So V ote

Context: House Hansard - 291 - Mar/19/24

Apr/11/24 2:33:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I invite the government House leader to come out to Regina. Scott Moe and I could have a beer with him, and we could figure out what Scott really said about the carbon tax. Just last week, the Prime Minister raised the carbon tax by 23%. That increased the price of gas, groceries and home heating for all Canadians. I am unsure of why the Prime Minister is so scared to meet with all the premiers. Six, seven, eight premiers want to meet with the Prime Minister to see what he has to say about his flagship carbon tax policy. Why will he not listen? Does he just not care?

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Scott
Carbon

Mar/19/24 11:00:00 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to take to my feet and ask a question in debate today. The member opposite talked about political maturity and doing what one says one would do. Does he realize that he ran on a campaign to never increase the carbon tax past $50 a tonne? That is a commitment he made to the people of Milton. No wonder he is plummeting in the polls after that bush league speech. The member bends over backwards, trying to ask, “Did he take the money?” He asked the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle if he had cashed his carbon tax rebate cheque. That is Canadians' money in the first place. They earned it. The Liberals are trying to argue about how to best give the money back to Canadians. How about they do not take it in the first place and stop trying to give Canadians back their money. Let them keep it when they make it.

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Feb/6/24 7:35:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, today we got an Order Paper answer for the Conservative member for Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, which said that the Liberal government is not even tracking how much the carbon tax is reducing emissions. It really is mind-blowing that the Liberals have a flagship policy but are not tracking it to see whether it is successful or not. What I am hearing from people on the ground is that they believe that the fact of food price increases because of the carbon tax is not a flaw but a feature of the Liberal-NDP carbon tax. They believe this is what it was intended to do, because they do not realize what the policies are that actually affect farmers, and how much they do so. I do not believe that the NDP and Liberal members thought the carbon tax would go up to $15,000 for a 5,000-acre farm in Saskatchewan, but that is the effect it has had. Just imagine when the carbon tax goes to $170 a tonne. What is that going to do to consumers across Canada when they go to buy groceries? Farmers are price-takers. Input costs are going up and up, and they see a government that wants to keep kicking out their feet, instead of giving them the opportunity to be successful, by putting policies in place. I am so proud of our agriculture producers. There is a study by from the Global Institute for Food Security, out of Saskatchewan, that said our producers create fewer emissions than any other comparable jurisdiction in the world. Agriculture in Canada produces 8% of our total emissions. We should be trumpeting that at every international event we go to and showing how proud we are of our farmers. They are producing more and doing it with fewer emissions than farmers in any other country. That is what we should be talking about on the world stage to make sure that more countries are following Canada's leadership when it comes to agriculture and agriculture emissions.

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Feb/6/24 7:21:11 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to join in the debate today around the price of food inflation; the report that came from the agriculture committee, which I am proud to sit on; and some of the ideas we have heard over the last little while about how increases in the cost of food have affected Canadians in their day-to-day lives. My friend from Battle River—Crowfoot just had a great point that he asked my colleague from Kenora about, and I asked this of Tyler McCann in committee today. I asked whether the point of a carbon tax, which the Liberals and NDP opine is the great resource they are going to use to lower emissions, was to change consumers' behaviour. Mr. McCann said yes, it is. We can go on Environment and Climate Change Canada's website, and see that the point of a carbon tax is to change people's behaviour based on an increasing price of a product. It just so happens to be a product we are talking about today, which is food. I said in committee that it is amazing that a government is now fighting its own policy. Liberals and New Democrats are scrambling over each other to say that the carbon tax has not worked, because it did not increase the price of food. It was really one of the first times in my life in public service that I have seen a government arguing that a policy did not work when it did. I see this in other areas of people's lives too. We see it in transportation, where mothers are having a harder time filling up a tank of gas to take their kids to hockey games, to ballet classes or to music lessons. In rural Canada, we have to drive. There is not public transportation service like there is in downtown Toronto, so people are making a choice about how many extra shifts they have to pick up to cover the next tank of gas. We see it with seniors, who are still in their homes, asking how many sweaters they are going to have to put on because they cannot afford to keep the heat up. We see it time and time again. The Liberal-NDP carbon tax is making people change their behaviours in Canada, because it has made everything so much more expensive across our country. We know it is working, because there was a little caucus revolt in the Liberal Party recently; Atlantic Canadian members, along with the Conservatives, who have called for a long time to axe the tax as part of our plan, said they had to exempt home heating. The proof is in the pudding. Why would the Liberal members in the Maritimes fight tooth and nail? It is because they are having political issues to get a carve-out from the carbon tax, since home heating is costing too much. It is almost like it is working, but the people within the Liberal Party and the NDP did not realize how much pain they were going to inflict on Canadians. There is no other solution to heat a 100,000-square-foot barn. Today, in Ottawa, I met with a dairy farmer from just outside Regina. He said his heating bill for the barn has increased and increased. I have a SaskEnergy bill from another farmer, a chicken farmer. For one month, their gas supply cost is $1,092. Their carbon tax, with the GST on top of it, is $1,071. They are almost paying more in taxes on a monthly bill, $20 less, than they are for the gas they are supplying to heat their building. Maybe I am giving them the benefit of the doubt, but I do not think the Liberals and the New Democrats realized how much this was going to hurt. From APAS, in Saskatchewan, Mr. Boxall was at our committee when we were talking about food prices. He said that, on the average farm in Saskatchewan, the carbon tax cost will be between $14,000 and $25,000. However, when it goes to $170 a tonne by 2030, Canada's Food Price Report for 2023 stated that a farm could pay $150,000 in carbon tax per year. We asked Mr. Boxall in committee how that was going to affect farms. He said that: It will have a huge impact—$150,000 on a 5,000-acre farm. It's unfathomable that we will get there on a carbon tax alone. It makes my skin crawl to think that's where we'll be, and then to be turned around and not recognized for the work that is done, ensuring that we have proper grasslands and that we have proper management of our farm soil. Farmers are the biggest stewards of the land in this country, and we care more about the environment than we ever get credit for. It really is going to be detrimental to Saskatchewan farmers. That says it all. This Liberal government continues to punish our farmers, the people who put food on our plate, without a second thought of what the effect is going to be. We talked to some witnesses today in the agriculture committee and one witness laid out three things that this government has done and wants to do that will affect food prices. Number one, he said, was the carbon tax. Number two was P2 packaging where the government wants to make sure that, in Canada, we cannot use plastics to ship fruit and vegetables, which the U.S.A. has already said it is not going to do, and so it is going to cut the supply of fruit and vegetables in our country. Number three is the fertilizer reduction targets. Those three things are what this witness said is going to inflate the cost of food exponentially year after year. This is from people who are on the ground from the fruit and vegetable growers in Ontario. So, are we not going to believe a carbon tax bill that we saw from Saskatchewan where they were paying almost as much in taxes as in gas supply? Are we not going to believe members from the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, APAS, who are on the ground tilling the soil and planting the seeds who have said that $150,000 for a 5,000-acre farm will destroy farms in Saskatchewan, because it will make them unsustainable, which will lower supplies again? Are we not going to believe a dairy farmer who says that it is going to cost more and more each year to heat their barn with this carbon tax? The PBO said that, by 2030, farmers will be paying $1 billion a year in carbon tax. My friend for Huron—Bruce, who has put this through on a private member's bill, talked about the GST and HST that we pay on the carbon tax, which is about $490 million a year. So, combined, the carbon tax and then the tax on the tax is going to be $1.5 billion automatically out of farmers' pockets, and people do not think that is going to have an effect on food prices. That is irrational. It is taking $1.5 billion out of farmers' pockets. How are we going to make that up? Two things will happen: one, consumers will see that on the till at the grocery store, and prices will increase because farmers have to make that up; or two, farmers go out of business, and no farms, no food. If we lower the food supply in Canada, that will also increase the food cost. Members can see, and I agree with my friend from Winnipeg, that either way, consumers in rural or urban Saskatchewan are going to have to pay more for food. At this point in time I would like to move an amendment, which will be seconded by the member for Battle River—Crowfoot. I move: That the motion be amended by deleting all the words after the word “That” and substituting the following: “the 10th report of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, presented on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, be not now concurred in, but that it be recommitted to the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food with instruction that it amend the same so as to: (a) take into consideration that Bill C-234, An Act to amend the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, has been amended by the Senate in a way that will prevent farmers from getting a carbon tax carve-out for grain drying, barn heating and other farm operations, and that since the Parliamentary Budget Officer has made clear that this bill, in its original form, would save Canadian farmers $1 billion by 2030, reducing the cost of food for Canadian families currently struggling to afford groceries; and (b) recommend that the House adopt the motion rejecting the Senate amendments as soon as possible.

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Feb/6/24 7:05:13 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to commend that member for his audition for cabinet because there was not an answer in that comment. He is prepping himself for question period already. I wish him luck with that. He has two years left to make that move. As a member of the agriculture committee, can he name one farmer he talked to, who has boots on the ground, planting, harvesting, dairy farming or poultry farming, who has come to him and said that carbon tax has helped their operation, that they are doing better, that it is a good thing that the Liberals implemented a carbon tax and that they cannot wait for it to go to $170 a tonne by 2030 to take $1 billion out of their pockets?

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Feb/6/24 7:02:14 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will give my colleague a bit of time as he is quite new here. Just because he repeats something louder does not make something true. Catherine McKenna learned that lesson the hard way. I would say that more than eight out of 10 Canadians suffer under the carbon tax and get less back. What is not being taken into account is the gas, the groceries and the home heating. There are so many times that the carbon tax hits Canadians again and again. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has already said that that is not true; six out of 10 Canadians are worse off from the carbon tax. I want to get back to what we had a conversation about when it came to the agriculture committee. I saw the smile on the member's face, but what he could not say was how many farmers, not farm associations, but people who actively farm, he has met with have told him that the carbon tax has helped their farm and that they are better off with the carbon tax in place under the Liberal-NDP policy.

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Context: House Hansard - 248 - Nov/7/23

Feb/6/24 6:56:38 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as always, one has to be very careful with the Liberals when they talk about truths and untruths. What Dr. Charlebois said was that there has not been enough data collected to see exactly what the effect of the carbon tax is on food prices. He also said that he called for a pause on the carbon tax to lower food prices. Charlebois has said that; conveniently, the member omitted this. When one hears a story coming from the Liberals, it is always interesting to listen to the facts. Talking to Mr. McCann, I also asked if the point of a carbon tax is to increase the price so that consumers change their behaviour. He said that this is exactly what the Liberals say the point of a carbon tax is. The truth is that, when it comes to food inflation, food prices and the relationship with the carbon tax, it will come out in the wash that there is a correlation. When one talks to farmers and dairy farmers today, their highest input cost now is the carbon tax and the heating of their barns. If someone does not think that affects the price of what a farmer does, then they should maybe get out of downtown Winnipeg and go to a farm once their life.

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All Topics

Context: House Hansard - 248 - Nov/7/23

Nov/7/23 7:22:14 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I apologize for saying that he cannot figure out math or for being unable to square the circle of the carbon tax—

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Context: House Hansard - 248 - Nov/7/23

Nov/7/23 7:12:28 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to join in and try to get some answers for the question I asked the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources last week. I am happy that the parliamentary secretary is here because he has said a few things tonight that I would really like to delve into. We will do just the facts if he is okay with that, and if he can manage to answer some things straightforwardly. One is that they have always said that the carbon tax, after eight long years of this NDP-Liberal government, was an environmental plan. They have also said that the carbon tax is revenue-neutral. They have also said that eight out of 10 Canadians get more money back, which the Parliamentary Budget Officer has said is not true. He said that 60% of Canadians get less money back after they pay the carbon tax. That is what the Parliamentary Budget Officer has said about their carbon tax plan. If the carbon tax was revenue-neutral and was an environmental plan, why was there the flip-flop last week? Why do they now say that they had to exempt home heating oil from the carbon tax as an affordability measure? Both of those statements cannot be true. It is impossible. The carbon tax cannot be revenue-neutral and eight of out of 10 Canadians, as they falsely claim, get more money back if they have to flip-flop with what they say is a nationwide program to say, with their NDP colleagues, that they need to do this as an affordability measure. I would love to hear from the parliamentary secretary if he can square the circle that this is an affordability measure now. It is actually impossible. Everyone across Canada knows this, and 3% of Canadians now get an exemption from the carbon tax, while 97% do not. They have said, all week, that this is a nationwide exemption. It is not true. Most of these exemptions are where the Prime Minister was getting decimated in the polls, in Atlantic Canada, and the Liberals are desperate to stop the bleeding in their polling numbers. This flip-flop had nothing to do with environmental science and everything to do with political science. I am excited to hear the answers to a few of these questions. While I am on the topic, he is talking about the carbon tax being an environmental policy, which we all know is not true, as it is a tax policy, because, today, the environment commissioner said that, with their carbon tax as their flagship policy, they will not meet one environmental target they have made. They will not make their emissions target by 2030. His good friend, the member for Whitby, said that Canadians will feel pain because of this carbon tax. They were exactly right. They felt the pain with zero environmental gain, and two million people in this country line up at a food bank every month. That is their record. I would love to see how the carbon tax can be an environmental plan when it is actually a tax plan, which is revenue-neutral, but they had to flip-flop to make sure it is now an affordability measure. Could he please explain that to Canadians because I cannot?

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Context: House Hansard - 245 - Nov/2/23

Nov/7/23 11:10:52 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member actually mentioned Regina and home heating oil, and there are not a lot of people who heat their homes with heating oil. They do not get any of the divisive carbon tax exemption that was brought forward. An hon. member: Yes, they do.

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Context: House Hansard - 209 - Jun/8/23

Nov/2/23 1:31:23 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to join in the debate today. In Saskatchewan, in 2021, total GHG emissions were 67.1 million tonnes. Saskatchewan's GHG emission intensity dropped 18% from 2005 to 2021 because of innovations like carbon capture and sequestration. We have stored over five million tonnes of carbon in carbon capture over the last five years. My question for the hon. member is this. Seeing that Premier Moe has come out and said that Saskatchewan residents are not being treated fairly, obviously the expression “a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian” is not true for the Liberals anymore. What is her response to Premier Moe's statement that he will not collect carbon tax anymore, and to the fact that Saskatchewan has lowered emissions per capita more than any other province over the last five years?

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Context: House Hansard - 204 - Jun/1/23

Jun/8/23 1:13:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have a specific question for my friend from the Liberal side. When the carbon tax reaches $170 a tonne, which will add 61¢ per litre for gas, and they have obviously done the modelling, how much lower will the temperature be in our country? How many degrees will the temperature drop when the carbon tax is fully implemented?

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Context: House Hansard - 202 - May/30/23

Jun/1/23 12:54:21 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I join with my colleague, whom I work with on the agriculture committee, in wishing everyone a happy Filipino Heritage Month. We have a large Filipino community in Regina, and I say hi to all my friends back home. I have a simple question for my hon. colleague. Could she tell me how much carbon taxes 1 and 2 will reduce emissions in Canada? Is there a number that the Liberals have? They have not met many emissions reduction targets yet, so what will carbon taxes 1 and 2 do? What is the number in terms of how much emissions will be reduced?

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Context: House Hansard - 200 - May/18/23

May/30/23 3:03:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, carbon tax 1 is inflating the price of groceries, making it more expensive for families to put food on their tables. Food bank use is at record highs and one in five Canadians are skipping meals. The average farm of 5,000 acres will pay up to $150,000 for the first failed carbon tax. Carbon tax 2 is only going to make things that much worse. Families cannot afford food. When will this jet-setting, out-of-touch Prime Minister finally realize the more he goes woke, the faster Canadians are going broke?

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Context: House Hansard - 185 - Apr/26/23

May/18/23 2:12:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the reckless Prime Minister, along with his NDP-Liberal carbon tax coalition, is secretly implementing a second carbon tax, carbon tax 2. We all know the sequel is far worse than the original. The first carbon tax cost Canadians an additional 41¢ per litre at the pumps. Carbon tax 2 will force Canadians to pay even more for gas, groceries and home heating. A PBO report released today shows that Saskatchewan families will be hit the hardest in the country by carbon tax 2, paying more than $1,100 a year. This is on top of the $1,500 from the original carbon tax. The Liberals are targeting families, farmers and small businesses, while missing every environmental target they have. A Conservative government will make work pay again by putting more money back into the pockets of Canadians. The more the current Prime Minister goes woke, the faster Canadians go broke. It is time to bring home common sense and axe the carbon tax.

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Context: House Hansard - 185 - Apr/26/23

Apr/26/23 7:23:56 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I wish the member had read from his prepared notes, because everything he said was untrue. First, I wish he would find a piece of literature that said I ran on a carbon tax in my riding. That would be interesting to see. Second, if the member agrees with his environment minister, then he agrees that people are going to pay more in the carbon tax than they are going to get back, because that is what the environment minister said. It is nice that he finally agrees with the Conservatives. Third, most people understand that we have to do something about climate change, but the hilarious part is the Liberals have never met a target they have made. They are 58th in the world in reducing emissions. That is a fact. That is from the recent COP. The fact that they think this carbon tax scam is actually going to lower emissions is false, and they should stop spreading misinformation to Canadians.

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Context: House Hansard - 179 - Apr/18/23

Apr/26/23 7:17:20 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am happy to take to my feet, and I have some follow-up questions about the Minister of Environment 's carbon tax scam, which has now been shown by the Parliamentary Budget Officer to take more money out of Canadians' pockets than the rebates put back in. I have a few questions. I hope the parliamentary secretary does not need to read prepared notes on this one. Does he agree with the Parliamentary Budget Officer, who stated that Canadians are going to receive less in rebates than they are going to pay out in carbon tax? Does he agree with his environment minister, who stated that same fact on a popular TV show when he said that it is true Canadians are going to pay more in carbon tax than they are going to receive back in rebates? Actually, some Canadians are going to pay between $1,500 and $1,800 more in 2030 than they are going to receive in rebates, which is something the Parliamentary Budget Officer confirmed in his latest report. I would like to hear the answers to that. We have had this discussion about the carbon tax over the years in this chamber, and when I was a member of the legislative assembly, we also ran against the carbon tax in Saskatchewan. In Saskatchewan, a lot of people do not have any choice but to drive their own vehicles. They have to drive in rural and remote Saskatchewan on farms. People use their vehicles to get to and from work. There are no other options, as there are in urban Canada. Some of the people I represent see this as a wealth transfer from rural Saskatchewan to urban Saskatchewan. How do the rural people feel in Nova Scotia? My sister is from Halifax. I know that, in Dartmouth, there are people who need to travel a lot to and from work. What are their options if there is no public transportation? Has the parliamentary secretary heard from his constituents that they are paying a lot more in carbon tax than they are getting back? He is shaking his head “no”, but I am wondering if there are some people in Nova Scotia who have that feeling. Some members on our side say they have had conversations with people in Nova Scotia who feel the carbon tax has taken more out of their pockets than they are getting back. We had the conversation around the supply chain and grocery stores. Obviously, when one charges more for fuel, anything that is trucked is going to cost more. Groceries have gone up through both inflation and the carbon tax. Winters in Saskatchewan get pretty cold, and the same happens in Nova Scotia. Home heating costs have gone up exponentially because of the carbon tax. We know that in 2030, the gas tax, or the carbon tax, is going to be 41¢ a litre in this country. If the Liberals and the NDP do not think that is going to affect the price of anything that is trucked into our country, where it is going to hit the consumer harder than anyone else, they are fooling themselves. We will continue to fight against the carbon tax scam. Once again, these are a few questions I have, which the parliamentary secretary should be able to answer without reading from his prepared notes from the PMO. How does the carbon tax affect his people in Nova Scotia? Does he agree with his environment minister, who, after years of saying people are going to receive more in rebates, finally admitted the truth on national TV, that Canadians are going to pay more in the carbon tax scam than they are ever going to get back? Those are a couple of the follow-up questions I have for my hon. colleague.

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Context: House Hansard - 144 - Dec/8/22

Apr/18/23 3:02:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am actually going to answer a question for the Liberals. Earlier in question period, the Prime Minister asked if we know what friendship is. The answer is yes, but in Saskatchewan, when we have a friend, we share a case of Pilsner, not a private island, with them. This champagne-and-caviar trip cost the taxpayers $162,000. It is amazing. This high-flying carbon hypocrite flies all around the world and then comes back home and charges a single mother triple the carbon tax to heat her home and feed her kids. Will the Prime Minister cancel his out-of-touch carbon tax?

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