Westman MPs back to business after budget vote

Westman Conservative MPs Grant Jackson and Dan Mazier say it’s back to business as usual after the Liberal budget passed Monday evening.

Jackson, who voted against the budget along with nearly all of the Conservative caucus, said the result was “disappointing,” but he was “not necessarily surprised.”

Members of Parliament passed Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first budget 170-168, with two Conservative and two NDP MPs abstaining.

The other Conservative MPs and all of the Bloc Québécois members voted against the budget. The Liberals, five New Democrats and one Green voted in favour.

“It was an interesting night, but there we have it, that’s the result. And so now we’re back to work today,” Jackson told the Sun from Ottawa Tuesday morning.

Jackson said he is back to committee meetings already, and legislation will continue to be debated in the House of Commons.

Mazier, who also voted against the budget, said the close vote shows that Canada is a “divided nation.”

“I knew it was going to be close, and honestly, I did not know how it was going to be,” Mazier said. “That’s why everybody was paying so much attention.”

Both MPs said their concerns on the budget were primarily over the $78-billion deficit for the 2025-26 fiscal year, and how that places young Canadians going forward.

“While we understand that communities are looking for capital investment, we do think that this is a significant burden to be placing on future generations,” Jackson said.

“We’re very concerned about what that means for the future of the country.”

Jackson, who was in his riding last week during the Remembrance Day break, said people he spoke to had mixed feelings about the large deficit. That’s because the budget not passing would likely mean a Christmastime election, coming soon after this year’s spring election, he said.

“The vast majority of them do not want this $80-billion boondoggle of a budget tacked on to the national debt,” he said.

Mazier, who is also the federal health-care critic for the Conservatives, said he’s back in committee meetings and was in British Columbia ahead of the budget vote to call for the end of drug decriminalization.

Under a Health Canada exemption, adults in B.C. are allowed to possess small amounts of certain illicit drugs for personal use in specific locations, the B.C. government website says.

Adults are allowed up to 2.5 grams of substances like opioids, cocaine and methamphetamine.

“I can’t explain enough just what the devastation I’ve seen of this failed policy,” Mazier said.

He said while walking in neighbourhoods in Penticton, Kelowna and Vancouver’s East Hastings Street, he could see people openly taking drugs.

“It is terrible what this policy has done to communities. It has ripped them apart.”

Mazier said he will fight so that the governing minority Liberals will cancel B.C.’s exemption and end decriminalization.

“We need to get that exemption shut down as quickly as possible. And for the life of me, I cannot understand why the Liberals are not acting on this today,” Mazier said.

» alambert@brandonsun.com