Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP Marcus Powlowski says he thinks the country is in good shape following the passage of the federal government’s budget last week.
In order for the budget to pass, Prime Minister Mark Carney, Powlowski and the ruling Liberal party required an assist from the Green Party and abstaining members of the Conservative party. Had the budget failed to pass, there could have been a second federal election in less than six months.
Now that the party’s leadership is secure for the immediate future, Powlowski said the government’s focus is squarely looking forward.
“The overall thrust of the budget is it’s time to invest in our future,” Powlowski said.
“We are, as a country, in a pretty good fiscal position. Our debt-to-GDP ratio is the lowest in the G7 by quite a bit, our deficit-to-GDP ratio is the second best in the G7. As the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) noted, Canada and Germany are the two countries that have the fiscal ability at this time to actually spend money, which is what a lot of economies want to do to offset the economic downturn which results from the tariffs and the economic uncertainty globally because of the trade stance of the United States in particular.”
Powlowski emphasized that there is a difference between investing in the country and spending money on things.
“I think that’s a big thing,” he said.
“I think there’s a big difference between investing and spending. I think investing is obviously something you do in order to derive benefit down the line, whereas spending is kind of a one off. For example if I’m going to go on a vacation I’m going to spend some money and have a good time and I’ll be out some money. The government has committed to balance [day-to-day] spending before 2029.”
One of the impacts the budget may have on the Rainy River District is a reduction of immigrants and temporary workers being allowed into the country.
The budget reduced the number of temporary residents to 385,000 people, down 43 per cent from 2025 numbers, which could have an impact on businesses across the region who rely on temporary workers and immigrants to fill positions.
“Fort Frances has been the poster child of this issue, I was the first to bring it to our national caucus, and I talked about Fort Frances and the issues facing Fort Frances because of the labour shortage, and how it was basically ubiquitous,” the MP said.
“It affects the places everybody goes in Fort Frances. You go to McDonald’s on a Friday night to get a hamburger and fries. You go to Tim Hortons on Sunday to sit there and have a cup of coffee, go to the Rendez-Vous to have dinner. All these places are dependent on foreign labour. You want to go to Canadian Tire, they too have people that are temporary workers on work permits or new immigrants to this country.”
Outside of retail and fast food, many workers in the medical field are also new to the country or on temporary work permits.
“But you also look at Riverside Health Care, if you look at my Facebook page, I just posted how I brought this up to the Minister of Immigration on the Health Committee, where we were looking at addressing the workforce shortage in healthcare through immigration and I had the numbers from Riverside as to how many people were currently there, who were on work permits, how many people were agency staff,” Powlowski said.
“So you’re having to bring them in from Toronto or Thunder Bay because you don’t have enough local staff, and then you’re short 40 or 50 positions that you can’t fill. I actually mentioned the Emo paramedics and the Rainy River Health Centre not having doctors. So I brought this up and said, ‘okay, we’re trying to limit our numbers, but what can you do to assure us that in limiting our numbers, this isn’t further adversely affecting health care in places like Fort Frances.’”
Powlowski says he’s heard similar plights from from his colleagues in the Liberal rural caucus.
“I got a lot of support, and it’s not only me, it’s the rural caucus,” he said. “People from across the country, MPs, are working on this because everywhere, whether it’s the fish packing plants on the East Coast, or whether it’s manufacturing Quebec or the agriculture, the food processing in Quebec or the prairies, or it’s tourism in British Columbia, or daycare centres all across Canada, which again, are often dependent on foreign workers.”
Powlowski also mentioned the government’s promise to invest in infrastructure and support for the international bridge between Fort Frances and International Falls.
“One of the first things that I’m pushing for is money for the bridge,” he said.
“That would seem to fit in perfectly with the requirements… so I think we’re going to look for the province to put some money in, the feds to put in some money, hopefully some money for the Americans to get that bridge. That’s certainly part of the infrastructure that we’re looking to build. I think part of the investment that we’re making is to facilitate trade with the United States. Certainly when you’re looking at trade, part of trade is transportation, and facilitating transportation making it easier. Having… a free bridge that people can come and go would, I think, certainly be in keeping with what we’re trying to do in terms of infrastructure. That is a project that I’m going to certainly be pushing as being one of the things that I think we ought to be spending that infrastructure money on.”
Powlowski also mentioned the commitment from former Infrastructure Minister Nathaniel Erskine-Smith made last spring.
“It was Nate Erskine-Smith who did commit the government to work through to a solution to this. So I’m holding our government to that commitment,” Powlowski said.
