Bay of Quinte MP Ryan Williams issued the following statement following the release of Thursday’s budget:
The Federal Government handed down its new budget today with a plan that aims to balance promises.
Bay of Quinte MP Ryan Williams says while there are some welcomed investments recommended by the government in the military and in the housing sector, the government is continuing its path of inflation-inducing spending with little investments and little results.
Williams says “The Federal Government should be investing in the power of the Canadian economy through research into innovative technologies and utilizing Canada’s abundant resources.
“Canada’s finances are at a precarious point,” states MP Ryan Williams. “We have seen the price of food, groceries, and housing skyrocket from government over-spending. We have the worst housing crisis in our lifetime and employers are having a harder time than ever finding workers. It has never been more important for Canadian tax dollars to properly invested into Canadians, not just spent driving up the cost of living.”
The budget released at 4pm Thursday contains a multitude of items. The following are
some the items presented and MP Williams’ comments.
– Our real GDP is a full 1.2 per cent above what it was pre-pandemic, however the deficit is set for $52.8 billion this year. Deficits are bad news for inflation and our economy as we see groceries, gas, and housing skyrocket out of reach of our citizens on fixed incomes. Our wages are buying less at the grocery store, gas pump and in
the housing market. Our interest payments a year are approaching $40 billion, the cost just to pay our debt, and our total debt is close to $1.2 trillion. With 53 billion in new spending, over and above our debt payments, we are just adding inflationary fuel to the fire.
– Instead of inflationary fueling deficits, we need to be focused on increasing our country’s revenues or looking at spending cuts. It is good to see an investment into critical minerals so we can get ahead of mining lithium and other minerals that will contribute to the growing Electric Vehicle sector, but we should have a greater
emphasis to ensuring we have Canadian car companies and sectors supported and born. Our farmers need support to produce more of the food that will be lost with the war in Ukraine, and we need workers to fill over 1 million unfilled positions in Canada including 3000 jobs in Bay of Quinte.
– When it comes to military spending, the budget promises $8 Billion over 5 years. MP Williams says “Although this investment in our military is a good start, it is inadequate and long overdue. CFB Trenton plays a vital role in NATO and NORAD operations yet is has been neglected for far too long.”
– Spending $10 Billion in housing provides only at most 150,000 new housing units over 5 years by the government and will continue to mask and not address the problems. In Canada we need 1.8 million housing units today built predominantly by home builders. In the Bay of Quinte, we are in need of 5,500 housing units today. It is great to see the promise to ban foreign home buyers for two years, which will be a big help, but government needs to ensure that we do more, as the current Ontario government is doing, to ensure we are able to see double our housing production by homebuilders to catch up, so we have affordable homes for our people here in the region.
– MP Williams says “I’m happy to see investment into homelessness, as this is a major result of our housing crisis created under this government. The government has committed more than $3 billion to address homelessness, and we need to continue to invest in transitionary housing as well as shelters.”
