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Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre rises during Question Period on Sept. 20 in Ottawa.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Pierre Poilievre brought his core leadership campaign themes to the floor of the House of Commons on Tuesday, using his first Question Period as Leader of the Official Opposition to criticize the Liberals on inflation and the fact that many Canadians can’t afford a place to live.

Anticipating that line of attack, the Liberals countered by introducing two pieces of legislation to implement the government’s recently announced $4.6-billion affordability plan. The package includes a doubling of the GST credit, a boost in rental supports and an interim dental care plan for uninsured parents with children under 12. The government says the programs are targeted at those most in need and will not contribute to inflation.

The seven-month Conservative leadership race that culminated in Mr. Poilievre’s Sept. 10 first-ballot victory overlapped with a period of unusually high inflation and a summer of sticker shock for drivers at the gas pumps.

Statistics Canada reported Tuesday that inflation has cooled somewhat since the early summer peak, in part because of falling gas prices, but remains high at 7 per cent in August. That is lower than economists’ expectations and down from 7.6 per cent in July and 8.1 per cent in June.

In his opening round of questions, Mr. Poilievre repeated some of his campaign warnings that the cost of living has risen to the point that young people can’t afford to start a family or leave their parents’ basements.

Mr. Poilievre urged the government not to raise Employment Insurance premiums, Canada Pension Plan contributions and the federal carbon price in 2023.

“Will the government cancel these tax hikes so that Canadians can afford to eat, heat and house themselves?” he asked.

Editorial: To become PM, Pierre Poilievre will have to find the political centre – or conjure up a new one

While Mr. Poilievre and his MPs repeatedly raised inflation concerns Tuesday, they did not repeat his controversial leadership campaign proposals to fire the Governor of the Bank of Canada and to encourage Canadians to “opt-out of inflation with the ability to opt-in to cryptocurrencies.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was not in the House to answer questions Tuesday. He’s in New York for meetings of the United Nations and is not planning to be in Parliament until Thursday. The Conservative questions on inflation and taxes were responded to by a range of Liberal ministers and MPs, who said Mr. Poilievre promotes risky policy advice on inflation and wants to make polluting free.

Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough rose at one point to say EI premiums are currently much lower than they were when Mr. Poilievre was the federal employment minister in 2015.

“On this side of the House, we’re a bit hesitant to take advice from that side on EI,” she said, pointing to Mr. Poilievre’s record. “When he was in charge of EI in 2015, workers paid 20 per cent more into EI than they do today in a system that wasn’t as generous as it is today.”

Employment Insurance premiums, which are paid by employees and employers to fund income support benefits in the event that a worker loses their job, have been frozen at 1.58 per cent of insurable earnings since 2020. The Canada Employment Insurance Commission, a government advisory body that sets premium rates, issued a report indicating the 2023 premium rate will be 1.63 per cent of insurable earnings. That rate has not yet been formally approved by the government. Employers pay 1.4 times the employee premium rate.

The contribution rate for CPP, which is managed jointly by Ottawa and the provinces, is scheduled to rise for the fifth and final time in 2023, to 5.95 per cent of eligible earnings split equally between employee and employer. The rate is 5.7 per cent in 2022 and was 4.95 per cent in 2018, before the government began raising rates to pay for more generous retirement benefits as part of a 2016 deal reached between Ottawa and the provinces. In 2024 and 2025, the rate is forecast to remain stable but a higher limit for maximum pensionable earnings will be introduced.

The federal carbon pollution pricing rate is scheduled to rise to $65 in 2023, from $50 a tonne in 2022. It is also scheduled to rise by $15 a tonne, a year, until reaching $170 a tonne in 2030.

The calls to freeze CPP, EI and carbon pricing increases are in line with long-standing recommendations from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which has urged Ottawa not to burden workers and employers with extra costs during a period of high inflation.

“If these are the issues that Pierre Poilievre is going to be focusing on, that would be welcomed by small businesses who feel like this payroll tax burden has been ignored for far too long,” said CFIB president Dan Kelly in an interview.

“He’s absolutely right that this would be, in our view, the number one way that a government could help Canadians deal with the pressures they are facing from inflation, by allowing them to at least not see their take-home income erode in the short term.”

The NDP released a video Tuesday afternoon focused on criticizing Mr. Poilievre. Repeating the line, “He’s not in it for you,” the NDP uses Mr. Poilievre’s past positions to make the argument that the new Conservative Leader is not a friend of workers.

In the House, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh criticized Mr. Poilievre’s comments on inflation and cryptocurrency. He also said the government should have acted more quickly in bringing in an affordability package, which is based on the NDP’s March deal to keep the minority Liberal government in power until 2025.

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