QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Canada's Inflation Rate
March 31, 2022
Honourable senators, the NDP-Liberal government is committed to more taxes, more inflation and higher cost of living. That’s what this government is committed to.
Government leader, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association, just in the Montreal area alone, home prices have gone up over 20% in the last year and by almost 60% since 2019. Housing inflation is even worse in other parts of the country, yet I don’t get the sense that your government truly understands the housing affordability crisis that Canada is facing. After all, the NDP-Liberal government plans to make energy audits mandatory before Canadians can sell their homes. Last month, the Ontario Real Estate Association said:
. . . quite frankly, a crazy thing to do in the middle of a historic housing-affordability crisis. . . . We have historic lows in inventory listings on the market currently. Another piece of red tape on a home seller will depress listings even more, making it even more costly to go find a home.
Will Canadians looking for a home see more actions like this from the NDP-Liberal government next week in their budget? Is this going to be the strategy of fighting inflation and making middle class and poor Canadians poorer?
Thank you for your question. Again, the budget will speak for itself and we will see what measures are there to help Canadians, to help our economy and otherwise to move our country forward.
It is simply not the case that this government, and indeed no government, colleagues, if we are to be fair, ignores the impact of the economy, whether it be inflation or the cost of living, on the well-being of Canadians.
Our governments, regardless of the partisan stripes and orientations to the left, centre or right, are better than that. We can disagree about the policy tools that governments deploy. We can disagree about the priorities that governments choose to bring forward, whether it’s climate change, the economy, reconciliation or the like. Canadians will judge and have judged, and this government will continue to act in the best interests of Canadians.
