SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Michael Barrett

  • Member of Parliament
  • Conservative
  • Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes
  • Ontario
  • Voting Attendance: 68%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $133,355.09

  • Government Page
  • Apr/18/23 7:03:28 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, if the government were serious about addressing greenhouse gas emissions, it would build pipelines, export LNG and displace the emissions created by countries that are burning coal. However, it is not going to. That would have a substantive impact on global greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, however, the Liberals punish Canadians for living their lives. It costs them more. It costs the average Canadian household more than $700 more than it is going to get back after the rebate in the carbon tax pyramid scheme the government has cooked up. Canadians see it for what it is. It is not a climate plan; it is a tax plan. Canadians deserve better. When are the Liberals going to get out of the way so we can give it to them?
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  • Apr/18/23 6:55:22 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today to talk about the issues affecting Canadians. I have heard regularly from folks in my community and from folks right across Canada about the struggles they are having with the made-in-Canada cost of living crisis. On April 1, the government made a choice to make things harder for people who are struggling to put food on the table for their families. It made a choice to make it harder for people who are putting gas in the tanks of their cars so they can get to work, get to extracurricular activities for their children like hockey, dance and soccer, and just get around. In communities like mine, folks do not have the option to change or modify their behaviour in the way that the government is looking for them to do. There is no subway, SkyTrain or rapid transit system to get people across rural southern Ontario or eastern Ontario, which is also true in many parts of this country. The reality of rising fuel prices at the pumps, the reality of rising prices at the grocery store and the reality of folks facing soaring costs to heat their homes is that people are making really tough choices. It is not like the tough choice the Deputy Prime Minister talked about to scale back on Disney+. People are skipping meals, working Canadians. Here is the best example I can give. The food bank in Brockville had to change its hours and modify its service delivery so it could accommodate folks who needed to get to the food bank after they finished work. People are working their jobs, taking home a paycheque and still do not have enough money to afford food at the grocery store or enough food to sustain their families, so they are going to the food bank. This is a devastating situation, and as we saw from the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the average Canadian household is going to pay $710 more this year than they would have if there were no carbon tax in place. Therefore, after people get that rebate, they are still left over $700 more in the hole than they would be if they were not paying for this carbon tax. The carbon is not going to change the weather. The carbon tax is not going to change the changing climate. If the government was serious about climate policy, it would have a climate plan, not a tax plan that hurts Canadians and disproportionately hurts Canadians living in rural and remote communities. When is the government going to axe its carbon tax and put in place a plan that exports clean Canadian energy, displaces the high-carbon economies around the world that burn resources that are less clean than clean Canadian natural gas, displaces high emitters in favour of good, clean Canadian jobs and helps Canadians afford to put food on the table and heat their homes?
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  • Feb/17/23 11:23:06 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, well, I do not think the people who cannot afford to feed themselves or heat their homes, the people who have experienced their rent or mortgage doubling, the 20% of Canadians who are skipping meals and the 1.5 million Canadians who are lined up at food banks would say that it is going well. However, that is the tactic of the Liberals. They tell us that even though people cannot afford to feed themselves, they have never had it so good. Let them eat cake, the Prime Minister says. The Liberal member for Louis-Hébert said, “Time to stop with the division and the distractions”, distractions like that one. “It’s time to choose positive, not coercive methods. It’s time to unite.” That is what Conservatives will do, from Victoria, B.C., to Victoria-by-the-Sea. When are they going to follow our lead?
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  • Feb/16/23 3:02:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us talk about action. Some 1.5 million Canadians are using food banks in a single month. Mortgages are going up to more than $3,000 per month. Rent is doubling to more than $2,000 per month. Twenty per cent of Canadians are skipping meals every day because they cannot afford them. No government has ever spent so much to achieve so little, unless someone is a well-connected Liberal insider. Then it is tens of thousands of dollars from the Liberal lawbreakers. Is today the day the Liberal Prime Minister will finally take responsibility for the law-breaking in his government?
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  • Feb/16/23 3:01:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, it is hard for Canadians not to be disappointed when every day there is a news story about a Liberal breaking the law. While Canadians are struggling to feed their families and keep the heat on at home, the Liberals are lining the pockets of their friends, like the trade minister did, like the housing minister did, like the intergovernmental affairs minister did and like the Prime Minister did. It was tens of thousands of dollars sent to their well-connected friends. Will the Liberal Prime Minister take responsibility for the law-breaking in his Liberal government benches, or will he get out of the way so we can fix what they have broken?
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  • Dec/9/22 11:18:59 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the Liberal government constantly votes to increase taxes on Canadians. It voted to increase taxes on fuel. It voted to increase taxes on home heating. At a time when Canadians are struggling to put food on the table for their families and with 1.5 million Canadians visiting food banks in a single month, the Liberals voted to increase their carbon tax on food production. When will they finally quit forcing their failed carbon tax on struggling Canadians?
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