Sitting 56 — November 19, 2025

The sitting was dominated by debate on Bill C-4, the Making Life More Affordable for Canadians Act, and by sustained Conservative attacks on the government’s fiscal record and the Prime Minister’s foreign travel. The central political argument pitted Liberal claims of delivering tax cuts and new social programs against Conservative assertions that the budget’s $78-billion deficit and hidden taxes on food were making life more expensive.

Government Orders was consumed by third-reading debate on Bill C-4, which would cut the lowest personal income tax rate from 15% to 14%, eliminate the GST on new homes up to $1 million for first-time buyers, and remove consumer carbon pricing from law. The Liberals argued the bill would give up to $840 back to a family of two taxpayers and save first-time buyers up to $50,000, while keeping industrial carbon pricing to fight climate change. The Conservatives opposed the bill, arguing that the small tax cut was wiped out by the government’s record deficit and by hidden taxes on food, such as the industrial carbon tax and a packaging tax, which they said drove up grocery prices. The Bloc Québécois supported the GST rebate for first-time buyers but criticized the government for scrapping the consumer carbon tax without replacing it with other environmental measures and for not returning $814 million in carbon rebates that Quebec had not received. The NDP did not speak in this debate. No amendments were adopted on the floor.

Private Members’ Business saw second reading of Bill C-233, the NDP member for Vancouver East’s bill to amend the Export and Import Permits Act. The bill would remove the current exemption that allows most military exports to the United States to proceed without a permit, require end-use certificates where there is a risk of war crimes, and mandate an annual report on arms exports and compliance with the Arms Trade Treaty. The NDP argued that Canadian-made components were flowing through the U.S. to conflicts in Gaza, Yemen and Sudan, making Canada complicit in atrocities. The Conservatives and Liberals opposed the bill. The Conservatives said it would cripple Canada’s defence industry, cost thousands of jobs, and strain relations with NATO allies, particularly by threatening the supply of F-35 parts. The Liberals said Canada already had one of the world’s strongest export control regimes and that the bill would create unworkable bureaucracy, slow legitimate trade, and undermine support for Ukraine. The Bloc Québécois supported the bill’s intent but raised concerns that its threshold for denying permits was too vague and could harm the integrated Canada-U.S. defence industry. The bill was not voted on during this sitting.

Oral Questions was dominated by two themes. The first was the government’s fiscal record: Conservatives repeatedly cited the $78-billion deficit, warnings from the Parliamentary Budget Officer and Fitch Ratings, and the claim that the Prime Minister had broken his promise to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio. They argued that the deficit was funding a growing bureaucracy while families struggled with food and housing costs. The government replied that the budget was a generational plan to build the strongest economy in the G7, listing investments in health care, dental care, child care, school food programs, and a tax cut for 22 million Canadians, and accusing the Conservatives of voting against all of them. The second theme was the Prime Minister’s foreign travel: Conservatives said his 28 trips covering 153,000 kilometres had produced no tariff reductions and that tariffs on Canadian goods had risen under his watch. The government replied that the trips were diversifying trade away from the U.S., citing new deals with Ecuador and Indonesia, and accused the Conservatives of wanting to keep Canada dependent on the U.S. market. The Bloc Québécois questioned the government’s decision to scrap a tax on multinational internet companies, arguing it had cost $1.5 billion that could have funded culture, and pressed the minister on the lack of support for private media. The NDP asked why the government had eliminated the luxury tax on yachts and private jets while cutting public services.