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Decentralized Democracy

Rick Perkins

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of Parliament
  • Conservative
  • South Shore—St. Margarets
  • Nova Scotia
  • Voting Attendance: 67%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $136,927.65

  • Government Page
  • May/21/24 2:52:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Conservatives are calling on the NDP-Liberals to axe the carbon tax and all federal taxes on gas from Victoria Day to Labour Day. For Nova Scotians, this would represent $542 of savings per family this summer. After nine years, we know the Prime Minister will jet off to surf in Tofino this summer at taxpayers' expense while Nova Scotians cannot afford a summer road trip. Will the Prime Minister do a surfing cutback to help Canadians by taking the tax off the summer road trip?
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, Canadians are going hungry. Feed Nova Scotia reports that food bank usage is up 26%, with increased visits as high as 50% in Cape Breton. In Sydney, food banks are experiencing record-breaking increases in the number of new clients, with new visits up 80%. The Souls Harbour Rescue Mission kitchen is up 280%. Instead of providing relief to Canadians, the government has hiked its costly carbon tax on Nova Scotians by 23%. The Liberals do not understand that if we tax the farmer who grows the food, the trucker who trucks the food and the retailer who sells the food, we tax all those who buy the food. The Prime Minister is not worth the cost. The Conservatives have a solution, and that is to axe the tax on farmers and food by immediately passing Bill C-234 in its original form. To be clear, the Conservatives want the entire carbon tax axed, but in the meantime let us at least provide some relief to Canadians by immediately passing Bill C-234.
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  • Feb/15/24 3:03:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's NDP-Liberal friends got rich turning the arrive scam app into a $60-million grift for an $80,000 app. If hurting taxpayers for the personal gain of Liberals was not enough, now the Prime Minister is going to increase the cost of everything on April 1 when he increases the carbon tax by 23%. Nova Scotians will pay $2,100 more than they get back for this carbon tax. After eight years, the Prime Minister is not worth the cost. When will the Liberals stop hurting Canadians and axe the carbon tax?
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  • Dec/8/23 4:30:56 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, on behalf of all Nova Scotians who want to axe the carbon tax, I ask for a recorded division.
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  • Dec/1/23 11:05:54 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, last weekend I had the honour to take part in a tradition that goes back through generations of Nova Scotians. Steaming out of New Harbour, I joined my good friend Vincent Boutilier on board his vessel for the setting of his lobster traps for this season about 15 miles offshore. All along the southern and western shores of Nova Scotia, the men and women of the lobster fishery set out to sea, in the face of winter weather, to fish their traps for the best quality lobster in the world, in LFA 33 and LFA 34, until the end of May. The dangers involved in the lobster fishery in winter are well known, and the lobstermen accept these challenges to catch food and support their families and communities. However, now they must deal with the challenges to their livelihoods brought on by the Liberal government, with its unwillingness to enforce the law and stop the illegal poaching harming the sustainability of this fishery. To lobster harvesters in LFA 33 and LFA 34, I hope for fair seas and bountiful catches this winter season.
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  • Oct/30/23 3:08:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, heat pumps increased the coal demanded for electricity in Nova Scotia, but the NDP-Liberals have brought back rum bottle politics: Vote Liberal and get a free quart of rum or vote and get a free heat pump. However, here is the catch. The Liberals promised to quadruple the carbon tax after the next election. Nova Scotians are not fooled by this bait and switch. The Prime Minister is not worth the cost. When will the Prime Minister stop with his band-aids, cure the problem he caused, which is the carbon tax, and axe it?
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  • Oct/26/23 3:11:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals may think they do that, but they voted 24 times to increase the price of everything on everyone. The Liberal-NDP government's plan to triple the carbon taxes on Nova Scotians apparently is not hurting enough. After eight years, it now plans to quadruple carbon taxes on Nova Scotians. It is an NDP-Liberal quadruple whammy. The destruction of powerful paycheques and carbon taxes have destroyed the dreams of home ownership. The Prime Minister is not worth the cost. Will the Liberals admit that their carbon taxes are making Canadians choose between heating, eating and owning a home?
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  • Oct/24/23 3:12:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, Nova Scotians are having to choose between heating and eating. A senior on a fixed income in my community told me that last year at the beginning of winter, it cost $850 to fill his home heating tank. This year, with the new Nova Scotia carbon tax put on by the government, it cost him an astounding $1,800. The Prime Minister is not worth the cost. It is time to keep the heat on and take the taxes off. When will the Liberals axe the carbon tax so Nova Scotians can afford to heat their homes?
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  • Oct/3/23 4:07:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, mortgages have doubled and rents have doubled, yet the NDP-Liberal government is quadrupling carbon taxes. A report for Parliament on carbon taxes by the Parliamentary Budget Officer states that Nova Scotians will pay $1,500 more in taxes, thanks to the Atlantic Liberals who voted 23 times for those taxes. The Prime Minister is just not worth the cost. As Atlantic Canadians are getting their oil tanks filled for the fall, will the Prime Minister axe the tax so that they can afford to eat, heat their homes and house themselves?
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  • Sep/18/23 2:52:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, Nova Scotians are hurting because of the NDP-Liberal carbon tax. It increases the cost to produce food, to process the food and to transport the food. One example is that the price of cabbage has gone up 70% because of the actions of the Liberals. The Prime Minister and his Liberal-NDP government are not worth the cost. Will the Prime Minister's big meeting with grocery CEOs reverse this 70% price hike by Thanksgiving, yes or no?
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  • May/17/23 2:16:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Nova Scotians are once again shocked and disappointed by the Liberals. Nova Scotia’s only minister in the Liberal cabinet, the MP for Central Nova, stood by silently as the Liberals erased the fishing schooner Bluenose from our passport. He sat idly by as Nova Scotia’s sailing ambassador was erased, our iconic fishing schooner that never lost a race, until now. Only two years ago, Canada celebrated the 100th birthday of the Bluenose. Now Liberals are erasing it. He sat silently by as the Liberals removed the national immigration museum in Halifax from the passport, where over one million immigrants arrived to begin a new life in Canada. What is next? Will the MP for Central Nova remove the Bluenose from Canada’s dime and replace it with a blade of grass? It is time for the Liberal government to stop erasing Nova Scotia's history in favour of acorns. A common-sense Conservative government will bring back common-sense policies for the common people. We will bring home the Bluenose and Canada’s heroes and history.
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  • Mar/30/23 3:04:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, gas is going up. Home heating is going up. The cost of groceries is going up. This week, the NDP-Liberal costly coalition spendathon projects that the Liberals will collect another $69 billion in Canadian taxes because of its ineffective carbon tax. Today's independent report on the carbon tax says that Nova Scotians will pay $1,513 more than they receive. The Liberal carbon tax punishes families and paycheques. Will the Liberals show a little compassion and cancel their carbon tax grab?
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  • Mar/30/23 2:14:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, profound loss never leaves us. I cannot imagine the lifelong horror, grief and questions never answered when a loved one is murdered. A few hours ago, the report of the Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Commission was released, on the murder of 22 of my fellow Nova Scotians and an unborn child. The commission's work had minimal input from the families, who were not allowed to question witnesses. They deserved better. Lisa McCully, Constable Heidi Stevenson, Sean McLeod, Alanna Jenkins, Jolene Oliver, Emily and Aaron Tuck, Jamie Blair, Greg Blair, Corrie Ellison, Gina Goulet, Tom Bagley, Elizabeth Thomas, John Zahl, Joe Webber, Lillian Campbell, Dawn and Frank Gulenchyn, Heather O'Brien, Joy and Peter Bond, Kristen Beaton and her unborn child all deserved better, as do their families. They lived in the community of the member for Cumberland—Colchester, where he is today with the families. The past three years have been a nightmare for them. Today, let us remember their vibrant lives and pray for them.
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  • Feb/6/23 2:57:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal government's mismanagement, Nova Scotians have to choose each month which bill not to pay. Maynard, a senior on a modest fixed income, is using every free community resource to help pay for his heating, eating and telephone. The plan to introduce and triple the carbon tax will only make things worse for Nova Scotians. To keep Maynard from starving and going homeless, will the Liberals axe their planned carbon tax for Nova Scotians?
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  • Nov/28/22 2:54:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what is interesting is that Nova Scotia Power does not allow homes to have a heat pump as their only source of heat. What is interesting is that home inspectors and insurance companies in Nova Scotia will not allow heat pumps as their only source of heat. Do members know why? The Canada building code prohibits them from doing so because they have to maintain a house at 20°C or more, which they cannot do in cold weather. Will the government stop its fairy tale programs and stop forcing Nova Scotians to pay for unhelpful and—
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  • Nov/22/22 2:48:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, those Liberals are proud that, in 2023, they are going to add $360 to a tank of home heating oil. In the 2015 election, the Prime Minister said that provinces that did the hard work of reducing carbon emissions would not have the carbon tax imposed, yet Nova Scotia has already surpassed the 2030 carbon reduction targets of the Liberal government. I will ask again. When will the Liberals live up to their campaign promise and stop forcing their failed carbon tax on Nova Scotians?
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  • Sep/27/22 1:34:20 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member for Kingston and the Islands is right. We do have a cap and trade system in Nova Scotia that adds 1¢ a litre to gas. The federal government wants that to triple, which would immediately add 14¢ more a litre to gas in Nova Scotia, and it would build that to 40¢ a litre by 2030. That is the plan of the federal government, to push up the cap and trade system and costing Nova Scotians more, and that is what we reject. We reject that approach when all these other methods, which I have outlined in my speech, show how we can get there with technology and not taxes.
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  • Sep/27/22 1:31:10 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I do not know how that one slipped by, but I thank the member for Winnipeg North. I will repeat the sentence altered. The Liberal tax is bad for Nova Scotia. It will have no effect on the excellent work that Nova Scotians have done and will continue to do to reduce the carbon footprint. There is an alternative to the dogmatic approach of Ottawa, which was proposed by Premier Houston. If the Liberal government was serious about tackling climate change, it would encourage innovation and new approaches to the problem. Instead, it has a rigid set of rules that do not allow for programs that go beyond the realm of its tax agenda. As families across the country struggle to make ends meet, dirty oil continues to be shipped to ports in Atlantic Canada from places like Saudi Arabia. This means human rights-abusing dictators are getting rich on Canada’s oil needs while a single mom in my riding cannot afford nutritious food. There is, of course, a solution to the problem. By unleashing Canada’s natural resource sector and approving good Canadian projects, global emissions will be reduced, which is our goal. That is because we have some of the strictest environmental regulations in the world. The oil cultivated and extracted in Canada is the cleanest, most efficient energy in the world. On top of that, the emissions produced by shipping oil across the Atlantic Ocean to New Brunswick from the Middle East completely negates any benefit from a carbon tax. Let us green-light Newfoundland and Labrador’s planned increase in oil production, which will allow us to fully replace every single barrel of oil we are importing from abroad to Atlantic Canada within five years. Let us tackle climate change by unleashing Canada’s mining of minerals needed to produce the batteries for electric vehicles. Let us make Canada a place where nuclear and hydroelectricity generation is welcomed and not admonished. The carbon tax does not work, and it is time for it to go. Canadians just cannot afford the government.
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  • Sep/26/22 8:35:13 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I was pleased to hear the member for Kings—Hants's report about a better situation this time than with Dorian for the apple growers. Indeed, that is really good news. It was a large issue. The member for Kings—Hants talked about the trouble getting cellphone service. We know that after Dorian this was a huge issue. Cellphone tower batteries actually died, and we had no cellphone service. At that time, the federal public safety minister Ralph Goodale was in Nova Scotia and was getting an earful from Nova Scotians about that. His response was that he understood they were a necessity now, but if people had a complaint they really should complain to the CRTC. It does not appear that anything was done to improve the situation because here we are three years later and we still have the same issue happening.
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  • Sep/26/22 2:19:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, hurricane Fiona was not our first hurricane in Atlantic Canada. Since 1951 we have been hit by 37 hurricanes, 79 tropical storms and 140 extra-tropical storms. We know how to prepare for these. Fiona was different. It was huge, recording some of the strongest winds ever. Many in Nova Scotia are still without power. Northern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton were hit hard, so too P.E.I. and Newfoundland. Homes and businesses have been lost, critical coastal infrastructure destroyed and farms devastated. Fishing communities have lost their boats, gear and wharves. Nova Scotians are tough, and we will come together to support each other. I would like to thank the power workers putting in long days to restore power and those who are supporting their fellow community members at emergency shelters and warming centres. The character of our communities is most present at times of tragedy. As we start to rebuild, Atlantic Canadians know that the strongest storms bring out the best of us.
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