- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Peterborough—Kawartha
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $106,196.43
- Government Page
- Jun/3/24 8:24:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there is a deep ideological clash here. The other thing he left out is that the Prime Minister has spent more money than he has brought in. That is just a fact. The Prime Minister says that the budget will balance itself and that he does not care about monetary policy. We have heard that over and over again.
I want to bring up some points. I will go back to Brian Haass, who owns Haass Acres, and my interview with him. I said to him that people did not really understand how significant the carbon tax is on their day-to-day life, and he said that he really believed people did not “grasp the gravity of this carbon tax” in how it affects their day-to-day lives. He said, “It affects absolutely every facet of your life. Everything you own, everything you buy, everything you do is carbon taxed, compounded on top of more tax.” Then one pays the tax on top of the tax.
This year, the Prime Minister's carbon tax will cost families $2,943 in Alberta; $2,618 in Saskatchewan; $1,750 in Manitoba; $1,674 in Ontario; $1,500 in Nova Scotia, $1,605 in Prince Edward Island, $1,874 in Newfoundland and Labrador and $1,963 Canada-wide. Canadians do not have this extra money.
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- Mar/19/24 1:58:29 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, yes, it was shocking to adjourn debate on something that is so easy to do to help and to listen. Again, I reiterate that this is 70% of Canadians. We know the carbon tax disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable: single mothers, those with low incomes, seniors and students. All of these people are accessing food banks at historical highs. Never in history has it been this bad. It is simple: Replace that person across the way who likes to call himself the Prime Minister, get rid of this tax and make life affordable for Canadians.
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Madam Speaker, I think if people have any conversation with these dairy farmers, they will say, without a doubt, that this carbon tax is crippling them. That is across the board. Bill C-234 is about that. That is what I would push back on. I would—
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- Feb/1/24 12:49:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I think what the member opposite is talking about is listening, gathering data and, as a real leader would do, recognizing when something they are doing does not work. That is actually what we are asking the Liberals to do today. Instead of doubling down on something that they just believe is great, we are saying the data is in and the carbon tax is not helping anyone. It is not an environmental plan. There have been no targets met. A true leader listens, pivots and changes according to the needs of the people they are elected to serve. That is exactly what leadership is, and that is exactly not what the Liberals are doing.
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- Feb/1/24 12:37:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is always a true honour to rise in the House of Commons and speak on behalf of the folks of Peterborough—Kawartha.
Today, it is a real honour, because we get to present our opposition motion, a common-sense opposition motion that would make life more affordable for Canadians, and I will read it into the record for folks at home. It reads:
That, given that the carbon tax has proven to be a tax plan, not an environmental plan, the House call on the Liberal government to cancel the April 1, 2024, carbon tax increase.
Just so folks at home know, that planned tax increase on April 1 by the Liberal Prime Minister is 23%. Now, I do not know who they are speaking with, but I do not know anyone right now who can afford that, and that is the reality of it. People are really struggling after eight years of this Prime Minister, and it is a sad reality.
How does the carbon tax contribute to the cost of living? I will share the story of Jen Wight, this amazing, charismatic woman who may not be so young but looks young. She has freckles, and she is just this dynamic woman who is talented.
Eight years ago, Jen started her business, Emily Mae's Cookies & Sweets. Her grandma gave her her recipes, and she is so talented and community-minded. In fact, for those who are watching, they should follow this woman on all social media. They will love it and not regret it. If there is a television producer watching, please pick this woman up and give her a show.
I saw Jen just before Christmas, and she looked more desperate than I had ever seen her look in my life. She is a not a dramatic person by any means, but she said, “Michelle, the carbon tax is crippling me,” and she kept talking about butter. Members can imagine how critical butter is to someone running a bakery and making cookies. She would buy upwards of 40 pounds of butter a week. She said, “Michelle, when I started my business eight years ago, butter was $2.49. Today, you can expect to pay upwards of $10 for a pound of butter.” In most communities, it is about $7.49; $10 is on the extreme end, but today it is about $7.49, which is a 200% increase.
Shortly after the new year, I was scrolling through social media, and Jen had made a post on Emily Mae's Cookies. She said, “This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life. I have to close down my business.” I asked her if I could come and talk to her. She is just so polite, and it is hard for her to get political. People do not want to get political. They like to be congenial and get along with people, but the reality is that every single thing comes back to politics; everything comes back to policy.
Today, in the House, I heard a Liberal member say that the carbon tax is so minuscule that it does not matter. From $2.49 to $7.49 for butter is just a couple of bucks. However, it is cents that add up to dollars. Butter was the demise of this woman's heart and soul, and it is so simple. It is a household item that everyone should be able to afford. That is the reality of the carbon tax, and I challenge that Liberal member who thinks it is so minuscule and does not understand it to go and speak with Jen and to go to the farmer who has to pay the extra carbon tax to heat his farm, pay the extra carbon tax to feed the cows the grain and pay the extra carbon tax to ship the milk to the trucker. The trucker then is going to ship the milk to the factory where they make the butter, where they will have to pay extra carbon tax to heat the building to make the butter, and then to the trucker who has to ship it from the factory that makes the butter to the grocery store. It is really common sense that this is going to be catastrophic for people.
Jade phoned me this week, and she said, “Michelle, I'm a single mom with two kids. I've worked really, really hard. I make $62,500 a year, and for the first time in my life, bill collectors are calling me.”
Politically, I do not even understand how the Liberals and NDP can stand here today and say they want to increase the carbon tax. Nobody wants that, not the premiers of this country and not constituents. It is actually political suicide as well. It makes no sense.
I want to read these into the record. I asked folks to send me their heating bills.
Michelle, I am just sending a snapshot of our Enbridge bill that contains the carbon tax. This is for a family of three in a brick bungalow approximately 1,000 square feet, heated by natural gas.
The gas supply charge is $38.96; the federal carbon charge, $39.15, and wait: There is a tax on the tax. They can expect to pay $20.38 in HST.
Hello, Michelle. I am a resident of Ennismore and a widow who is trying her best to make ends meet since my husband's passing. Yesterday I received my gas bill. I was shocked to see the total carbon tax applied to my bill. This is absolutely criminal!
The federal carbon charge is $104.33; the gas supply charge is $106.42, and the tax on the tax, let us not forget that, is $49.59.
Michelle, if the federal government wants to charge us the carbon tax, it should be on the gas used, not other fees like delivery or transportation. It's like charging someone the carbon tax on buying a coffee in the gas station on the same bill. I used $28 in gas [and] the carbon price is $28. Sounds like a 100% tax to me.
It should be removed. I'm for supporting the reduction of carbon but alternatives are too expensive to implement. We're all struggling to get by. And this isn't helping. Food or heat, right?
This one has the federal carbon charge, $94.91; gas supply charge, $101.27; and HST, $53.28.
Every member in this House should be asking their constituents to do the same thing. We were elected to create policy to help Canadians. This is genuinely hurting them. Full stop. There have been members of the opposite party, and good for them for having the courage to stand up. I am looking at one right now who says that this does not work. I thank him. He lives in Newfoundland and Labrador. He knows. He clearly listens to his constituents.
Not one emissions target has been met. What is wild is that there are commonalities between us in this House, and for them to sit and say that the Conservatives want the planet to burn, what? The ideology and the belief system in this place is so deep that I cannot even believe it.
The Conservatives have put forward a four-pronged approach in this session. We do have the solutions. The reality is that life was not this hard before this Prime Minister and it does not have to be this hard after him. It is going to be a lot of work to get out of this; I understand that. There are incredible people with incredible ideas that really truly innovate and are going to revolutionize our world, but carbon tax is not it. We need to axe the tax. We need to build more houses. We need to fix the budget. We need to stop crime.
The first piece of that, axing the tax, is the simplest and most common-sense thing to do. Everybody who is watching at home is so frustrated by this place. I want them to know that we are, too. They ask what we are doing. We are in opposition, and the NDP and the Liberals signed a coalition, which they call a supply agreement. They can call it whatever they want, tomayto-tomahto, but the reality is they are going to work together for a majority.
However, Conservatives know that the majority of people watching at home do not want this tax. We know that. We will not stop. We will continue to fight for this. I urge every member to do the right thing and vote for this motion to axe the tax.
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- Nov/28/23 11:13:04 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, to my colleague across the way, there seems to be a lack of common sense that has been percolating from the other side for a long time. We have farmers. We heard earlier from my colleague that they are paying $480,000 a year in carbon tax. That is absolutely outrageous and unsustainable because food is not a luxury.
I would like the member to talk to farmers directly, through the camera, to tell them that they also have to pay GST on that amount.
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- Feb/15/23 2:50:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals certainly do not have any results.
After eight years of the Prime Minister, Canadians are out of money, and it is destroying their mental health. Anxiety, depression, addiction and suicide continue to rise because of the Prime Minister's outrageous, unethical and wasteful spending. The punitive carbon tax is not compassionate, nor is it responsible leadership. It is not a climate plan. It is a tax plan, and it has failed to meet any emissions targets.
The Prime Minister has a chance right now, this second, to listen, act and help Canadians, so will he do it? Will he scrap the carbon tax?
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- Feb/8/23 2:57:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the Prime Minister, Canadians are out of money.
The $40 a month of carbon tax may not be anything to him, but in reality it is a lot to most Canadian families. It is the difference between giving their kids snacks or not. Read the room. Talk to real Canadians. Listen to them instead of listening to yourself.
Will you keep the heat on, Mr. Prime Minister, and take the tax off?
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- Oct/28/22 11:33:37 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member's attempt to answer the question, but that is not an answer for why we have a trillion-dollar debt. It is not an answer when we have an increasing carbon tax and four million Canadians rely on propane and oil to heat their homes. This is not a luxury; this is a necessity. The average family is going to pay $7,000 to heat their home this winter. They have to choose between heating and eating.
Again, will the Liberals finally show leadership, fiscal responsibility and compassion and stop the tripling of their carbon tax?
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- Sep/27/22 3:59:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, happy World Tourism Day. I thank my hon. colleague for pointing that out.
When we look at tripling the carbon tax, there is still no justification. There is no logic behind that. Why are we not investing in the technology? There are solutions. Forty cents a litre of gas on top of what we are already paying is just not achievable. Canadians are hanging on by a thread. If we really want to look at our future, our mental health crisis and this opioid and addiction crisis, we need to take care of what is in Canadians' bank accounts and give them the ability to buy food and afford groceries.
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- Mar/21/22 3:03:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this past weekend, I spoke to hundreds of constituents from Peterborough—Kawartha who are scared and afraid because they cannot afford to buy food, pay for rent or put gas in their car. People are suffering from anxiety, depression and addiction because they cannot manage the stress of making ends meet.
The carbon tax hike on April 1 could see an increase of 12¢ a litre at the pumps. Canadians cannot take any more.
How can the Liberal government say it has Canadians' backs? When will the government give my constituents and all Canadians hope and drop the carbon tax scheduled for April 1?
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