Ottawa, ON — The Hon. Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and the Official Opposition, announced today that Conservatives will continue blocking Justin Trudeau’s budget:

“Conservatives have been fighting the costly coalition’s budget because there is no plan to bring down inflation and control spending or cut inflationary taxes. We have two demands:

1. Give us a plan to balance the budget to bring down inflation and interest rates. 
2. No more carbon tax hikes.

“Before tabling the budget, Chrystia Freeland admitted that Liberal deficits were causing inflation. She said that the goal of her budget was ‘not to pour fuel on the fire of inflation.’ She told us that she would ‘exercise fiscal restraint.’ But then the Liberals dumped $60 billion of additional fuel on the fire—$4200 in extra costs for every family in Canada.

“John Manley, the former Liberal finance minister, said that Trudeau’s fiscal policy is making it harder to contain inflation. Manley described it as ‘a bit like driving your car with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake generally, especially if there’s slushy conditions under your tires.’ Enough. We must get inflation under control.

“On top of this, Trudeau’s second carbon tax, which, together with his first carbon tax, will hike the price at the pump by 61 cents per litre and drive up the cost of everything. Canadians can’t afford this.

“Since it was tabled, Conservatives have used every tool available to block this budget. We have:

• Tabled 904 amendments to the budget. 
• Fought the passage of the budget at the Finance Committee for over a month because Freeland refused to attend to answer questions about her budget. 
• Forced the Liberals to use time allocation at the second reading of the bill in the House of Commons because every Conservative MP wanted to speak. 
• Put forward 23 amendments on the budget at committee. 
• Fought the passage clause-by-clause at the Finance Committee by forcing over 600 recorded votes.
• Fought to hear more witness testimony at Finance Committee before the Liberal Chair shut this down.

“Only once our demands are met will we, reluctantly, let the budget go to vote. Only Conservatives will bring home powerful paycheques and lower prices.”