I want to thank the members earlier, and I do want to begin by thanking my colleague Mr. Jordan from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston for his motion, which is so appropriate for the world we’re living in today and the cost-of-living issues we’re dealing with today. Every day you hear about things on the news, so I want to thank him for bringing it forward.

But I also want to thank my colleague for sitting here in this House and joining our team here and what a tremendous contribution he’s already making here in the province of Ontario and his community. I want to say, as the parliamentary assistant to long-term care, how important his contribution has been, because his experience in the health care field has been tremendously helpful to me, personally, quite frankly, in our quest to bring improvements to long-term care in our communities. I want to thank my friend Mr. Jordan for his work in that regard.

I must say, I had the pleasure of sitting through the address by the member for the NDP, the energy critic and environment critic and many other things, and of course the member for Ottawa-Orléans. The member for Danforth made a reference to bananas, and, my God, how appropriate to that—when I have to listen to members on the opposite side and the way that they try to bring together what they think is logic, I think of bananas. And we all know what BANANAs is a connotation for.

But I really want to talk about the motion today and the absolute hypocrisy of the federal Liberals and the Prime Minister of Canada to bring forth a bill, a regulatory change, that would remove the carbon tax from a portion of the people of Canada on oil for home heating.

So the Prime Minister is spiralling down the toilet very quickly, in the electoral sense. Spiralling down—

Interjections.

So here we are talking about the Prime Minister, who is absolutely tanking, and he’s asking himself, “Is there a way that I can survive this crisis in the Liberal Party?”—which is dividing his own party, by the way, as well. He is just self-destructing. You should read Rex Murphy’s column on the carbon tax and Trudeau. He’s self-destructing on the issue of the carbon tax because he is so conflicted about what his actions are going to be.

Now he’s deciding: “You know what we’re going to do? Where do we hold a significant majority of the seats? Atlantic Canada. We’re going to remove the carbon tax from home heating fuel in Atlantic Canada for three years, but we’re not going to do it across the rest of country.” How duplicitous can you be to actually say, “We’re going to look after these people, but we’re going to make the other ones pay”? That is as un-Canadian as you can possibly be, but that’s Justin Trudeau for you.

It’s hard to look at that and say, “How can somebody have even come up with this other than for crass political reasons?” Crass political reasons to divide the country in that way—and it is so frustrating for the rest of the Premiers.

I’ve got to tell you that—it’s probably our last winter, but we actually heat with oil in our home. I’m going to have to make a choice because my oil tank is expiring. I’ve got to make a choice, so I expect this is the last because I’m not going to put in another, wait for my oil furnace to get old and have to change it, and then maybe the insurance company won’t even insure us because we’re doing oil and oil is on the way out. Oil is on the way out, so why are you now penalizing those people in Ontario—

Interjection.

The other thing that is so hypocritical on the part of the federal government: Oil is the highest emitter of any heating fuel.

So here’s this person who believes—his whole political life since he became Prime Minister is about this carbon tax and how, being Justin Trudeau, “I’m going to save the world by bringing in this carbon tax”—which has been so penalizing to the people of Canada—“but now I’m quite prepared to remove that carbon tax for a portion of the population if it works to my political advantage.” So he believes in the carbon tax—as the opposition wants, this is the existential issue of our times—but, “If I need something to save seats in Atlantic Canada, I will remove the carbon tax.” Could he not have thought of something else, like maybe we will build some more new roads? “Oh, no, can’t do that. We’re going to remove the carbon tax on home heating and pit you against the rest of the country.”

Then we talk about the cost of living. How does the carbon tax impact our cost of living? Every way, every day. Recently, we’re having this conversation about restaurants and how they’re struggling. Restaurants are struggling all across the country, and certainly there’s more restaurants in Ontario than anywhere else. There’s more people in Ontario than anywhere else in the country. They say restaurants are struggling, and then you will have the survey that says it’s food cost. Well, hello, what do you think is driving up the cost of food? The carbon tax is driving up the cost of food, and we had that discussion not so long ago.

But it’s not just the cost of food that the carbon tax is driving up; it’s driving up the cost of everything else. When people say, “We’re not going to restaurants anymore. We can’t afford to eat at restaurants”—yes, the price of meals at a restaurant have gone up, like everything else. “We can’t afford to eat at a restaurant.” Why can’t they afford to eat at a restaurant? Because they can’t pay their heating bills. They’re now worried that they can’t pay their mortgage. They can’t pay all of the other cost-of-living issues that have gone up so much. They’re worried about everything, so they’re not going to the restaurant. It’s not just because the restaurant prices have gone up. They’re not going to the restaurant, period, because they can’t afford their bills, period.

All you have to do is look at the news out there about how people are so afraid of whether they will be able to meet their monthly obligations in the cost of living. And what is driving up the cost of living? The carbon tax is a huge component, and the parliamentary budget—