During the 2015 election campaign Justin Trudeau made a promise, and I quote directly, "In 2019/20, we will balance the budget". 

Last Thursday the Liberal Government introduced a budget update that confirms this is yet another broken promise from Mr. Trudeau. 

The Liberal fall fiscal update announced that the annual federal budget deficit is projected to increase by nearly $2 billion to $19.6 billion next year.

The debt to GDP ratio that Mr. Trudeau had promised, and again I quote directly, “In 2019/20, we will reduce the federal debt-to-GDP ratio to 27 percent”  will actually hit 30.9%

Canada’s federal debt is projected to hit $688 billion in the current fiscal year and the most recent projections indicate that it will increase to $765 billion by 2023-2024.

Depending on interest rates the cost of servicing that level of debt would be roughly $34 billion a year.

To put $34 billion in debt service fees into perspective, the Government of Canada transferred just over $37 Billion to Canadian provinces and territories in fiscal 2017-18 to help provide for health care costs.

So where is the majority of this new spending going in the fall fiscal update?

As former Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page has commented "We're deficit-financing the corporate sector,”.

The Liberals have introduced an accelerated tax write-off program allowing manufacturers to immediately recover the full cost of machinery and equipment.

The NDP have categorized this program as a $14 Billion “giveaway for Canada’s richest corporations, and offering nothing to Canadians who are struggling to make ends meet and facing record levels of household debt.”

To be fair to the Liberal Government, there are other measures announced in the fall fiscal update not related to the accelerated machinery and equipment write off.

One of those is a new $595 Million fund to subsidize some Canadian media organizations.

This particular announcement has raised serious concerns from many prominent journalists on the important role of journalistic independence from government.  

The Liberals have indicated they will appoint a panel to decide who is and who is not eligible for funding under this program.

From my perspective this raises concerns.

If a media organization is denied funding what recourse does it have?

Should it change the style or tone of reporting?

Cover different stories?

Hire a lobbyist?

The fact that the Liberals introduced this media subsidy in an election year raises many  more concerns.

​My question this week: 

Are you concerned by this government's introduction of an arbitrary media subsidy fund going into an election year?

I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free 1-888-665-8711.

Last Friday evening I hosted a community town hall in West Kelowna.

I host these forums so that citizens can hold me to account and so I can hear what concerns are on people’s minds.

Often concerns raised locally may be very different from the major subjects of debate in Ottawa.

One such local concern, raised from a number of people, was the United Nations (UN) Migration Compact.

This is a subject that has received very little, if any attention in Ottawa.

What is the UN Migration compact? 

Technically it is called the “Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration”.

It is a 34 page agreement that contains 54 points under 23 stated objectives.

Created in July of 2018, it is scheduled for ratification from signatory countries, including Canada, in a meeting hosted by Morocco on December 10 and 11 of 2018.

Already this document has proven to be controversial.

Israeli PM Netanyahu asserted:

"Israel will not accede to, and will not sign, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. We are committed to guarding our borders against illegal migrants. This is what we have done and this is what we will continue to do."

It has been reported that the Austrian Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache has said:

“Migration is not and cannot become a human right,” and that Austria would not be a signatory to this agreement. 

Countries such as Australia, Croatia, Hungary, Poland and the United States have also stated they will not be signing the agreement.

Our Conservative Immigration Shadow Minister, MP Michelle Rempel, stated:

“By allowing nearly 38,000 people to enter Canada illegally from the safety of upstate New York then claim asylum, Trudeau has undermined the integrity of Canada’s borders. Canada’s borders should not be compromised by abuses of our asylum system, and should not sign this compact.”

The Liberal Minister for Immigration has co-authored a report that indicates Canada was actively involved in the drafting of the Compact and that “Canada is committed to the task of leading and encouraging other partners to realize its ambitious goals, to ensure that action breathes life into the words of the Compact.”

Supporters of the compact on migration contend “The UN’s global compact on refugees could be a game-changer—and Canada is well-placed to help make it a reality”. 

Critics are concerned that many countries, including Canada, currently have immigration systems that are not working well in dealing with illegal immigration and that the UN compact offers no technical solutions to this problem.

From my perspective it is worth noting that the UN compact on migration is a non-legally binding, cooperative framework of the signatory states.  

For those who would like to read the agreement it can be found here:

https://refugeesmigrants.un.org/sites/default/files/180713_agreed_outcome_global_compact_for_migration.pdf

My question this week:

Considering this is a non-binding agreement, do you support or oppose Canada signing on to the UN Migration Compact?

I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free 1-800-665-8711.

In my late October MP report, I referenced the serious concerns I was hearing from citizens on breaking news that Statistics Canada is demanding access to certain Canadians’ personal financial and banking information, including all transactions along with bank account balances, without citizens’ consent.

Since that time Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and the Official Opposition have been able to ask Prime Minister Trudeau about these very serious concerns in the House of Commons. 

In response the Prime Minister has made it clear that he strongly supports Ottawa bureaucrats having access to your personal financial information.

The Prime Minister has also stated that Statistics Canada is actively engaged with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner on this file. 

There is a problem with that statement. 

The Privacy Commissioner has publicly stated that he had no idea Statistics Canada wanted data on 500,000 households, until Global News published these details.

Further, the Privacy Commissioner has also stated that Statistics Canada is falling “way short” of its stated objective of being transparent.

Why does this matter? 

Recently the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology had an opportunity to question the head of Statistics Canada on this program and learned some troubling new information.

Although initial reports suggested that 500,000 Canadians would be targeted annually, the actual number is 500,000 households. 

This means that everyone living within your family home would also be subject to having their personal financial information taken without their consent. 

Statistics Canada also admitted that it is intentionally taking more information than it believes is necessary. 

This means each year, 150,000 households more than necessary will have their financial data taken without consent.

Another troubling admission is that although Statistics Canada will “anonymize” your personal financial data, the agency also admitted that your original data, including your identity, will not be deleted and that if it is deemed necessary to reunify your data, Statistics Canada will retain the ability to do so.

When asked specifically why not delete this personal contact information, the agency did not provide an answer. 

We also learned that Statistics Canada can charge fees to private corporations for providing them with neighbourhood by neighbourhood aggregated data, however Statistics Data insists that this is not “selling” your data, but is recovering fees for service. 

I have had constituents share with me that they feel large companies, like Facebook and Amazon, already have a significant amount of private transactional and personal information as it is.

Currently Statistics Canada has claimed this pilot program to take your private financial data without your consent is on hold pending the investigation from the Privacy Commissioner.

This week the Globe and Mail reported that 74% of Canadians they surveyed are opposed to Statistics Canada taking their personal financial data without their consent. 

Locally I am hearing even higher levels of opposition.

The Trudeau Liberal Government remains strongly supportive of your private financial information being taken without your consent and has claimed that citizens’ concerns that are raised by both the Conservative and NDP opposition is simply “fear mongering”.

My question this week:  

Are you concerned about your financial information being taken without your consent and shared with Ottawa bureaucrats or do you believe this is all a case of fear mongering?

I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free 1-800-665-8711.

​This week there was more attention than usual on US politics as many watched the results of the US mid-term elections.

Closer to home in Washington State there also was a vote to implement a state carbon tax.

This vote was Initiative No. 1631 which proposed a carbon tax of $15/ton and was rejected with a majority 56% of roughly 2 million voters saying no.

This was the second time a Washington State carbon tax has been rejected by a majority of voters with the previous initiative being voted down in 2016.

Why does this matter to Canadians?

Here in BC, some of our industries compete with industries located in Washington State.

When an industry in a jurisdiction paying carbon taxes cannot compete with that same industry in another jurisdiction, not paying carbon taxes, there is a serious concern for economic harm and job losses.

This situation is called “carbon leakage”.

Carbon leakage is even referenced in the current BC NDP Provincial budget document.

Here is how “carbon leakage" is defined in that budget document:

“Industries that compete with industry in countries that may have low or no carbon price:

If Industry loses market share to more polluting competitors, known as carbon leakage, it affects our economy and does not reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.”

In Ottawa, the Trudeau Liberal Government has also acknowledged this same principle.

Liberal MP Sean Fraser, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, recently admitted that when it comes to big industrial emitters in “trade-exposed industries”, the Liberal Government has recently softened carbon tax on big polluters because in the absence of carbon tax relief the carbon tax could potentially have jobs leave and it will do nothing for emissions.

In New Brunswick, the Trudeau Liberal Government has given a 95.5% percent exemption on carbon tax that applies to coal fired power.

Coal power is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases in Atlantic Canada. The largest emitter is the Irving Oil refinery who imports oil from Countries that also do not have carbon taxes.

BC is also not immune from carbon tax exemptions.

As one example, despite the BC NDP Government signing onto the Trudeau national carbon tax, the new BC LNG investment will be exempt from the carbon tax increases called for in that agreement.

This is not an isolated incident where a polluting industry in BC has secured some form of carbon tax relief.

Why do I raise these points?

The challenge is that increasingly some of Canada’s largest polluters are being given exemptions from paying carbon tax.

These carbon tax exemptions seldom draw major national media headlines and many citizens are unaware they are occurring.

However for the average citizen and for small business owners there is no carbon tax relief.

Here in BC, more increases in carbon tax remain on the horizon.

My question this week is one of fairness.

With large scale polluters increasingly being given carbon tax relief, do you think it is fair that, here in BC, average citizens are being asked to pay more carbon tax?

I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free 1-800-665-8711.