- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Cumberland—Colchester
- Nova Scotia
- Voting Attendance: 66%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $134,737.37
- Government Page
- Sep/27/22 12:24:52 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise in the House of Commons on behalf of the good people of Cumberland—Colchester. As we found out last night, we were hit very hard by hurricane Fiona. I think it bears repeating that our thoughts and prayers are with all the folks out there who continue to suffer without power and to dig out from the storm.
Primarily, we need to think of the carbon tax as exactly what it is. It is a tax. It is another tax that businesses and individuals have to pay. We are here now, of course. If other parliamentarians are not aware of this, then they must be living under a rock, but we are at the highest rates of inflation in decades. It harkens back to those days in my life in 1999 when we were coming out of those very high inflation years. Indeed, in 1990, when my wife and I bought our first car, we needed a loan and interest rates were at 18%. My lovely father-in-law was a great accountant and someone who always needed to teach one an interesting lesson. Interestingly enough, he was kind enough to give us a loan for 12%. Those kinds of things are where we are headed to now.
A big concern that I have is the cost of living. If we are talking about raising taxes, we cannot do so without talking about the cost of living. Every day, my constituency assistants receive calls from people who are unable to afford their lives. As we might say, they are being priced out of their own lives. I have spoken in the House previously about people who have had to sell their wedding bands in order to buy food.
We know that where I live, in rural Canada, it is going to be important to understand that winter is coming. I know that is a bit of a cliche from a TV show, but winter comes every year, and it is still coming. I think we need to understand what it costs to fill a barrel of oil now. Many people in rural Canada still live in single-family dwellings with oil heat, especially in Atlantic Canada. It is going to cost about $1,500 to fill one barrel of oil. Of course, if we get a bad winter it may last six weeks, but it may only last a month. When we are talking about $1,500, we all know that is a significant amount of money.
We also know that people at the current time cannot feed themselves. We have heard multiple times that the cost of groceries has gone up 10%. On top of that, the carbon tax, of course, will add many more difficulties and much more hardship on the people who live in Cumberland—Colchester. Another thing of interest is that I am very perplexed as to why the government would continue to have only one solution for a complex problem. Why continue to beat Canadians over the head with more taxes, more taxes and more taxes to fund the free-fall spending of the Liberal government? I fail to understand that.
Previously, I was a physician. What we do know is that for complex problems there are often multi-faceted solutions. For instance, when people suffer from cardiovascular disease, we know that people may take medications. We could suggest that they just take their pills, go out, eat whatever they want and live their lives. Is that appropriate? Could it make them live longer? Yes, but does it make people any healthier? I would suggest to the good folks out there that it would not actually make them healthier. How do we help people become healthier? We ask them to exercise more. We ask them to get better sleep. We ask them to help their mental health problems.
The stretch here, of course, is to understand that climate change is real and to question how we will solve that problem. They continue to push tax upon tax to solve a problem. In my mind, and I think in the minds of Conservatives across this great country, people understand that that is a solution based on only one facet of the problem. Clearly, we know it is, given the significant cost-of-living challenges of Canadians at this time and what they are really unable to afford. As, my great colleague from Mégantic—L'Érable pointed out, gasoline it is costing another 40¢ a litre.
In parts of Atlantic Canada, buying a car still poses a great difficulty. There may be many people in larger cities, and perhaps across the aisle, who can afford fancy electric cars for $60,000, $70,000 or $80,000, but we know that in parts of rural Canada there are people who buy cars for $2,500 or $3,500 because that is what they can afford. We know now that adding on top of that is going to be difficult.
One of the big concerns I have is that people in Cumberland—Colchester are going to be specifically and proportionally disadvantaged by having to pay more for gasoline. We do not have mass transit. We do not have subways. We do not have those kinds of things. People rely on themselves to get to where they need to go, because that is where we have chosen to live. Therefore, should we be disproportionately affected by another 40¢ per litre on gasoline? To me, that is not really a possibility.
One of the other important things to figure out is who is paying this tax? We understand very clearly from the government that large corporations can apply for an exemption from the carbon tax. That does not really make a lot of sense to me, because we know small businesses are not eligible to have an exemption from it. We also know that small businesses are the backbone of Canada; they are the economic drivers. Therefore, small businesses have to pay the tax and large corporations do not.
We also know that individuals will end up paying more. We know that an average household is now paying $1,400 more annually for the carbon tax.
I always look at this as a shell game, that game where the ball is hidden under shells, then they are moved around and we guess what shell the ball is under. We want to know where that shell is, who is paying the tax and how much is it. These elusive answers make it more difficult to find any type of support for a carbon tax.
We need to look at other technological examples of how to do that. We know that our western partners in the great province of Alberta have the cleanest oil in the world. We also know that there are other technologies, such as carbon capture and storage. We also look to things like small modular reactors to produce pollution-free electricity.
When we look at those kinds of things, it becomes very clear that there are multiple solutions to a problem as opposed to continuing to talk about a carbon tax, which we know very clearly was originally promised at $50 per tonne and is now set to more than triple to $170 per tonne.
I would also be remiss if I did not talk about the specific situation in Nova Scotia. We know that it has made significant strides in greening its economy and reducing greenhouse gas. We also know that Premier Tim Houston has sent very pointed letters to the Minister of Environment to help understand better what Nova Scotia's position is.
To quote Premier Houston, he said that his government would outpace federal greenhouse gas reduction targets while costing Nova Scotians less than what they would pay with a federal carbon pricing system. He said, “our path to 2030 is more effective, it’s more affordable and it’s more visionary than a carbon tax.”
According to provincial documents, Nova Scotia's legislated greenhouse gas reduction target is to be at least 53%t below 2005 levels by 2030. The objective of the federal carbon tax is to be 40% to 45% below 2005 levels.
The other part of this is that it behooves us to understand that if we are to continue to not allow the provinces to be creative and if we are to continue on with this Ottawa-knows-best approach, this again is absolutely untenable. Why would Canadians believe in this carbon tax when clearly, as I have stated in multiple different ways, there are other ways to reach these targets? Continuing to bash Canadians over the head at a time when inflation is at a 40-year high is really an untenable position.
Canadians are hurting. Our offices hear from them every day. I am absolutely astounded that the members across the aisle are not hearing from their constituents as well to understand how difficult it is to function in today's world from a financial perspective. Therefore, I would suggest that perhaps the members opposite need to listen to their constituents to understand how difficult it is and then, as we might say in the vernacular, axe the tax.
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- Sep/26/22 7:55:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I did not hear anybody talk about a magic wand in here, except perhaps the Liberals on how tripling the carbon tax is going to magically fix climate change. I am really unsure how that is going to happen.
That being said, I think that it has been very clear. It has been spoken out loud multiple times in Canada and with a loud voice, that we know that climate change is real on this side of the House, and we have great plans and policies on how we are going to combat climate change to make it real for the average Canadian.
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- Sep/26/22 7:10:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate and thank the member opposite for Ottawa Centre for his kind thoughts and words.
I have a couple of very important questions that I think Atlantic Canadians would really like answers to.
First, exactly how will funds be paid to those people who make claims? Will the federal government be paying them directly, or will they be funnelled through the provinces?
Second, and perhaps more importantly, why did we choose the Canadian Red Cross? This is not meant to be disparaging to the Red Cross, but we know very clearly, especially in small towns across the country and Atlantic Canada perhaps in particular, that food banks are out there helping out and there are often volunteer fire brigades that run on a donation basis. The Red Cross is a large, multinational corporate entity, and perhaps some of the profits will be eaten up through bureaucracy.
I guess the question is, why choose the Red Cross? Does that not create a discrepancy for the smaller institutions that are acting locally and really providing help at the coalface, as it were?
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- Sep/26/22 6:54:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, times are often difficult in Atlantic Canada. That said, we understand that it is hard for people to afford transportation. We often live in single-family dwellings that have to be heated, but we do not have natural gas coming to a significant number of homes, and buying a car is very difficult. We often say in Atlantic Canada that people buy a beater car to get through, which is around $2,500. How are they going to afford an electric vehicle to help support this?
I would also like to understand how tripling the carbon tax is going to cause a one-third decrease in the number of hurricanes in Atlantic Canada.
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- Sep/26/22 6:42:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member from the NDP for his kind words and for reaching out to those in my riding and the rest of Atlantic Canada who have been significantly affected by hurricane Fiona. I think it interesting we all appear to be on the same page here.
When we find out that the government can no longer manage these programs and there is an impossibility to get the money to people, will the NDP stand with the Conservative Party and ensure those Atlantic Canadians get what they need to rebuild their lives?
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- Apr/26/22 1:07:33 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I think the interesting thing is that I did speak about climate change. Perhaps he does not know the geography of Nova Scotia. Canada is actually connected to us by an isthmus called the Isthmus of Chignecto, which I have raised multiple times in the House. It is in significant danger of being flooded from the climate change that is happening.
What we do know, again, as I mentioned very clearly, this is not mentioned in this budget, even though the government has chosen to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to study this issue multiple times, and the sad thing is that this is a very important link from Canada to Nova Scotia. It brings across many goods every day, and this would sadly be flooded by climate change. That is something that the government, again, has not addressed in budget 2022.
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- Apr/26/22 12:53:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is always an extreme pleasure to rise here in the House of Commons to represent the good people of Cumberland—Colchester as we debate the spend-DP-Liberal budget of 2022. I think it is important to understand this budget in the context of my province, my riding and my constituents, and of course to understand the budget itself.
My home province of Nova Scotia is mentioned four times in the 300-odd pages of the budget and the gazillion other pages. There is a discussion about twinning parts of the Trans-Canada Highway, a reference to remaining project funding through the failed Canada Infrastructure Bank and a reference to a Nova Scotia agreement on offshore revenues. I am not sure the relevance of all those things. The final reference is about the shortage of doctors and nurses in Nova Scotia. We all know the Prime Minister promised 7,500 doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners, whom he is going to create out of thin air, but that has not materialized. Sadly, 88,000 Nova Scotians do not have a family physician. We also know very clearly that we are short 60,000 to 70,000 nurses in the entire country. We have that burden as well.
Sadly, despite requests by all the premiers unanimously, there is no funding committed for an increase in the Canada health transfer. The Liberals did talk about loan forgiveness for physicians and nurses, but they must agree to work in rural or remote areas. Physicians can easily, as I well know, accumulate 250,000 dollars' worth of debt during their education, and the proposed loan forgiveness of $60,000 seems woefully inadequate.
Another major concern in my riding of Cumberland—Colchester is agriculture. Aside from the government's bungled creation of the potato wart problem due to its ineptitude in its relationship with the United States, there is no other mention of agriculture in budget 2022. In Canada, we have eight agricultural colleges, and in my riding we have one. The fact that there is no mention of agriculture in the budget and no funding for agriculture is just a sad misplacement of priorities.
We also know that this comes at a time when Canada could play a significant role on the world stage with respect to feeding the world. This great responsibility comes in relation to Russia's illegal war on Ukraine, which my colleague spoke about in depth. The opportunities that exist now for Canadian farmers come at a time when fuel prices are at an all-time high in the history of our nation. Of course, there is also an unfair tax on fertilizer that the government continues to place against farmers. This is a gross abuse of our farmers at a time when the potential for feeding the world is at an all-time high, and sadly we wonder whether Canada is going to be able to participate in that at all.
The budget speaks a bit about the environment and climate change. We are unsure of how this is going to relate to Nova Scotia, with the vague wording in the budget of “proactive management of marine emergencies and...more types of pollution”. I do have an idea of what that means, but certainly there is no proverbial meat on the bones to help people understand how that may relate to Nova Scotia.
There is no mention at all of climate change as it relates to the Isthmus of Chignecto, which I have had the pleasure to speak about here in the House before. We know this is a vital land link that links Canada to the great province of Nova Scotia. There is no mention of that and we know it is a climate emergency waiting to happen.
We also know in Nova Scotia, and hopefully my colleague from Winnipeg knows this as well, that seniors are important to all Canadians and certainly to those of us in Nova Scotia. The crisis that seniors are dealing with now, the affordability crisis, does not appear to be talked about in the budget either. There is no new financing added to the cheques of seniors. It is sad. The budget does mention undertaking another study, spending money that could easily be put in the pockets of seniors for a yet-to-be-named aging at home benefit. There does appear to be financing for seniors who need to make their home more accessible and for projects allowing seniors to participate in their communities more fully. However, as we know, this does not put oil in their tanks, gas in their cars or food in their bellies.
There is absolutely no financial relief for the seniors who helped build this great nation. Indeed, the budget has the audacity to say that Canadians who are seniors “do not have to worry about the value of their benefits keeping pace with inflation”. I find that hard to believe. It goes on to say, “the share of seniors in poverty is only about half that of the overall population”. Is that something to brag about? I am not entirely sure it is. Is that really the ambitious goal the government has set? Does it believe it is okay for our seniors or any Canadian to live in poverty? I should think not.
This leads me to speak, in a very personal way, about Daniel, who reached out and wrote to me about his budget. He really wanted me to speak about the affordability crisis in the House of Commons, which of course we know is ongoing for many Canadians. He came to my office last week when we were home on constituency week and gave me a budget for his monthly income of less than $800.
Daniel is a frugal guy. He has a mortgage of $547. He has life insurance on his home at $35, car insurance at $84, insurance on the house itself at $125 and bank fees of $20. Phone, cable and Internet are, shockingly, $230 per month, property insurance is $35, life insurance for himself is $100 and medical insurance is $140, plus $10 a month for each medication, and he is on eight of them. His power bill is $200 per month, and on top of all of this are groceries and gas. Without any food or any gasoline for his vehicle, Daniel is paying out about $1,596 per month. He is, of course, struggling to pay his bills on his $800 monthly income, but fortunately for him, his wife can work a bit as well to help support the family.
As members can imagine, in this household there is no money left over for any extras. There is no frivolous spending. There are no extras at the grocery store. He has reduced his trips to town for groceries and other essentials to once a month, which saves on his gasoline bill since he is not going to town as much. There is no mass transit where Daniel lives, and I am not entirely sure, when I look at this meagre budget, where he might cut things out.
We are all beginning to realize that this is “just incredible”. It is really “just inconvenient”, and for some it is “just inconceivable” how we are now in a life affordability crisis.
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