Pierre Poilievre responds to Economic and Fiscal Update

OTTAWA, ON – The Honourable Pierre Poilievre, Conservative Shadow Minister
for Finance, today issued the following statement regarding the Economic and Fiscal
Update:

“Tens of thousands of Canadians have had to go home and tell their families
that they lost their jobs right before Christmas. Now they are left
facing the cold reality that their government has no plan to help get the
country back to work in the New Year.

“While Canada’s unemployment is above the G7 average and higher than the U.S.,
U.K., Japan and Germany and the U.S. economy is outgrowing Canada’s by roughly
50%. These are not statistics. People are suffering. 71,000 Canadians lost their
jobs in November, while a quarter-million more Americans went to work. Half of
Canadians are $200 from insolvency. Bankruptcies, insolvencies and defaults
have grown.

“Justin Trudeau is setting the stage for a made-in-Canada recession.

“The debt-to-GDP ratio is rising, the deficit is $7 billion higher than
Liberals promised only months ago and there is no date for a balanced budget.

“Justin Trudeau promised all this debt would make the middle class better off.
The opposite happened.

“Today, Justin Trudeau and Bill Morneau proved yet again that they are
unwilling to take the action necessary to restart our economy and get Canadians
back to work. Worse still, they chose to wait until the week before
Christmas, when the House had already risen, in an effort to hide from the
tough questions.

“We need urgent action to relaunch our economy.

“Conservatives are calling for a three-point plan:

Cut
taxes for workers and entrepreneurs to reward investment and work;
Liberate
our businesses to build, hire and grow, by eliminating red tape;
Reassure
investors with a reasonable plan to phase out the deficit.

“Canada’s
Conservatives will continue to be the voice of hardworking entrepreneurs and
workers and demand that the Trudeau Liberals’ get our economy back on track so
that Canadians can get back to work.”

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For more information, please contact:

Craig Hilimoniuk
Office of the Hon. Pierre Poilievre, MP
613-992-2772 (office)
613-290-4140 (cell)
Pierre.Poilievre.A2@parl.gc.ca