The MP for Provencher is back in Ottawa for the fall sitting of Parliament.
The House of Commons is scheduled to sit from September 15 to December 12. Ted Falk says the return to Parliament is a little bit like an excited kid on the night before the first day of school. According to Falk, Parliament has only sat for four weeks of the last eight months, and so this is still a chance to get to know some of the newer Parliamentarians.
Falk says that as Conservatives, they are very curious to see what the Liberal legislative agenda will look like.
"We don't have a real sense of that yet," he says.
This week will also see the startup of committees, something he says never really got going during the four weeks of sitting in May and June. Falk sits on the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology. He notes that is a sector of the economy that has been hurting with the tariffs imposed on Canadians by Prime Minister Mark Carney.
"He calls them his counter tariffs, but really they are tariffs on Canadians," suggests Falk.
He explains that anybody bringing in anything from the United States was required to pay tariffs, though those have since been relaxed.
"Now he's taken a new posture, he says it's elbows down," adds Falk.
The Provencher MP says in meetings he has had over the last week, industry has been very sensitive to this tariff talk.
"They are very sensitive to the increased costs," says Falk. "And of course we'll probably end up renegotiating Canada/ United States/ Mexico free trade agreement sometime between now and the new year. I think some of those negotiations have already started, and so that will be very interesting to see where we end up on that."
Falk says as he toured across Provencher during the summer months, constituents everywhere were talking about the increased cost of living. He notes that with inflation growing, the common theme has been how expensive it is to buy groceries.
"That is something that Canadians are looking for a little bit of relief on, on the increases in the cost of living," he adds. "And so that is something that as Conservatives we're going to be focused on with the Carney government."
Falk adds that the Prime Minister has promised that he will table a budget this fall, most likely in October. He notes that the Conservatives will be examining that budget very closely to make sure it is actually good for Canadians, and not only the Liberal Government.
Falk says he is hopeful that the budget will include a component on crime, noting the increase in violent crime being reported by law enforcement agencies. He suggests most of these violent crimes are by repeat offenders, caused by Bill C-75.
"Which in a lot of instances gave repeat violent offenders bail and not jail," says Falk. "And they have gone back out into the communities where they've come from and recommitted crimes that they were arrested for in the first place and prosecuted."
He notes affordable housing is another area that needs to be addressed in the budget. Falk says government must find solutions for first-time homeowners so that they are able to buy their own residence to live in.
Meanwhile, Falk says he does not expect to see movement in the near future on two recommendations made to government by the Standing Committee on Finance. One of the recommendations calls for government to 'No longer provide charitable status to anti-abortion organizations.' The other recommendation calls for government to 'Amend the Income Tax Act to provide a definition of a charity which would remove the privileged status of "advancement of religion" as a charitable purpose.'
"I don't think those are going to be priorities for the government," suggests Falk. "Having said that, nothing would surprise me with this Liberal Government."
He says if the Liberals decide to tackle these issues early, they will likely be hidden somewhere inside the budget. But Falk says he and his colleagues will be looking for this.
"It was just a recommendation in the report from pre-budget consultations that the finance committee did, it's not something necessarily that the Liberal Government will pick up on or that the Finance Minister would include in the budget," he says. "But we will be watching for it because it's an issue that I'm very concerned about and care personally very deeply about."