44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 9, 2024 10:00AM
- Apr/9/24 11:03:48 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member for Milton stated, “building highways doesn't fight climate change.” Does the member still stand by his anti-road building statement?
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- Apr/9/24 1:52:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, for once the Prime Minister has achieved unity among Canadians. He has united Canadians in opposition to his failed carbon tax. I cannot recall the last time 70% of Canadians, and eight out of 10 provinces, opposed a federal government policy, but the NDP-Liberal coalition has defied the odds and united Canadians against the costly carbon tax.
The Prime Minister increased the carbon tax by 23% on April 1. At a time when Canadians are facing a cost-of-living crisis, the Prime Minister ploughed ahead with his plan to quadruple the carbon tax anyway. It was a cruel April fool's joke to play on Canadians, but it was one that Canadians will remember.
I have personally received home heating bills from hundreds of Canadians who cannot believe the true cost of the carbon tax. I received a heating bill from a local landscaping business. The actual monthly cost of the natural gas was $272. The cost of the carbon tax on the natural gas was $330. Canadians are now paying more in carbon tax on their heating bills than they are for natural gas itself. Punishing Canadians for heating their homes is not an environmental plan. It is a tax plan that is creating energy poverty across the nation.
The Liberals pretend that their carbon tax is needed to reduce emissions. They tell Canadians that, if they quit complaining and pay their costly carbon tax, emissions will go down. Let us talk about the environmental result of the carbon tax. After eight years of the Prime Minister, emissions have gone up, not down. In fact, the government's very own environment commissioner has stated that the Liberals are not on track to meet their own 2030 emissions targets. After eight years of the Prime Minister, Canada now ranks 62nd out of 67 countries, according to the global climate change performance index. That is four rankings lower since the last carbon tax hike. After eight years of the Prime Minister, we would think he could tell Canadians the amount his carbon tax has reduced emissions, but he cannot because his environment minister revealed the truth when he admitted, “The government does not measure the annual amount of emissions that are directly reduced by federal carbon pricing.”
After eight years of the Prime Minister, this is his carbon tax record: emissions are up; climate change performance is down; and no one knows if the carbon tax reduces emissions because the Liberals do not measure the results.
Canadians will not be fooled by the government. They know that the carbon tax is not an environmental plan. It is a tax plan. That is why common-sense Conservatives have been exposing the carbon tax scam at the environment committee. For months, we have been demanding that the environment minister release his carbon tax emissions analysis, but he has refused. In fact, the environment minister failed to hand over the government's carbon tax emissions model, despite the environment committee ordering him to. If the Liberals are so proud of the carbon tax, what are they hiding?
If the Prime Minister and his NDP-Liberal coalition will not listen to Conservatives, they should listen to the premiers across Canada. For months, Canada's premiers have been begging the Prime Minister to cancel his carbon tax, but he increased the carbon tax anyway. Even Liberal premiers oppose the Prime Minister's plan to quadruple the carbon tax on Canadians. The Liberal Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador stated that the carbon tax “is causing understandable worry as people consider how they will manage the mounting financial strain.”
The Premier of New Brunswick tweeted, “Since imposing his Carbon tax six years ago, New Brunswickers have been subject to brutal increases every single year. These make the cost of everyday items such as food, fuel and groceries more expensive, driving up the cost of living for everyone.”
The Premier of Prince Edward Island stated, “Further driving up costs for Island households by increasing the price of carbon in April...will create an untenable situation for many P.E.I. residents, especially our most vulnerable who will feel the economy-wide price increases”.
The Premier of Nova Scotia wrote to the Prime Minister:
Your carbon tax is not the way to accomplish the goals of reducing emissions and increasing renewable energy. And it is not in the best interest of Nova Scotians. The only thing it means is more money out of their pockets to pay an unnecessary carbon tax.
The Premier of Ontario has stated, “The carbon tax is the worst tax ever put on a bunch of people”, and the Premier of Manitoba said, “I think that there’s an argument that Manitoba is maybe one of the strongest cases you could make, that the price on carbon should be revisited in our jurisdiction”.
The Premier of Saskatchewan said, “Saskatchewan has been steadfast in our opposition to the consumer Carbon Tax and its adverse impacts on Canadian families and businesses. Addressing climate change is a priority for Saskatchewan, but an ideological one-size-fits-all...approach is ineffective”, and the Premier of Alberta stated, “The carbon tax has contributed to increasing stress and financial pain for millions of Canadians”.
At what point does the NDP-Liberal coalition put ideology aside and listen to Canadians? If the Prime Minister truly believed in representing all Canadians, he would call an emergency meeting of Canada's premiers to hear the concerns with respect to the carbon tax. That is what Conservatives are calling for today. That is why we put forward this common-sense motion. It is disturbing that Parliament must vote for a meeting between the Prime Minister and the premiers, but we had no choice because the Prime Minister refuses to listen. What happened to the sunny ways and the openness the Prime Minister once preached?
It is very easy to see why Canadian premiers have lost trust in the Prime Minister over his failed carbon tax, and it is because he has continued to mislead them for eight years. Before 2019, the Prime Minister's former environment minister promised Canadians not to raise the carbon tax over $50 a tonne. After the election, the Prime Minister announced his plan to quadruple the carbon tax. In fact, the current environment minister is now refusing to rule out any further carbon tax hikes. I asked the environment minister if he could promise Canadians not to raise the carbon tax over $170 a tonne. He refused to answer. I wonder why.
The Prime Minister also told Canadians that they would get back more than they paid in carbon tax, but the government's own Parliamentary Budget Officer proved that wrong. In fact, the majority of Canadians will pay more in carbon tax than they will get back. It is no wonder the premiers across Canada have lost trust in the government's carbon tax scam, and no wonder they are demanding a meeting with the Prime Minister. It sure does not help when the environment minister punishes Canadians for driving their cars and heating their homes as he jets around the globe lecturing others. The hypocrisy is truly astounding, and Canadian premiers are right to call the government out.
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- Apr/9/24 3:22:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is disturbing that Parliament must vote for a meeting between the Prime Minister and the premiers, but we have no choice, because the Prime Minister refuses to listen.
What happened to the sunny ways and openness that this Prime Minister once preached?
It is very easy to see why Canadian premiers have lost their trust in the Prime Minister over his failed carbon tax, because he has continued to mislead them for eight years. Before 2019, the Prime Minister's former environment minister promised Canadians not to raise the carbon tax over $50 a tonne. After the election, the Prime Minister announced his plan to quadruple the carbon tax. In fact, the current environment minister is now refusing to rule out any further carbon tax hikes. I asked the environment minister if he could promise Canadians to not raise his carbon tax over $170 a tonne. He refused to answer. I wonder why.
The Prime Minister also told Canadians they would get more back than they paid in carbon tax, but the government's own Parliamentary Budget Officer proved that wrong. In fact, the majority of Canadians will pay more in carbon tax than they get back. It is no wonder the premiers across Canada have lost trust in this government's carbon tax scam. It is no wonder they are demanding a meeting with the Prime Minister.
It sure does not help when his environment minister punishes Canadians for driving their cars and heating their homes as he jets around the globe lecturing others. The hypocrisy is truly astounding, and Canadian premiers are right to call this government out.
In conclusion, the great Winston Churchill once said, “For a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”
He was right. Now the Prime Minister and his radical environment minister believe they can carbon tax Canada into environmental prosperity, a belief so foolish that in doing so they have united Canadians in opposition to their carbon tax.
This is not the unity that a Prime Minister is supposed to create. A Prime Minister is supposed to unite a country by lifting it up, not tearing it down.
However, a newfound unity does bring hope to Canadians, for the days of this NDP-Liberal government are coming to an end, and Canadians will soon get to elect a common-sense Conservative government that will axe the carbon tax for everyone, for good.
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- Apr/9/24 3:25:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the truth is that this government is planning to quadruple the carbon tax. That is four times, quadruple.
Right now, I have lots of homeowners forwarding their natural gas bills, $100 gas bills that have 100 dollars' worth of carbon tax on them right now. The Liberals want to quadruple that.
His natural gas bill, his energy bill, is going to go up to $500 when it is all said and done, thanks to this government.
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- Apr/9/24 3:26:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, speaking of profits, we simply have to do the math. This government is promising to quadruple the carbon tax. If we take my example of $100 in natural gas costs and $100, right now, of carbon tax, and quadruple that, there is a massive amount of profit by this government right now, not by oil and gas companies.
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- Apr/9/24 3:28:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, actually, the carbon tax went up by 23% on April 1.
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- Apr/9/24 3:29:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is a very important question.
The introduction of the carbon tax and the evolvement of it over the last eight years have fundamentally changed rural Canada, how we do business and how we think about making money. Agriculture, being an energy-intensive industry, is being impacted the most, by far. Nowhere has the Liberal government even tried to address that.
That is why we are bringing forward this motion today.
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