44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 12, 2023 10:00AM
Madam Speaker, the Liberal government is out of touch, and it is Canadians who are paying the price. That is exactly what we are seeing with the carbon tax. It has a negative effect on everyone in different ways.
I would like to focus on the farmers who grow the food. They are seeing some of the worst impacts of the carbon tax. As time goes on, farmers and ranchers face higher input costs, including on the fuel they need to use. They are getting crushed by rising fuel costs and are caught in the unfair position of absorbing costs at each and every stage of production.
That is why Conservatives brought forward a common-sense solution that we thought would receive the support of all parties. Bill C-234 would provide an exemption from the carbon tax on all on farm fuels. Everyone supported the idea and voted with us, except for the majority of the Liberal caucus, of course. Most of them voted against it, but fortunately for Canadian farmers, Bill C-234 passed in the House of Commons anyway. That was back in the spring. Eventually, the bill reached third reading in the Senate.
However, it seems that the Liberals cannot accept that their coalition partner, the NDP, supported our bill. At the last opportunity, some senators appointed by the Prime Minister have been trying to shut it down. There have been delays in passing it, and more recently, amendments have basically gutted Bill C-234. This is right in line with the Liberal approach to this bill. If they cannot stop it from passing, they want to at least make sure it will provide the least amount of benefit possible to the farmers who grow our food. We know that the activist environment minister does not want any more carve-outs to his carbon tax, no matter how much it hurts Canadians.
I originally called on the Prime Minister to tell his appointed senators to stop the blocking of Bill C-234. It seemed likely that the environment minister or the Minister of Agriculture might respond in question period, but instead, it was the Minister of Innovation, who I know is a very influential member in his caucus and cabinet. There are rumours that he might want to be the next leader soon. I hope that he will use his influence to exempt farm fuels from the carbon tax or, better yet, axe the tax altogether. I would even suggest that, if he includes that in his leadership race bid when the time comes, he might be the one to come out on top.
The situation with Bill C-234 has changed in some ways, but there is still a chance to pass it as the House of Commons intended. That needs to happen so that we can provide relief to our farmers and make a difference for Canadian families. It is not too late to fix the problem, if the Liberals really want to do that, but that is the question: What do they really want to do?
Week after week, I have been bringing up different examples of how much the carbon tax is crushing farmers and ranchers, but the Liberals are not going to support giving them some relief if they do not want it to happen. Is that part of the plan? Are they trying to make farming unaffordable, especially for the up-and-coming new generation of farmers? l hear about this regularly in my office, when I host town halls or when I am out buying groceries. It is amazing how many people talk to me about the situation with their families, with their sons or daughters wanting to take over the farm and what that is going to look like, or what the costs of that are going to be, especially after eight years of the Liberal government. The fact is that everything is costing more and more.
Is there a future for young producers? That is at the heart of this. That is at the heart of why Conservatives want to pass Bill C-234. It is to get a carve-out for all on farm fuels, for both the farmers of the present and the farmers of the future. I am wondering if the parliamentary secretary could confirm his support to repeal the carbon tax for all on farm fuels, as Bill C-234 was originally written and intended to do.
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- Dec/12/23 6:50:22 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would tell the member that the Government of Canada has supported and continues to support our farmers in many, many different ways.
The member started off his comments by saying that the Liberal Party is out of touch. Nothing could be farther from the truth. If the member and the Conservative Party would only take a look in the mirror, we could talk about being out of touch. Listen to what Canadians have to say about things like the climate and our environment. Listen to what it is they have to say about the type of behaviour they are seeing more and more of every day. What we are witnessing inside the chamber, which I talked about earlier this morning, is a pattern coming out of the Conservative Party. The member himself spoke about it, the issue of deception.
For example, the leader of the Conservative Party has been travelling the country, telling Canadians that he is going to get rid of the price on pollution, thereby making life more affordable. That is just not true. It would not make life more affordable. In fact, it would put less disposable income into the pockets of a vast majority of Canadians. On the one hand, he is saying that it would make life more affordable, but on the other hand, in reality, it would not. What does that remind people of? It reminds me of Donald Trump and MAGA politics that are creeping in from the south, using the leader of the official opposition's office in order to be able to bring in that style of politics.
The member opposite just stood up and is saying that regular gas and diesel were impacted by the carbon tax for farmers. Is it applied?
An hon. member: In some cases it is.
Mr. Kevin Lamoureux: Madam Speaker, they do not qualify that, because that does not fit their agenda. That is what I mean in terms of misleading. What we have witnessed is a Conservative Party today that is more concerned about bumper-sticker politics than it is about good, solid, public policy.
Just over two years ago, every member, including the one who just spoke, actually had an election platform that said that, if they were elected, they would have a price on pollution. They said it in each of the 338 constituencies from coast to coast to coast. A new leader came in, and they did a flip-flop and started spreading misinformation. That is the type of leadership we have seen within the Conservative Party today. We got a little hint of that when the person who just finished speaking tried to give the impression that we, as a government, are not there to support farmers.
I was in opposition when Stephen Harper gave it to farmers by getting rid of the Canadian Wheat Board. Members are applauding now, but he denied them the legislative right to have a referendum on the Canadian Wheat Board. He did not think twice about getting rid of it. What about the piles of wet grain that sat on the Prairies as boats could not get into Vancouver? Where were the prairie members of Parliament then? Were they standing up for the farmers there and for the Harper government to actually stand by the laws of Canada and allow a referendum on the Canadian Wheat Board? Instead, they ditched it on their own personal political agenda. They do not stand up—
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- Dec/12/23 6:54:23 p.m.
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The member for Cypress Hills—Grasslands.
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- Dec/12/23 6:54:27 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I can ensure people that imprisoning farmers was a Liberal idea because they simply want to have grain-marketing freedom. How absurd is that? That is the Liberal Party.
Farmers have always done more for the environment than the current government would ever dream of. In fact, the parliamentary secretary admitted in his remarks that all that the carbon tax is, is an income redistribution scheme. Notice that the Liberals do not have any statistics to talk about how emissions have gone down thanks to the carbon tax. The truth is that they cannot quantify it, so the only thing they can talk about is the income redistribution scheme that the carbon tax has become.
I just want to make my final point that, again, it was farmers, not the government, who came up with zero-till technology, or just the farming practice in and of itself. It was farmers who came up with the 4R principle, and they have been practising it on their farms for the last number of decades. It was not the government's idea. Farmers have done and always will do more for the environment than the government ever will.
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- Dec/12/23 6:55:32 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, unlike the Conservative Party, farmers recognize that climate change is real. In the rest of the world, contrary to the Conservative Party, there is a movement to have a price on pollution, whether it is Ukraine, the European Union, many American states and so forth. It is only the Conservative Party that wants to bring us back to the Stone Age. Members would think that Fred Flintstone is the leader of the Conservative Party.
At the end of the day, this is good, sound policy. The Conservatives talk about taxation, but they just do not understand it; they try to simplify it. However, at the end of the day, there is a good incentive. People will get more money net from the rebate than they will pay on the lesser amount of fossil fuels that they use, but the member does not understand that. Well, that is not my problem, it is his problem. The Conservatives can take another flip-flop—
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- Dec/12/23 6:56:33 p.m.
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The hon. member for Battle River—Crowfoot.
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Madam Speaker, as always, it is an honour to be able to stand in the House to follow up on a question that I asked the Prime Minister, which fell under the agriculture file.
In my response today, I need to tell the story of a woman named Dawn who, up until recently, ran a multi-generational greenhouse called “Shirley's Greenhouse”, named after her mom. I chatted with Dawn the other day and she shared something very tragic. Due to Liberal policies, specifically the carbon tax, as well as the fact that she ran into some challenges in her life as a single mom, all of a sudden the planned resilience in her agricultural operation had evaporated following increased costs associated with the carbon tax and interest rates, both of which are a direct impact from the actions of this Liberal government. Dawn shared her tragic story with me about how, after trying to make things work as a greenhouse operator and a multi-acre vegetable crop grower, she simply could not make a go of it. She has been forced to sell, and just recently, that was finalized.
Dawn asked me to make sure that I keep fighting for farmers. She proudly told me that she did not put her logo on her trailer that she took around to farmers' markets, because she did not just promote herself. The sticker she put on her trailer and her vehicles said, “No Farmers No Food”. I could hear the emotion in Dawn's voice as she explained how the carbon tax and bad Liberal policies directly attacked her and her ability to make her operation successful, even though it was a multi-generational operation.
However, what is truly tragic is that she had another conversation with another politician. That politician was the Minister of Agriculture. In a video Zoom call, he had met with a number of farmers from across the prairies, and Dawn shared her concerns directly with him about how the carbon tax was impacting Canadians.
Now, I can get passionate in debate in this place, and there is a reason for that. Canadians like Dawn tell their stories. She described how, just days before my conversation with her this weekend, she had told her concerns to the Minister of Agriculture directly, and they fell on deaf ears.
Farmers deserve better, and what is truly tragic is that, as the Liberals are attacking farmers by their refusal to support common-sense Conservative Bill C-234, their attacks on fertilizer mandates and a whole host of other things, now the debates and discussions are ongoing about how they are going to regulate cow farts. I wish I was making this up.
As the Liberals attack agriculture, the reality is that it is Canadians who pay more. As farmers are forced to cut back, close their operations and reduce their ability to produce the world-class food that we need, it is Canadians who are forced to pay the price, and we see the direct impact of that in the cost of food.
My question is simple: Why will these Liberals not listen to farmers like Dawn—
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- Dec/12/23 7:00:38 p.m.
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The parliamentary secretary.
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- Dec/12/23 7:00:40 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would not agree with the member's conclusions; again, he tries to imply misinformation. It is just not true that the Government of Canada does not support farmers.
We can go back to the days when I was an opposition member; I just made reference to the Canadian Wheat Board, and I was on Main Street, by Portage Avenue. I can tell the member that there were hundreds of farmers out there, furious with the Stephen Harper government. They believed the government was destroying the industry and, at least in part, many of those farming industries.
We are always going to find that the Liberal government as a whole has been and continues to be exceptionally supportive of farming and rural communities. This can be found through a wide variety of measures, whether it is budgetary motions or the expansion of international trade. No government has signed off on more trade agreements than the current government has; this has enhanced all sorts of opportunities for farmers. We will find that, on agricultural products, a good percentage is actually exported outside Canada. A good example of that is the hog industry; in the province of Manitoba, that industry is doing exceptionally well. There are certain industries within our rural communities that we could give more attention to, and the government will continue to do so.
What I find somewhat sad is that the Conservative Party of Canada is trying to utilize the farming community, as they are doing with indigenous communities now, to try to win the battle of getting rid of the price on pollution. The Conservative Party needs to wake up and realize that it is only the Conservative Party of Canada that seems to want to deny that sensible approach for dealing with climate change. The world is moving towards recognizing climate change and bringing in progressive policies, such as the price on pollution.
We have to take into consideration individuals such as Dawn. When she talks about interest rates and the impact of carbon pricing, we need to listen. Where the government is in a position to take action, I believe it is doing just that. However, to use farmers such as Dawn as a political tool to get rid of the price on pollution generally is wrong.
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- Dec/12/23 7:03:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it was Dawn who asked me to make sure that her story was told. Farmers such as Dawn are paying the price for these Liberal policies. This is not some Conservative political agenda. This is an agenda to make sure that Canadians can afford to eat, be housed and heat their homes.
As that member has refused to answer Dawn's question, I would like to reference something else. A veteran shared with me a gas bill. It is a fairly straightforward thing. Many people in this place get them. In the context of the carve-out that the Liberals provided for 3% of Canadians, this constituent, a veteran on a fixed income, shared with me that his cost of gas was $55. He lives in a rural area. The carbon tax and the GST on it was $44.65. At a time when there is an affordability crisis—
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- Dec/12/23 7:04:21 p.m.
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The hon. parliamentary secretary.
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- Dec/12/23 7:04:23 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like the member to consider coming out to Winnipeg North to explain why the Conservative Party is trying to say that, by getting rid of the price on pollution, life would become more affordable.
In reality, that that is misinformation; it is not true. Eighty per cent of the constituents that I represent, or more, would actually have less disposable income if the leader of the Conservative Party prevails, ignores the environment and gets rid of the price on pollution.
The hon. member talked about one or two cases, and I am sympathetic to them, but I am talking about tens of thousands of residents whom I represent. With the Conservative policy that the member is advocating, those residents would ultimately see their net disposable income go down.
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- Dec/12/23 7:05:28 p.m.
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The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 2 p.m. pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).
(The House adjourned at 7:05 p.m.)
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