QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Cost of Living
May 2, 2024
Senator Gold, Fidelity Investments Canada just released a report that shows that the majority of Canadian retirees, 60%, are financially supporting their adult children. The same report shows that a whopping 82% of Canadian retirees indicate that inflation is negatively impacting their retirement. Almost half of pre-retirees say that the cost-of-living crisis created by this incompetent Trudeau government is delaying their scheduled retirement. More and more Canadians are having to work longer to pay for your wacko policies and mismanagement.
Senator Gold, are you going to tell Canadians and this chamber that it is just a coincidence that bad fiscal decisions by this government over the last eight-and-a-half years have nothing to do with retirees struggling and being pummelled by the policies of this government?
We are all concerned about the difficulties that Canadians are facing during these difficult times.
What I am going to tell this chamber, however — and my answer to you, you will understand, does not agree with any of your allegations — is that this government’s management of this economy during these difficult times has provided the following results: The net debt-to-GDP ratio is well below that of the G7 peers, deficits are declining, and Canada is only one of two G7 countries rated Triple A by at least two of the three independent credit experts.
With regard to inflation, notwithstanding the talking points and this, let us be clear: Independent analysts have shown that the price on pollution does not have an impact on inflation and, most recently, the Governor of the Bank of Canada said that the federal budget will not have much of an effect on inflation. This is responsible management.
Senator Gold, your government must have some special kind of blinders on. The only people in this country with blinders on is this Trudeau government. Everyone else knows the level of incompetence that we’re dealing with here. We have chaos on our university campuses, crime and chaos growing in our streets, more and more Canadians having to work longer and more and more young people turning to their parents for support. But, no, the Trudeau government has nothing to do with any of this. It is all a myth, according to your answers. The question is simple: Today’s generation of Canadians have no hope of doing as well as their parents —
You are very correct to point out the challenges, although the way in which you lumped them all together as a fault of this government is misleading, incorrect and, frankly, irresponsible.
I have confidence in Canadians, and I have confidence in Canadians to understand the difference between the federal government’s responsibilities, for example, and those of university presidents on campuses within the jurisdiction of the provinces.
