44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 6, 2023 10:00AM
- Oct/6/23 11:46:13 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the people of Central Nova want to know why that member voted 23 times to increase their taxes and increase the cost of food.
After eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, even this Prime Minister's own MPs are admitting that people cannot afford to buy groceries. Lettuce is up 94%. Onions are up 69%. Carrots are up 74%. In the last year of the Conservative government, a turkey cost $1.49 a pound. Now it is $2.49 a pound. That is a Liberal 67% increase.
The Liberal Prime Minister is just not worth the cost. The Prime Minister promised to reduce grocery prices. Why is he breaking his promise?
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- Oct/6/23 11:47:33 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the people of South Shore—St. Margarets are asking why the member's solution to the grocery food challenge is that they should watch flyers and clip coupons. Only one Liberal actually understands what is happening and is listening to their constituents, when people are saying that they cannot afford to heat their homes and buy food.
A Liberal MP said that Liberals have made it more expensive for people, to a level that they cannot handle. Even this Liberal believes that the Prime Minister is not worth the cost.
I will ask this again: Will the Prime Minister keep his promise to lower food costs, yes or no?
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- Oct/6/23 12:16:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to table a document. It is a transcript that concerns a matter before the House.
“I think [the carbon tax is] hurting them a fair bit,” a member said—
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to Bill C-49, an act that would amend the mandates of the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board and the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Atlantic accord. The primary goal of this legislation is to provide for a new approval process for the development of oil and gas projects off Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as the mandates of these two boards.
When second reading of this bill started a week or so ago, Liberal MPs from Atlantic Canada thought they would use their speeches and the speeches of the official opposition to try to make this about some sort of strange “If one is not with the Liberals on Bill C-49, then one must be against Atlantic Canada” idea.
In fact, they came out of their caucus meeting and actually said that they think they could distract people after giving the Prime Minister all of this bad news about what we have been hearing in the summer. They thought they would come out of the caucus meeting and try to hold a shiny thing over here to see if their constituents would be distracted. The distraction attempt for Nova Scotians and Newfoundlanders and Labradorians was from the Liberals' failure to address the primary concern they heard over the summer from their communities: the cost of living.
There have been 24 times that all of them, except for one now, have voted to increase the cost of everything. One can almost hear the Liberals in their meetings saying that, maybe, if they talk about Bill C-49, people might forget that their home heating oil bills have more than doubled under the NDP-Liberals; that, maybe, if they talk about Bill C-49, all the complaints they heard from people in the summer, of having lost faith in this government and forcing the cost of everything up, might be forgotten; and that, maybe, all of the damage they have done to themselves and their constituents will be forgotten.
Just so everyone knows, it is tied to Bill C-49 because they were using that as a bright, shiny object to try to distract from those failures. What are those failures they are using Bill C-49 to try to distract from? I think they are actually best captured by the words of the member for Avalon. For those watching, the member for Avalon is a Liberal member of Parliament from Newfoundland. On the show Power and Politics, he said this, and let me start with this quote, as I think it is a great one: “I believe we have to change the way we're approaching the climate change incentive, whatever you want to call it. I think what we're using right now, at this point in time, is putting a bigger burden on people who are now struggling with an affordability crisis.” That affordability crisis, of course, is that which Conservatives have been talking about for the last year, and of which Liberal members of Parliament live in denial.
The Liberal member for Avalon goes on, on the program, to say, “I think [the carbon tax is] hurting them a fair bit”, with “them” being his constituents. He says, “Everywhere I go, people come up to me and say, ‘You know, we're losing faith in the Liberal Party.’ I've had people tell me they can't afford to buy groceries.” The Liberal member for Avalon then goes on to say, “They can't afford to heat their homes, and that's hard to hear from, especially, seniors who live alone and tell me they go around their house in the spring and wintertime with a blanket wrapped around them, because they can't afford the home heating fuel. They can't afford to buy beef or chicken.” We have been telling the Liberals that, yet they are trying to use Bill C-49 as a distraction from the day-to-day challenges they have caused Canadians.
The member for Avalon obviously had a private conversation with the Minister of Finance around this time. He said, “I told the minister, when she came to Newfoundland, about this, and she told me, she said, ‘I'm going to correct this. You're right.’” She actually said she is going to correct it. We are still waiting. Not only do they break promises to Canadians; they also break promises to their own backbenchers.
The Liberal member for Avalon goes on to say, “We can't keep adding on to expenses, and David,” which is the name of the host, “you know that everything in our province comes in by boat and truck. They burn fuel. Lots of it. That's the cost to bring it in, and it's going to be added to every item that gets on a store shelf somewhere.”
That is punishing anybody who goes to buy something, whether it is a chocolate bar or a tin of milk. It is anything. A piece of two-by-four will go up, which will make homes more expensive to build. I think our leader has been saying that for a year, and there has been nothing but deaf ears on the other side, except for one fellow who found religion after talking to his constituents for three months in the summer.
The same Liberal member went onto say, “I think they,” being the Liberals, “will lose seats not just in Newfoundland, not just in Atlantic Canada, but indeed right across the country if they don't get a grasp on this the way that I think they should”. It is interesting that he is calling his own party “they” as if he is not part of them anymore and had not voted 23 times before this for the carbon tax. Now, on the 24th time, he has changed his mind and flip-flopped. It is unusual for a Liberal to flip-flop.
He said “get a grasp on this the way that I think they should”. This one is hitting home to everybody I speak to and it is a grassroots issue. If an election were called today, I am not sure the Liberal Party would actually form the government. I am pretty sure that would not happen if an election were held today, and they would not be in government.
The hurt and pain that has been caused by the Liberals out there, because of their inflationary deficits and carbon tax, is causing a great deal of hardship that is not recognized by 157 Liberal members, and their cohorts in the NDP who support all of this, but the 158th member has finally got it. Maybe it will take another two years for the other Liberals to get it.
This is the counter to the bright, shiny distraction the Liberals are trying to do with Bill C-49. They are trying to make some crazy accusations about who supports Atlantic Canadians. Apparently, according to the member for Avalon, Liberals do not support Atlantic Canadians. He goes on to say, “And I know the government is pushing people to switch over to heat pumps.” We hear that all the time, including today from the member for Central Nova. He says, “Many homes, especially the older homes, are not designed for that. They are not built to sustain the heat from a heat pump, so I don't think it works.”
Quite frankly, to show how out of touch the member for Central Nova is with his bright, shiny $10,000 heat pumps that he is pushing for all the companies that he knows and likes in Nova Scotia, the fact is if someone is living on CPP, disability or a fixed income, they do not have $10,000 for a heat pump.
Apparently, in the golden world the Liberals live in with $200,000 vacations for the Prime Minister and the fancy world the member for Central Nova lives in with his chauffeured car as a minister, he thinks people on CPP, OAS and GIS can afford $10,000 out of their cash flow for a heat pump. The Liberals' disconnection from reality knows no bounds.
Finally, in that interview, in response to the issue of the messenger, the messenger being the Minister of Environment who believes orange is a very nice colour to wear, the member for Avalon said, “No, he is not”, meaning he is not the right messenger. “No, he's not, and because he's so entrenched in this, and I get it, I mean, where he came from and his whole idea of making a big difference in climate change, but you can't do it overnight. You can't make it more expensive on people than what they can handle, and that's exactly what's happening right now.”
The member from Atlantic Canada's request was that they actually increase the payments to people so that the revenue-neutral carbon tax, which they claim, would cost more out of the treasury. The solution for cancer was to give us more cancer. It was not to say that they were going to get at the root of the disease, and the root of the disease, the cause of this inflation, is the carbon tax. That is what they should be getting rid of.
Bill C-49, which they are trying to use as a distraction from this reality, includes a process to review renewable energy projects in the ocean. I can inform this House that while the NDP-Liberal government claims to support renewable energy projects in Atlantic Canada, the track record says that it actually does not do that. Over the decades, we have been trying in Nova Scotia to harness the enormous power of the Bay of Fundy tides to generate clean renewable electricity. There have been about half a dozen projects and hundreds of millions of private-sector dollars spent trying to figure out how to harness the Bay of Fundy tides. All but one project have failed. These are very large turbines. The projects that failed had these large turbines built and put on the floor of the Bay of Fundy. These turbines are about five storeys high.
For those members who do not know, the Bay of Fundy rises and falls every day by 52 feet. Twice each day, 160 billion tonnes of seawater flows in and out of the Bay of Fundy, which is more than the combined river flows of the world. The Bay of Fundy's tides transform the shorelines and tidal flats and expose the sea bottom as they flood into the bay and its harbours and estuaries. It is estimated that by 2040, the tidal energy of the Bay of Fundy could contribute up to $1.7 billion to Nova Scotia's GDP and create up to 22,000 jobs. That is almost as many people as work in our number-one industry, which is the fishery.
Besides the money, how big is that in terms of energy? Three hundred megawatts of tidal energy can power a quarter of all Nova Scotia homes. That is just a fraction of the Bay of Fundy's 2,500-megawatt potential. That means Nova Scotia could become a net exporter of clean renewable tidal power.
However, how are we doing on that? With respect to every project, as I said, that has had these turbines placed on the bottom of the ocean floor, within about 48 hours they failed. The power of the tides had blown the turbines apart. However, people at an innovative company called Sustainable Marine Energy had a different idea: What if we floated those turbines on the top of the water instead of sinking them to the ocean floor? Guess what: It worked. The first project to consistently put power into Nova Scotia's power grid and to be paid for that power by Nova Scotia Power was successful. They were the first turbines not to be destroyed by the power of the Bay of Fundy tides.
One would think that the NDP-Liberal government would be thrilled and that the approval of such a successful green renewable-energy project would be fast-tracked, but that is not what happened. The Atlantic Liberals had the Department of Fisheries and Oceans refuse to extend the permit for further piloting of the project. They used DFO to kill the project. That is important to Bill C-49 because of the power it would give DFO over all energy projects in Atlantic Canada. Those turbines are now out of the water. They are disassembled, the technology is shelved and the company is bankrupt. I say thanks to Atlantic Liberals and their commitment to renewable energy from our oceans. They talk the talk, but walk away when it comes time to move forward. It is typical of these Liberals. It is all about the input, without any results.
Therefore, this bill is not about approving projects in renewable ocean energy and oil and gas development to get the world off coal and dirty dictator oil. No, it would formalize a process designed to make sure these projects never see the light of day. What the NDP-Liberals have done here in this bill is put more gatekeepers in place to stop energy project development in Atlantic Canada. They imported four sections from the disastrous Bill C-69, the no pipelines bill, into Bill C-49. With Bill C-69, the NDP-Liberals had said that more projects would get approved when they approved that. How many have been approved? There have been none. How many have been proposed? There have been none. It magically drove all capital out of Canada for energy projects.
Now, Bill C-49 would bring that process and that incredible success rate to Atlantic Canada's offshore energy projects. It would impose the same process, and imposing the same process would yield the same result. This bill would triple the current timelines for approval of offshore energy projects. Currently, a decision by the offshore regulatory board has 30 days for cabinet to agree or disagree. The Liberals would extend that in this bill.
Sections 28 and 137 give the federal cabinet the ability to end offshore drilling and renewable energy projects and also give the Minister of Fisheries a veto to propose developments in areas that the minister said that there may be a time in the future when there might be a marine protected area, MPA. It is not that there is a marine protected area, but maybe someday, if the minister thinks there might be one, and so, no, we cannot go there. It is sort of like Whac-a-Mole, which is what DFO has been doing on land with the rivers for any energy projects, and using the passage of one shrivelled up river as a reason to stop a project. Now, that same power would be given to DFO.
Why is that possible? An MPA is a part in the ocean. Fish swim and do not know the boundaries of the parts. However, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans a few years ago met with the fishing groups in Nova Scotia and, in effect, said, “We're going to shut down 30% of the commercial fishery in Nova Scotia using MPAs. Work with us and you can pick which fisheries we shut down. Don't work with us, and we'll pick what is on.” The department uses its excessive power for other political purposes, and that is being imposed in the bill.
The bill brings the inefficiencies of the federal government's Impact Assessment Act into the bill as well. It adds sections 61, 62, 169 and 170 of the IAA where the federal minister has the power to impose conditions on authorizations. It also invokes section 64 of the IAA, which allows a federal minister to interfere in a project if they think it is in the public interest and create any condition, without limit, they think is necessary regardless of what the regulator decides.
Adding these Bill C-69 provisions to Atlantic Canada's offshore energy process extends the process through unlimited federal delays at any time, but at a minimum it is going to be over 1,600 days, which is four and a half years. That is the process that Bill C-69 sets out. It is a minimum of four and a half years for the approval of any project. That really efficient process, which has led to no projects being approved in western Canada, is now being imposed on Atlantic Canada. It is a recipe to end all our offshore energy projects in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.
There are no provisions in the bill that require commercial fishing communities to be at the table when all of these projects are being considered. There has been no consultation with the fishing industry about these projects. Why is that important? It is because, in Atlantic Canada, that is our largest industry. To not require their involvement when most of these projects impact their ability to earn a living is a betrayal by Atlantic Canada MPs to the critically important industry they supposedly represent as members of Parliament and to the tens of thousands of people who work in it.
Finally, the current Atlantic accord treats Nova Scotia and Newfoundland differently. The Nova Scotia government has the ability to designate areas under provincial jurisdiction as energy projects within the bays of a province, or the “jaws of the land” as it is called. However, Newfoundland and Labrador does not have that power. I am shocked, frankly, and they should really give their heads a shake, a favourite saying of one of the MPs over there. Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal MPs are okay with Nova Scotia having authorities that the Newfoundland and Labrador government does not. What else would we expect from these silent Liberals? Well, they are silent except for the member for Avalon who apparently is not comfortable in his own caucus any more.
It is time for Atlantic Liberals to get their heads out of the sand. It is time for them to speak up and recognize that the bill before us does for Atlantic energy projects what Bill C-69 did for energy projects in western Canada. Atlantic Liberal MPs need to join us in fixing these issues in committee when we propose solid and thoughtful amendments to ensure that projects get done and not stopped by Liberal gatekeepers.
It is also time for Atlantic Liberal MPs to stop voting with the NDP-Liberal government to increase the cost of everything with the carbon tax. It is about time they do that. Well, this week, they voted once again to impose a quadrupling of taxes on their own constituents. If they truly care about the economy, they will speak up for their region and axe the carbon tax and they will amend this bad bill so that projects can actually get approved.
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- Oct/6/23 12:47:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is a little ironic coming from that member, who has voted 24 times to increase the cost of everything for all of his constituents.
On the issue of storms, we have had multiple storms every decade since the 1700s. He should look up the history. Yes, I had fires, man-made fires, that were started in my riding that were not started by climate change. They were started by individuals.
Perhaps he would like to explain to me why he disagrees with his colleague from Avalon and with the commitment from the minister of fisheries through the member that said she should correct the problem to make sure it is right. Will he stand up and agree with the Minister of Finance and the member for Avalon that the carbon tax needs to be fixed as it is hurting people in Atlantic Canada?
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- Oct/6/23 12:49:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we believe pollution should be fought. We believe that that should be through technology, not through taxes that do not work.
The carbon tax has had zero impact in this country on the rate of carbon emissions. In fact, every year under the government, except for when it shut the entire economy down during COVID, carbon emissions have gone up. There is such a lack of knowledge about what is going on in the world. If we were at net-zero today, China would make that up in 56 days with its plan on expansion of coal plants, yet the government opposes us getting liquified natural gas to China so that the real emissions, a third of the world's emissions, could be reduced.
I would like to ask the members opposite why they hate reducing the coal production of China so much?
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- Oct/6/23 12:51:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, here is another example of a Liberal-NDP coalition member who does not listen, does not listen to constituents and does not listen to what anyone in the House says. I have said many times, as has our leader and every other member, that of course climate change is real. However, the tax does not do anything to change that.
Leave it to a member of that costly coalition to not listen to what I said, which was that the fires in my riding were started by individuals. They were not started by climate change. She forgot those facts because they are inconvenient for her.
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- Oct/6/23 12:53:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our mutual friend, the late Hon. Pat Carney, did negotiate those deals, and from our perspective, I appreciate that the member thinks this was an unusual year. This was an El Niño year in North America, where we got less rain in the spring than we did last year or the year before. I expect, when we do not have an El Niño year again, that will change.
With regard to the issue of where wind power generation goes, of course we believe in tidal power and wind power. That is why I spoke for a great deal in my speech about the only project that has ever worked, which was the tidal power by Sustainable Marine Energy, which the government shut down. It, without damage, continued to return power to the Nova Scotia power grid, and they did not get paid for it, yet the government used this as an excuse to shut it down. DFO had given it four approvals and would not give it the fifth.
That approach to shutting down all energy projects, whether they be in oil and gas or on the renewable side of things, is the problem with the bill. It would put in place the terrible provisions of the IAA and Bill C-69 into this process.
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- Oct/6/23 12:56:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member for Sydney—Victoria, with his past comments, speaks for himself and his attitude toward women. That it is tolerated and has been rewarded with a parliamentary secretary spot is just a mystery to me.
That aside, on how high the carbon tax can go, I do not think there is any limit to how high the Liberals can put a tax, especially when it is ineffective. Their plan is to go to at least $270 a tonne. That means, in the short term, at least 61¢ a litre on gasoline, and in my riding, and in the hon. member's riding, there is no public transit.
My constituents do not have public transit. They have to drive everywhere. They have to drive to grocery stores. They have to drive their kids to school. They have to drive to hockey games. They have to drive to see their family and parents. That is becoming increasingly unaffordable, and it is caused by a tax that has no impact on the actual reduction of climate emissions.
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Mr. Speaker, today I rise in the House to speak at third reading of this important legislation, Bill C-244, otherwise known as the right to repair bill, which was introduced by the member for Richmond Centre.
Conservatives support this legislation and are happy to see its return at third reading. It is not common in the House to find legislation that all parties can come together on and, for the most part, we agree on the principles of the bill, so I send my congratulations to the member.
Bill C-244 seeks to amend the Copyright Act to allow individuals and businesses to repair a technology with copyright material without infringing on the rights set out in the Copyright Act. When someone has a copyright for a work they created, the Copyright Act enables that creator to be the sole entity to reap the financial rewards from that creation for a set period of time. This is a good thing. Exclusive financial rewards of invention and creation is what drives progress in our society.
These days, everything includes software: cars, fridges, phones, and any manufactured equipment. All software, therefore, in those devices and things that we utilize day to day have copyright protection. Manufactured goods now have proprietary designs and structures, along with specialized tools to repair these goods. They are designed that way. Why is that? It is because repair and maintenance of manufactured goods is as profitable or more profitable than the sale of the good itself.
Copyright is being used now, in my view, as an anti-competitive tool to keep the customer tied to the manufacturer and unable to use less expensive providers of repair and maintenance. This is causing great frustration for the consumer. Only the car dealer, not one's local garage, can repair one's car. Only the manufacturer can repair farm equipment because the specialized tools and codes are only available from an authorized dealer.
The Copyright Act would be amended by this bill to provide for instances when the rights of copyright can be infringed upon, or what is known as circumvention. In other words, this bill would allow individuals or small businesses to repair technologies themselves without fear of repercussions.
Many of my Conservative colleagues from the Prairies have previously spoken about how this legislation would impact our agricultural sector in particular. Today, I would like my comments to also focus on this critical industry, which provides the food we eat.
For those who are unfamiliar, farmers are often required to pay enormous costs upfront to buy and maintain the equipment they use in operating a farm. These costs are often in the millions and include purchasing the land, the appropriate seed and fertilizer, and the equipment necessary to harvest and plant a crop. Often, large tractors, such as those from John Deere, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, as do the attachment pieces that go with them. These tractors contain complex electrical systems that require specific tools to access them, which are protected by Canada's robust copyright laws.
As is the case in every industry, the equipment farmers use often breaks down and requires either repair or a complete replacement, given enough time. This breakdown usually happens at the worst time, when speed of repair is essential. At one time, this was never a big issue.
Farmers have historically been makeshift mechanics. They have been able and expected to demonstrate that, if some engine or computer system was not working, they could find a way to fix it, jury-rig it, to get the repair done immediately so they could continue with their essential work. That was especially important, given how the harvesting season typically last only a few weeks and time lost waiting for an authorized repairman to fix an engine could cost a business their annual livelihood.
As technology has progressed and farming has become more computerized over the past two decades, including some equipment now that is self-driving in harvesting and planting, the ability to repair equipment has increasingly become more and more difficult for our farmers. Today, farmers rely heavily on technology to assist them in their harvest. These technologies can sometimes cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and have these complex systems.
For farmers, this means that if a copyrighted computer system or engine for a large tractor breaks down, they cannot simply call a local repairman or fix it themselves. Instead, they are required to call a technician from the manufacturing company or an authorized dealer to come out and fix that specific piece of equipment. This method is very taxing on owners.
Company technicians can sometimes take anywhere from hours to days, even a week or two, to arrive to conduct the necessary repair. When they finally arrive, owners are sometimes presented with an unusually high repair bill. The delay has caused lots of crop harvesting time to be lost, where every day lost is a potential loss in farm income.
My Conservative colleague from Provencher in Manitoba spoke in second reading on this bill with great knowledge and depth about the high level of investment required to keep some of this equipment and the cost associated with replacing a combine for a farmer. He talked about the millions that this costs.
This way of going about these repairs, in my view, is anti-competitive; it is harmful to farmers, small businesses and consumers. Property owners ought to be allowed to repair the piece of equipment they have purchased in the most economical way possible. They should be able to have a variety of resources at their disposal when fixing equipment, not just the pre-approved, monopolistic authorized agent from the manufacturer.
The Copyright Act has become a government-legislated gatekeeper harming consumer choice. It was not intended to be this way.
As I mentioned previously, being able to reap the financial rewards of one's own invention and creation is essential, but when copyright moves into the territory of using these rights as a way to prevent competition and control the whole repair and maintenance ecosystem, then it becomes anti-competitive and monopolistic. It then needs to be fixed, repaired and modernized to reflect the modern state of equipment that we all buy.
Even one’s stove and fridge now have these monopolistic design features in both their software and their hardware. Trying to get repairs done with a computerized fridge is next to impossible. We are soon going to see the world of artificial intelligence placed into these goods that we buy, which will make these things more complex.
This bill seems to have unanimous support from the House for this reason. The legislation seeks to address this issue by ensuring that not all repairs remain proprietary, allowing a diversity of responses when individuals are seeking to repair their equipment. In other words, it would allow competition.
Conservatives look forward to seeing this legislation move forward to the other place. We understand that there would be positive impacts for our rural communities. These issues also apply in my most important industry, the fishery.
I want to thank my colleague for reintroducing this bill. Our party looks forward to seeing how this legislation moves through and is improved in the other place.
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