Bezan on federal budget
Although the federal budget focuses on a number of measures to improve the lives of Canadians, from building more affordable homes to reducing the cost of living and growing the economy, the federal Conservatives said they won’t support it.
The Liberal’s budget was released on April 16 and parliament is expected to vote on proposed amendments through budget implementation bills next week, and in the weeks following.
Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman MP James Bezan (Conservative) said Budget 2024 will make life more expensive for Canadians and that his party will not support it unless prime minister Justin Trudeau axes the tax on farmers and food, cuts interest rates and holds off on federal infrastructure money for cities unless they increase housing by 15 per cent.
Bezan weighed in on housing, health, agriculture, the carbon tax and defence, saying the budget will fail to make headway on improving Canadians’ lives.
“This budget represents another $50-plus billion of new spending. Justin Trudeau hasn’t balanced the budget in nine years and he’s not going to balance it going forward,” said Bezan. “And Canadians just can’t afford that. The budget will add more taxes that will hurt farmers and rural Canadians and will require him to use more of the carbon tax to pay for all his extra spending.”
With an expectation by Canadians to see various levels of government tackle the housing crisis, which has in the last few years seen extortionate monthly rents, housing prices beyond the budget of millions of Canadians and a shortage of available housing, the federal government promises to make housing more affordable.
“First, we’re building more affordable homes. Because the best way to make home prices more affordable is to increase supply—and quickly. That’s why we’re cutting red tape and reforming zoning. We’re building more apartments and affordable housing across the country and unlocking public lands and vacant government offices to build homes for Canadians,” states deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland in the budget. “For Millennial and Gen Z renters, we’re restoring the chance to make progress towards homeownership. We’re creating more tax-free ways to save for your first down payment. We’re giving renters credit for rental payments, so when it comes time to apply for that first mortgage, you’ll have a better chance of qualifying.”
The budget notes a number of strategies to build new housing. Those include building homes on public lands (federal), “unlocking” Canada Post properties across the country (one in Beausejour could be a candidate), using national defence lands and converting federal office buildings into housing.
Bezan said the strategy – which was first proposed by the Conservatives – will not be of great assistance to Interlakers in need of housing.
“It won’t help the Interlake much because we’ve got very limited federal buildings and properties in the Interlake, but it could definitely help Winnipeg. This is something Pierre Poilievre has been talking about since he ran for leader. We have to make more of our federal buildings and land available for housing. The Liberals are trying to steal that [idea] from the Conservative platform, but their track record and this budget shows it’s all backloaded with no real money up front,” he said. “And there’s not anything in here that will certainly help first-time homebuyers. Interest rates have gone up sky-high, rent has doubled, mortgage payments have doubled and that’s making it almost impossible for young Canadians to get into the housing market. We have to increase supply. Trudeau is doing nothing to provide the incentives to municipalities to [remove] the red tape and improve housing development projects in their areas.”
On the health care front, the federal budget pledges $1.5 billion over five years (starting in 2024-25) to Health Canada in order to launch the National Pharmacare Plan. The first phase of the plan will see the government work with provinces and territories to provide coverage in two health areas: contraception and diabetes medications.
The government launched a dental care plan for Canadians (18 and older) who don’t have dental coverage and who have a family income of up to $90,000 a year. That will be implemented in stages, starting with seniors.
The government also has a forthcoming initiative to introduce the Safe Long Term Care Act to implement new national long-term care standards, and a plan to hire more rural health and social service workers.
“Many rural and remote communities are struggling to find workers in the health and social services sector. Addressing these workforce challenges in rural and remote communities is critical so that all Canadians can benefit from greater access to the full suite of health and social services they need,” states the budget.
The government hopes to achieve that by expanding the reach of a student loan forgiveness program.
Bezan said the student loan forgiveness program is an “extension” of a program the Conservatives started under former prime minister Stephen Harper. Health-care workers who work for five years in a rural setting can get their student loans forgiven.
The national dental care program, on the other hand, is turning into a “fiasco,” he said.
“Dentists en masse are rejecting it. They’re saying the package being offered is limited as to who gets to use it and is worse than what most people already have in their own private dental plans. Only 10 per cent of dentists in Manitoba have signed up for it and it’s worse in other provinces. We’re going to undermine a system that’s been working quite well. Over 90 per cent of Canadians have coverage available to them to pay for dental care,” said Bezan. “We are very skeptical on the dental program and how much uptake there will actually be. [Conservatives] are not going to participate because it’s not good for the oral health of Canadians.”
With regard to the national pharmacare plan, Bezan said it touches on only two areas of health care.
“We should be putting more money into provincial health care to make sure we have enough beds and personal care homes and that we’re limiting wait times and hiring doctors and nurses,” said Bezan. “We’re not getting that from Trudeau. He’s doing piecemeal programs here and there and has out-of-control spending, which is undermining the social safety net that we all expect here in Canada.”
There’s very little ink in the budget devoted to agriculture, said Bezan. An interest-free cash advance for farmers does represent “a slight increase” from what was there in the past, but the Liberals have cut important programs.
“There was a cut to the national 4-H program in which they reduced the funding by over 50 per cent. The national program has laid off some staff and can’t provide training for young Canadians in our 4-H program. It’s very popular in the Interlake,” he said. “That’s an indictment against the Liberals; they just down care about rural Canada, don’t really care about farmers and the rural way of life.”
The increase in the carbon tax on April 1 has farmers are “upset” because it will drive up their cost of production.
The carbon tax is one measure to help reduce CO2 emissions that are contributing to the climate crisis. Alternatives to taxing populations to incentivize them to reduce their fuel consumption have not been put forward.
The federal Conservatives promise to “axe the carbon tax,” but haven’t announced what they’ll put in its place.
“We will be rolling out our platform and there will be an environmental piece in there and how we can go about reducing emissions. We believe we can help reduce global emissions. The NDP-Liberal coalition has not hit a [CO2 reduction] target yet except during COVID when everything was shut down,” said Bezan. “The problem is you have countries like India and China that are building coal-fired energy plants at a rate of one per week. People don’t realise this, but Canada’s number one export to China is not grain or pork: it’s coal.”
On the defence front, the budget states that there will be “steady and responsible investments” in defence to ensure the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is ready for conflict and that Canada’s territorial integrity is maintained, especially from threats to the Arctic.
“Alongside our NATO Allies, we have reinforced our defence and deterrence capabilities and readiness, including by committing to expand Canada’s troop deployment in Latvia, where the Canadian Armed Forces already lead a NATO battlegroup,” states the budget. “We have welcomed Finland and Sweden into the alliance, bolstered our support for members in Eastern Europe, and made the investments necessary to uphold our unique role in protecting NATO’s Northern and Western Flank—our Arctic.”
In February it was reported that Canada has 16,000 CAF positions unfilled. Bezan said CAF is standing at only 58 per cent readiness when it should be at 85 per cent, and that the Liberals are “actually cutting defence spending by almost $3 billion” in this budget.
“The Liberals are making a bunch of promises for investments in defence and security, but it’s all backloaded. It’s a 25-year program with almost no money in the next two years. And what happens in two years is we’re going to have a federal election and the Liberals are going to push off all the problems that we have in the Canadian Armed Forces on to the next government. It’s typical Liberal dithering and delay and a kicking-the-can-down-the-road strategy,” said Bezan. “That’s a failure for the great Canadians who serve in uniform. We have women and men who are wanting to serve this country but are not seeing a commitment from the current government and we are experiencing a recruitment and retention crisis. We are unstaffed by 16,000 troops and a further 10,000 troops are undertrained and undeployable.”
He added that ships are in a state of disrepair and land vehicles and aircraft lack personnel to operate them. And the government is failing CAF personnel in areas of housing on bases, which have thousands of homes that are dilapidated and in need of repair or replacement. The budget has “zero dollars to build new homes next year,” he said.
In the past few months, it’s come to light that CAF personnel have been living on the street or in their vehicles because of either a lack of affordably priced homes or exorbitantly priced rental housing.
“CAF personnel who are trying to buy or rent off base are seeing, like all Canadians, that mortgage rates have doubled, rent has doubled and their ability to save up for a down payment to buy a house is almost impossible. We know there’s at least 6,700 homes required for CAF personnel on base. In the last few years, the Liberals have built only 38 new homes for CAF in all of Canada,” said Bezan. “So we’ve got a crisis and we’re seeing people leaving because they can’t find adequate housing. We are getting stories of troops living rough, either couch-surfing, living out of their car or camper or in tent cities that have sprung up in places like Halifax and Victoria. It’s unbelievable that people who are prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice in defence of our country are being asked to live on the street.”
The federal budget pledges over $14 billion for Ukraine, plus another $910 million to “support military operations in Ukraine, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific region.” But Bezan said “only half those promises” with regard to Ukraine have been fulfilled.
Promises to forward surface-to-air defence systems to Ukraine have yet to be acted on and a promise last September to buy 50 light-armoured vehicles has only been acted on in the last few weeks – and it will take a year to build them, he said.
“It’s our position as Conservatives to support Ukraine. We have all sorts of surplus equipment such as 83,000 CRV7 rockets, which have hazardous materials in them but are sitting in storage and waiting for demolition on a Saskatchewan military base,” said Bezan. “Pierre Poilievre said that instead of wasting taxpayers’ money to dispose of these rockets, it would be better to give them to Ukraine so that they can defend themselves.”
The federal budget is available on the Government of Canada’s website.
