With the cost-of-living skyrocketing for working families, Justin Trudeau is turning his back on them

While families decide which bills they can pay and which ones they can’t, it’s clearer than ever, Justin Trudeau doesn’t understand what families are going through

OTTAWA – With Thursday’s Fall Economic Statement, the Liberal government had an opportunity to show up for working families and instead they chose to continue to stand with the big bosses. The same week where studies revealed that 20% of families are cutting meals to make ends meet, that Loblaws made an extra $ 1 million a day in excess profits and that people have never taken on so much debt to get by – Justin Trudeau’s Liberals chose to protect profits instead of giving respect to families feeling the crunch.

“In a time where families are looking at their budgets and deciding whether they’ll be able to afford their mortgage in the next few years, today’s Fall Economic Statement showed that Justin Trudeau doesn’t understand what families are going through,” said Canada’s NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh. “Canadians are worried. They feel like they are doing everything right – working hard – and still can’t keep up. It doesn’t have to be that way. We can achieve different results if we make different choices. Instead of spending $15 billion to fill the pockets of rich investors or $2.6 billion in fossil fuel subsidies for big oil companies, New Democrats would have forced those big companies to pay what they owe to give a break to working families and to invest in our health care system on the brink of collapse.”

Report after report shows that rich CEOs have never had bigger profits while families are making tough decisions about their spending habits. And experts are warning if a recession happens, this will only get worse. Canadians are also dealing with impossible wait times for emergency room visits – especially for their kids – or are having to drive hours to visit an emergency room because the emergency room in their community has shut down.

This could have been an opportunity to remove the GST off of home heating so families could feel better about their ability to heat their homes this winter or to invest in our health care system so it’s there when people need it. Instead, it was a Fall Economic Statement for rich investors, not working families.

“New Democrats believe that it's government’s duty to be there for working people when times are tough,” said Singh. “That’s why we’ve been fighting for you to get a break on your home-heating bills and to get money back in your pocket to help your family pay your bills. And that’s why we’ve been fighting to tackle the greedflation that is rising the prices of everything and for investment in our health care system so it’s there for you when you need it. And we’re not going to stop. New Democrats will keep fighting for you.”

New Democrats forced the Liberal government to implement the following measures, and while they will help people, much more needs to be done to help Canadians get through a recession:

• Permanently removing interest on student loans.
• Incentivizing clean tech and clean hydrogen companies to create good paying jobs.
• Doubling the first-time homebuyers tax credit.
• Making financial institutions pay a little bit more.
• Introducing an anti-flipping tax.
• Building a sustainable Jobs Training Centre.