Dear Friends,
On Monday, we found out that the Liberals are running a historic near-$400B deficit, the highest deficit as a percentage of the economy in the G20. This is an unacceptable burden to leave to our children.
If it was not already clear, this statement confirms that the Liberals have absolutely no plan to help the millions of Canadians who are out of a job, and the thousands of small businesses who are struggling to stay afloat. The government has presented no strategy for moving forward and getting Canada through the pandemic.
This isn’t to say that the fiscal update is all bad. There has been an increase to the Canada Child Benefit, as well as the removal of GST/HST on face masks and face shields. These are important steps, and it is good to see the Liberals are sometimes willing to listen to Conservative proposals.
While this action is reassuring, for almost a year now, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government have been failing Canadians.
He failed to close borders when it was the obvious decision to make, he shut down Parliament when important legislation needed to be passed and amended to help Canadians, and he left Canada woefully unprepared for a second wave even though we’ve known one was coming since March.
Worst of all, he has failed to acquire rapid-test kits and vaccines in a timely manner, which are vital to restarting our economy and getting Canadians back to work. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Without them, there is no Canadian recovery.
Small businesses need reassurances from this government that there is a plan to get back up and running, but the Liberals are failing to do this.
This is why I cannot support this Fiscal Update.
There is only so much this government can spend before a recovery becomes impossible.
Rest assured, I, along with my colleagues, will continue to push this Liberal government into action, and to present a plan that will give Canadians their lives back.
I hope this has been of interest to you.
Sincerely,
Kelly Block, MP