CBHT - Wednesday, May 22, 2024 - 11:00 a.m. (ET) - Segment #3

life every day more affordable for canadians to buy groceries. Make your phone bill more affordable. That's why it's so important. That's why as mark was saying, it's really unacceptable at a time when many people are struggling to have the conservatives continue to filibuster legislation. To have the conservatives continue to prevent measures that people need right now to be passed into law so that we can force more competition into groceries. More competition into TELECOs, so canadians can get the things they need and not pay too much for them. [Speaking French] [Voice of translator]: thanks for the question. Our government is proud for introducing historic changes in the competition law. We understand that we need more competition in the grocery sector and more competition in telecommunications. But today, we don't have a legislative structure that allows us to introduce more competition. We understand this. For this reason, we have introduced some generational changes, really historic, which will improve the lives of canadians. That is completely unacceptable, as my colleague has just said, is that the conservatives continue to block and block and filibuster other legislation. This legislation will concretely change, will improve the lives of canadians. We will continue to work night and day to introduce these changes which will truly improve the lives of canadians. [end of translation] >> Exported abroad. Many are stolen in toronto. What kind of message does that send about canadian? << Answer: thank you very much for that question. I was very glad to be in brampson with my colleague, the minister for the rcmp and one of the senior leaders of the cdsa and with mayor patrick brown and many of his city councillors. The fact is, that auto theft is unacceptable. This is a real challenge in the lives of many canadians. In the lives of many of our constituents here in the G.T.A. it makes life scary. It makes life more expensive. It raises the insurance rates for everyone. And it is just not okay. And that is why our government is working very, very hard with all levels of government, with law enforcement at all levels at the port of montreal, at intermodal stations, to crackdown on this and really to stop it. The reality is, we need more tools to do this. And those tools are also in legislation. We have put forward before parliament. We have toughened antimoney laundering rules and created more tools to enforce those rules. We are also seeking to actually ban some of the equipment which is used to steal cars. We need the legal tools to do this. Those tools are before parliament right now. Frankly, I can't see any reason that anyone wants to help car this.

>> Question: do you have response to that? << Answer: I have something to say, too, but it's mark's area. << Answer: I think the conservatives too -- it keeps changing on this. The when we were at 5,000 members, they say there's nobody participating. We nearly doubled numbers in a period of a few weeks. What we've heard from providers across the country is that the process is easy. One of the things that is deeply frustrating is that the conservatives have spread a lot of misinformation about this. And it deliberately tried to scare providers. That it's complicated. You're not going to get paid. It's going to take enormous amount of time. I think they're cheering for it to fail. Again, I don't have a problem with the conservatives voting against it. I don't have a problem. They can take a position and run an election they're going to take dental care away from people. But trying to actively cheer and work against providers participating or seniors getting care, I got a major problem with. And the dental association, we've been having constructive conversations. We know that the P.E.I. dental association came out and commended the plan. The other dental associations, we answered all of their concerns. I'm talking to them as recently as last week in new brunswick and nova scotia with very positive conversations there. So, I think that we're getting there. This is the largest programme in federal government's history. The fact that we are ready and just the opening in a couple of weeks, seeing 90,000 seniors is extraordinary. There are tens of thousands of seniors being seen every week. And I mention raphael, what that means to individual seniors. I know the conservatives are cheering against this plan. I ask them to stick to voting against it and running on their platform against it, rather than trying to actively block service. Or you know what? Why not get on board? Why not instead of trying to scare people about this programme, talk to providers and give them the straight facts about how easy it is to use this programme. Why not get on board with seniors who need dental care to make sure they get access to that dental care? You know, there was a lot of prague -- we're at 30% of providers. In certain areas of the country we have almost everybody joining. The more in regions we have more providers joining because they see how easy it is, we are seeing an explosion of numbers anywhere anybody is participating. I think the information speaks for itself. I think the comments reflect clearly on what their values are here. << Answer: I'm just going to add two things to what mark has said. We should be frustrated but not at all surprised by the conservatives coming out against dental care. This is something that canada has needed to do for a long time. I think a fundamental thing about being canadian, something that makes me really proud of our country, is we have a universal single-payor healthcare system. We're a country where if you get sick, it doesn't matter how rich or how poor you are, you get the same great care. And I think that's such an important part of our society and who we are. What has been missing is somehow we decided it didn't count when it came to your teeth. Which is sort of ridiculous when you think about it. And also, really horrible. And you know, hearing people who spend their days taking care of canadians, taking care of, you know, our oral health, and hearing them having to actually have people only come to be taken care of when things got so bad they couldn't stand the pain, and what was holding people back was money, you know, that's not the kind of canada I think we should live in. And so, when the conservatives opposed it, we have to understand what they're saying. What they're saying is, we don't want kids whose parents don't have enough money to pay for them to go to the dentist, we don't want those kids to be able to go to the dentist. We don't want seniors who don't have enough money to go to the dentist, to be able to go to the dentist. To me, that's absolutely awful. But it is consistent with what pierre poilievre's conservative party stands for, which is austerity and cuts to the social safety net we have already, and certainly opposing furiously any effort to make it even better.

and the reason -- one of the reasons that they are so opposed to fairness for canadians, to fairness for every generation, is they recognise something that we recognise, too. Which is if you're going to provide canadians with the care they need and if you believe as we do that you need a fiscally responsible economic plan, an economic plan that allows us to bring inflation down so the bank can be in a position to bring interest rates down and those things are tremendously important to us, then, if you know you need to make investments in canada and canadians, if you need fairness for every generation, then, yeah, you have to pay for these investments. And we have a clear way to pay for these investments with our plan for tax fairness. The conservatives are opposed to that plan, and that means they are opposed to dental care for teen-agers. To dental care for seniors. To our $200 billion investment in canada's healthcare system. >> Question: one last question for minister freeland. Regarding interest rates, opponents will argue perhaps this is the wrong time to let the foot off your gas as far as interest rates go. The concern is that, with -- if the bank of canada were to lower interest rates in the foreseeable future, inflation would return. We know that this point in time, kilogram of beef, for example, is roughly $3 to $4 more expensive despite the fact that interest rates have slowed. That beef compared to where it would have been about four years ago. Do you share the same concern? I know you are interested in working with the bank of canada to help or to hopefully lower interest rates. But are you not concerned with doing that, interest rates, the cost of goods of services will continue to rise again and inflation will increase? << Answer: yeah, thank you for the question. Of course, the decision on interest rates is the decision that is taken by canada's independent central bank. And we respect the importance in our overall financial system of an independent central bank. We respect the bank's independence. By the way, that's quite different from the conservatives who have recklessly called for the governor of the bank of canada to be fired. We recognise that a stable canadian economy, a stable canadian financial system absolutely includes an independent central bank. What we also recognise is that something the bank is looking at closely is fiscal policy. And so, after we published the fall economic statement, I included in the fall economic statement, three very specific fiscal guide posts that were sort of a commitment, saying these are going to be -- when it comes to fiscal policy, when it comes to government investments in canadians, we're going to stay within these guide posts. After that was published, the governor of the bank of canada said, this is really helpful to me. This is helpful in the fight against inflation. And this is helpful when it comes to our decisions about interest rates. And so, when we were putting together the budget and we knew that it was really essential to make important investments in canadians, to make investments in things like dental care, which, by the way, is great we're doing it. I'm really, really proud that as a country we're able to move forward. We knew we had to do it in a fiscally-responsible way. It was absolutely crucial for us in putting the budget together that we stayed within the fiscal guideposts. And we did. The governor of the bank of canada, after we stabled the budget, recognized that we stayed within those fiscal guideposts. He said again that was helpful. We heard from modeody's, one of the credit ratings agencies, after the budget reaffirmed our A.A.A. credit rating, the highest you can get, with a stable outlook. Saying, yeah, canada has a sustainable fiscal policy. Why is all of that so important?

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