44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 16, 2023 10:00AM
- Feb/16/23 2:14:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, Canadians are out of money and they cannot afford to eat or to heat or house themselves. In fact, a recent StatsCan report found that a quarter of Canadians are not able to cover an unexpected expense of $500, yet the Liberal government continues to pile on new taxes, hike up existing taxes and double down on its wasteful spending, which fuels high inflation and drives up the cost of everything.
This April 1, taxes on Canadian-made wines, beers and spirits are going up 6.3% and gas prices are set to rise 14 cents a litre. The Liberals want to triple the carbon tax. They call it an environmental plan, but it has done nothing to reduce emissions. It is simply another Liberal tax that steals hard-earned money from Canadians' pockets and gives it to the government. Canadians are suffering and they need our help, not more Liberal tax increases.
Canadians can count on Conservatives to deliver to them the hope they need. They can count on us so they can keep the heat on and take the tax off.
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- Feb/16/23 2:34:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the minister continues to peddle misinformation. His own budget watchdog has proved that Canadians get less in their pockets than what they have to pay for this failed carbon tax. He has missed every single emissions-reduction target that he set for himself, and emissions have gone up. That sounds like a failed tax plan to me.
When will he stop with the misinformation, stop the virtue signalling and axe the failed carbon tax so Canadians can keep the heat on?
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- Feb/16/23 2:34:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have been Minister of Environment and Climate Change for a year and emissions are down 9% below 2005 levels. Let us keep going. If I may quote again, the premier of New Brunswick, Premier Higgs, talking about—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Feb/16/23 2:35:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, I have been Minister of the Environment and Climate Change for a year and our emissions are down 9% below 2005 levels.
Let us keep going. I will quote, again, the premier of New Brunswick, Premier Higgs, who decided to go with the federal pricing system. He said, “What this does right now is provide relief.” We can fight climate change and support Canadians. We agree with the premier of New Brunswick.
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- Feb/16/23 2:37:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will say it for a third time today in this House. Emissions pollution under our watch is down 9% below 2005 levels, on our way to reducing them by at least 40% by 2030. Methane emissions are down in the oil and gas sector and sales of electric vehicles—
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- Feb/16/23 2:44:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have finally admitted failure. We all know that their carbon tax is not an environmental plan but simply a tax plan. Today, they have admitted that their real plan; the only way that they were able to reduce emissions was because of COVID. The Liberals' carbon tax will cost farmers up to $150,000 a year. That cost is crippling to a family farm.
It has been eight years. For the sake of Canada's farmers and all Canadians, will those Liberals finally axe the tax?
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- Feb/16/23 6:22:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to be here tonight to address some of the concerns raised by my friend opposite.
This is probably a point of order for later, but there was nothing about leafcutter bees in the member's question. If there happened to be something about leafcutter bees in April when he originally asked the question, I am sure the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food would have loved to be here tonight to address it. I have not prepared a detailed statement on leafcutter bees. My apologies to my friend opposite, but I will address the carbon price.
I would like to thank my friend from Bow River for the opportunity to speak on that particular topic. To be thorough, I have prepared a record of speeches I have given on the subject of global inflation and carbon pricing in the last five months. It includes 14 speeches in 2022 since September, one two weeks ago and one two days ago. I can make those 16 speeches available to him, and he can follow up with me if he has any further questions on that topic.
I think it is important for my friend's constituents to know that even though his Conservative Party refused to pass a resolution acknowledging that climate change is real, he in fact did campaign for a price on pollution in the last election. Unlike our government's plan, which is revenue-neutral, fights climate change, supports farmers and makes life more affordable for eight out of 10 Canadian families, his plan actually costs more, does less and forces all Canadians to adopt a government-controlled bank account allowing his Conservative Party to dictate what someone can or cannot spend their money on. I know that sounds outrageous, but it is very real. I encourage all residents in Bow River to look it up.
Inflation is also real, and it is important that we take action to reduce it. My friend probably wants everyone to think that the main cause of inflation is our price on pollution, but that does not really pass the smell test. In British Columbia, we have had a price on pollution since 2008, but there was no record inflation between 2008 and 2021. In fact, if we look at B.C. generally, not only were we the first province to implement a price on pollution, but we had the fastest-growing economy in the country at the same time. Part of that story is the fact that clean tech companies, including in agriculture, are disproportionately located in British Columbia, generating tens of thousands of good, sustainable jobs and generating billions of dollars in annual revenue.
A September 2020 report on the economic impact of the agriculture sector in B.C. showed that farm cash receipts from 2015 to 2018 actually increased 4% annually and 12% in 2019. That is more than $3.8 billion per year in revenue for farms. The same report highlighted improved trade agreements made by our government as a significant opportunity to improve profits and grow employment in the agricultural sector. That same report, ironically given the context of tonight's debate, also listed climate change as the number one threat to farmers.
The member opposite ignores the fact that we have exempted gas and diesel for farm use from our backstop pollution price, which accounts for nearly 97% of on-farm GHG emissions. We also return the proceeds of the price on pollution to farmers, something the Conservatives actually voted against. That measure has returned more than $120 million to farmers in the last year alone. We have also invested $1.5 billion to support farmers' efforts to reduce GHG emissions, and we have tripled the size of the agricultural clean technology program, with a further investment of $329 million in the last budget.
Farmers need a real plan to fight climate change and to grow farm profits, and that is exactly what our government is doing. The problem with ignoring the facts or making improper assumptions is that it usually forces people to make bad policy decision. I suspect that is what is happening within the Conservative caucus, and the official opposition continues to put forward reckless policy as a result.
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