Ottawa, ON – In the last election, Conservatives were given a strong mandate with 8 million votes to restore the Canadian promise: that anyone who works hard can afford a great life in an affordable home on a safe street. Conservatives ran on a platform to bring down the cost of living. When the Liberals do things that will make life better for Canadians, Conservatives have been clear that they will support them.
That’s why, earlier this week, Conservatives announced that they would vote in favour of lower taxes to provide Canadians relief despite the Liberal proposal not going far enough. However, when Liberals introduce policies that will hurt Canadians, Conservaties will strongly oppose them.
This week, Mark Carney introduced half a trillion dollars of spending with no budget—the first time outside of Covid that has occurred in decades. Their proposal would increase government spending by 8 percent, with the lion’s share of their spending going to bureaucracy, consultants and contractors.
Under Carney, bloated bureaucracy will grow by 6 percent—more than double the combined rate of inflation and population growth. Consultant spending will increase by 37 percent to $26 billion a year, requiring the average family to pay $1,400 on consultants alone.
None of this extra spending that Carney has asked for will actually help Canadians. Almost all of it is for bureaucratic administration and high-priced consultants that will be out the door and gone forever.
It’s clear that Mark Carney is even more expensive than Trudeau. This $500 billion spending bill will drive up inflation and interest rates above and beyond what they would otherwise be.
This is at a time when we have a record increase in the number of people who are unable to pay their bills. According to Equifax, delinquencies are up, as are the number of people missing their mortgage payments. Meanwhile, millions of Canadians are lined up at food banks.
Canadians cannot afford an even more expensive Liberal government.
That is why Conservatives will vote against Carney’s half a trillion dollars of inflationary, irresponsible, out-of-control spending, and continue to hope that the Liberals will change direction and heed our call to introduce a budget this spring.
There is no reason that Carney can’t deliver a plan. During the election, he said he had one—that a plan beats no plan. Well, a budget is a plan, and Canadians need a plan now more than ever. Instead, Carney is saddling Canadians with more debt, more bureaucracy and more inflation. The government cannot continue to spend money it doesn’t have on things Canadians don’t need in the middle of a crisis.
Conservatives have been leading the charge on axing taxes, stopping inflation, building homes Canadians can afford, getting resource projects built, and stopping crime so we can bring home safe streets. That means fiscal discipline that cuts bureaucracy, consultants, foreign aid and wasteful spending. And Conservatives will continue to stand up for the principles we campaigned on to restore our country’s promise.