QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Canada's Inflation Rate
November 23, 2022
Government leader, I have a simple question and it is, of course, a follow-up question about what we have been talking about the last couple of weeks: the challenge that Canadians are having with the cost of living. Young families, poor families and middle-class families are struggling, and the only people getting richer under this inflationary tidal wave under your government are wealthy people.
The question I have for you, government leader, is a simple one: Can you tell us what the inflation rate is today in 2022 in Canada, and what the inflation rate was in 2015 in Canada?
Well, the inflation rates then and now are matters of public record. There is no doubt, Senator Housakos, as we know and experience, that the inflation rate has risen significantly over the last number of years and, of course, although it is the talking point of the opposition of which you are a member to blame all aspects of inflation and all ills, whether it’s drug policy or gun violence, on the federal government, those who reflect seriously on these matters know very well the multifaceted explanations for these. The government’s Fall Economic Statement is a targeted and appropriate one to address the rising cost of living and inflation, and the government has confidence that it will bear fruit.
Government leader, I’m not using any talking points. This is a place of Parliament, and there is an existential crisis facing Canadians. We’re trying to engage in a debate to come to some conclusion about what the government needs to do. Before we figure out what government needs to do, we need to figure out if what the government has been doing is successful.
The inflation rate in 2015 was 1.13%. I will invite you to go back and visit the inflation rate throughout the period of 2006 to 2015. That’s not a talking point. These are statistical facts. I invite you to see the incremental growth and explosion in inflation over the last seven years.
Will you answer a very simple question? Given the facts that the inflation rate has gone up seven times — multiple times — by several hundred per cent compared to 7 or 10 years ago, would you say that it is a reflection of a failure over the last seven years of this government in dealing with keeping inflation at a reasonable rate? It’s a simple question.
And the simple answer is no.
