44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 7, 2023 10:00AM
- Nov/7/23 11:34:23 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, yesterday, the Prime Minister's desperation reached new levels. He teamed up with the separatists in order to tax Canadians' home heat. He is more concerned about staying in power and keeping his hands in the pockets of hard-working people than he is about representing the interests of this country.
Let us take a quick trip down the Prime Minister's division, starting with the carbon tax on home heat. Originally, the Prime Minister said he would quadruple the tax on all Canadians, everywhere in the country, no matter how they heated their homes. Then, after I launched a relentless campaign to axe the tax, and moments before I was to rise before 1,000 common-sense Nova Scotians in a gigantic rally to keep the heat on and take the tax off, he scurried into the House of Commons foyer with Atlantic Canadian MPs, all of whom were terrified to lose their jobs, and said that he would bring in a three-year pause for their home heating.
We later found out that only 3% of Canadians would get the pause; the other 97% would be left out in the cold. Therefore, I put forward a motion to treat every Canadian equally, because, as the Prime Minister said, a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian. My motion reinforced that exact same principle. Because of a vigorous axe-the-tax campaign in NDP ridings, the NDP was forced to flip-flop. After having voted 16 times for the carbon tax, the NDP leader caved. He admitted he was wrong all along, and he voted for my common-sense motion, leaving the Prime Minister without a coalition partner.
The Prime Minister then signed a new coalition deal to keep the tax on and throw Canadians out in the cold. This time, though, he signed the carbon tax coalition with the Bloc separatists. In so doing, the Liberals have given the finger to Canadians. They gave the finger to Canadians literally while they were voting to raise taxes on the people of this country. They gave the finger to the elderly woman who cannot keep her heating bill—
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- Nov/7/23 11:37:49 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I agree that giving the finger is unparliamentary, but it was caught on tape. While the Liberals were voting to quadruple the tax on home heating, they were literally giving the finger to Canadians. It was to the same Canadians who will choose between eating and heating. It was to the single mother who is skipping meals so her children do not have to and to the two million Canadians who are going to a food bank, which is a record-smashing number of people. The Liberals gave the finger to the working-class people in Nova Scotia who are now living in campgrounds after eight years of the Prime Minister because they cannot afford housing. They gave the finger to the countless young people who are stuck living in their parents' basement because housing—
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- Nov/7/23 11:41:18 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, we agree that it is absolutely unparliamentary for someone to give the finger on the floor of the House of Commons. That is why we have called on the entire Liberal caucus to apologize for the conduct of one of its MPs. By the way, the Speaker did not say we were not allowed to address the incident. He did say he would come back, but we are free to speak, and we will not be censured.
We know that the Prime Minister now has a carbon tax coalition with the separatist Bloc Québécois. We know that he did this because he could not maintain his existing coalition. The pressure the Conservatives mounted on the NDP forced the NDP to collapse and admit that it had been wrong all along.
I remind the House that there has been only one party that has been consistent throughout and will be consistent forever. We are the only common-sense party that would axe the tax for everything, for everybody and everywhere, forever.
I note that the NDP today has now performed yet another flip-flop. Originally, the New Democrats wanted to quadruple the tax. Yesterday, they said they wanted to pause the tax. Today, they will not take a position, because they have omitted mention of the Prime Minister's quadrupling of the carbon tax in the motion. They do not want to stick by their position. They think they will quietly sneak back into the carbon tax coalition and have nobody notice. Well, their constituents are noticing, and that is why working-class people across the country are abandoning the NDP in droves.
Even the NDP Premier of Manitoba has now said that the carbon tax represents an attack on working-class people and therefore cannot work as climate change policy. I will note that we are getting all pain and no gain from the Prime Minister on the carbon tax, because his own environment commissioner came out just today and confirmed that under the current policies, including the carbon tax, he will miss his 2030 climate targets. He has missed his Paris accord climate targets again and again. Emissions continue to rise under his leadership, which proves that the carbon tax was never an environmental policy. It was a tax policy designed to pick the pockets of people and put more money in the hands of politicians to spend. This is political and governmental greed at its worst. It is no wonder Canadians have never been worse off than they are after eight years of the Prime Minister.
What I find interesting is that the Bloc Québécois has announced a costly coalition with the Prime Minister. This was confirmed in an article in La Presse, where the Liberal ministers said they had an agreement with the Bloc Québécois to keep this Prime Minister in power for another two years. Yesterday, the leader of the Bloc Québécois saved the Prime Minister. We were going to adopt a motion to reduce the cost of heating for everyone, but the Bloc Québécois was there to prevent the motion from being adopted, to vote against working-class people who want to heat their homes, to vote against seniors, to vote against people who cannot pay their bills, and to prop up the Prime Minister.
The funny thing is that the Bloc Québécois is going against Quebec's position. The Quebec government joined the other provinces in opposing a federal carbon tax as part of the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Bill C-69 and as part of the lawsuit against the carbon tax. The Quebec government wanted to curb federal taxation powers, but the Bloc Québécois is on the federal government's side. This is a centralizing Bloc Québécois. Each time the federal government decides to impose a tax on Quebeckers, we can expect the Bloc Québécois to say yes. It said yes to bigger government in Ottawa, and no to Quebeckers. That is the Bloc Québécois's real record.
The leader of the Bloc Québécois is afraid of an election. He wants to hang onto his position as leader so he can go on big trips to Europe. He wants to fly there on a plane that burns fuel so he can talk about the sovereignty of various overseas groups that are far removed from with the concerns of Quebeckers. I doubt the people of Beloeil—Chambly who are struggling to pay the bills are all that interested in the European separatist causes that the Bloc Québécois is obsessed with. The Bloc Québécois has no common sense. It is not working for Quebeckers.
Only the Conservative Party has the common sense to take the second carbon tax off the backs of Quebeckers. Quebeckers do not want to pay the taxes that the Bloc and Liberals are imposing on their gas and food anymore. Quebeckers want lower taxes so that work pays again. Quebeckers want the federal government to encourage municipalities to cut the red tape so more affordable housing can be built. Only the Conservative Party can get those things done.
In the next election, Quebeckers will have two choices. The first is a costly Liberal-Bloc coalition that raises taxes, takes their money, sets criminals free and doubles the cost of housing. The second is the common-sense Conservative Party, which will bring home lower taxes and bigger paycheques that buy affordable food, gas and housing in safe communities.
The choice is between either the costly coalition that takes one's money, taxes one's food, doubles one's housing cost, punishes one's work and frees criminals into the street or the common-sense Conservatives who free one to bring home powerful paycheques that buy affordable food, gas and groceries in affordable communities.
That is why I move the following amendment to the motion, which would add section (d): “Extend the temporary three-year pause to the federal carbon tax on home heating oil to all forms of home heating.”
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- Nov/7/23 11:50:15 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, first of all, let us just acknowledge what happened here. The NDP has flip-flopped again.
For the last eight years, its members have supported the Prime Minister's plan to quadruple the tax on home heating and then, under relentless pressure from common-sense Conservatives, yesterday, they flip-flopped and admitted they were wrong all along. Then today, they flip-flopped again and said that they now support a carbon tax on home heating for some.
The coalition is reunited, and all three of them are together now: the separatists, the socialists and the Prime Minister. The costly coalition is bankrupting the people. The only solution is a common-sense Conservative government that will axe the tax.
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- Nov/7/23 11:52:16 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have always opposed the carbon tax. When I began my career, Liberal lobbyists were all over Parliament Hill, asking for more taxes and other benefits for Liberal friends. That member is an example of the lobbying industry that exists on the Hill, one that favours the Prime Minister's pals and is costly to ordinary Canadians.
After eight years of this Prime Minister, he is not worth the cost. He acknowledged this by giving some people a break on the carbon tax, in ridings where he is slumping in the polls and where Liberal members were rebelling. Now we are simply saying that everyone should get a break.
It is just until the next election at which time we can have a carbon tax election to choose between the Liberal-NDP-Bloc plan to quadruple the tax and my common-sense plan to axe the tax and bring home lower prices.
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- Nov/7/23 11:54:49 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, common sense is getting rid of the carbon tax to lower prices. Common sense is lowering taxes to make work pay again. Common sense is cutting red tape to make it possible to build more affordable housing for Canadians. Common sense is balancing the budget to reduce inflation and interest rates.
Common sense means that Quebeckers are free to earn large paycheques to be able to buy food, fuel and affordable homes in safe communities.
That is common sense.
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- Nov/7/23 2:19:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, this Prime Minister is not worth the cost.
Now, he is in a panic to save not only the carbon tax, but his political career, and the Bloc Québécois has swooped in to help. The Bloc voted to keep the tax on home heating, and we learned from La Presse that the Bloc wants to keep the Liberals in power for two years. On top of that, La Presse revealed that there was a call between the Bloc Québécois leader and the Prime Minister about saving this Liberal government's agenda.
In the interest of transparency, will the Prime Minister tell Canadians all the terms of this costly new coalition?
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- Nov/7/23 2:21:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the panicking Prime Minister is desperate to save his carbon tax, especially on heat. He started by giving a temporary pause to some people in a region where he was plummeting in the polls and his caucus was revolting. Then he found that the entire country was in revolt and he needed a new coalition partner to save him from my common-sense confidence vote to take the tax off the heat. He got that support from the Bloc Québécois.
We now learn that he has been in discussions with the Bloc to help him stay in power for two years. What did he promise the separatists for them to enter into this costly carbon tax coalition?
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- Nov/7/23 2:22:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, now he is thanking the separatists for helping him save his carbon tax and support his plan to quadruple the tax on heat, gas and groceries.
The Prime Minister is playing a very dangerous game. First, he divided Canadians by giving a temporary pause to some people in a region where he was plummeting in the polls and his caucus was revolting. When all Canadians then revolted against this divisive plan, he turned to the separatists, who say that they are going to keep him in power for two years and that the leader of the Bloc has had a call with the Prime Minister to do it.
In the interest of transparency, will the Prime Minister reveal what he promised the separatists for them to join in this costly carbon tax coalition?
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- Nov/7/23 2:24:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, he tried to divide and distract from the fact that Canadians, after eight years of his government, cannot eat, heat or house themselves. However, in a strange way, he united all Canadians at the premiers' conference, who all agree.
All 10 of them unanimously disagree with the Prime Minister's approach to take the tax off temporarily for only some. They have said that the federal carbon tax policy treats Canadians differently and they expect a change.
Will the Prime Minister pull together all the premiers in an emergency carbon tax conference, so we can take the tax off and keep the heat on?
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- Nov/7/23 2:26:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians know that the only thing fake is the Prime Minister.
Today, the NDP members flip-flopped on their flip-flop. First, they voted 16 times in favour of the carbon tax on home heating. Then they voted to quadruple the tax. Then yesterday, they panicked, flip-flopped and voted for my plan to take the tax off home heating, admitting that they were wrong all along. Now today, they said they are in favour of the tax on home heat by refusing my amendment.
Will the Prime Minister tell us, at 2:26 p.m., what the NDP position is on the carbon tax right now?
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