SoVote

Dec/8/22 1:04:12 p.m.
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I am being asked what this has to do with the motion. It is inflationary spending, which has led to the cost of living crisis that we are in. Could the member explain the need for prisoners and public servants to be paid CERB, or for high school students living at home to be paid CERB? I wonder if he could explain to the taxpayers of Canada why that was necessary.

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Mr. Mark Gerretsen

Dec/8/22 1:04:12 p.m.
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What does this have to do with the motion?

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Mr. Kevin Lamoureux

Dec/8/22 1:04:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, first of all, I am not going to blame the recipients of CERB payments as the reason for inflation. Families found it very difficult. We are talking about millions of families, nine million families, virtually, who needed to have CERB for a wide variety of reasons. The Conservative Party might want to try to blame those families, but from the government's perspective we needed to be there to support Canadians going through the pandemic. Had the Conservatives been in power, it is obvious that they might not have done that. As the result of a Liberal government doing it, as a result of a Prime Minister who understood the importance of having Canadians' backs, we were in a better position to be able to get out of the pandemic in the fashion in which we have. I will compare our record to any G8 country that is there today. We have done exceptionally well. There is always room for improvement, and at the end of the day I look forward to continuing the dialogue on that particular issue.

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Ms. Heather McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona, NDP)

Dec/8/22 1:05:30 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for listing all the initiatives that the NDP have brought forward, like dental care and the rent subsidy, but my question for him is a bit more concrete. I have been sitting in the House all week, listening to the Liberals asking Conservatives how they can face their constituents when the Conservatives promised to put a price on pollution and are now against it. I am wondering how the member faces his constituents when the Liberal government promised to put that price on pollution and promised to deal with our climate crisis and has done so in such a poor way that we have met none of our targets and are at the bottom of the barrel for actually dealing with the climate crisis in this country. On one side, we have some Conservatives who have been, frankly, very dishonest with their constituents. On the other side, we have the government, which has actually done nothing for our climate crisis. How does he face his constituents?

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Mr. Kevin Lamoureux

Dec/8/22 1:06:27 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I talk to my constituents about putting into place a national policy, so that in every province, no matter where a person lives, there is a price on pollution. I talk about the two billion trees that are going to be planted as a result of policy. It is interesting. We often get the question, “Where are those two billion trees?” They start as seedlings, and it takes a little while for them to grow. I am very confident that we will continue to look at ways, whether it is the banning of single-use plastics or the planting of trees or having a price on pollution, not to mention the numerous budgetary measures to support getting Canada on the right road to a greener economy. That is what I would be telling my constituents.

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Mr. Mike Morrice (Kitchener Centre, GP)

Dec/8/22 1:07:22 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member knows through the interventions I have shared in this place that if the governing party were serious about the climate crisis, it would start by taking the Canada recovery dividend that is already in Bill C-32 and apply it to oil and gas companies. I will move to a different topic. One thing I think we agree on is addressing affordability, particularly for those who need it the most, and that is people with disabilities across the country who are disproportionately living in poverty today. They have been calling out for an emergency response benefit to address the rising cost of living, food and day-to-day life. If all parliamentarians were serious about addressing affordability in this place, they would be directing funding to those living with disabilities. Could the member share his level of support for addressing poverty for those living with disabilities through an emergency response benefit?

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Mr. Kevin Lamoureux

Dec/8/22 1:08:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the issue of disabilities and how we can assist and support those disabilities was really amplified by the problems during the pandemic, when it came time to ensure that we could provide direct payments to people with disabilities. At the time I thought it took a while before we could ultimately create the databank or the mechanism that would ensure there would be a disability payment going out. We were able to do that. I know the minister responsible also has some fairly historic legislation. I do not necessarily know all the details of it. I am open to it. In the legislation the member just referenced, there is the intergenerational credit for housing, which helps seniors and people with a disability for whom additional suites can be built. That is a positive thing. This might not be the type of detailed answer the member would want, but that is the best I can give at this point.

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Mr. Ken McDonald (Avalon, Lib.)

Dec/8/22 1:09:32 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to give the hon. member a chance to highlight, once again, the things we have done as a government to support Canadians through this affordability crisis, and compare them to what Conservatives have supported or not supported.

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Mr. Kevin Lamoureux

Dec/8/22 1:09:52 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I happen to have a list here. The doubling of the GST rebate for six months helps 11 million people. The Conservatives originally opposed it, as the member might recall, but they were shamed into supporting it. We are glad they flip-flopped. We thank them very much. The Canada housing benefit was opposed by the Conservatives. That was to help two million people with rental support. The Canada dental benefit is the program that 35,000 children have already put in an application for. The Conservatives opposed that one, too. The Canada workers benefit creates more payments and helps at a time of need, i.e. a time of high inflation, as the member knows. The Conservatives opposed that one too. Wiping out the federal interest on Canada student loans was also opposed by the Conservatives, unfortunately. Child care is a really big one. We are talking about a lot of money. The Conservatives said it was absolutely wasted and we should not have done it. It was to ensure that child care is affordable from coast to coast to coast. In fact, Conservatives say they will rip it up and will not support it. Obviously, they voted against that. If I had more time, I am sure I could come up with even more details.

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Mr. John Nater (Perth—Wellington, CPC)

Dec/8/22 1:11:22 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour and a privilege to rise today in the House to address the concerns of my constituents in Perth—Wellington and Canadians across the country. I will be splitting my time with my deal colleague, the hon. member for South Shore—St. Margarets, Madam Speaker. It is appropriate that we, as the Conservative opposition, are debating this opposition day motion today. Today is the last opportunity that the opposition can bring forward an opposition day motion. We are focusing on the issues that we have been hearing about from constituents over the past year and before. These are issues we have been raising time and time again in the House, in question period, and the issues we are hearing time and time again from constituents in our ridings across the country. The cost of living and the cost of everyday essentials keep going up. We hear this from constituents who are struggling with home heating, groceries and putting gas in their tanks. I have been receiving emails and phone calls daily, hourly, by the minute basically, from constituents sharing their concerns with me. Sam from Arthur wrote me a heartbreaking email about how she and her husband, a carpenter, were nearing retirement and they were struggling to get by. She wrote: “Balancing a budget was incredibly difficult before COVID but now it is beyond me. Speaking for myself, basic essential groceries absorb at least half of my income....In our case, we tried to plan well. We took care of my husband's parents until they required fulltime care and we did our very best to conduct our affairs in the right way, for the right reasons. Now that we are at the point where we should be celebrating life with each other, we are struggling to try to make ends meet!” Sam is not alone. She expresses the concerns of so many in our communities. Danny from St. Marys wrote: “I have been very closely watching the parliament broadcasts and what is going on with gas prices and the inflation that is going on right now. Honestly, I am very disgusted with the way the Liberal Government is looking at these issues. I am disgusted with the way the Liberal Government continues to misinform, evade, and deflect on every single topic.” “My weekly gas price to go to and from work was approx. $150.00 a week, that is now $250.00 a week. My Wife and I generally buy the same groceries all the time, our grocery bill has gone from $160 a week to $25 0 a week. This is 200 a week more that is being spent each and every week right now. That is pretty close to $1000 a month, just in inflation.” Anthony from Perth South wrote, “I have a really big concern with the gas prices. When are we going to see affordable prices? Buying an electric car is not a viable option given the cost even for a used car.” Pam from Mount Forest in the north part of Wellington County wrote: “I almost cried talking to my husband last night about how much our expenses have been in the past month. Last weekend we picked up a modest "freezer pack" and a few other things from the butcher, which was over $450 and being realistic it will last my family of four MAYBE a month. Then picked up our groceries ... another $250. $700 and we will have to get more from the grocery store the end of this week." Walter from West Perth had to go back to work after retiring. He wrote, “Gas is driving everything up except for my pension, so now I get to go back to work. So much for a nice retirement. There has to be a way to get this liberal govt under control or out of office." People in Perth—Wellington are struggling. People across Canada are struggling. While the Liberal government is making more and more inflationary spending, the impact of this inflationary spending drives up the prices and makes matters worse for everyday Canadians. Over the past few months, the Liberal response to the criticism has varied from pathetic to downright infuriating. This past Monday in question period, I asked the government about the cost of groceries and the rising number of Canadians who were forced to use food banks. How did the government respond? The parliamentary secretary gave a non-answer, repeating the same false claim that the carbon tax was necessary to fight climate change, yet, as we have seen, emissions keep going up as the carbon tax goes up. These evasive and cowardly answers fail to address the real concerns. Unfortunately, the Liberals have taken the approach that if they say the same thing time and time again, it might eventually become true. The fact is that it has not. The carbon tax has the impact of driving up the costs of growing, processing and transporting food, making it more expensive for farmers, farm families and Canadians across the country who are trying to feed their families. Yesterday, I was up in question period again and asked another question that received an evasive answer. Instead of getting a response from the Prime Minister or Minister of Finance, I received a response from a different minister, who took the opportunity to boast about the money that went out for CERB. What she neglected to acknowledge was that the day before, the Auditor General reported that nearly $13.4 billion had gone out in overpayments to those who were ineligible or to people who should be investigated further. She also said that those in prison received the CERB. When a Liberal minister stands and says the Liberals' spending is helping those in need, it simply does not stand up to scrutiny. Creating more and more inflationary spending will only drive up the costs in the short term and in the long term create structural economic problems, which have been going on since 2015. When we are out visiting our constituents, we often get asked what we would do if we were in power. This opposition day motion is our answer. We would take the carbon tax off all food inputs, all inputs that are used for production of the food that feeds each and every Canadian. We have been trying to do this for months now. In March, we had a motion calling for a tax reduction on gas and diesel prices. The Liberals and NDP rejected it. In September, we introduced a motion calling for a moratorium on new taxes. The Liberals and NDP rejected it. In October, we introduced a motion calling for a tax exemption on home heating. The Liberals and NDP rejected it. This is in Canada, where it gets exceptionally cold in the winter, and they rejected our call to remove the carbon tax on home heating. Every time we propose meaningful solutions for families and Canadians across the country, these proposals get rejected. What would this motion do? On our last day of the supply period, we call for five simple things: to cancel the carbon tax on farm fuels, grain, drying, fertilizer, transportation and other appropriate aspects of the food supply system. Canada quite literally helps to feed the world, but we are handcuffed in that ability when the input costs keep going up on farmers and farm families. In fact, just yesterday, at the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, which I had the honour to sit in on, the member for Regina—Lewvan asked a very simple question of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. The member asked, “Madam Minister, do you know what percentage of Canadian farms are family-owned farms?” The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food responded “No.” The answer to that is 95% of farms in Canada are family owned. Farm families feed families across Canada, and this motion serves to make it more affordable for farm families to feed our country and more affordable for families to feed their families. When we read heartbreaking emails each day about families struggling to make ends meet or when we hear that 1.5 million Canadians are using a food bank in a given month, half a million of those being children, we have the opportunity and the necessity to act. We need to remove the carbon tax on essentials. We need to remove the carbon tax on what it takes to feed our country. We put this motion before the House, and I am incredibly hopeful that the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois will join our Conservative opposition in making it more affordable for Canadians to feed their families.

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Mr. Mark Gerretsen (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (Senate), Lib.)

Dec/8/22 1:21:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to read something for the member. It says, “We recognize that the most efficient way to reduce our emissions is to use pricing mechanisms.” This is from the platform that the member ran on and was elected on in his riding on September 20, 2021. He ran on a platform of pricing pollution, and now the Conservatives stand before the House and suggest they are dead set against it. The people who voted for him thought he believed in this. How can the Conservatives be so hypocritical as to now come and demand everything but this option of pricing pollution?

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Mr. John Nater

Dec/8/22 1:22:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the member for Kingston and the Islands quoting from our 2021 platform. I would encourage him to read the whole thing because there is a lot of good stuff in it. If he wishes, I would encourage the member to steal any ideas from it, because there are some great ideas in it. What we promised in our platform was to make life affordable for Canadians. We were against a consumer carbon tax. We were against forcing Canadians to bear the brunt. We were against making it harder and harder for Canadians to afford to feed their families. In fact, if he keeps reading that platform, he will see that we were in favour of a grocery code of conduct. That was one of the key elements of our platform and it would have reined in the powers of the grocery store to make it more affordable for Canadians, while supporting farmers, farm families and Canadians across the country.

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Mrs. Julie Vignola (Beauport—Limoilou, BQ)

Dec/8/22 1:23:10 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, let us review for a moment. In 2020, the price of gas was under a dollar per litre. People talked about how cheap that was. I told my partner that oil companies would get their revenge once people went back to work and started driving again. That is exactly what happened. In some places, prices climbed over two dollars. The oil companies may have lost money, but they got it all back and more later. Would it not be a good idea to limit or index oil companies' massive profits in an attempt to shut down what is basically a coalition that drives up the price of a litre of gas?

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Mr. John Nater

Dec/8/22 1:24:05 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for Beauport—Limoilou for the question. Let us be clear. Many Canadians work in the oil industry and that industry provides a lot of benefits to our economy. It contributes nearly $48 billion to the government in taxes. Canadians need to be able to drive to get to work. What is more, it is important that we, as members of the opposition, propose ideas and solutions to make life more affordable for Canadians.

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Ms. Heather McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona, NDP)

Dec/8/22 1:25:00 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, while I certainly do not agree with many of the things the member brought forward, it was interesting. He did talk about how we could make things more affordable for Canadians. I think and hope that is something everyone in the House is eager to do. However, the Conservatives have voted against many of the initiatives that the NDP have brought forward, things like dental care, the rent subsidy; taking GST off of home heating. One of the other things that we could be doing, that we should be doing, is what the Conservative Party in the U.K. is doing. It has put in place a 25% excess profit tax on companies that made massive profits during the pandemic. Would he vote against that initiative as well or would he be supportive of something like that?

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Mr. John Nater

Dec/8/22 1:25:56 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the hon. member touched on ideas from different parties and different countries. One of the things I always think is important to do is to look to other jurisdictions and see what they have proposed. In fact, in 2009, the British Columbia New Democrats had a great idea. I am quoting from a headline from the very respectable Toronto Star, which said “B.C. NDP promises to kill carbon tax.” That is a great idea and one that we as Canadians would support.

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Mr. Rick Perkins (South Shore—St. Margarets, CPC)

Dec/8/22 1:26:27 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am honoured to follow my colleague who gave a very entertaining speech. It is always a great honour for all of us to stand in our place to speak on behalf of the communities that elected us. The debate today is about a motion we put forward that we think is very reasonable in the economic crisis we are experiencing right now, this cost of living crisis. It is a motion that calls on the government to remove the carbon tax on all those input costs of the food processes we have, whether it is through agriculture, or in my part of the world, elements that are affected by the pricing on fishing. It is important because the carbon tax is really a tax on everything. Most people are probably aware of that, but the primary reason we are having this inflationary, some say a just inflationary, type of period is that we have a tax that is applied to everything, and it is pushing the prices up, combined with government spending. I would like my colleagues here to understand a little bit about the effect of these costs. Some here, as we are paid a fairly good salary, may not feel the pinch the same way as people in my community do, where the median individual income is $20,000 a year and the median household income is only $44,000 a year. We are forced, in our province, to heat with either oil, 53% of which is oil that comes from Saudi Arabia, so dirty Saudi Arabian oil, or with electricity, which is generated in Nova Scotia with coal, of which 60% comes from Colombia. Therefore, we do not have the choice, because of decisions of the government, to use clean Canadian energy in our province. We are forced to use these methods, which is dramatically increasing the cost of living. When one has a median income of $20,000, these increases are huge. Some of the constituents have written to me, and we are all getting calls, I am sure, on all sides of the House, from people who are suffering. I will tell members what Jeff Kinar from riding wrote to me. He said that he was absolutely shocked to pay over $2 a litre for diesel for his truck. He is a pensioner living in a rural area of Nova Scotia trying to enjoy what he considers to be a well-deserved retirement. He did his time in the public service and has a modest pension income. Fortunately, he has few medical issues and he does own his own home, but these fuel prices are unbearable for those who are living in rural areas who must make regular trips to town for groceries, prescription drugs and medical appointments. He said that it was shocking to see that almost the entire crew of Liberals jaunted off to Europe while exhorting, or extorting, the Canadian public to do their part in the fight on climate change. Now, Nancy Celic in my riding wrote—

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