44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 6, 2024 10:00AM
Madam Speaker, although I really appreciate this prairie battle back and forth between colleagues, I also enjoy the opportunity to rise and speak to this very important issue as we go through the agriculture committee's 10th report.
I know everyone will be delighted to hear that I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Regina—Lewvan, so members will get to hear more of what he has to say. I hope all members stick around to hear his insights on this topic.
When speaking of food inflation, this is an issue that people face right across the country. The cost of food is up; it is actually at 40-year highs and up 10% year over year. This has been a very sharp, dramatic increase in recent years. People are really noticing it at the grocery store. People are struggling to afford healthy meals for their families.
Moreover, as we look to the future, Canada's Food Price Report is predicting a 5% to 7% increase on the cost of food even further. We are already at 40-year highs. We have already seen a 10% increase year over year, and now the report predicts another 5% to 7% increase in the cost of food. The most substantial of these increases will be for some very regular items, like vegetables, dairy and meat products, that Canadians look to as staples of their diets.
To put this in perspective, an average family of four would spend $16,288 per year on food in Canada. I know that is a sticker shock to a lot of people, but that is the reality people are facing. Unfortunately, we have noticed food bank usage is up.
In my riding, and I have spoken about this on the floor previously, I had a recent interaction with folks in Ignace who run the food bank there. It is a small community in my riding. It is shocking to them how many people are turning to the food bank, people who they never thought would have to turn to a food bank. One thing that was mentioned to me was the most heartbreaking moment in the day is when someone goes to the food bank and realizes there is actually nothing left. The food bank is literally running out of food in Ignace because of how expensive groceries have become for people.
That is not rural community but a small urban community that is isolated in northern Ontario. It is something that we are really unaccustomed to in the region. Of course, it is not just the costs; people are cutting back on their diets. We have heard stories of mothers watering down their kids' milk and cutting back on healthy food just to try to make ends meet. All around, it is a real affordability crisis when we talk about food inflation.
With this report, the committee has brought forward some suggestions. I would like to add a few more and to talk about some of the very real issues we are facing as a country. Food inflation is going up, and that is a direct result of a lot of the Liberal government's actions. An inflationary deficit is one of them. The Prime Minister has added more debt than all previous prime ministers before him combined. There is currently no plan to balance the budget.
What does that mean? It drives up their debt, which drives up inflation, and Canadians pay more on everything at the pump and at the grocery store. That is something we see as a major issue. The federal debt is actually projected to reach $1.2 trillion. That would represent nearly $81,000 per Canadian household. Each household would have to pay $81,000 in order to pay off that debt.
It is clear that we must balance the budget, but the government must bring back some fiscal prudence to ensure that we can balance the budget, lower the deficit and end the inflationary deficit driving up the cost of living for Canadians.
That is one suggestion I would like to put forward and something that our Conservative Party and our leader, the member for Carleton, have been advocating for a number of years now. It is a great suggestion.
Another one that I am sure, Madam Speaker, you will be well aware of, is that we are calling on the government to pass Bill C-234, which would exempt farmers from the carbon tax.
Northwestern Ontario is not the largest agricultural region in the country by any means, but there are a number of local farmers and producers in the area, specifically in Dryden and the Oxdrift area where the Cloverbelt Country producers provide locally grown vegetables and beef products. This is an important issue locally in northwestern Ontario and, really, right across the country as, of course, it is not just the farmers who have to pay it, but everyone who has to pay this tax as it gets passed on to the price of food.
In fact, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business has estimated that farmers paid almost $14,000 in carbon tax in the first year it was imposed. The independent Parliamentary Budget Officer has confirmed that an increase in carbon taxes to $170 a tonne, which the government would sure like to do, would cumulatively cost farmers over $1 billion by 2030. That is a staggering number. Farmers are already struggling and the price of food is already getting out of control. I could not imagine how farmers would be able to operate and how people would be able to afford food with further increases.
To make it worse, the government actually introduced a second carbon tax, the clean fuel regulations, that would cost the average household an extra $573 per year. That is without any rebate. Now, we often hear the government touting its carbon tax rebate but this portion of it, the second carbon tax, comes with absolutely no rebate whatsoever.
Conservatives on the agricultural committee have brought forward some suggestions. I am not a member of that committee, but we have some great members who are representing us well in that regard. The Conservatives on that committee are suggesting that the government remove the carbon tax that is applied to all of the food inputs, not including farm fuels. That is what we want to achieve through Bill C-234. We are also calling on the government to complete a comprehensive study on the economic impact of the carbon tax and clean fuel regulations and how both of those affect the cost of food production, the price of food and the entire food supply chain as a whole.
Above all, we must pass Bill C-234 in its original form. This is a very important bill brought forward by our colleague and something that is going to make a world of difference, not just for farmers, but everyone who has to buy food, which is everyone in Canada, of course. It is such an essential item. With the cost of living spiralling out of control, the very least we can do is to axe this carbon tax on farmers and families. We obviously, as the Conservative Party, are going to axe the tax completely and get rid of it for good but, in the meantime, we are hoping that the governing NDP-Liberal coalition can meet us halfway, realize that people are struggling and work to pass Bill C-234 as quickly as possible.
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- Feb/6/24 7:16:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I look forward to putting a big election sign on the member's lawn the next time an election comes around.
Northern Ontario, northwestern Ontario specifically, definitely sees the impacts of climate change. There is no question about that. It is seen on the ice roads into northern and remote first nations that communities rely on. The seasons are getting shorter and shorter, as a prime example, and that is going to create a lot of logistic challenges moving forward.
Unfortunately, we have not seen a viable climate plan from the government. It brought forward a carbon tax, which is a very good government revenue-creating device. It is a great way to tax Canadians and make life more unaffordable, but it continues to miss climate target after climate target under this plan. It is not working and all Liberals say is that they need to keep making it more and more expensive.
As I learned from the member's family member, when something is not working, one does not keep doing it even more, but re-evaluates it. That is exactly what Conservatives want to do. We want to axe the tax and let Canadians decide in the next election what path they want to go down. We are sure that they are going to see that this plan is failing, our plan will axe the tax and help fight climate change using technology, not taxes.
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- Feb/6/24 7:19:08 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that is a question we have been trying to understand on this side of the House. Why are they moving forward with this?
Recently, my colleague from Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa uncovered the fact that the government is not even tracking whether the emissions are reduced or not by the carbon tax, so it has no measure of whether it is working. We can see that emissions are rising under the Liberals' watch, so it is clear that it is not working. However, we know the pain it is causing from an economic point of view for Canadians. They see it at the gas pumps or when they go to the grocery store. It is a tax on everything.
Conservatives are going to keep fighting to axe the tax, and that is exactly what we are going to do after the next election. Until then, we are going to keep up the fight and keep advocating for Canadians. We hope the other parties join us in that.
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- Feb/6/24 7:20:45 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that is a very good point. The government has been very transparent that the whole point of the carbon tax is to try to change behaviours by making things more expensive. We are seeing it with gas, groceries and home heating. Unfortunately, it seems to be working too well and making things more expensive for Canadians.
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- Feb/6/24 8:10:43 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to finally be able to rise and be a part of the discussion here this evening. I am looking forward to bringing it home for the evening. I rise tonight to follow up on a previous question posed about the carbon tax impacting first nations.
Before I get to that, I just want to talk about the current state of Indigenous Services Canada as a whole. The government is spending a lot of money. It likes to talk about how much it has increased spending, but what we have seen in recent reports is that when it comes to Indigenous Services Canada, this increase in spending has not led to a similar equivalent increase in the ability of the department to achieve its targets. Despite the money going out the door, it is not actually getting to where it needs to go. The government is funding high-priced consultants and bloating the bureaucracy, but it is not getting to the first nations or the indigenous communities that rely on this critical funding. That is why, unfortunately, 10 drinking water advisories remain in the Kenora district out of 28 overall on first nations across the country.
This is especially of concern to me, because I recently found out through a written Order Paper question to the government that 94% of Indigenous Services Canada employees at the executive level received bonuses last year. That represents a cost of over $3.6 million to the department. Again, this is a department that is not achieving the targets that it set for itself, yet the government has seen fit to give big bonuses to executive-level staff. I know the 42 chiefs of first nations in my district could have found much a better use for that $3.6 million. I believe that just shows how out of touch the government is.
I said that to set the groundwork, because, with all of that happening with the current government, it is also driving up the cost of living for first nations with the carbon tax. We know that this is a tax on everything. It impacts all of the goods that people need to buy. In fact, Chiefs of Ontario, which represents 133 first nations, nearly a third of which are in the Kenora district, is taking the government to court. They are actually arguing that the carbon tax leaves them worse off and breaches the principles of reconciliation. Once again, they are arguing that the carbon tax breaches the principles of reconciliation, a very serious claim and, I think, one that up until now the government has completely disregarded, as it did in my previous question.
I would just like to ask once again when the government will finally show some common sense and axe this tax for good for first nations, farmers and families right across the country.
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- Feb/6/24 8:17:01 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the response from the member opposite. She mentioned that it is 1% of proceeds, as she put it, that the government is returning to indigenous communities. That is obviously a very low amount and, frankly, does not cut it, as evidenced by 133 first nations taking the government to court. These are communities, many of them remote, northern communities, in my area that rely on heating fuels and rely on transportation, either by vehicle on the ice road in the winter or by aircraft, just to be able to get out of their community and to access critical services. They need to use gas to do that, and this carbon tax is driving up the cost of everything. Why do the Liberals not finally axe the tax for good?
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