44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 20, 2022 10:00AM
- Oct/20/22 10:30:09 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, does the leader of the official opposition have the courage to tackle big oil and gas profits and support our policy to introduce an excess profit tax to fund the GST rebates on home heating costs?
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- Oct/20/22 11:00:23 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, people are struggling to feed themselves and to house themselves. The CEOs of big businesses are making big profits on their backs. The profits are so obscene that even the CEO of Shell is calling on the government to tax the excess profits of big oil and gas companies. The Liberals want to help people, but they refuse to force CEOs to pay what they owe. Why do the Liberals refuse to force CEOs to pay their dues to fund the GST exemption on home heating costs?
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- Oct/20/22 11:47:30 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I enjoyed my colleague's speech.
Once again, the Conservatives seem to be missing the boat on the issues before the House. They have promised many times to cancel the GST on home heating. Today, instead of presenting a motion that would have limited the repercussions of rising heating prices, they are presenting a motion about the carbon tax.
Does my colleague think the Conservatives are again missing the boat by avoiding cancelling the GST on home heating?
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- Oct/20/22 11:48:12 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague just asked a good question.
As Quebec separatists, of course we want federal taxes like the GST to be as low as possible. I do not see why we would oppose removing the GST from home heating fuel. That would be a good start.
However, if the government ever moved forward with that, it would be nice if it applied to Hydro-Québec too. The problem is that the federal government subsidizes oil. It invests billions and billions of dollars in the oil industry, yet Quebec has never received a penny for Hydro-Québec. Even so, when we get our Hydro-Québec bill at the end of the month, it includes a federal tax.
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- Oct/20/22 12:11:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, “disingenuous” seems to be the middle name of the Conservatives these days. They should recognize that the price on pollution is reimbursed for lower-income people, but the GST, which they promised to take off home heating if they ever formed a government, has a direct impact on consumers and Atlantic Canadians who are hoping to heat their homes.
This is where I note the rejection of the NDP amendment. It would have made the opposition day motion different from the last two reruns and would have fundamentally helped people in Atlantic Canada and right across the country. This is why it is so perplexing. They were given an opportunity and the NDP did all the work. We said we were going to hand it to them on a silver platter, but the Conservatives said no. They just want to make an ideological point and do not want to help anybody.
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- Oct/20/22 12:12:53 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his revisionist history on the banking crisis of 2008.
As I sit here, I see a shell game, a carnival, with the way the carbon tax is being laid out and always being proposed by the Liberal government and the NDP. If it was so good, why wouldn't the government give the refunds ahead of time? While people are struggling to make ends meet, their budgets are going up and people have gone into debt, the Liberals come in afterwards with cheques that do not quite meet the challenges the people of Canada are facing.
Yesterday I stood and said that GST was being charged on top of the carbon tax on heating bills and the Prime Minister said that was misinformation. I would ask my colleague if he has looked at his heating bills, if he could confirm or deny that GST is actually being charged on top of the carbon tax and what his thoughts are on that.
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- Oct/20/22 12:13:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have two answers. First off, why would the Conservatives say no to an amendment that would take the GST off home heating? Why did they do that? They just did that in front of the entire country as witnesses. They said no to taking GST off home heating. I have no idea where the Conservatives are on this at all.
I do know that the member for Carleton is rapidly become the Liz Truss of Canada. What we have seen over the course of the last few weeks since he became leader are the despicable ties to—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Oct/20/22 12:14:45 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this is a point of order. It is not debate. The member constantly said that there was no motion put forward by the opposition that involved the GST. I will read from the March 22 Hansard when the opposition motion was, “(i) Canadians are facing severe hardship due to the dramatic escalation in gas prices, (ii) the 5% collected under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), and the Quebec Sales Tax (QST) creates increased revenue for the federal government”.
This is not debate, Madam Speaker. This is the actual information. The member from wherever he is from is—
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- Oct/20/22 12:18:08 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that is why the NDP pushed for the dental care program. It is important. This is going to help seniors starting next year. We know that seniors everywhere, in Quebec, in British Columbia, need access to dental care. The NDP did the work so they could have access to it next year.
Then there is the help for renters. In Quebec and elsewhere in Canada, people need more support. The NDP also got that help for seniors who are renters. Also for seniors in Quebec and elsewhere, the GST rebate has been doubled, thanks to the efforts of the member for Burnaby South. This will go a long way toward helping people throughout Quebec and Canada.
The reality is that the NDP gets results. That is why next time, the people of Quebec should vote for the NDP instead of the Bloc Québécois.
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- Oct/20/22 12:19:29 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to commend my colleague for his tremendous work, particularly around greedflation, which is something the Conservatives are not willing to call out. It is really going on the theme of being disingenuous. Although they are talking about helping people across Canada, every time the NDP puts forward something to help Canadians, such as dental care and doubling the GST credit, they vote against it. The current Conservative Party is not there to help Canadians. I wonder if my colleague agrees with me that one of its biggest failures in this is not being willing to cut the GST on home heating.
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- Oct/20/22 12:35:16 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we know Conservatives are ideologically driven in their opposition to the carbon tax.
We brought forward an amendment today to remove the GST on home heating because we know people are struggling. We are trying to find ways to work together. If there is a way we could converge and do something to help people right now, removing the GST on home heating would be an incredible opportunity for us.
Would the member's party reconsider our proposition so we could provide relief on something we could agree on, something Conservatives had in their platform in the last election, which is removing the GST on home heating so that people could get relief right now?
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- Oct/20/22 12:50:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, people are worried about upcoming increases in their home heating bills. Meanwhile, CEOs of big oil and gas are making huge profits on the backs of families. They made $147 billion last year. I never once heard the hon. member talk about the Irving family. The Irving Oil Corporation estimates revenue per employee at over $320,000, so does the member agree with forcing wealthy CEOs and big oil and gas companies to pay what they owe in order to fund the GST exemptions on home heating costs?
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- Oct/20/22 2:30:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we laid out our affordability plan, and the first step is to double the GST credit for 11 million Canadian households. That money will flow in early November, which is very soon.
We introduced a proposal to help low-income Canadians pay their rent and to subsidize children's dental care. I hope that all parties in the House will vote in favour of these measures.
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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 4:01:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as the member opposite is talking about tax relief for Canadians, does he consider a doubling of the GST credit tax relief? If not, what is it?
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- Oct/20/22 4:04:42 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague, the environment critic on the Conservative bench.
I want to frame this question with a very important context. When we are taking a solution from one emergency, which is the climate emergency, to try to address another emergency, my recommendation to the member is that we can actually do both.
The New Democratic Party has tabled an amendment to the Conservative motion that would take GST off home heating, something the New Democrats have fought for for a long time. If the member truly wants to ensure that a lower cost of living for Canadians is achieved and we actually get a result for Canadians, would he accept our amendment to ensure we get GST off home heating?
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- Oct/20/22 4:48:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the member for Thornhill on the role of deputy leader of the opposition.
There are points we can agree on, such as the growth of the reliance on food banks in this country and the need to give Canadians a break. My ask for the member is around the NDP policy to have a GST exemption on home heating bills. Is that something the Conservatives would support?
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- Oct/20/22 5:04:31 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I know the member quite well, and I know the member really cares about the cost of living crisis that is facing Albertans. I do too.
The community members I know in Edmonton Griesbach are being hurt by expensive goods. In order to get the “real, tangible” help to Canadians the member mentioned in her speech, would the Conservatives agree to amend the motion to ensure we can actually get something to Canadians? Would they agree to remove the GST from home heating and get that help to Canadians?
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- Oct/20/22 5:05:08 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have great respect for the member, and I am proud to represent his friends and relatives in Fishing Lake Métis Settlement in Lakeland.
Here is the reality: In 2019 the Conservatives ran on removing the GST from home heating, but really the solution is just to axe the carbon tax completely instead of that proposal. I would just urge the member of Parliament, since he shares our concerns about the cost of living even though he is propping up the Liberals who are the cause of it, to support our motion today and give that immediate relief to Canadians.
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- Oct/20/22 9:09:27 p.m.
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Madam Chair, one of the things I was surprised about, and I was approached by a constituent about this, was that counsellors, therapists and psychotherapists have to charge GST and taxes on their services, whereas other mental health professionals do not. This is actually a classification from CRA. It is a very simple change the government can make.
It is a drop in the bucket of what is necessary, but it would help those who are struggling to pay for some of these services. Until they are made far more available and without the idea of having to pay for them, which is also my goal, it is something that the government could do very quickly.
I have a private member's bill on that. It is Bill C-218. Would the member be open to supporting that bill?
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