Red Deer’s lack of success in tapping into federal homelessness funding is a reflection of the Liberal government’s anti-Prairies attitude, said Red Deer-Lacombe MP Blaine Calkins on Thursday.
Calkins was responding to Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce CEO Scott Robinson, who asked for Calkins’s and Red Deer-Mountain View MP Earl Dreeshen’s take on why Alberta was having so much trouble getting federal affordable housing dollars.
Calkins pointed to federal Rural and Economic Development Minister Gudie Hutchings, who suggested in an interview last October the Prairies needed to elect more Liberal MPs if they wanted to get the same sort of carbon tax carve-out Atlantic Canada received.
Hutchings, Calkins said, said the “quiet part out loud not too long ago that if these folks in the Prairies wanted something they just needed to vote the right way.
“It certainly feels like we’re not a priority in any way shape or form …” he said at the chamber of commerce-hosted MPs breakfast event at River Bend Golf and Recreation Area.
In earlier comments, Calkins did not hold back while attacking the Liberal government and its policies, including the carbon tax, which increased again on April 1.
Calkins said Liberal policies are undermining Canada’s competitiveness and the U.S. is taking note and offering incentives to lure companies south of the border.”Our federal government has signalled quite a bit which industries they’re not interested in having in our country any more.”
Liberal policies amount to a “direct attack” on Prairie provinces, rural communities “and basically anybody that they think doesn’t vote for them.”
He conceded his comments may seem a “little crass” or a “little partisan” but “I’ve come to the inescapable conclusion that’s simply the case.
“They seem to more motivated legislatively and politically against everything they dislike rather than actually cheering on and championing everybody everywhere in our county and I think that’s why everything feels broken.”
Under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government investment is being driven out of Canada because of over-regulation and the gross domestic product has fallen.
“We could, and should be, some of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest people in the world, able to solve not only our own domestic problems but to be a leader contributing to the peace, safety and security, stability and environmental stability around the world.”
“And we’re squandering those opportunities and it frustrates me.”
In his response to the affordable housing question, Dreeshen said he and Calkins lobby for their constituencies but often to little avail.
“We can continue to harp away and we can go to the ministers and talk about the significance of the different programs that each of our respective communities have, but it basically falls on deaf ears.”
Earlier, Dreeshen said conservatives are focused on building homes, fixing the budget and stopping crime.
“Those are really the key things we’re looking at and they’re are strategies around them. But how big a hole will we have before we have a chance to bring people out of this.”
Dreeshen also took aim at Bill C-372, or the Fossil Fuels Advertising Act, a private member’s bill tabled by long-time NDP MP Charlie Angus, who has represented the northern Ontario riding of Timmins-James Bay since 2004.
Angus modelled his bill on the 1997 Tobacco Act that severely restricted tobacco advertising and marketing. Like that legislation, Angus’s bill includes the potential of large fines or even prison time for those falling afoul of its regulations.
“It’s a hate speech type of thing,” said Dreeshen. “I’ve gone through the legislation and it’s pretty well everything I’ve said in committee that he wants to make sure never gets said again.
“We’re kind of anxious to get a chance to spar on this one.”