- Member of Parliament
- Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada
Leader of the Opposition
- Conservative
- Carleton
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 64%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $61,288.13
- Government Page
- Mar/20/24 2:50:24 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, then he should not be afraid to have one more.
This is a Prime Minister who has doubled housing costs. He sent two million people lining up at food banks and 8,000 joining a Facebook group learning how they can eat a meal out of a dumpster, and now his best solution is to hike the tax on their heat, their home, their fuel and their food.
If he really believes in it, why does he not call a carbon tax election now?
86 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/28/24 2:38:06 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report is in my hands. The information is on page 3 of “A Distributional Analysis of the Federal Fuel Charge under the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan”. Google it. Look it up. It is on the Parliamentary Budget Officer's website. Members do not have to believe me, and they certainly do not want to believe him; they can go look for themselves. The average Ontario family will pay $1,674 in carbon taxes next year. That is $630 more than they get back in the rebate.
Why does the Prime Minister not google it, look up the report, check the facts and axe the tax?
114 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/14/24 3:01:38 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, he could not even get the new name of the carbon tax right. It is only three words. The Prime Minister should learn that we cannot improve life by slogans alone. That is right. That is why we propose the facts. I have here a distributional analysis of the federal fuel charge by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, which shows that 60% of Canadians pay more in taxes than they get back in the Prime Minister's phony rebates.
Why will the Prime Minister not follow the facts and axe the tax?
93 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/7/24 3:07:02 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, he wants to know the link between the carbon tax and the food price. Well, I will help him out. Farmers use something called diesel. It goes in their tractors, combines and drying machines. It goes in their on-farm fuels that pay the carbon tax, and he wants to quadruple the tax. Then the truckers who pick up the food and transport it to the grocery store pay the carbon tax. Then the grocer pays the carbon tax to power the heat in that big Olympic stadium-sized chamber we call a grocery store.
If he does not get the link, how is he ever going to fix the problem?
113 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Oct/19/23 2:21:22 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, it is clear that after eight years, this Prime Minister is not worth the cost. Another bill will not change that.
For example, yesterday, the Conservatives asked a question of the Minister of Environment's director general. It was a simple yes or no question. We asked whether the department had warned the government that the so-called clean fuels regulations would raise prices and disproportionately impact low- and middle-income Canadians. The answer was yes, and yet the Bloc Québécois wants to drastically increase this regulation, which is a tax.
Will the government finally eliminate this tax so Canadians can buy food and afford housing?
112 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Oct/4/23 3:20:40 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, the only thing the Prime Minister has is a second carbon tax that will apply to Quebec, with the support of the Bloc Québécois. That party wants to collect Quebeckers' money here in Ottawa with the federal government, while the leader of the Bloc Québécois is still on vacation. Why not burn some jet fuel?
Will the Prime Minister and his friend, the leader of the Bloc Québécois, cancel their travel plans and the carbon tax to protect the environment and Quebeckers' wallets?
98 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Oct/4/23 3:17:51 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, when one taxes the fuel of the farmers who make the food and the fuel of the truckers who ship the food, then one taxes all those who buy the food. After eight years, the Prime Minister's carbon tax is just not worth the cost, but he has not received the memo.
Now he wants to quadruple the tax to 61¢ a litre with firm support from the NDP. Both parties are motivated by greed, government greed, to take more and more money away from the poor and working class families who were hit hardest by this tax. Will they stop the greed and vote with us today to axe the tax so we can bring home lower prices?
123 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Sep/20/23 2:27:38 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, they are prepared to thunderously applaud anyone, other than their own leader, who stands up in the House of Commons. No wonder the Prime Minister says that it is a really hard time to be a politician.
Right now, speaking of hard times, he is off in New York for another three days, burning a lot of jet fuel while he applies a carbon tax, which he wants to quadruple to 61¢ a litre, on farmers, single parents and struggling working-class families who have to choose between eating and heating.
Will the Prime Minister park the plane, end the high-carbon hypocrisy and axe the tax?
110 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Sep/20/23 2:25:27 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, at his recent retreat in Charlottetown, the Prime Minister said that life is really tough for politicians. Today he is off on another trip to New York for three days to give a couple of speeches and burn a whole lot of fuel, at the same time as he raises carbon taxes on Canadians for the crime of driving to work and feeding their families.
Yesterday, inflation was way up. It is accelerating. It is higher than in the States and in Japan, which could drive up interest rates.
Will the Prime Minister balance the budget and axe the tax to bring inflation and interest rates down?
109 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/31/23 3:04:23 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, it is not just me who acknowledges that deficits pour fuel on the inflationary fire. It is his own finance minister. In fact, she said that two weeks before she introduced her budget. What followed her budget was a spike in the inflation rate the Prime Minister had promised would only ever go down. What do you know? Dumping $60 billion of fuel on the inflationary fire actually makes prices go up.
Did the finance department calculate how much this extra $60 billion of inflationary spending would add to the consumer price index? How much?
97 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/29/23 7:14:09 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Chair, the answer, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, is that in P.E.I., it will be $1,500. In Ontario, it will be $1,800, and in Alberta, it will be $2,700. That is just the first carbon tax. We just learned that the government plans to implement a second carbon tax, a so-called clean fuel standard.
How much will that tax add to the cost of a litre of gasoline when fully implemented? How much?
81 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/17/23 2:34:46 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, the question was about carbon tax 2. We already know about carbon tax 1. The Prime Minister has put in place a 14¢-per-litre tax that will rise to 41¢ per litre. This raises gas, heat and grocery bills. Now the Liberals are sneaking in a second carbon tax called the “fuel standard”. It has no rebate whatsoever, but will apply in every province and territory across the country.
If the minister is so proud of her second tax, why will she not tell us exactly how much it will cost in higher diesel, gas and household costs per family?
107 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/17/23 2:33:24 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, one thing we are going to cut is the carbon tax.
Speaking of that tax, we know that the Prime Minister plans to raise it to 41¢ per litre or $1,500 net, after rebates, per family. What most people do not know is that there is a second carbon tax he plans to stack on top of the first one, a sneaky tax he calls a “fuel standard”, which would hit home heating, gas and our factories, and create countless other higher costs.
How much will Canadians pay in higher gas and diesel prices because of the second Liberal carbon tax?
107 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/16/23 2:23:42 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, actually, when I said two years ago that deficits would cause inflation, that was controversial. Now, everyone agrees that I was right, including the Governor of the Bank of Canada, who now says that inflation is caused by deficits. The finance minister has agreed that I was right, when she said that deficits pour fuel on the inflationary fire. She poured $60 billion of that fuel. That is $4,200 per family.
Canadians cannot afford to eat, heat their homes or house themselves. Will that minister stop pouring the fuel on the fire so Canadians can again pay their bills?
102 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/16/23 2:22:22 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, not long ago, the Prime Minister told us that inflation was falling, and his finance minister said that she would avoid deficit spending because that would simply pour gasoline on the inflationary fire. She did pour $60 billion of new inflationary fuel on the fire; as a result, today we see inflation is rising again, led by higher mortgage payments for the average Canadian.
Will the government stop pouring fuel on the fire so that Canadians could afford to pay their bills?
84 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/16/23 2:19:36 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, not long ago, the Prime Minister told us that inflation was falling, and his finance minister said that deficit spending would simply pour gasoline on the inflationary fire.
A few weeks later, however, she did pour $60 billion of new inflationary fuel on the fire in her budget, at an additional cost of $4,200 to each Canadian family. Today we found out that inflation is rising again.
When is the government going to reverse this Prime Minister's inflationary policies?
84 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/21/23 2:26:15 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, now he calls single mothers polluters because they buy groceries. He calls farmers polluters because they use fuel. He calls seniors polluters because they heat their homes. This is from a guy who, we just found out, for one of his four government-funded mansions, spent $8,000 a month on utilities to heat the pool and the sauna. He flew 17 times in one month, including one 10-minute flight because he did not want to drive an hour from Waterloo to Toronto.
Why does the Prime Minister not stop his high carbon, high tax hypocrisy and cancel this tax?
103 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/21/23 2:23:32 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, data out today shows that food prices are exploding. Anyone who has been to a grocery store already knew it, but what is the Prime Minister's solution?
He wants to raise taxes on the farmers who produce our food and the truckers who ship it, which means more expensive groceries at the grocery store. It is part of his plan to triple the tax on heat, gas and groceries.
The Prime Minister loves to jet around at other people's expense, burning fossil fuels. Will he show some decency and some compassion for the people he has harmed and cancel the April 1 tax hike?
108 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/7/23 10:08:38 a.m.
- Watch
I have an article from the government's own propaganda arm, the CBC, entitled “Diesel, home heating fuels see significant price spike in unscheduled adjustment”. It reads, “Diesel and two types of home heating oils saw massive price increases Friday”, which was the Friday that just passed, “in an unscheduled adjustment by the Public Utilities Board.”
What is the solution the Liberal minister from Newfoundland and Labrador has to these skyrocketing prices? It is not to produce more affordable energy here in our country, even though his province has access to immense offshore reserves that the Prime Minister has discouraged. His solution instead is to triple the carbon tax on his own residents.
If he is tired of hearing about the cost of home heating now, just wait until he imposes that tax increase. This tax is particularly painful for those people who are already living in economically depressed parts of this country and who are forced to heat with oil and propane, the cost of which is already higher than it is in other places.
As we see across northern Ontario, Canadians will be paying drastically increased home heating bills, with the support of the NDP in its coalition with the Liberals. We have, for example, the member for Timmins—James Bay voting to raise home heating bills on his constituents. An NDP member who was elected to serve his constituents is now serving and bowing before the Liberal Prime Minister by raising taxes on his own constituents.
It is not just in oil-heated communities; it is also in places like Hamilton. The suffering is now spreading. A headline from The Hamilton Spectator reads, “‘What am I going to do, go cold?’: Natural gas bill sticker shock triggers anger for inflation-weary Ontario residents”. What is the solution from the NDP member for Hamilton Centre? He wants to triple the carbon tax on hard-working blue collar folks in Hamilton. Thankfully, even though they are temporarily stuck with an NDP coalition member as their MP, the Conservatives are fighting for the hard-working people of Hamilton and opposing this carbon tax increase.
Let me quote further from the same article:
When a nearly $250 natural gas bill arrived for November, Lily Francisci called her parents with questions. Her dad's response: “Get used to it,” the north-end Hamilton resident said, or keep your house at 20 C.
Then December’s bill arrived: $353.08.
Imagine what January's bill will look like, as it was even colder than December. The bills keep rising and the temperature keeps dropping.
Therefore, I announce on the floor of the House of Commons today that the Conservative Party has launched a nationwide campaign to get the NDP-Liberal costly coalition to wake up. This coalition is taxing our people and we have had enough, so we are launching a campaign to keep the heat on and take the tax off.
We will keep the heat on this costly coalition to take the tax off so that not just heat becomes more affordable but food does too. Remember, the carbon tax is actually a tax on the food we eat. Why? It is because when we tax our farmers who produce the food and tax the truckers who deliver the food, we tax the food itself.
Let me note the data provided to me by a major mushroom farm just south of here, about half an hour south of Parliament Hill, called the Carleton Mushroom Farms. It is an unbelievably successful farm that employs about 100 people. It supplies the nation's capital with the mushrooms we eat. Its natural gas carbon tax bill was $9,000 for the month of July. The bill expected for January is $14,275. That is for one month.
Do members think that does not get passed on to consumers? Ultimately, at the end of the day the farmer has to pay the bill somehow. Ultimately, Carleton Mushroom Farms will take a hit. It will suffer, and probably produce fewer mushrooms than it otherwise would, which of course means that we will import more mushrooms from foreign, polluting jurisdictions, driving jobs out and pollution up. The consumer will also have to pay a higher price for those mushrooms.
Why do we not take the tax off Carleton Mushroom Farms so that it can lower the cost of its produce and increase the amount of food it produces in this country? We should be more self-reliant. We have the fifth-biggest supply of farmland per capita on planet earth. It is unacceptable that we cannot feed ourselves. We should be a nation that stands on its own feet, kneels before no nation and feeds itself. That is what will happen.
The pain and suffering is spreading across the land. For example, the other day, I was in an east end Ottawa grocery store and a cook walked up to me. He said that he had to delay his retirement because, after eight years of the Prime Minister, inflation is at a 40-year high and he cannot afford to retire on schedule. The thing that really broke him up was that he could no longer buy the ingredients to cook at home that he uses at work.
He held up a frozen pizza and said that he was stuck eating that frozen pizza rather than making his own food. It was probably a foreign-made pizza that was produced in some faraway land that is generating a lot more pollution, with processed ingredients that are not as nutritious. This gentleman, who has worked all his life feeding other people, is not able to feed himself better than that.
That is because of the inflationary deficits and taxes that the government has imposed. These are the inflationary deficits and taxes that the hon. member for Calgary Forest Lawn, as my finance critic, has been fighting against. That is why I am so proud to be splitting my time with him.
His story epitomizes the Canadian dream. His parents came here with modest means as immigrants. He grew up in a tough but proud neighbourhood. He went on to study finance, got a finance degree and then went off and opened his own business. He built homes to house our people and paid paycheques to other Canadians.
Do members know what I am so proud of? It has been the tradition that we have big shot Bay Streeters as ministers of finance. Our shadow minister of finance has created real jobs, worked with his hands, built businesses and helped troubled youth. He has the practical hands-on experience to know what this country should be: a country where everybody who works hard gets a fair shot at life.
When we get rid of the carbon tax, when we cancel the inflationary deficits and when we reform our tax and benefits system so that people bring home more of each dollar they earn, it is not just about mathematics. It about restoring Canada's promise: a country where hard work pays off and where everybody who gets out of bed in the morning and contributes to their country can make it better for themselves and their families.
That is the country we are going to restore. Let us keep the heat on and take the tax off. Let us bring it home.
1247 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Oct/20/22 10:13:38 a.m.
- Watch
moved:
That, given that,
(i) one-tenth of Canadians heat their homes during Canada's cold winter months with heating oil or propane heat because there are no alternatives,
(ii) Canada is the only G7 country to have raised fuel taxes during this period of record high global fuel prices,
(iii) energy analysts have predicted that Canadians could see their home heating bills rise by 50 to 100 percent on average this winter,
(iv) the Liberal Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador wrote to the federal Liberal government on September 2, 2022, asking for a carbon tax exemption on home heating fuels and stated: "A year ago today, the maximum price of furnace oil in the Province was 97.91 cents per litre. Today's price is 155.70, which is an increase of nearly 60 per cent. Your proposed federal carbon tax increase on furnace oil would result in an additional 17.38 cents plus HST. Added to today's price, [the carbon tax] would result in a total cost increase of 80 per cent compared to one year ago", punishing rural people in Newfoundland and Labrador forced to heat with furnace oil,
the House express its agreement with the comments of the Liberal Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, and call on the government to exempt all forms of home heating fuel from the carbon tax for all Canadians.
He said: Mr. Speaker, the cost of living is rising because of the cost of government. The $500-billion inflationary deficit is increasing the cost of the goods we buy and the interest we pay. Inflationary taxes further increase the cost to produce those goods and services. The more the government spends, the more things cost. It is just inflation, as my hon. colleague, the member for Calgary Forest Lawn, will explain because I will be sharing my time with him.
The Liberals will say that they had no choice but to add these enormous deficits. However, I will remind them that they had added $100 billion to our national debt even before COVID-19. That is four times more than the Prime Minister had promised. He had already set out a plan for deficits over 30 years, after saying it would only be three years. Even before the Russians invaded Ukraine, the Prime Minister had already added $500 billion to the deficit, and the inflation rate was over 5%.
He cannot simply blame the external effects of the current crises, especially since I had warned the government that there would be inflation and, as a result, interest rate hikes. However, the Liberals continued to spend, tax and fuel the crisis we are facing today.
Clearly, much of the money has been wasted. The Liberals spent billions of dollars to send benefits to inmates, employed public servants and people who could have been working because there were a million jobs available. The government was paying people to stay home. It did all of that.
I would add that, during COVID-19, that is to say, in the past two years, the Liberals added $200 billion in non-COVID-related debt. That means unnecessary expenditures that the government did not have to incur. That was a choice they made.
I had warned them that that would lead to inflation, but they said no, that was not a problem, the Bank of Canada would simply print more money. Now we can see the effects, the same effects we have seen over and over throughout history.
Too much money spent on too few products makes prices go up. That has been true for thousands of years. History does not change. Every time a king, queen, emperor, president, prime minister or anyone at all prints money to pay their bills, the result is always the same: inflation. After inflation come rising interest rates, which is what we are seeing today.
Suddenly, the government is surprised by the consequences of its decisions. No one forced the Prime Minister to add $100 billion to the national debt before COVID-19 and $500 billion to the national debt before the war in Ukraine. No one forced the Prime Minister to curb the production of affordable energy here in Canada. The Liberals did that. These were decisions made here in Canada and not imposed by external forces.
Now we are in the middle of an inflationary crisis. The cost of food has gone up 11%, and we are now seeing a crisis in energy costs.
The government likes to blame the entire world for inflation in Canada, but it is interesting to see that the products with the fastest-rising prices are those we can produce here in Canada, namely food, gasoline and natural gas. We have an abundant supply of these products here in Canada.
The price increases on these products would have helped our economy if the government had not prevented our farmers from producing more food and our energy workers from producing more energy. Instead of printing more money, we could have produced more of what money buys, like more food and more energy, and we could have built more houses.
We need to get rid of the gatekeepers. That is another word we should find a good French word for, but, since we are going to get rid of the gatekeepers when the Conservatives come to power, we will not even need the English word. We will no longer have gatekeepers, who prevent us from building affordable housing units, block our energy production and make it difficult for our farmers to feed us.
The policies of mayors on the far left, New Democrats and Liberals, are preventing us from building houses. As a result, it takes far longer to get a construction permit here in Canada than in any other OECD country except Slovakia. Here, getting any kind of construction permit takes an average of 250 days. In North Korea, you can get a permit in 28 days.
What has this meant? It has meant higher costs to produce energy, higher costs for our farmers and higher costs for home building. More money chasing fewer goods always means higher prices, so instead of creating cash, we need to create more of what cash buys.
Now, though, in the time when energy prices are rising, the last thing we need is a new tax increase on our people. Look at what is happening in Newfoundland. The Newfoundland premier, and he is a Liberal, said that a year ago today, the maximum price of furnace oil in the province was 97¢ per litre. Today it is a buck fifty-five, which is an increase of nearly 60%. The proposed federal carbon tax increase would mean an extra 17¢, plus HST. He also said, “Added to today's price, [the carbon tax] would result in a total cost increase of 80 per cent compared to one year ago.” That is from a Liberal premier.
Similar problems are raging right across Atlantic Canada, where 40% of people are living in energy poverty. This is in Canada, a G7 energy-producing country. That is the result of seven years of the Liberal government. Similar crises are emerging across the country. One energy analyst said that Canadians can expect price increases on their home heating of 100%, all to pay for a plan to triple the carbon tax on Canadians.
By the way, the carbon tax has not worked to reduce emissions. The government has failed to hit a single solitary climate target with its tax so far. Yesterday, the Prime Minister was saying that he knows he has not hit any of his promises, but he promises to hit them in the future and this time he promises not to break that promise.
I can tell members one thing. I am not prepared to gamble on that. I am not prepared to watch Canadian seniors living in rural Newfoundland and Labrador or Nova Scotia, who are forced to heat with oil and propane, pay a 100% increase in their home heating bill because the Prime Minister is promising not to break his promise, a promise he has broken every time he has ever made it before. That is not a bet I am prepared to make.
Therefore, I am calling on the government to allow its members from these rural communities to vote with us on this motion, to put aside the centralized control of the tax-hungry Prime Minister and vote with us in favour of this motion. If they cannot be disabused of their ideological obsession with taxing Canadians to punish them with the carbon tax, at the very least will they, in the spirit of non-partisanship and compromise, take the tax off of home heating as winter is coming? The cold will soon be upon us, and Canadians will soon be forced into the decision between heating and eating.
Will they at least have the compassion to side with this common sense coalition? Will they break off from their costly coalition with the NDP, stop punishing Canadians and finally end the high-carbon hypocrisy, which sees a Prime Minister jetting around the country in a private aircraft, including flying down to Costa Rica for a sunny vacation right in the middle of the summer?
When the winter is upon us, when people are not even worried about being on beaches, let us not tax them. Let us allow them to heat their homes here in our country.
1585 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
