Ottawa

Pass the budget bill or the global economy will shoot this country

From QP this afternoon, the Conservatives push back against the opposition’s talk of opposing the budget bill with amendments and procedural delays.

Dave Van Kesteren: Mr. Speaker, despite the budget bill having the longest amount of debate in the House and the longest amount of committee stage consideration of any budget bill in over two decades, the NDP and its partners want to delay it and the implementation of the economic action plan 2012. At a time when the global recovery remains fragile, especially in Europe, Canadians want the government to focus on promoting jobs, economic growth and long-term prosperity. Can the Minister of Finance explain why the implementation of Canada’s economic action plan is so important to ensure that Canada’s economy remains strong?

Jim Flaherty: Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Chatham-Kent—Essex for that very important and insightful question. It is the best question of the day so far. It is about the economy and it is about jobs. The economic recovery, particularly in Europe as I know from my discussions today, is fragile. We must protect our own country. The economic action plan is vitally important for this country. It has been working. We have created over 750,000 net new jobs in Canada. We have the bill before Parliament now to continue with Canada’s economic action plan. It is important that we get this bill passed to protect Canada and protect—

Alas, the Finance Minister ran out of time at that point.

Looking for more?

Get the Best of Maclean's sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for news, commentary and analysis.
  • By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.