officer said is eight out of 10 Canadians get more money than they would pay into the system so that’s not an answer to the question of why you haven’t laid out for Canadians how effective you think this carbon tox is going to be why it’s

Necessary well it’s part of a mix of things as you know we have clean fuel regulations an entire series of measures we’ve signed up for the Paris Accord Canada’s taking the lead on this issue we have an obligation to take the lead on this issue we’re going to continue to

Take the lead on this issue uh price on pollution uh for consumers a price on pollution for high emitters all of these things are part of uh uh a policy mix that’s going to get us to those Paris targets but yes put more money in Canadian Pockets at the same time okay

I’m going to leave it there Minister I appreciate your time as always thank you thank you for having me

Government House leader Steven MacKinnon speaks about the series of policies being implemented to bring down the cost of living in Canada.

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