Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on the federal government not to lose sight of affordability issues at home, saying it should implement more tax cuts to boost productivity and improve the economy.
Poilievre spoke to reporters after meeting with residents during a visit to B.C.’s Lower Mainland on Sept. 15, saying more must be done to save Canadians money at a time when the costs for food, gas, and housing are on the rise.
“We’ve got to start focusing on the practical lives of real people,” Poilievre said during a press conference in Vancouver. “It’s great to have summits and speeches and travelling around the world, but what about right here at home in people’s real lives? Where are the results that they can enjoy? That is what is missing right now.”
Poilievre said he was happy the prime minister has been hosting a summit in Toronto over the past two days aiming to attract more investment in the country, but charged that government should go beyond “speeches, summits, and symbolic signing ceremonies” and deliver results to make living and doing business more affordable for Canadians.
He called on the government to eliminate all federal taxes on gasoline and diesel until at least Canada Day 2027, which would save drivers 25 cents a litre and as much as $1,200 a year.
Poilievre said the government should also eliminate the GST on Canadian-made automobiles to save Canadian buyers money and preserve employment within the automotive sector.
Eliminating this requirement would “create an investment boom right across our country,” he said.
Poilievre also reiterated his call to cut the capital gains tax if profits are reinvested in Canada, and to remove the industrial carbon tax. He has previously argued that taxing domestic industries harms Canadian competitiveness against foreign markets—specifically the United States—and drives up the downstream cost of everyday consumer goods like food and building materials.
He told reporters during the press conference that getting rid of the tax would “unleash our cement, concrete, steel, aluminum, fertilizer, and other sectors.”
He also renewed his call for the government to scrap the Impact Assessment Act and the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act—a move that he said would allow Canada to build pipelines and ship oil off the northern coast of British Columbia—and urged the government to “fast track the 500 projects” that have been “sitting on Mark Carney’s desk” awaiting a federal permit.
Poilievre argued that since his election last spring, Carney’s policies have “worsened the economy.”
“We have the slowest growth in the G7. We’ve lost a trillion dollars of net investment,” he said. “There’s not an inch of new oil pipeline constructed. We’ve had most of the last year and a half with the worst food price inflation, the worst household debt, and of course the worst growth in the G7.”
“It’s all well and good to bring investors here, but what we need to do is change the policies here at home that will unlock and unblock our economy,” he added.
Poilievre’s press conference was held the same day Carney addressed investors on the closing day of his Canada Investment Summit.
The Prime Minister’s Office said the summit resulted in nearly $500 billion in new investment commitments, including nearly $325 billion in financing from Canadian banks and nearly $100 billion in new capital from Canadian pension funds, insurers, and institutional investors.
Among the new initiatives announced were a proposed $52.5 billion for expanding an AI centre in Saskatchewan, and government broadening a tax incentive for new investments, including in pipelines, that cuts the marginal effective tax rate on new business investment from around 13 percent to 6.4 percent.
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