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House Hansard - 272

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
January 31, 2024 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 272 - Jan/31/24
Mr. Pat Kelly (Calgary Rocky Ridge, CPC)
  • Jan/31/24 9:16:27 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, back in November I asked the Minister of Employment if he was going to stand up for his constituents in Edmonton Centre and vote with the opposition on its motion to carve out the carbon tax for home heating for his constituents in Alberta and all other Canadians. The answer I got was very disappointing. It was a bizarre sort of pivot to a defence of their corporate welfare system, wherein it looks like the Government of Canada is being fleeced by profitable companies through its subsidy system. It had nothing to do with my question. My question was not even remotely answered, so here we are tonight with a chance to have a redo on this question. I asked if the member would stand up for Canadians and vote with the opposition to axe the tax and relieve Canadians of the carbon tax on home heating. The same day, or certainly the same week, I do not remember if it was the same day or not, I also raised a question about the member for Calgary Skyview, asking whether or not he would be given a free vote and be permitted to represent his constituents, who so plainly and obviously need relief from the carbon tax. We had a bitter cold snap in Alberta. We had temperatures in Calgary get close to -40. I am told it was even a little colder at one point in Edmonton. People need to heat their homes. The carbon tax makes this more expensive for Canadians. We all know this. The Liberal caucus knows this, and the Atlantic Canadian members know this, so that is why they demanded of their own government that they have a carve-out for home heating for Atlantic Canadians. We know now that the government has explicitly admitted that the exemption for Atlantic Canadians was pure politics. It had nothing to do with the relative cost or carbon efficiency of an oil-heated furnace. It had to do with politics. We know this because the Minister of Rural Economic Development told a national television audience that the government had heard from the Atlantic Liberal caucus, and that if other Canadians, prairie Canadians for example, wanted a carbon tax carve-out, they would have to elect more Liberals. She said the quiet part out loud and told all Canadians that it is all about politics and that, because they have an Atlantic caucus facing the prospect of massive defeat in the next election, which will be fought on issues of affordability, the carbon tax and the extent to which the carbon tax makes life unaffordable for Canadians, they gave Atlantic Canadians this carve-out. As it turned out, the members for Edmonton Centre and Calgary Skyview did not stand up for their constituents. They, in fact, voted against the Conservative opposition motion, which would have given carbon tax relief to all Canadians, regardless of where they live and regardless of what kind of furnace they happen to have in their home. We have been clear on this side, right from the beginning, that the carbon tax is not an environmental plan; it is a tax plan—
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