44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 9, 2024 10:00AM
- Apr/9/24 2:19:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the common-sense Conservatives are going to axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime.
However, this Prime Minister is not worth the cost. After eight years, he has doubled the national debt, causing generational inflation and forcing two million Canadians to turn to food banks thanks to programs that did not work. His own figures show that the Prime Minister will be spending more on servicing interest on the debt than on health care.
Why is he giving more money to bankers than to doctors and nurses?
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- Apr/9/24 2:21:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yet more proof that he is not worth the cost.
His continued out-of-control spending has caused the worst inflation in 40 years. Two million people now have to go to food banks every month. He has doubled the cost of housing, even with $80 billion in housing programs. These programs inflate government spending and encroach on provincial jurisdiction.
Will he meet with our premiers to defend his inflationary, expansionist, centralizing approach?
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- Apr/9/24 2:40:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I can tell the member and minister from Quebec City that I am well aware of what is happening in my riding and that, yes, people are struggling right now. Yes, inflation directly affects them. Yes, this government keeps spending recklessly without any control. That is fuelling inflation. When the government does not control its spending, it fuels inflation.
The member and minister is also a seasoned academic. When he goes back to his university, how will explain to his future students that a budget can balance itself, as the Prime Minister claims?
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- Apr/9/24 3:07:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the Prime Minister's record high debt and deficits, he is not worth the cost of his overpriced socks. Inflation and interest rates continue to make lives worse. Now an economist has said that interest rate cuts may be further delayed because of the NDP-Liberal government's out-of-control spending.
The Conservatives have offered a common-sense solution to fix the upcoming budget.
When will the Prime Minister stop his out-of-control deficits with a dollar-for-dollar rule, find a dollar in savings for every new dollar he spends?
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- Apr/9/24 3:08:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, the NDP-Liberal government's addiction to spending is out of control. It is getting high off an unsafe supply of drugs and borrowed money. Its spending habit is driving up inflation. Interest rate cuts might be stalled because of out-of-control spending. Its far-left allies in B.C. just had their credit rating cut.
The Prime Minister and his socialist coalition are not worth the cost. The government must find a dollar in savings for every dollar spent.
Will the Prime Minister cap spending with a dollar-for-dollar rule to bring down inflation—
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- Apr/9/24 3:10:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us look at the facts. Inflation is at 2.8%, down for two months in a row below 3%. We have a AAA credit rating, and just in the last nine months, a food program for students in school. We are going to make sure that there are homes built across the country.
How did that member and his Ontario colleagues vote when it came to the plant in St. Thomas? How did they vote when it came to the Ford plant? They voted against. We are here for Canadians. That is what they expect. We are going to do that each and every day.
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- Apr/9/24 3:50:04 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I never said Canadians are not having a tough time. The world has gone through a lot in the last five years. The world has experienced inflation because of a whole bunch of events. The Conservatives think that the Prime Minister is incapable of doing just about anything, yet they credit him for bringing in inflation throughout the entire world. Every single day they get up to talk about how the Prime Minister is the cause of inflation. The inflationary impacts are happening throughout the world.
I am not saying Canadians are not having a hard time and have not had a hard time over the last few years. What I am saying is that the Leader of the Opposition is using that anxiety to try to turn Canadians on each other. That is what he has been doing with the carbon tax.
We have had a carbon tax since 2018. I will ask this of the people watching at home: Did this not just kind of pop up? Do they not feel as though this issue just came to light within the last six to eight months, even though we have had the carbon tax since 2018? Why do they think that is? There is nothing new. It has been around. It is because the Leader of the Opposition has suddenly started to use it as a weapon to motivate people's anxiety and to use it against them.
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- Apr/9/24 4:22:48 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the issue of affordability has always been important to the Liberal government. The distortion of facts and the misleading information the Conservatives continue to spin, day in and day out, whether inside or outside the House, is ridiculous. When we talk about the impact of the carbon tax or the carbon rebate, then let us think about the carbon tax and the Governor of the Bank of Canada. We are talking about a fraction of a percentage point in regard to the impact on inflation. In fact, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, in a quote referring to that said, “Yes, but I would assume that the impact of the carbon tax on the price of food is probably not significant, even though there have been increases in the price of food. Not all of it—only a fraction of it—can be attributed to the carbon tax.”
The Conservatives spread misinformation after misinformation.
However, having said that, I am interested in my colleague's response. We had the April 1 increase of 3¢ a litre in the province of Alberta, and the Premier of Alberta increased the cost of a litre of gas by 4¢. Why did we not hear screaming and yelling coming from the Conservative Party members? Why are they not saying that 4¢ a litre was more than the price increase on pollution or the carbon tax? Why are they sitting on their hands and saying nothing? Is it because they are so partisan that they close their eyes and have nothing to do but just target misinformation—
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- Apr/9/24 4:24:31 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, perhaps the member opposite did not hear or was not paying attention, but I did highlight, in my speech, the testimony of the PBO, who stated, “once you factor in the rebate and also the economic impacts...the majority of households will see a negative impact as a result of the carbon tax.” Stats Canada figures prove that without the carbon tax applied to home heating, the inflation rate would decline.
I have a couple of questions. They hired over 400 employees to administer the plan at a cost of $200 million. Do we know how many trees that would have planted?
I would also like to know this from the hon. members across the way. I spent the day, on New Year's Eve, volunteering at the food bank. I saw, first-hand, the lineup of people who were struggling and embarrassed but needed to get to the food bank to support their families so that they could sit down to a half-decent New Year's Eve dinner. Where were they?
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- Apr/9/24 7:44:28 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, let me first correct my colleague. As the Supreme Court has recognized, the carbon price is not a tax. It is a regulatory charge that is essential to reducing the pollution that is causing climate change and all the money is returned to Canadians. In fact, eight out of 10 households receive more money back through the Canada carbon rebate than they pay toward the fuel charge, with lower- and middle-income households receiving the most. They benefit the most.
Claims that the carbon price is increasing the cost of living are false. It has been widely refuted by hundreds of economists across this country. The math has been done by those who conduct the research on a regular and frequent basis and the fuel charge is a slow and steady increase, which does not affect inflation to a large degree and also does not increase the cost of living.
I have been reflecting on why the Conservatives have taken this approach on April 1. I started considering who they are working with. The fact is that, on April 1, Danielle Smith increased the price of fuel in Alberta by four cents. That was more than the increase. They talk about a 23% increase. That 23% increase on just the very small carbon price on gasoline added up to three cents. There is a three-cent increase in the price of a litre of gasoline, but Danielle Smith, the Premier of Alberta, increased it by four cents. The difference between those two increases is that the four-cent increase did not come with a rebate, whereas the price on pollution with the Canada carbon rebate is sent back to Canadians. It is an incentive. It is a proven strategy and it works. It is lowering our emissions in Canada.
However, my colleague is not from Alberta, so who might he then be working for? There are a couple of options, I suppose. One is that big oil and gas posted record profits last year. The vast majority of the price of fuel goes to profits for big oil and gas executives, which is worth considering, but there have also been calls in Saskatchewan, the home province of my colleague across the way, to reduce its provincial tax, which is in excess of 15¢ per litre. The Saskatchewan government has refused to, despite the fact that other provinces have recognized that there is an affordability crisis and their governments ought to do what they can to lower the cost of fuel.
One might say that the federal government just increased the cost of fuel with the price on pollution going up on April 1. That is true, but the rebate went up as well. It is a fully rebated increase on the price of fuel, but the provincial excise tax in Saskatchewan is the highest in the country. It does not come with a rebate and Saskatchewan has refused to cut it. It is also possible that Conservative members are kind of creating this Conservative cover-up campaign to make it look like gas is expensive just because of the price on pollution, whereas there are multiple factors. There is corporate greed from big oil and gas. There are provincial excise taxes that are not rebated and a lot of other global factors, including climate change, which has an impact on the price of fuel.
Climate change is the number one cause of the increase in the cost of living with respect to groceries. It is another well-documented thing by the 200-plus economists from right across the country who the member for Carleton, the leader of the Conservatives, called “so-called experts”. That is unfair. Those experts are experts. They work at Canadian universities and conduct that research, and that is the evidence, the facts and the science, the pure mathematics, that the government relies on when making decisions.
Carbon pricing is a proven strategy to lower emissions. It is working. Since 2018, our emissions are down 8%.
I would remind Canadian voters that Conservatives ran on a plan to price pollution in the 2021 election under the auspices of Erin O'Toole, the former Conservative leader. The member across the way ran on a promise to price pollution. He went door to door with that campaign commitment and platform. Since then, the Conservatives have decided that carbon pollution and climate change is not an issue. However, it is an issue and it requires all of us to work on it.
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