- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Lethbridge
- Alberta
- Voting Attendance: 65%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $131,565.29
- Government Page
- May/9/24 8:11:41 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this way of thinking put forward by the Liberal government is absurd. We have folks across Canada, about 96% of them, who are dependent on natural gas for heating, which is not exactly an option in this country.
I come from Alberta, and we need to heat our homes in the winter. I think most other places, if not all other places in this country, need to heat their homes in the middle of winter. I think that is just a basic necessity of human life. Further to that, I come from a riding that is largely rural. Getting on a city bus or transit train is not really an option, so they depend on being able to drive a vehicle in order to provide for themselves or to get from point A to point B. Further to that, the transportation of goods in this nation is reliant on transportation units, such as semis and trains.
If we continue to attach a carbon tax to these necessities, these things that are just a part of our way of life, it is not going to bring down carbon emissions; it has been in place for eight years now. It clearly—
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- Mar/21/24 1:54:16 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague brings up a really good point. The government claims that it is somehow doing Canadians a favour by taking a whole lot of their cash and then giving a few pennies back. Then somehow the Liberals come to this conclusion that therefore the carbon tax is a good thing and Canadians want it. In fact, 70% of Canadians say they do not want it and 70% of premiers say they do not want it.
The fact of the matter is that in the province of Alberta, the folks in my area are $1,000 a year worse off because of the carbon tax. While they might get a small pittance back, it is nothing in comparison to the amount they are having to cede over to the government. This whole false claim that somehow Liberals are benefiting Canadians is absolutely wrong, and they should be ashamed of themselves.
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- Mar/21/24 1:44:06 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the Prime Minister insists on doubling down on his damaging policies, and of course, the carbon tax is central to them. The carbon tax drives up the cost of everything, from gas to home heating to household goods. Everything is more expensive, not to mention the fact that it affects low-income households disproportionately because they spend a larger percentage of their income on energy, food and transportation. The Prime Minister is not at all for lower- and middle-class Canadians but rather for himself and for those in the upper echelons.
That is who the Prime Minister is, but now it gets worse because on April 1, he intends to play a very cruel joke on Canadians, which is to increase the carbon tax by another 23%. It will go up by 23% in just a matter of a couple of weeks. Canadians will be hard hit once again when they are already down.
Folks in my riding come into my office and show me their natural gas bills. They point out the line that reveals the carbon tax. They are $40, $60, $130. However, I find it interesting that on many of them, the line that shows the carbon tax is actually more than the cost of the good or the product itself. In other words, they pay more for the tax than they do for the actual natural gas they use.
If that does not elicit a bit of compassion in this place, shame on those members. That individuals would be forced to pay a tax that is higher than the natural gas they used in their households is wrong. No wonder Canadians are lining up at food banks in droves. No wonder students are having a hard time being able to make ends meet. No wonder seniors are having to make difficult choices between medication and food. This is the state of our nation.
Farmers in my region who produce food for this country and, I dare say, the world, pay carbon tax bills upward of $62,000 or $100,000. That cost then gets transferred to transportation, to the grocery store, and then, ultimately, onto the backs of Canadians who buy the food.
The carbon tax is having a huge affect on Canadians and their well-being. The Liberals claim that it is about saving the planet, but they have not actually met a single climate target that has been set. In fact, when we look at the performance index, they have fallen to number 62 in performance. In other words, there is nothing being accomplished for the planet, but everything is being done to punish Canadians.
The Liberal government would also like Canadians to believe that somehow they are better off with the carbon tax because it results in a supposed rebate. Let us look at that rebate. The Parliamentary Budget Officer, who functions as an independent entity, looked at it and provided a report. The report by the PBO shows that people pay far more in the tax than they would ever get back.
In the province of Alberta, residents are worse off by nearly $1,000 a year. That is a lot of money for Canadians to lose out on. That is a lot of money for Albertans. The Prime Minister reaches into the left pocket of Canadians and takes out a wad of cash, and then, into the right pocket, he deposits a few coins and then expects Canadians to praise him for his charity. That is how the Liberal government functions. That is its policy. It is wrong.
In my riding, businesses are closing their doors because the costs are too much. There is a man in his seventies who lives in a vehicle with his dog because he cannot afford his rent. A couple lost their house because they could not afford their mortgage, and now they are living in an RV. A person with a disability came into my office recently. She has to skip meals because the little money she gets per month, as a person with a disability, does not stretch the distance it once did.
All of this has to do with the Liberal government's failed policies, and the carbon tax is at the centre of it all. There are 70% of Canadians and 70% of premiers who do not want the tax hike. Overwhelmingly, Canadians reject the Liberal government's policies; they do not want it.
Today, Conservatives are standing at the side of hard-working Canadians and are calling for a vote of non-confidence in the Liberal government so that Canadians can vote in a carbon tax election. They would have the opportunity to say what they want. They would have an opportunity to vote for the Canada that they believe it should be. They would have an opportunity to defend their own well-being. That is what we are calling for in this place. We are calling for the restoration of affordability and for a vibrant future for hard-working Canadians because they deserve it.
There should be no more punishment from the corrupt Liberal government, but rather a vibrant future for the hard-working, innovative, creative Canadians that we know them to be.
With that, I invite all members in this place to consider the well-being of every single Canadian from coast to coast and to spike the hike, axe the tax and give back hope to those who live here in this country.
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- Mar/19/24 2:47:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think what is clear is that the Liberals have a dysfunctional relationship with the truth. Canadians pay more than they actually get back, and so for the average Albertan family, they pay $2,943. Meanwhile, they get back $2,032, which means that, ultimately, they are a thousand dollars in the hole. That is how much they are having to remit to the government. That is how much the government is pickpocketing from them.
Why is the government doing that to Canadians when they are already struggling to pay their bills, make ends meet and provide for their families?
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Madam Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to stand in this place and to address a very important issue. That issue comes down to affordability. It comes down to the well-being of Canadians from coast to coast, to those who live in rural areas, in urban areas, in my province of Alberta and in Atlantic Canada.
The debate tonight has to do with being able to buy the very basics of life, including fuel for a person's vehicle so that they can drive to work or take their kids to sport practice. It is a conversation about being able to put food on the table, whether that is fruits, vegetables, grain or dairy. Whatever a family chooses to consume, they should be able to afford those choices.
Furthermore, Bill C-234 is about being able to heat one's home. I do not know about others, but where I live in Alberta, we can get temperatures down to -53°C with the wind chill. I cannot imagine trying to heat my home with a heat pump, as the Liberals would like to suggest is possible, nor can I imagine relying on wind or solar as my sole source of electricity, because we had a proof point, just a few weeks ago, that it just does not work.
Instead, what people rely on to heat their homes in my part of the country is largely natural gas. The Liberal government has attached something called a carbon tax to those very necessities of life, whether it is the food we eat, the fuel that we put in our vehicles or the energy that heats our homes. The carbon tax is punitive in nature, and it is driving up the cost that Canadians have to pay just to survive.
Bill C-234, which we are discussing here today, has to do with taking the carbon tax off the fuel that farmers use for the very necessities of the jobs they do. Imagine putting all of one's time and energy and all of one's labour into producing food for the nation of Canada and for the entire world. Imagine doing that, and then imagine having a government in power that, rather than expressing gratitude toward them, actually punishes them. That is exactly what the Liberals have done for the last eight years.
The carbon tax is extremely punitive in nature. It goes after those individuals working hard to produce food. It does that by applying this tax to the very necessities of production. Whether it is using natural gas to heat a barn in order to keep chickens alive or dairy cattle alive, or whether it is using propane to be able to dry grain, let us say, those are things farmers do on a day to day basis. Those things are necessary to produce food for Canadians and for the world. Those things are required to keep us, as humanity, alive and to drive our economy forward. Rather than celebrating the incredible contribution that farmers are making, the Liberal government has chosen to go after them and to be extremely punitive.
On this side of the House, members got together and came up with an idea. That idea is brilliant. It is supported by producers all across the country. That idea is to remove the carbon tax from fuel, from natural gas and from propane so that farmers can produce food at less expense.
Here is what happens when farmers are empowered to produce food with little expense attached to it. Those savings get passed on to Canadians. Then, when Canadians go to grocery stores and buy food for their families, they are able to pay a little less. However, when the government attaches that tax, it actually drives up the cost of food, so Canadians then have to spend more.
What will happen when Canadians have to spend more? Headlines across this country will show us exactly what will happen. Families are struggling. Millions are lining up at food banks every single month across this country. In my riding, in Lethbridge, Alberta, the food bank use has doubled under the Liberal government. It has doubled.
It is not just folks who maybe do not have homes or who live in low-income housing. It is folks who have full-time jobs and live in middle-class neighbourhoods. It is seniors who rely on fixed incomes, who have worked incredibly hard for 65, 75, maybe 80 years of their lives. It is the students studying at Lethbridge College or the University of Lethbridge who are investing in their education and, because of the government, cannot afford to make ends meet, so they have to go to the food bank. It is the veterans who fought for this country, the country that we love. It is the men and women who sacrificed a great deal, and are now not supported by the government, who are lining up at the food bank.
That is a problem that was created under the watch of the Liberal government, but it did not have to be that way. The government has created policy after policy that has punished Canadians and held them back from achieving greatness, from being able to bring in income and stretch it to cover their costs of life. It is the government that has prevented people from being able to do that.
On this side of the House, there is a concerted effort to give Canadians control of their lives back. There is a concerted effort to make sure they can afford the very necessities they require. Of course, top of mind is to axe the tax, and that is exactly what Bill C-234 would do. Bill C-234 is all about getting rid of this punitive tax, taking it off of farmers and allowing all Canadians to benefit because, when farmers benefit, so do the people who go to the grocery store to buy food. That is what this bill is about.
Here is what the government did. This bill was discussed in this place and then went to the Senate, which started out with some good common-sense thinking. At first, it seemed that the majority in the Senate was going to support this bill because it just makes sense, but then the Liberal government, in particular, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Environment, caught wind of this. What did they do? They got on the phone, asked for meetings and applied pressure. They applied pressure to the senators, who are supposedly independent, and eventually those senators caved. The bill ended up being gutted to the point of being meaningless, and that is what we are now debating in this place.
Canadians deserve better. For starters, they deserve better behaviour from the government, and second, they deserve better policy. They deserve policy that would allow them to work hard for a paycheque, bring that money home and be able to cover the cost of things they need to purchase, whether it is groceries, fuel for their vehicles or their heating bills. Canadians need to be empowered to cover those expenses, and a big part of that is axing the tax.
In my riding, a producer was willing to share his natural gas bill with me. He has a few different parts to his farming operation, but just for one of them, the beef operation, he spends $62,000 a year on the carbon tax. He was willing to share some his bills with me, which I reviewed, and month after month the carbon tax is more than the amount he spent on the actual natural gas used. That is crazy. It is ludicrous that a farmer would have to spend more on the tax than the product itself.
What also needs to be driven home is that we have to remember that all Canadians, including farmers, are not just paying the carbon tax, but the tax on top of it. They are paying a government tax and a provincial tax on top of the carbon tax. It is the greatest scheme for the government to make money, but it is on the backs of Canadians, and the government should be ashamed of itself.
Conservatives are going to work hard. We are going to fight for Canadians. We are going to make sure their paycheques stay powerful. We are going to axe the tax.
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- Nov/28/23 1:44:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the reason I am standing today is that last week, we had an opportunity to debate a common-sense Conservative bill that would remove the carbon tax from all farm fuel. That debate took place in the House, then moved to the Senate and then it stalled. The reason it stalled is that the members opposite from the Liberal Party of Canada asked the Senate to stall it, to delay, to use every tactic in the book to try to prevent the legislation from going through. That is incredibly sad. What that means is farmers will not benefit from a carbon tax being taken off of such things as drying grain, harvesting their fields or heating their barns. Those are common functions for farmers, the people who produce food in our communities.
I am here to advocate for those individuals who produce our food, but I am also here to advocate for Canadians at large, those who buy food.
I was first elected about eight years ago. Shortly after I came into this place, I had a conversation with a member opposite. That member took an interest in my riding which, of course, is in Lethbridge, Alberta. It is a beautiful mix of a small city of about 105,000 people and a county, which consists of a lot of farmland and those who know how to make that land produce something incredible that is called food. The member asked me questions about my riding. He said to me, “That farmland that you have there, they are just growing for fuel, right?” I said, “Excuse me?” He said, “Yes, they are just growing for fuel, right?” I said, “No, they are growing food.” He said, “Oh. Normally we just go to the grocery store now for food. We do not really need that.”
It is interesting. In that moment, I realized just how out of touch Canadians at large are with where their food comes from, how it is produced and how important it is that we support those who produce it. It is easy to think that food just arrives on the grocery store shelves in a pretty package and maybe some nice marketing tools are used. We get to pick up that food, bring it home and consume it. We forget the process or maybe we never knew the process that it underwent in order to get there.
In my riding, I have the privilege of being able to see that process from start to finish. I watch as those farmers actually take the seed off their field. I watch as they actually process that seed and prepare it for use in next year's field. Then I watch as they till the ground and put that seed into it. I watch as they use water to care for it. I then watch as that seed produces plants which continue to flourish and eventually are harvested. Eventually, that harvest is taken, dried and processed. It is either shipped out like that or it goes for further processing locally. Eventually, it becomes food that is sold in our grocery stores. Much of that is sold right here in Canada in our grocery stores, but sometimes it goes to other places around the world.
Canada has this incredible gift called land. We have this second incredible gift called farmers. They are the individuals who work incredibly hard and with great innovation to make sure that Canadians are fed.
I will talk a little bit about these people in my riding, because if we care to learn, we can. These are individuals who are incredibly community-minded, who work collaboratively together. These are individuals who are incredibly hard working. These are individuals who care deeply about animal health and welfare.
These are individuals who are the original environmental stewards. They are the ones who take care of the water, land and air. They have done that from the beginning, because they know that to take care of those things is to take care of the food they produce and to be good at what they are doing. They are the folks who thrive in spurring on innovation, in bringing forward new technologies and great business practices. These are the individuals who are incredibly generous.
In my riding, it is these folks who have funded community swimming pools and community recreation centres. It is these individuals who have paved park pathways and created parkways. It is these individuals who have invested in our local hospital. It is these individuals who have given tremendous amounts of money to the underprivileged, especially those who are homeless.
It is these individuals who have helped to fund programs through our college and through our university. It is these individuals who are making a tremendous difference in our community day in and day out. These are the individuals the government insists on punishing through a punitive carbon tax. It is these individuals who feed Canada and feed those around the world.
To those in my community and to those who like to eat, we celebrate these men and women. We look at them as the individuals they are: people who are doing something wonderful, not only for my local community but for the nation and even the planet.
The member's opposite see these individuals as if they are the enemy. It is a mystery to me. Again, we are talking about women and men who are not only caring for us by producing food but taking care of the environment by sequestering carbon, by making sure soil health is good, by making sure the air quality is excellent and by making sure water is stewarded. These are the folks who get zero credit for those actions and instead are frowned upon for what they do and how tremendously wonderfully they contribute to society.
The government has decided to apply a punitive carbon tax, and yes, it is applied to farmers from the moment they put the seed into the ground to the moment they harvest to the moment food goes on to the grocery store. The carbon tax does not stop. It keeps going on and on, until finally it is picked up by the consumer at the store. The truth is that even then it does not stop, because the consumer pays the carbon tax at the till and pays the carbon tax again when they put the food in their trunk and drive it home. They then pay the carbon tax again when they turn on their stove and make that food. It just keeps going.
We are asking for the carbon tax to be taken off farmers. We are asking that this House exercise some common sense and make the determination that farmers are incredible people who deserve to be celebrated, not punished. It just makes sense.
When farmers have this punitive carbon tax attached to them, the carbon tax eventually makes its way to the consumer. When the consumer has to pick it up, they are detrimentally impacted too. There are more Canadians than ever before lining up at food banks. In my community of Lethbridge, since 2019 the number of people going to a food bank and relying on it as their primary source of food has doubled. The biggest group of people there, which is growing, is those who are working a consistent job. They are not able to make ends meet anymore, because under the government, things have become too expensive. They are desperate for help. They are desperate for a government to listen to them. They are desperate for a government to understand their concerns.
A woman recently reached out to me. She is in her sixties and has a disability, so she lives on a very small amount month to month. It is $1,700. We can imagine what it might be like to live on $1,700 a month and pay rent. She cannot just live anywhere because she is in a wheelchair. She has to pay extra because she needs to make sure it is wheelchair accessible. This an individual who then has to pay for her food, transportation and her phone. Then she might even want to engage in the human dignity of buying a birthday gift for someone once in a while. This is an individual who has to cut back on even the essential things of life.
The reason people are having to make these difficult choices among medication, healthy food, paying rent and paying their heating bill is that the government has made life so unaffordable. The ask on the table today is very simple, very straightforward and very tangible. It is to axe the tax on farmers. When we axe it there, we bring it down everywhere else and all Canadians benefit. That is what we are asking for today. It is common sense for the common people.
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Madam Speaker, I rise in the House today to discuss Bill C-34, an act to amend the Investment Canada Act.
Ultimately, at the very heart of this debate is the prosperity of Canadians and their well-being. For Canadians to prosper, the government of the day needs to do three things. It needs to grant freedom to the people: freedom to dream, freedom to take risks and freedom to earn a living. The government of the day needs to facilitate an environment of economic prosperity where folks can dream, take a risk and invest, where red tape is cut and where taxes are decreased so that people can flourish. The government of the day also needs to prioritize the safety and security of Canadians. Without our borders being secure and without the safety of Canadians being front of mind by the government, it is rather difficult to pursue these other things.
That said, we also know that the government needs to get out of the way as much as possible. When looking at this legislation and the amendments made to the Investment Canada Act, one must ask this question: Where does the balance lie between government engagement or involvement and none?
Here in Canada we have incredibly industrious and talented people. We have people who combine their talents with the bounty of the land to prosper, and they make amazing things possible. I think of the farmer who works his land and brings it to harvest. I think of the fisherman who works on dangerous high seas. I think of the miner who works miles underground. I think of the business owner who brings her passion to life through innovation and hard work to create jobs for others and, of course, to earn a living herself.
Because of the greatness of the people who call Canada home, I believe we can participate in a broader global economy as well. That is where the bill comes in. This broader global economy presents amazing opportunities for Canadian businesses and allows us to spur innovation. Our quality of life grows when the Canadian economy can offer so much to the world and to each Canadian. The world in turn, of course, invests in Canada. Our economy then grows even more and Canadians are empowered to live fulfilling lives to an even greater extent.
While the global economy generates many opportunities, it also invites threats, which is again where Bill C-34 comes into play. It is why it is so very important that we as Canadians are vigilant in making sure that the investments we are attracting into our country are ones that we indeed want to attract, ones that are good for Canada. It means that a robust review process is absolutely necessary to ensure this is the case. A thorough and robust review process, I would argue, is an absolute must.
The globe is not made up entirely of governments that desire peace and goodwill for all people. We know that, perhaps more now than many years ago. We know that some states pose a threat to the very way of life we enjoy here in Canada. They do not desire the prosperity of Canada, nor do they approach our market in good faith. In fact, they have other objectives in mind. These countries are not our friends. That is why it so very important that we get legislation like this right.
It is the duty of the government to ensure that Canadians are kept safe and secure, that good decisions are made and that the right investments are drawn into the borders of our land. Certain countries operate with covert agendas and work to undermine the security of our nation and the prosperity of its people. This often happens through the vectors of our international trade and the acquisition of Canadian assets. This is why, again, it is so important for security reviews to be done in a thorough and timely manner. I will use some examples to highlight what I mean.
In 2017, the Minister of Industry failed to request a full national security review of the acquisition of the B.C.-based telecommunications company Norsat International and its subsidiary Sinclair Technologies. The Chinese company Hytera Communications wanted to acquire them. We know that Hytera Communications is partially owned by the People's Republic of China. A careful review should have been done but was not.
Fast-forward then to December 2022, and the RCMP actually awarded a contract for sensitive communications system equipment to this technologies firm. Again, I will remind the House that it is partially owned by Beijing.
This company then, in January, only a month after the contract was awarded to them, was charged with 21 counts of espionage in the United States, and then banned from doing business in the U.S. by President Biden.
This company is one that was given access to all RCMP communications services. Of course, we could imagine what that does to our overall safety and security as a nation and to the confidence that Canadians can place in the RCMP.
Here is another example. In 2020, even more insultingly, the Department of Foreign Affairs actually awarded a contract to a Chinese-based company called Nuctech, founded by the son of a former general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. They were contracted to supply X-ray equipment to 170 Canadian embassies and consulates. One can quickly imagine what the impact of such a decision would be, in terms of the types of intelligence that could be gathered through doing X-rays, especially in a place like an embassy or a consulate.
It would seem that in some ways it is almost on brand for the Liberal government to turn a blind eye to these important decision-making processes and just allow things to flow the way that they will, which is actually putting Canadians in jeopardy then. This is where responsibility needs to be exercised, and I would even dare say just some basic common sense. We have to take precautions in order to safeguard the people of this country and our economic prosperity as a nation.
Speaking of economic prosperity, what could be more prosperous than people earning a living for themselves and being able to take that money and invest it where it needs to go. What could be more important than government getting out of the way and allowing those Canadians to spend their money as they need to, in order to make ends meet.
In fact, right now, Canadians are actually finding it more difficult than ever before to do that. In large part, that is because of a carbon tax that is applied to everything from home heating to food to the fuel that we put in our vehicles. The Liberal government coming under immense pressure from the Canadian public, knowing that they were having a difficult time being able to afford life, made the decision that it would take the carbon tax off a small portion of people in Canada for a short time. It would hit the pause button and scrap the carbon tax for three years for those who live in Atlantic Canada and use oil heating. However, those who are in my province of Alberta who use natural gas are out of luck. They still have to pay the carbon tax.
We thought we would give the hon. members across from us the opportunity to make this fair for all Canadians, because, of course, choosing a favourite 3% is not fair and it is no way to govern a nation properly. The Conservative Party put forward a motion, and that motion was voted on today. It was a motion that invited all members in this place to vote to scrap the carbon tax for all Canadians, to make it fair from coast to coast to coast, which is what any government should want to do. It should be concerned about the unity of this great country and the economic prosperity of its people.
This place was given an opportunity to vote in favour, with the Conservatives, and to bring that motion into play, which would have saved Canadians thousands of dollars. Instead, the members across the way decided to vote that motion down. They voted to make life more expensive and less affordable for Canadians. They decided that they wanted the carbon tax to be applied to 97% of Canadians, but taken away from 3%. The government across the way determined that its polls were down in Atlantic Canada, and so it needed to show favour to that 3% but the rest could be punished. It is sad.
Parliament, this place, those who sit here were given an opportunity to be on the side of the everyday Canadian person. Instead, Liberals chose to play politics.
The bill that is before us today is yet another opportunity to be on the side of the Canadian people and to make sure that their safety, security and well-being is put first and foremost, which means that more than 10 amendments that were brought forward by Conservative members at committee should have been accepted in order to strengthen this legislation and make it better for all.
Unfortunately, again, the government of the day actually shot those amendments down. While the bill that we debate today makes some minor improvements, and I cannot fault the government for that, I do fault the government for not going all the way and making this bill even stronger. That is very sad. There could have been multipartisan co-operation to strengthen this bill. Again, the government of the day—
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- Oct/31/23 3:12:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, Canadians are hurting more than ever before. The government's solution is actually to divide our country by picking winners and losers.
For some Canadians, they will save $1 on the carbon tax with regard to their home heating, because, of course, it will be temporarily paused, but for those in Alberta, they are not given the same benefit. They will continue to pay the carbon tax.
The Minister of Labour and Seniors had this to say. He said that this is purely an affordability issue. Conservatives believe that this is true. It is an affordability issue for all Canadians, not just some.
Could the Minister of Labour and Seniors tell me why the seniors in my community do not deserve the same break as the seniors in his community?
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- Sep/29/22 4:31:52 p.m.
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During question period today my Conservative colleagues and I asked the government to demonstrate a little compassion and to stop its planned tax hikes. The Liberals responded with obscure studies and statistics, telling us that, actually, we had it all wrong and that Canadians were better off and getting ahead. It was as if to say that government knows best and that what Canadians are feeling is illegitimate. How demeaning and how heartless.
I have heard many of my constituents share their stories with me and post other stories online that tell me that they are struggling, they are hopeless and many of them are in despair. I am talking about a senior who recently came into my constituency office in Lethbridge to share with me that she lives in a mobile home and she is having a hard time making ends meet. Normally she would go to her neighbour or maybe her son in order to get assistance, but the reality is that they are in the same boat. I am talking about another couple who came into my office who had lost their home because they could not make their mortgage renewal due to inflation. Now they are living in an RV in their parents' backyard. She is struggling immensely with mental health issues.
I am talking about an elderly man from Medicine Hat, Alberta, who, several weeks ago, submitted his application for medical assistance in dying because he cannot afford to pay for medication, food and shelter. He made the choice to end his life. In a public statement, this man, who lives with a physical disability, said that he does not want to die; he simply can't afford to live.
These are the kinds of stories that are transpiring from coast to coast to coast. This is not the Canada these folks deserve.
A recent report revealed that almost a quarter of Canadians are having to cut back on the food they eat or the groceries they buy, because they just simply cannot afford it. Meanwhile, the number of people accessing food banks and the number of children going to sleep hungry at night is drastically increasing. We are a country that feeds the world. There is no need for this.
However, there are ramifications for “Justinflation”. These ramifications—
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