Poilievre Calls on Trudeau to Cancel Summer Vacation to Work on Budget Bill

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre holds a press conference in the foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Jan. 25, 2023. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

A day after leading a four-hour filibuster to delay a vote on the Liberal government’s 2023 budget bill, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to cancel his summer vacation in order to work on rewriting the legislation.

“I’m calling on [Trudeau] to do the honourable thing. To put aside his pride and his personal ego and cancel this budget. He should also cancel his summer vacation,” Poilievre told reporters during a press conference in Ottawa on June 8.

“Conservatives are prepared to work all summer long to rewrite a budget that balances budgets in order to bring down inflation and interest rates and that cancels all increases in taxes, because Canadians cannot afford to pay more.”

On June 7, Poilievre spoke at length in the House of Commons to delay a vote on the Liberal government’s Bill C-47, the Budget Implementation Act. The Tories have promised to filibuster the bill until the Liberals introduce a plan to balance the budget and axe their proposed new carbon tax.

The Conservatives have also called for the Liberal government to bring down interest rates. On June 7, the Bank of Canada (BoC) announced a raise in its benchmark interest rate to 4.75 percent, citing concerns from policymakers that its previous 4.5 percent rate was not sufficient to draw inflation back down to its 2 percent target.

Poilievre said his filibuster was “appealing to the common sense” of Canadians that want lower inflation, taxes, and interest rates. He called for Trudeau to stay in Ottawa in order to “put the mortgage payments of ordinary Canadians ahead of his tan or his surfing lessons.”

‘Major Financial Meltdown’

The Conservative leader said he led the filibuster of the Liberal budget because he believes Canada is heading towards a “very serious” economic crisis. He pointed out that since the prime minister introduced the federal budget on March 28, the International Monetary Fund has identified Canada as the country most at risk of mortgage defaults.

“That’s because we have the biggest household debt of any country in the G7; $2 trillion of household debt. Our households have as much debt as the entire GDP [of Canada] combined,” Poilievre said.

Poilievre said the Canadian economy was at risk due to increasing interest rates, an “uppercut” to Canadians already struggling to pay their bills.

“What is going to happen over the next three years as all of these mega mortgages renew at these higher rates? We’re gonna have massive fire sales of homes, as people can’t make their payment and all they can do is put their house on the market, but there won’t be anyone to buy it because no one else can afford to pay the rates either. This could be a major financial meltdown,” he said.

“This is not me saying it. It’s the IMF. It’s the Bank of Canada,” Poilievre added.

The BoC warned during its 2023 Financial System Review that it was concerned about the ability of households to service their debt in the coming years as their mortgages are renewed at higher interest rates.

On June 7, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland touted Canada’s economic growth as the strongest within the G7, lowest deficit to GDP and debt to GDP ratios in the G7, and triple-A credit rating as reasons why Canadians should feel confident in the country’s economic growth.

“We are very close to the end of this difficult time and to return to low stable inflation and strong steady growth,” she said.