Patzer responds to Band-aid Budget 2021

I want to congratulate the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Finance, on the presentation of her first budget.

I was pleased to see the Budget finally recognize that many farmers use natural gas and propane in their operations, and included an intention to return a portion of the proceeds from the carbon tax directly to farmers beginning in 2021-22. This is a step in the right direction, as many farmers have been unfairly targeted by this tax, particularly in the Southwest. However, Conservatives will continue to push for a full exemption from the carbon tax for farmers, as Bill C-206 sets out to do.

Constituents of Cypress Hills—grasslands have also asked for a plan to safely reopen our economy, get Canadians back to work again, and provide future generations with the hope and confidence that they will be better off than the generation that came before. Unfortunately, Budget 2021 includes none of the above, but instead, it is adding nearly a half trillion dollars in new debt that can only be paid through higher taxes.

This budget is heavily focused on temporary band-aid solutions to our current crisis but does nothing to secure long term prosperity for Canadians. Instead, what Justin Trudeau has proposed is a ‘reimagined’ Canadian economy that dabbles in risky economic ideas, like abandoning Canada’s world leading and sustainable natural resource industries, leaving our economy in a precarious position, and alienating Western Canadians once again. Instead of a plan to help Canadian oil and gas workers, Justin Trudeau all but ignored them in this budget.

Budget 2021 will only serve to harm the personal financial security of Canadians by strangling job growth and raising taxes on hardworking Canadian families, all while placing a massive debt burden on the shoulders of future generations. We’re now sitting at over a trillion dollars in federal debt, meaning the average Canadian family owes over $77,000 in federal debt.

Unsurprisingly, this is not stimulus spending focused on creating jobs; it’s spending on Liberal partisan priorities. It’s an election budget, not a recovery budget.

While the forecast looks grim, Canadians can be confident that with our Conservative Recovery Plan, we will work to recover millions of jobs and introduce policies that result in better wages, and help struggling small businesses get back on their feet. Canada’s Conservatives got us out of the last recession, and we will do it again.