Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise on behalf of the residents of Kelowna—Lake Country.

I was recently in a meeting with over 20 small business owners, who are frustrated with federal government policies affecting them. One mentioned how the federal government keeps adding to their challenges, and he said that they need regulations that are stable and that small business have enough challenges. Another small business owner said they have another business in the United States, and they are wondering if they should move more of their business there. Those are lost opportunities and lost jobs for Canadians and for the Canadian economy.

Recently, Statistics Canada reported that GDP per capita continues to fall in Canada. Things look even worse when Canada's economy is compared with that of the United States.

I also want to mention that I will be splitting my time.

America's GDP per capita has grown by 4.5% since 2022. Before it had the current Prime Minister, Canada was keeping up with the United States. In fact, nine years ago, The New York Times found that Canada's middle class was richer than America's. However, the Liberals really have destroyed Canada's economy with their job-killing taxes and wasteful spending.

We have seen a collapse in productivity, which means how far people's paycheques go. This relates not to how hard people work but to the productivity of the country and how much money people have in their pockets at the end of the month. The productivity gap with the United States now stands at a difference of about $20,000 per person a year.

Things that have recently affected small business owners and Canadians are the Liberals' changes to the capital gains tax, and I want to talk about that for a little while. The Liberals were scrambling when facing opposition from doctors, small business owners and Canadians saving for their retirement. As a result of these investment-killing policies, capital has been driven out of Canada and Canadians are worse off.

I have been at the housing committee, and I have recently sat in at the finance committee and trade committee. There, I had the opportunity to hear from witnesses from all different types of businesses. They are all basically saying the same thing, which is that this capital gains tax is going to hurt investment, that businesses are already moving to the United States and that it will make homebuilding more difficult. We also know that this job-killing tax is on health care, homebuilding, small businesses and farming.

Those at technology companies have been talking about the fact that this will make it much more difficult for them to find investors. In addition, according to economist Jack Mintz, “the increase in the capital gains tax rate will reduce Canada’s GDP by $90 billion, real per capita GDP by 3 percent, its capital stock by $127 billion, and employment by 414,000.”

Taxing farmers drives up food costs. Taxing doctors means that it is harder to find a doctor. Taxing home builders means fewer homes being built, and taxing small businesses means fewer paycheques and that small business owners need to work longer.

The Council of Canadian Innovators recently commissioned a survey of entrepreneurs. It showed that 90% of respondents believed the Liberals' capital gains tax hike would have a negative effect on the innovation economy.

I could talk for an hour on this issue, reading notes and messages from residents in my community of Kelowna—Lake Country about how the capital gains tax will affect them. I will read a few.

The first one is from a local resident, who wrote:

I have owned a commercial unit in Kelowna for several years.... I decided that purchasing a strata unit would be a good long term retirement plan, and until [the Prime Minister] introduced the increase in capital gains, it was.

My accountants...analyzed the penalties I would be paying if I sold the property past June 24th, 2024. The additional taxes were so substantial that now I cannot sell my unit until at least 2029....

So, instead of retiring at the age of 71, I can now plan on working for another few years....

Another resident wrote to me to say:

Well, we definitely will be affected. We own a small business and cottage—both of which we plan to sell as part of our retirement plan. Both will now have higher capital gains tax and will eat into our retirement funds. This means that we will have to work at our business longer to make up for the tax increase....

Hope that helps you build your case for tax reform and thank you for your efforts.

Another resident said:

As a single middle income mom who has raised 3 kids to adulthood, I am now in the position of needing to assist these adult kids with buying their first homes given the unaffordability....

It simply isn't fair to change the tax rules without thinking through all the ways that this will hurt those of us who have worked hard our whole lives, tried to responsibly save for our retirements, and are trying to help our children with the ridiculous unaffordability they are being hit with.

Another resident, who talked about the CRA, said, “The CRA helpline has stopped taking calls due to the volume and when you can get in the queue it is a 3 hour wait to speak to a CRA representative.”

This is why the Conservatives have said that within 60 days of forming government, we will name a tax reform task force of entrepreneurs, inventors, farmers and workers to design a bring-it-home tax cut that will allow workers to bring home more of each dollar they earn; bring home production and paycheques by making Canada the best place to invest, hire and make things; and bring home fairness by reducing the share of taxes paid by the poor and middle class, while cutting tax-funded corporate welfare and cracking down on overseas tax havens. We will also cut the paperwork and bureaucracy in the tax system by at least 20%.

One other thing I want to mention, since we are talking about Canada's economy today and the budget, is the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. It has reports out noting that there are far fewer housing starts in 2023, 30,000 in fact, as a consequence of soaring interest rates. In 2023, the CMHC recorded that Canada had 240,000 housing starts, which was down 8% from the previous year.

We know that to bring back housing affordability and to build the homes Canada needs, approximately 550,000 homes would have to be built on an annual basis. We just completed a study at the housing committee on housing, and one after the other, developers and people who work in the construction industry testified that there was not a chance, based on current policies and the current situation with costs, taxes, interest rates and bureaucracy, that anywhere near the number of homes we need in Canada will be built.

In my last minute, I want to mention the Parliamentary Budget Officer's updated carbon tax report, which was just released. It shows that most Canadian families are worse off as a result of the carbon tax. We know that life has never been more expensive over the last nine years. The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates that the federal fuel charge will increase the budgetary deficit by $1.5 billion in 2024-25, and ultimately by $4 billion in 2030-31, as a result of the decrease in employment and investment income. Also, as previously discovered, internal numbers within the government show that the carbon tax will cost Canadians $30.5 billion by 2030. This works out to over $1,800 per family in extra annual costs.

We need a country where hard work pays off, with powerful paycheques and pensions that buy affordable food, gas and homes in safe neighbourhoods. That is what Conservatives want.

Tracy Gray

$552,931.00