Local Member of Parliament Dan Muys, who represents the riding of Flamborough–Glanbrook–Brant North, heavily criticized the new federal budget in an interview with The Hamilton Independent.
The new budget released by Mark Carney and the Liberal Party of Canada will see a deficit of $78.3 billion this year.
As far as the City of Hamilton is concerned, the government committed $25 million to help fund a new downtown YMCA facility.
Muys said that while funding for the YMCA is a “good thing,” the budget does not do much else.
“The budget does nothing to address the crushing affordability crisis facing Canadians,” he said.
“There is no reduction in taxes on food, such as the industrial carbon tax borne by farmers and production of food, the packaging tax, which is a $5.6 billion tax grab added to the cost of food or the labelling costs being added.”
He added that grocery price inflation is growing 43 per cent faster in Canada compared to the United States.
“Grocery price inflation on most staple goods, and overall, has outpaced general inflation in the last four quarters. This is impacting everyone – families, seniors, everyone.”
Muys also lamented that the cost to service Canada’s national debt is now more annually than the amount that the federal government transfers to the provinces for healthcare and more than the federal government collects in GST.
Each Canadian’s share of the national debt now exceeds $54,000.
When it comes to major projects and growing Canada’s economy, Muys says that Carney “hyped up that the budget would be transformational and generational.”
“It was none of that. It failed to seize the moment,” Muys continued.
“Canada has everything the world wants. We have natural resources, smart people and every advantage, yet the Liberal government has diminished our economy over the last decade to the point where Canada has gone from the best performing economy in the G7 in 2014 and 2015 to the worst performing economy in the G7 and OECD.”
Muys says that Canada has great potential with the third-largest reserves of oil, fifth-largest reserves of natural gas, potash and uranium, nine per cent of the world’s forests, critical minerals and rare earth minerals, and a favourable climate for artificial intelligence and data centres.
“We have it all, yet it takes 19 years to permit a mine. Despite all the talk, there has been no substantive action by the Carney government to unleash our economy so that we can diversify and no longer be 77% dependent on the US for trade.”
He added that since Mark Carney became prime minister, Canada has lost 86,000 jobs and nearly $47.6 billion of net investment.
Overall, Muys said that the Carney Liberals are “spending a lot of money with little to show for it.”
“Taxpayers have had enough,” he concluded.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
