(Ottawa) “We can no longer blame COVID for inflation,” said Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Tuesday. The price rise in August once again gives him ammunition to attack the Trudeau government’s deficits. The Liberals, for their part, are asking Canadians to be patient while the new measures announced take effect.
” There Justinflation hits Canadians again,” he said in a press scrum, a few hours after new data from Statistics Canada on the Consumer Price Index.
The inflation rate rose again in August and is now at 4%, fueled by rising housing and gasoline prices. That of the grocery basket has slowed down, but remains high with growth of 6.9%.
“What’s most terrifying is that the inflation that Trudeau has driven up will put more pressure on the Bank of Canada to raise the key rate even further at a time when Canadians are the most in debt in the world. G7,” he added without repeating his threat to fire the governor of the Bank of Canada, Tiff Macklem.
He actually cited it this time. “As the Governor of the Bank of Canada says, these are factors [intérieurs] that cause inflation,” he said.
The latest federal budget forecasts a deficit of 40 billion this year which would gradually decrease to 14 billion in five years.
The Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, did not want to say whether the government, which has accumulated deficits since 2015, has its share of responsibility in the phenomenon of inflation. She insisted in particular on the fact that Canada’s AAA credit rating had recently been renewed.
I know that high interest rates weigh particularly heavily on the shoulders of Canadians. This is why our government is doing everything it can so that Canada can get through this difficult period.
Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Finance
She cited as an example the national daycare program and the meeting held the day before with the leaders of major grocery store chains.
However, the government’s intention is to stabilize the price of the grocery basket, not to reduce it. “You want prices to be aligned with general inflation,” said the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne. He expects the bosses of the major chains to implement their plans as soon as they are submitted to him, by Thanksgiving.
“Ridiculous” comments, according to the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), Jagmeet Singh, who pleads for greater intervention in the economy. “We should not stabilize prices, we should lower them,” he argued. Otherwise, what was the purpose of this meeting? »
He introduced a bill the day before to tackle anticompetitive practices, such as price fixing, increase penalties and eliminate mergers between large companies if they would lead to “excessive combined market share.”
Minister Chrystia Freeland will also table a bill this week to reform the Competition law, just like Pierre Poilievre, who wants to eliminate bureaucracy for housing construction.
The Bloc Québécois finance spokesperson, Gabriel Ste-Marie, believes that the government should also propose other targeted measures. “There, it almost becomes surgical, but it can help increase supply,” he explained in an interview. For example, by offering tax relief to young retirees to encourage them to return to the job market and assistance to market garden producers who experienced heavy losses during the summer.
He also suggests “supporting people with lower incomes” to help them get through this difficult financial period.
Minister Freeland reminded Tuesday that the Canada Child Benefit that families must receive on Wednesday is indexed. They will be able to receive up to $7,437 this year, or $440 more than last year.