SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 293 - Mar/21/24

Ms. Melissa Lantsman (Thornhill, CPC)

Mar/21/24 10:34:07 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, after eight long years, the Liberal government's war on the Canadian middle class is finally being realized. Inflation is up and house prices are up. Debt is up and bankruptcies are up. Canadians are visiting food banks in record numbers; 300,000 of them went in a single month in Toronto. One million more Canadians will visit a food bank next year than this year. People are joining Facebook groups to learn how to dumpster dive so they can feed their family. What is happening today is a far cry from the Canada we used to know and from the Canada many of us were promised. Canadians are asking why. Why does food cost more and more every single time they visit the grocery store? Why does gas cost $2 a litre? Why is it harder and harder to pay the bills at the end of every month? At the root of this complex problem is a simple explanation, just two words in fact: “carbon tax”. The Prime Minister’s carbon tax is adding more to the cost of nearly every basic necessity that anyone in this country buys anywhere. It is not complicated for Canadians. When the farmer who grows the food is taxed, and the trucker who brings the food is taxed, the family that eats the food ends up being taxed, every single family everywhere in the country. It is, however, a difficult concept for Liberals and their NDP masters to comprehend, because they do not talk to people anymore. The MPs who are being forced to defend the indefensible over there are just about pulling their hair out right now. They jump down our throats, huffing and puffing and spouting misinformation about rebates and money that people are getting back. However, they are using Liberal math. It is Liberal math that says that in Ontario, a family that pays $1,674 gets back $1,047, and then says that the family is better off. It is Liberal math that says that the Albertan who pays $2,943 and gets $2,032 is better off. It is Liberal math, like some bizarre fantasy, telling Canadians that less is more and that somehow they are better off. It is the same Liberal math that tells Canadians that budgets will balance themselves, that monetary policy is not important and that $60 million for arrive scam is some kind of accounting error. Canadians do not live in “Liberal Land”; they live in the real world. They look at their empty fridges at home. They look at the price of gas at the pumps. They do not do Liberal math; they do real math. The real math is getting harder every day as budgets, bank accounts and borrowing are stretched to the limit for everyone everywhere. The Liberals used to talk about the environment, until the caucus revolt from the Prime Minister's east coast MPs that forced him to admit that his tax was a tax, and that it was too much. Then he backed down from his signature fake environmental policy and gave them what they wanted, until, of course, the next election. The radical Minister of Environment had a different takeaway yesterday. He told Canadians that we cannot put climate change on hold, and I agree with him. That is why it is so infuriating to see the carbon tax used under the guise of somehow improving Canada's environmental performance. After eight years of the Prime Minister, we rank 62nd out of 67 countries when it comes to climate performance. The environment minister could have scaled more floors on the side of a tower than 62 by now. The only emissions target we ever met was during COVID, when the government shut everything down in this country. Our taxes are up. Our costs are up. Our emissions are going up. If the carbon tax does not give Canadians more money and it does not help the environment, then what are the Liberals doing? We know, and Canadians are finding out too: It makes the Prime Minister richer. There is more money flowing into the pockets of his Liberal coffers, where it can be funnelled to insiders and his well-connected friends. Those are the only people in this country who are better off after eight years. It means more money to spend on high-priced consultants, more money to spend on trips around the world and, yes, more money to somehow make an $80,000 app cost $60 million. We all know this, the true cost, the true impact and, yes, the true intention of the carbon tax. It really seems like a sick joke that the Prime Minister would choose to raise it once again. It is not by just a little; it is by a whopping 23% for all Canadian families, for farmers and for first nations, in less than two weeks. It is not just because the tax is being raised; it is also because it costs so much to achieve so little. That is the story of the current government. It is also because it comes at probably the worst time for Canadians in a long time, probably since we last had a prime minister with the same last name as the current one. There are 51% of Canadians who are less than $200 away from bankruptcy, and a 23% increase will mean they are even closer, probably $200 more every year for the average family. There is more money flowing out of the wallet and not back into it. There is even more money to pay at the pump, at the grocery store and on the bills at the end of every month. It is a kick to Canadians who are already down, and it is no surprise that 70% of Canadians and 70% of premiers, including Liberal premiers, and even more opposition parties across the country oppose the increase. It is because they all know what we know: The tax is not worth the cost, and neither is the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister says that these Canadians and these premiers just do not have principles, but he has it all wrong. They have something that he has never understood; they have bills to pay, they have mouths to feed and they have to get to work every day. I have some advice for the Prime Minister and everyone else saying that things are wrong: Maybe it is time to finally look in the mirror instead of blaming everyone and everything else. For nearly two years, Conservatives have tried everything to force the government to listen to Canadians, but it just does not care. The Canadian people are tired of being taxed to death. They are tired of runaway inflation and runaway spending, and they are tired of being told it is all their fault. They deserve a say in this 23% tax increase, so today the motion of non-confidence in the Prime Minister will allow every Canadian to go to the polls in a carbon tax election and have their say. It is the only right thing to do when Canadians have been pushed so far to the limit after eight years of the Prime Minister. It is the only right thing to do when the increase literally means the difference between solvency and bankruptcy for so many. If the Liberal government is so confident in its carbon tax and so confident that everybody else is wrong, then it should not be afraid to let Canadians have their say and to weigh in. If the Liberal-NDP members from Atlantic Canada, rural Canada and, frankly, any part of Canada truly represent their constituents, then they would have the guts to stand up and vote against their boss today. It is long past time to axe the tax, and time is absolutely running out for Canadians right across the country, no matter where they live. However, there is hope on the horizon with a government led by the Leader of the Opposition, and Canadians will finally get their say in a carbon tax election. If they choose to vote with the Prime Minister today, we will eventually have a carbon tax election in this country, and Canadians will have a choice between a Liberal government that divides to conquer and taxes to spend, bolstered by an even more reckless NDP that exists only to say yes to everything the Prime Minister demands, and a party that will finally axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime. I will support the motion because we should let Canadians decide.

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Context: House Hansard - 293 - Mar/21/24

Mr. Kyle Seeback (Dufferin—Caledon, CPC)

Mar/21/24 1:09:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we cannot spend our way to prosperity. That is an absolute, very clear maxim, and it is even clearer for governments. I will tell us why. Governments do not have any of their own money. They have two mechanisms with which to acquire money. One, they can tax and raise taxes. Two, they can borrow or print money. Unfortunately, after eight years of this incompetent NDP-Liberal government, we have the worst of both of those things, because what we have now is an incredibly punishing high level of taxes in this country, and Canadians know it because they take home less money than they ever have in their lives. That is the result of the taxation policies of this government, including the carbon tax. If that was it, it would be very bad, but what is worse is this. To fund all of its spending, it has doubled the national debt in terms of all of the years up to this government's coming to power and all of the debt accumulated by every prime minister of every stripe of every government. It has doubled the debt since it has been in power. How did it do it? It did it by borrowing and printing money. What is the result of all of that spending of this money and the borrowing and the printing of money? We have had two of the worst years of rampant inflation this country has ever seen. Inflation is the insidious thing that takes away the prosperity of the middle class. That is what this government has done. It is taxing them to death. Because of the printing of money and the overspending, we have had an inflationary crisis in this country that has driven the cost of living so high that most Canadians now cannot make ends meet. We cannot fix all of that today. What we can fix, though, is the carbon tax. What we know about the carbon tax is this. Most Canadians get far less in these fake rebates than they do from the actual cost of the carbon tax. I am going to explain this so that Canadians can understand. The Liberal government will say that eight out of 10 Canadians are better off. That is from a two-year-old Parliamentary Budget Officer's report that did not take into account the effect of the carbon tax on the economy. It is a drag on the economy. It makes the economy less efficient and more expensive. Canadians lose jobs. It makes our exports more expensive, so we export less. All of these things create a cost in the economy and, at the end of the day, we factor in those costs. The Parliamentary Budget Officer put out a new report and came to committee a few weeks ago and said that these are the actual costs of the carbon tax. For example, in Ontario, the carbon tax cost is $1,674 for the average family. When we take out their fake rebates, the average Ontario family is $627 worse off as a result of the carbon tax. What these Liberals do is that they stand up here every day, and the Prime Minister is the worst offender of this, and say that eight out of 10 Canadians will be better off, when they know that there is a new report that says this is not the case. They are effectively gaslighting Canadians with this. They are ignoring the updated report and gaslighting Canadians by saying that they are better off. It is not true. When the carbon tax goes up, again, this is from the PBO, this gap gets worse every single year. The actual net effect of the carbon tax will make Canadian families worse and worse off every single year. Canadians know this. They know how expensive groceries are because when we tax the farmer, food gets more expensive. When we tax the trucker that picks up the food, food gets more expensive. When we tax the processor that processes food, food gets more expensive. When we tax the grocery store for having the audacity to heat the grocery store, with a carbon tax, food gets more expensive. At the end of the day, Canadians cannot afford to pay for food. The government has been a disaster for the financial health of Canadians. It is unlike anything we have ever seen before. There is a Facebook group dedicated to people who dumpster dive to find food. Why would they do that? It is because they cannot afford it. When we look back on the record of the Liberal government, that is the record: record usage of food banks and people going into dumpsters to get food. Here is a tidbit from my riding. The Orangeville Food Bank estimates in the next few years that 5,000 to 6,000 families per month will use the food bank. There are 27,000 people who live in my hometown of Orangeville. Look at those numbers and let it sink in. What do the Liberals do? They say to stop talking down Canada. It is so outrageous that they say that. They are so out of touch with average Canadians and what they are going through. They tell us to stop talking down Canada. We are not talking down Canada. We are bringing to the incompetent, out-of-touch government what is actually happening to Canadians. I know the Liberal members are getting the same emails, but they are so whipped by the Prime Minister and they are so whipped into following what he says, that they are not listening to the people who voted for them. I get heartbreaking emails every single week that say, “I have to choose between heating my home or eating.” Senior food bank usage is up 67% in my riding. This is a result of the carbon tax and the inflationary crisis, all of which was caused by the government. We can talk about housing hell. The Liberals have done the impossible. They have double incompetency on housing. If someone has a house, they are barely able to afford to pay for it. Because of all the inflationary spending, interest rates have skyrocketed. Every single month, more Canadians have to renew their mortgages at these very high interest rates, and it gets harder and harder to make ends meet. If someone is lucky enough to have a house, they are barely holding on. I get those types of emails and we are seeing a massive rise in mortgage defaults as a result of interest rates, which are a result of the inflation caused by the incompetent government. However, if someone does not have a house, they cannot afford to buy a house. This is the miracle incompetence of the Liberal government. It now takes 25 years to save for a down payment for a house. Someone used to pay off their house in 25 years. This is the result of eight years of an incompetent government that does not understand basic economics. It does not even understand how its own carbon tax works because it denied the Parliamentary Budget Officer report that shows that most Canadian families are worse off. The final thing we should talk about when we talk about the incompetence of the government is crime. Violent crime in this country is up 39% as a result of the government. This is from 2015 to now. What happened in 2015? The Liberal government came in. It brought in catch-and-release bail. It brought in soft-on-crime policies, so if someone commits a crime in the morning, they are out to commit another crime in the afternoon. That is the justice system that the Liberal government brought in. If people actually want to know how out of touch the government is with Canadians, how morally bankrupt the government is, all they have to know is that the government changed the rules so that a serial killer like Paul Bernardo can now go to a medium-security prison and enjoy the luxuries of an ice rink and a tennis court. Let that sink in. The Liberals changed the rules so a mass murderer, a serial killer like Paul Bernardo, gets to be in medium security. He can go and play tennis. He can enjoy an ice rink after the disgusting and despicable things he did. What do we hear from these Liberal members? Are they outraged? Are they calling for changes? No, they are not. Why? It is because I guess they think that is okay. What I am saying to Canadians is this: It was not always like this. Canada was not always like this. It is a Liberal government that did all this to Canada and that will change. There is hope on the horizon because a Conservative government will restore Canadians' faith in Canada. It will make lives better for Canadians. There is hope coming and today is the start of that hope. We have a non-confidence motion in the incompetent and corrupt Liberal government. I will be voting yes. Conservatives will be voting yes. I will tell everyone this: They are going to prop up the incompetent Prime Minister and continue the misery for Canadians, and it is a disgrace.

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Context: House Hansard - 293 - Mar/21/24

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Mar/21/24 1:22:32 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I reflect on the member's comments about the overspending and printing of money. I want to remind him, and everyone here, that in the early months of COVID we were unified as a House, because we had to be. We were facing an emergency created by a pandemic and, because we could not physically gather in this place and vote because of the health rules of the City of Ottawa, $80 billion of spending was approved by unanimous consent. I was so proud of all of us for putting partisanship to the side. I would ask the hon. member if he now regrets not showing up and saying no, because one Conservative could have stopped $80 billion of spending.

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