'Til Debt Do Us Part.

Liberal Budget 2021

The Liberals tabled their first budget in two years, and it was certainly not worth the wait.
 

Canada is overdrawn, yet Trudeau presented a deficit of more than $350 billion and $100 billion in new spending this year. This is not stimulus spending focused on creating jobs, it is an attempt to entice Canadians with pork-barrel economics, only to become bound by a new vow to Canadians: ‘til debt do us part.
 

We must accept fact and ignore the political rhetoric.
 

By next year, Trudeau will have added more debt than all previous Prime Ministers in Canadian history combined. Let that sink in.
 

Trudeau’s Liberals are mortgaging our children’s and grandchildren’s future with irresponsible spending and the burden of debt. It resembles more of a costly courtship for his re-election, not a plan for recovery.
 

We must not forget; this debt belongs to all of us so long as our country remains in political matrimony with the Liberals.
 

Sending the national debt to $1.5 trillion over the next five years is not the proposal Canadians want right now. They want a plan towards recovery, a plan to re-open our economy and get Canadians back to work.
 

Canadians are exhausted and mentally drained because of isolation, business closure and financial hardship.
 

This cannot be the new normal, Canadians need hope this will end.

Instead of a plan for recovery in the budget the Liberals failed to table a clear strategy to end these lockdowns safely and permanently.

They failed to provide vaccines forcing extended restrictions and quarantines.

The budget should have included a clear strategy for the safe and permanent end of lockdowns and hotel quarantines; a role for Alberta energy in Canada’s economic recovery and environmental sustainability; exemption of farm fuels from the carbon tax to support Canadian agriculture; a plan to end unsustainable spending; a viable opioid and mental health strategy; and expansion of access for rural communities for broadband internet.

Even the $30 billion committed to childcare is based on a 50/50 split with the provinces and territories. Provinces, like Alberta, have been decimated by the pandemic and will not have the resources to participate. In addition, it will only be available for government regulated childcare.

In 2006 the Conservative government introduced the Universal Child Care Benefit because parents know better than bureaucrats what is best for their families. Canadian families do not need an Ottawa-knows-best, one-size-fits-all childcare system.

The Liberals have promised a national childcare plan for decades and have never followed through. Without support from the provinces and territories this will be another broken promise by the Liberal government.

The Liberals botched the Canada Student Service Grant program as it was enveloped in scandal and backroom deals with the WE Charity. They failed on CEBA by disqualifying small businesses who needed the loan most because of unnecessary regulatory requirements.

The Auditor General released its ‘pandemic preparedness’ report and found failures in early warning, surveillance, risk assessments, data-sharing with the provinces, and follow-up on Canadian travelers who were ordered into quarantine. Another failed Liberal program.

Trudeau’s Liberals have failed in procuring and distributing vaccines, rapid and home-based tests. The Liberal government has been incompetent on almost every front and Canadians are suffering.

Canada was presented with a 700-page document of a Liberal ‘opportunities’ budget with no fiscal anchors or plan to dig Canada out of this fiscal abyss. These Liberal opportunities will add $330 billion to our national debt over the next five years which will cost $40 billion annually just to service the new Liberal debt.

Canadians wanted a plan to re-open our businesses, get Canadians back to work and rebuild our economy. Instead the Liberals have surpassed $1.4 trillion in debt and now each and every Canadian is saddled with $33,000 in their share of the national debt.

Canada’s Conservatives successfully navigated our country through the last global recession and Canadians know we can do so again.

Mental Health Week

May 3rd - 9th

The impact this pandemic has had on our mental health will far outlast this crisis. This is something we cannot ignore. 
 
The pandemic and subsequent failures of the federal Liberal government have resulted in extended lockdowns, restrictions and quarantines which have taken an unimaginable toll on everyone's mental health. No one and no age group has been spared.
 
In a recent national poll, the proportion of Canadians who have reported their level of depression as high has increased by 70% since the height of COVID’s first wave. Canadians are reporting their highest levels of anxiety (23%) and depression (15%) – above the levels at the peak of COVID’s first wave. 
 
Alberta is not only among the highest in Canada for reported increased levels of anxiety and depression, but suicides as well.
 
I have held numerous virtual town halls in my riding with community leaders and business owners talking about mental health and the impact on our constituents.
 
I have listened to distressed constituents who have been unable to get a vaccine or COVID test in a timely manner; constituents who have been laid off or are on the verge of losing their businesses; and many who are concerned about isolation and continual lockdowns affecting their elderly parents or children. I have listened to heartbreaking stories of people who have lost loved ones to suicide.
 
Many people have lost hope.
 
We have asked Canadians to do a lot, but there is a breaking point. We cannot keep this up. This cannot be the new normal.
 
I am asking for what Canadians are demanding of governments at all levels, and that is for honesty, transparency and some hope.  There must be a clear strategy to safely and permanently end the lockdowns so there is renewed hope we can have our lives and loved ones back.
 
The mental health crisis is near and dear to my heart and I will continue to advocate for supports. Conservatives have put forward strong proposals to address the mental health crisis, including a plan to increase mental health funding to the provinces and provide employer incentives for mental health coverage for employees. 
 
A priority must be placed on timely access to mental health care and substance use health programs and services at the local level. Now, more than ever, we need to ensure we have the resources and capacity, especially in remote and rural communities, to provide mental health care to Canadians when and where it is needed.
 
It is critical we get life back to normal, so people can get back to work, back to school and back to hugging our loved ones. Mental health is a crisis we will be dealing with for some time after COVID is no longer in the headlines.
 
Anyone who is suffering, no matter where you live, your age or the reason, please know there are resources within your communities you can access. You are not alone, and there is always someone to talk to whether it is a friend, a family member, a faith leader or a mental health professional.
 
When someone does reach out, the most important thing we can do is listen.

Liberals silencing your online freedoms

Bill C-10

Dangerous. Draconian. One of the worst things to happen to free speech in our history

Bill C-10 is a blatant attack against our Charter Rights, full stop.

What began as a mediocre attempt at legislation to level the playing field between Internet streaming giants and traditional Canadian broadcasters, is now a piece of legislation to limit Canadians freedom of expression on the Internet.

This legislation is the government opening the door to state regulation of the Internet. It gives the government the power to censor any website, block any video or podcast by the decree of the Minister.

The Liberals want to control what you can watch on YouTube, Netflix or on Twitter. And if it is content they do not agree with or does not align with Liberal virtue, the Prime Minister is giving himself the authority to have it removed.

Increasing state control of information and conversation is regressive, not progressive. This is another impermissible attempt by the Liberals to target the freedoms of individual internet users in Canada.

The former commissioner of the CRTC said: “This is a full blown assault on free expression and the foundations of our democracy”.

Maybe we should not be surprised. We all remember how the Prime Minister professes admiration for China's basic dictatorship.

Is anyone asking why C-10 now? During a pandemic and in a possible election year? 

The government does enough of a job of undermining any trust in public institutions. When it botches the rollout of the vaccine to the provinces and introduces random restrictions like hotel quarantines, we cannot have in an honest democracy legislation like this to silence the critics who share the truth of their failures.

Transparency will cease to exist, and those who fight for the truth to be revealed will be silenced through online censorship.

In contrast, Conservatives proposed to protect individual users and smaller players in the market by exempting streaming services and social media users with lower revenues. The Liberals rejected this common-sense compromise.

Clearly, this is a move to silence Canadians' free speech and freedom of expression. Conservatives will not support this. We want all Canadians to be the voice of defending our free speech.