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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 292

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 20, 2024 02:00PM
  • Mar/20/24 2:39:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, he still will not answer the question. All the Liberal ministers came in with little cue cards a week ago with all these rebates on them. They were waving them around very proudly, and then we went to the Parliamentary Budget Officer and asked for the full price by province. We quoted that, for example, in Nova Scotia, it is $1,500 in costs to the average family according to the PBO. Again, that is $1,500 in costs. What is the rebate, the number?
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  • Mar/20/24 2:40:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we see the lengths to which the Conservative Party will go to mislead Canadians about a plan that fights climate change and puts more money in the pockets of eight out of 10 Canadian families. The Parliamentary Budget Officer himself admitted and said that we cannot take his words out of context, because he did not calculate the costs of inaction on fighting climate change. He did not calculate the competitive advantages of the innovation, the solutions and the economic growth that come with putting a price on pollution. The Conservative Party is not telling the full story.
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  • Mar/20/24 2:40:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Budget Officer did not include the cost of climate change because the carbon tax does not address the cost of climate change. He made it clear the carbon tax will do nothing to change the cost of climate change, and that is why the tax costs more for every family in every province. Let us go to Alberta, where two of the NDP leadership candidates have come out against the carbon tax. The Prime Minister's only friend in the province, Naheed Nenshi, has gone totally silent. Albertans will pay $2,900 in carbon tax per family. What will the rebate be for them?
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  • Mar/20/24 2:41:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, $1,800 a year, for an average family of four, is the Canada carbon rebate. That is helping them. According to an analysis by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, it is more than they pay in an extra price on pollution because of the price we put in at the federal level. The price on pollution puts more money in the pockets of eight out of 10 Canadian families and fights climate change while building a stronger, more competitive future. Conservatives have no plan to fight climate change and no plan to help Canadians with rebate cheques.
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  • Mar/20/24 2:42:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister found his cue card and finally talked about the rebate. He said the average family in Alberta will get $1,800 while it is paying $2,943. In other words, next year alone, after this forthcoming hike, the average Alberta family will pay $1,100 more in carbon taxes than he gives back in his phony cheques. Will the Prime Minister tell us if he understands that $2,900 is bigger than $1,800?
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  • Mar/20/24 2:42:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, how about a different stat, a stat the finance ministry analyzed? It turns out that for an average income quintile group with an average household of 2.5 Canadians, the average net benefit per household in Alberta is $723 a year. That is $723 in the pockets of the average Albertan family because we put a price on pollution that puts more money back in the pockets of eight out of 10 Canadian families. That is what we are doing. That is how we fight climate change.
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  • Mar/20/24 2:43:41 p.m.
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The Prime Minister wants you to know, Mr. Speaker, that he has alternative facts. I get mine from the Parliamentary Budget Officer, who reports directly to Parliament and is independent. He is using numbers that come from officials who report to him and depend on him for their jobs. Let us take another province, Ontario, where the Liberal leader has now come out against the Prime Minister's carbon tax. Maybe she knows that the average cost to an Ontario family of the federal carbon tax is $1,674 for this coming year. How much is the rebate in Ontario?
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  • Mar/20/24 2:44:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the average net benefit per household in Ontario is $255 a year. That is fighting climate change while putting more money in the pockets of Canadians. The Parliamentary Budget Officer himself demonstrated that eight out of 10 Canadian families in regions that get the carbon price backstop do better with the price on pollution. It puts more money back in their pockets than it costs them on the fight for climate change. This is the plan we are delivering for Canadians. That is the plan the member wants to scrap.
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  • Mar/20/24 2:45:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I do not put much stock in polls. Polls should not dictate a government's choices. That said, before he says who is speaking for whom, the Prime Minister ought to know that the Bloc Québécois has been ahead of the Liberals in every poll for longer than I can remember. If the Prime Minister is doing that poorly in the polls, so poorly that even the Conservatives are outperforming the Liberals in Canada, perhaps it is because he does not respect Quebec, Quebeckers or the National Assembly. Does he think that treating Quebec with contempt is a good idea because he knows he will never gain any seats in Quebec anyway, or because trashing Quebeckers will at least win him votes in Canada?
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  • Mar/20/24 2:45:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, people know very well that in democracies, there is only one poll that counts, and that is on election day. The Liberal Party has won more seats in Quebec than the Bloc Québécois in the last three elections. That is because we are here to deliver meaningful results for Quebeckers and all Canadians with health agreements, help for dental care and seniors, $6 billion for day care in Quebec and other investments that help create economic growth, jobs for the future for Quebeckers and a greener world for all. These are the investments we are making to represent Quebec, and we will continue to deliver.
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  • Mar/20/24 2:46:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we sensed a little vulnerability, but it is just that we do not know whether they will be sitting at this end of the House or that end. If the government really wants to get Quebeckers' attention, it will make adequate health care transfers. It will transfer immigration powers. Judges will be appointed. Things will get done the right way. So far, the government is not getting anything done, and its members are reading from cue cards in the House. Will the Prime Minister at least go through the motions of doing his job for Quebeckers?
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  • Mar/20/24 2:47:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us consider the facts: 1.5 million Canadian seniors have signed up for our dental care plan, which the Conservatives voted against. More than a third of those seniors live in Quebec. That means hundreds of thousands of Quebec seniors will be getting free dental care thanks to federal investments in dental care. We are here to deliver results for Quebeckers. We will always be here for Quebeckers and for all Canadians.
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  • Mar/20/24 2:47:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, now the legislature in Newfoundland and Labrador has acknowledged that the Prime Minister is not worth the cost after eight years. It passed a motion, supported by the Liberal premier and personal friend of the Prime Minister, to oppose the April 1 tax hike. It must have heard from the Parliamentary Budget Officer that the cost to Newfoundlanders of the carbon tax this year will be $1,874 for the average Newfoundland and Labrador family. What will their rebate be?
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  • Mar/20/24 2:48:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the average net benefit per household in Newfoundland and Labrador is $303 a year. That is the money that they pocket with our price on pollution and the Canada carbon rebate cheques that go to households across the province. The province is open to creating its own price on pollution, its own plan to fight climate change, as long as it is as strong as the federal backstop. The province is welcome to do that if it wants to do it a different way, but in the meantime we are going to both fight climate change and deliver more money to the families in Newfoundland and Labrador.
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  • Mar/20/24 2:49:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, here are the facts directly from the Parliamentary Budget Officer: The cost to the average Newfoundland family is $1,874, and the rebate is $1,497, for a net loss of $377 and growing. These are the facts. Could the Prime Minister stop denying the facts? If the Prime Minister really wants to contest and argue that he should be able to raise the tax, why does he not have the courage to call an election and let Canadians decide?
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  • Mar/20/24 2:49:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are busy delivering for Canadians a price on pollution that puts more money in the pockets of eight out of 10 families across the country. He wants an election on the price on pollution? We had three, and we won them all.
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  • Mar/20/24 2:50:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, then he should not be afraid to have one more. This is a Prime Minister who has doubled housing costs. He sent two million people lining up at food banks and 8,000 joining a Facebook group learning how they can eat a meal out of a dumpster, and now his best solution is to hike the tax on their heat, their home, their fuel and their food. If he really believes in it, why does he not call a carbon tax election now?
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  • Mar/20/24 2:51:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have heard time and time again over these past many months the Leader of the Opposition talk about how Canada is broken. We are focused on supporting Canadians with things like child care, dental care and a plan to fight climate change that puts more money in the pockets of eight out of 10 Canadian families right across the country. That is the approach that is delivering for Canadians. We still have more work to do, and we are going to keep doing it to deliver for Canadians every single day we are in the House.
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  • Mar/20/24 2:51:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday the finance minister claimed that the carbon tax was revenue-neutral, that the government did not keep a single penny. It turns out it keeps hundreds of billions of pennies. It has collected, so far, $20.7 billion and has only paid back $18.6 billion. In other words, the government has profited by over $2 billion by pillaging the pockets of Canadians. When will the Canadian people get their $2 billion back? If the Prime Minister is so sure about taking it away, why does he not call an election to defend it?
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  • Mar/20/24 2:52:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservative leader is now complaining about $2 billion that he would never give to Canadian businesses, would never give to Canadians, because he would scrap the Canada carbon rebate. We are actually delivering money across the country to communities, to individuals, to small businesses and to indigenous communities to fight climate change and help them afford their groceries. The Conservative leader wants to eliminate the carbon rebate. He wants to eliminate the plan to fight climate change. He has no plan for the future of the economy.
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