44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 20, 2022 10:00AM
- Oct/20/22 3:06:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, last night I spoke to Bonnie from a remote part of my riding, who lives with her retired husband. They paid $900 last year to heat their home with oil. That was double the year before. They just learned that their bill this year is going to be $2,400. On a combined income of $25,000 a year, that means they are going to have to eat crickets in order to eat and heat.
When will the government stop hurting Canadians and cancel its plan to triple the carbon tax?
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- Oct/20/22 3:06:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is very important to say to hon. members across the House that climate change is real and is an existential threat to the future of the human race. The Conservatives are proposing to make pollution free again, and now they are proposing to pick the pockets of the vast majority of Canadian families by taking away their quarterly rebate cheques. This will make the climate crisis worse. It will drive away investment and will make everything more expensive. Our government will oppose Conservative political efforts to rob Canadians of this important financial support.
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- Oct/20/22 3:07:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this week is Small Business Week. Small businesses are the backbone of our communities across the country, especially in the Northwest Territories. They create jobs and economic growth and are critical in postpandemic recovery.
Can the minister responsible for CanNor please update this House on the important work our government is doing to support small businesses in the Northwest Territories?
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- Oct/20/22 3:07:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his hard work on behalf of small businesses in the Northwest Territories.
Through CanNor's economic programs, we have supported hundreds of businesses in the north, including 200 women-led enterprises, over 100 owned by indigenous people and over 320 in tourism. Today, I was pleased to announce $50,000 for the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce to support local business events in NWT.
Our government will continue to be there for small businesses to help them grow and create jobs.
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- Oct/20/22 3:08:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadian families are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of groceries. The increase in food prices has hit a 41-year high, rising twice as quickly as people's wages. This week, we made the Liberals and the Conservatives admit that CEO corporate greed is driving up food prices. Now it is time for the government to take a stand and support families.
When will the Liberals finally close tax loopholes, forcing CEOs to pay what they owe?
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- Oct/20/22 3:09:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to answer the question.
As I stated for an earlier question, we have been focused on reducing poverty in this country. In fact, we have lifted millions of Canadians out of poverty, including seniors and hundreds of thousands of children. We have done that through benefits such as the CCB, the OAS and the GIS. We have indexed those benefits to inflation so that as the cost of living goes up, those benefits go up as well.
We are continuing to look at programs like the recovery dividend and at a tax on excess profits for banks to make sure that everybody is paying their fair share.
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- Oct/20/22 3:09:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, “’Establish and fully fund a Canada Water Agency in 2022” and “Modernize the 50-year-old Canada Water Act” are quotes from the Liberal platform. A fully independent and integrated Canada water agency is urgently needed. We lack the scientific capacity to monitor water quality and quantity, to predict impacts and to protect safe water.
The climate crisis is a water crisis. No more announcements. It is time to create the Canada water agency. Will the minister update us as to the plans to do it in 2022?
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- Oct/20/22 3:10:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are, in fact, working to create an independent water agency for Canada. We need more information on water and better water management in Canada, because water, despite the fact that we have a lot of it in Canada, is also under threat because of climate change. We are working on this and we will have good news to announce to this House in the coming weeks.
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- Oct/20/22 3:11:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is Thursday, the time when the opposition asks the government what we can expect in the week ahead. We have reason to be optimistic that there may be a piece of legislation that would enshrine the Leader of the Opposition's principled approach to government financing, where any new spending item would have to be accompanied by a spending reduction. This is something that the opposition would entirely support if the government were going to introduce that next week.
I wonder if the government House leader would inform the House as to the business for the rest of this week and into next week. Can we expect legislation to enshrine permanently the brilliant idea the Leader of the Opposition has already proposed?
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- Oct/20/22 3:11:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what I can assure the member opposite, my hon. opposition House leader, is that the government will continue to be introducing legislation that helps Canadians with affordability and makes their lives easier in these globally difficult and conflicted times.
With respect to the immediate term, I can tell the House that tomorrow we will turn to Bill C-9, which concerns the Judges Act at second reading. On Monday, we will continue with the second reading debate on Bill S-5, an act to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. Tuesday shall be an allotted day.
On Wednesday, we will commence with the second reading debate on Bill S-4, an act to amend the Criminal Code and the Identification of Criminals Act, related to COVID-19 response and other measures. On Thursday, we will deal with the report stage and third reading of Bill C-31, with respect to dental care and rental housing.
We also hope to make progress next week on Bill C-20, an act establishing the public complaints and review commission and amending certain acts and statutory instruments.
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- Oct/20/22 3:13:36 p.m.
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Resuming debate, the hon. parliamentary secretary has two minutes remaining.
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- Oct/20/22 3:13:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I spent the first eight minutes of my speech prior to question period talking at great length about how the Conservative Party of Canada today is nothing like the Conservative Party of Canada that cared about the environment under the leadership of Brian Mulroney, for example. What I found very interesting between that part of my speech and this part of my speech is this.
During an exchange during question period, one of the parliamentary secretaries on this side of the House talked about the Premier of Ontario Doug Ford being a Conservative. The member for St. Albert—Edmonton put in quotes “Conservative”, as if to suggest that Doug Ford, the Conservative Premier of Ontario, is not Conservative enough for this particular Conservative Party of Canada that we are stuck dealing with now.
It goes without saying that I will vote against this motion. It is the third time the Conservatives have brought it forward. We identify that they are doing things in threes these days. Therefore, I will once again, for a third time, vote against this ill-informed motion brought forward by the Conservatives.
I will reiterate what I said before, which is that pricing pollution is a smart, effective tool based on economic principles that we would assume the Conservatives could somehow wrap their heads around, yet here we are and they are reluctantly refusing to do that, despite the fact that even their former leader Stephen Harper agreed that pricing pollution was a—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
Mr. Mark Gerretsen: Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are clapping for him. Great. Hopefully, they can clap for his principles too, which was to price pollution, because Stephen Harper certainly felt that way.
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- Oct/20/22 3:15:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I listened to many of the speeches today given by especially Liberal members, I found it very interesting that they seem to be incredibly dismissive of the challenges facing Canadians. They are tying themselves into knots trying to figure out a creative way to somehow spin that this motion is not about providing real practical relief to a part of the country that does not benefit from their so-called federal backstop. However, I will leave the many criticisms I have about that and the fact that so many Canadians, in a country so rich in natural resources, are facing energy poverty.
My question for the member is very simple. Can he look past his partisanship, acknowledge the fact that many Canadians are simply asking for that bit of relief, come to the table and at least have a discussion about how we can get that relief to Atlantic Canadians who are facing unprecedented energy poverty?
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- Oct/20/22 3:16:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what I am dismissive about is when Conservatives come into the House and continually purport falsehoods, like earlier today when they said the federal government has imposed a price on pollution in all provinces, which is not the truth. Quebec and Ontario were doing it with California long before the federal government ever got involved in it.
The member seems to suggest that the particular motion before us today is the be-all and end-all to support Canadians. He is asking us just to provide a bit of support. I would remind him of the various different supports that have been introduced in this House just in the last several weeks, legislation that we know they are going to vote against. They changed their minds on increasing the GST rebate. They flip-flopped on that one. Maybe it is time for them to flip-flop on other supports, like providing dental care and housing supports for Canadians.
There are many different ways that we can support Canadians and it does not have to come at the expense of the environment, which is what the Conservatives want to do.
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- Oct/20/22 3:18:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. parliamentary secretary for his speech. I would like him to clarify something.
Newfoundland has submitted a climate change action plan. My understanding is that if the plan is accepted, the province would be excluded from the federal tax and these concerns would no longer be an issue.
Can my colleague comment on that?
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- Oct/20/22 3:18:32 p.m.
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To that end, Mr. Speaker, had the province submitted a plan that met the standards of the national requirements, it would have been excluded, just like Quebec has. Quebec never even had to touch this issue because it was years, if not a decade, ahead of the rest of the country with respect to this issue. Ontario used to be in that same position.
When the price on pollution was first introduced in the House, there was still a cap and trade model of pricing pollution shared among Ontario, Quebec and California, and Ontario was exempt from the federal program. What happened? Doug Ford ripped up the cap and trade program that had been put in place, excluded Ontario from that trilateral deal with California and Quebec, and as a result was subject to the default, which was the federal program. The federal program has always been the default.
It has been about creating a standard, a benchmark, to which provinces need to adhere in order to be not included in that program. Many provinces have done that. Unfortunately, some provinces chose not to and those are the ones that are subject to the federal rules.
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- Oct/20/22 3:20:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I was disappointed by the hon. member's speech because I only got to hear the last two minutes, but I am hoping he can talk about a former Conservative government that tackled acid rain with a price on pollution, how that worked and why the Conservatives will not learn from their own past.
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- Oct/20/22 3:20:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Brian Mulroney spent a decade pushing the U.S. government to improve legislation to control acid rain. When George Bush came along, he agreed to it and adopted what Brian Mulroney, a Progressive Conservative, had been pushing for a decade. Let us just think about that. Brian Mulroney had a massive impact and effect on environmental policy throughout North America. That was a Progressive Conservative government.
Unfortunately, what we have here is something completely different. There is no possible remnant of Brian Mulroney and the representative from my area, Flora MacDonald, left in what is across the way.
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- Oct/20/22 3:21:46 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to take part in today's debate. Indeed, our government is acutely aware that rising prices are being experienced around the world and that Canadians are not exempt, but at this point the hon. opposition should also be aware that carbon pollution pricing is not the problem. In fact, most households will get back more through climate action incentive payments than they pay due to federal carbon pollution pricing.
The federal carbon pricing system is not about raising revenues. All direct proceeds from pricing carbon pollution under the federal system are being returned to the provincial or territorial jurisdictions in which they were collected. Among households, eight out of 10 get back more than they pay, so putting a price on pollution is not the problem. It is a solution and an effective one. It is a market-based mechanism that actually was initially proposed by Conservative economists, but for the official opposition, it is ideology over expertise every time. They have been fighting climate action for years in Canada.
Today, we face literally billions of dollars in cleanup and adaptation costs from extreme weather events that are stronger and more frequent because of climate change. Conservatives vote against every measure our government brings forward to improve affordability for Canadians, whether it is the child tax benefit, pandemic relief, dental care or a temporary GST break. Now the Conservatives pretend to be on the side of those facing energy poverty. Canadians have been riding the roller coaster of volatile global oil and gas prices for years, and Conservatives have said nothing about skyrocketing profits for oil and gas producers.
The only way to eliminate energy poverty, to reduce household energy costs in Canada and to have true energy security is by fighting climate change. With the volatility of oil prices and record profits for oil companies, Conservatives are proposing Canadians be chained to the oil and gas markets and completely vulnerable to foreign wars and cartels.
Because the problem Canadians are facing is global, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, our government has been steadfast in delivering targeted and fiscally responsible financial supports to help Canadians through these challenges. We know that many are experiencing the rise in the cost of living through higher food prices and rent, and we know that this poses a particular challenge for lower-income Canadians, who are more vulnerable to these effects. We are supporting Canada's most vulnerable by doubling the GST credit for six months. That is why we have taken action to put more money back into the pockets of those who are most vulnerable.
Bill C-30, which just received royal assent on Tuesday, offers a perfect example of how we are doing this. By doubling the goods and services tax credit for six months, Bill C-30 will roughly deliver $2.5 billion in additional support to roughly 11 million eligible low-income people and families, including more than half of Canadian seniors. This will mean up to an extra $234 for single Canadians without children and up to an extra $467 for couples with two children. Seniors will receive an extra $225 on average.
With Bill C-30 now law, these extra GST credit amounts will be paid starting in early November as a one-time lump sum payment through the existing GST credit system to all current recipients. Current recipients do not need to apply for the additional payment. They will receive it automatically. If individuals have not filed their 2021 tax returns already, they should do so to ensure they are able to receive both the current GST credit and the additional payment. Eligible Canadians who already received the GST credit will automatically receive their payments starting in early November.
I would like to take a moment to look at some examples of what this will mean to some of our most vulnerable neighbours, in real terms. Under the present GST credit, we know that a single mother with one child and a net income of $30,000 will receive $386.50 for the July through December 2022 period, and another $386.50 for the January through June 2023 period, but with Bill C-30 she will receive an additional $386.50. In total, she will be receiving about $1,160 this benefit year through the GST credit.
What is more, Bill C-30 is just one example of how we are helping the most vulnerable Canadians. We have also introduced Bill C-31, which would provide a Canadian dental benefit starting this year. This would be for families with children under 12 who do not have access to dental insurance and who have an adjusted net income of less than $90,000. Those families would be able to access direct payments totalling up to $1,300 per child over the next two years, up to $650 per year, to cover dental expenses for their children under 12 years of age. It is expected that 500,000 Canadian children could benefit from this targeted investment of $938 million.
Bill C-31 would also provide a one-time top-up to the Canada housing benefit. This one-time payment of $500 would be available to applicants with an adjusted net income below $35,000 for families, or below $20,000 for individuals, who spend at least 30% of their income on rent. It is estimated that 1.8 million low-income renters, including students who are struggling with the cost of housing, would be eligible for this new support. For the Canadians who need this support the most, the most vulnerable Canadians, this would mean new money for them this year, at exactly the right time. The measures in Bill C-30 and Bill C-31 would complement previous actions taken by our government and are providing help this year to support those who are most vulnerable through the current challenges.
We have enhanced the Canada workers benefit. We will have cut child care fees in half by the end of this year. In July, we increased the old age security by 10% for seniors 75 and older. For post-secondary students, we have doubled the Canada student grant until July 2023. With these and other recent measures, a couple in Ontario with an income of $45,000 and a child in day care could receive about an additional $7,800 above their existing benefits this fiscal year. A single recent graduate in Alberta, with an entry-level job and an income of $24,000, could receive about an additional $1,300 in new and enhanced benefits. A senior in Quebec with a disability could benefit from over $2,700 more this year than they received last year.
Helping our most vulnerable through the current challenges is the right thing to do. We know our government can tackle affordability and climate change at the same time. In fact, climate action and reducing dependence on volatile global oil and gas prices set by foreign cartels and overseas conflicts are the path to eliminating energy poverty once and for all.
We know that a price on pollution is the most economically effective way to fight climate change. Canada's carbon pricing system is recognized by experts and institutions around the world, including the IMF, as being a model for other countries to follow.
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- Oct/20/22 3:31:35 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member studiously avoided actually speaking to the motion. The motion is very specific. We are trying to express Parliament's will here in expressing our support and agreement with the comments of the Liberal Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador and calling on the government to exempt all forms of home heating fuel from the carbon tax for all Canadians.
Will the member vote for this motion and with her premier?
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