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Nov/7/23 1:35:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is kind of obvious. Yes, that is what the New Democrats are proposing. I said in my speech that the GST was never meant to be charged on the necessities of life. We do not pay GST when we go to grocery stores and buy food. However we heat our homes in Canada, and we have to do so, we pay energy bills, whether to electricity companies, natural gas companies or oil companies. We pay GST on that, and we should not. Yes, the NDP is asking that we take the GST off our home heating costs, even in the summer. Maybe in Winnipeg, people have to heat their homes in the summer. I do not usually in British Columbia. That is what we are proposing.

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Mr. Chris Lewis (Essex, CPC)

Nov/7/23 1:36:22 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-241

Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of discussion this morning about heat pumps. I have not yet heard anybody bring up the installation of heat pumps. There is a portion that goes outside the house and a portion that goes inside the house, and then there are pipes underground. Not that long ago, I introduced a private member's bill, Bill C-241, regarding a deduction of travel expenses for skilled trades. As we need heat pumps across the country, we will not have people to install them. All but one Liberal member voted against Bill C-241. The NDP was good enough to vote for it. Would the member agree with me that, indeed, the Liberals should have voted for Bill C-241?

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Mr. Richard Cannings

Nov/7/23 1:37:14 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-241

Mr. Speaker, Bill C-241, as I understand it, was an NDP bill before the member, thankfully, took it up and brought it forward again and it was passed. That is what we should be doing: supporting tradespeople across the country who have to travel. Any other business people can charge their travel expenses. As the member mentioned, we will need more tradespeople to do all of this work. Not only do heat pumps have to be installed, but homes also need to be retrofitted to make sure they are properly insulated. That is one of the first things that need to be done. I just finished doing that in my house, and now I am going to turn my thoughts to the heat pump part. We will need tradespeople for that, and sometimes it is difficult to find enough tradespeople because they are doing a lot of work in this regard. Yes, we should be training tradespeople to do that. There is a program for it at Okanagan College in Penticton. It is one of the leading sustainable building trades programs in the country. We have to support people going into those programs and then once they come out.

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Mr. Yves Perron (Berthier—Maskinongé, BQ)

Nov/7/23 1:38:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have a lot of respect for my colleague, who sits next to me and often discusses things with me. I would like to ask him a very pragmatic question. The proposal before us today seems well intentioned. Unfortunately, the numbers do not add up. The estimated cost of giving heat pumps to everyone would be at least $75 billion, if not $100 billion. The proposed tax might generate up to $1 billion. Where will the rest of the money come from?

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Mr. Richard Cannings

Nov/7/23 1:39:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we just had a conversation about tradespeople and how important it is to have enough of them. This is not going to happen in one year; it will happen over a number of years. I would have to do some quick math, but, yes, $4 billion can buy only maybe 400,000 heat pumps. There might be three million households in Canada, so it would take maybe five or 10 years to get through the program, but we have to start it now. This is a very common-sense, easy-to-understand approach with a funding mechanism, a clear goal and clear benefits for all Canadians.

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Mr. Kevin Vuong (Spadina—Fort York, Ind.)

Nov/7/23 1:40:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will say right off the bat that I will vote in support of the NDP's motion. I think a lot of Torontonians will struggle to heat, and hopefully keep, their homes this winter. However, I have trouble reconciling this position with the fact that there is only one opposition party that can compel the government to do anything, and that is the NDP. Instead of putting forward a motion to try to score political points, why will it not just compel the government, through the supply and confidence agreement, to actually do it?

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Mr. Richard Cannings

Nov/7/23 1:40:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, maybe the member does not really understand how confidence and supply agreements work. There is an agreement between the parties. The Liberals say they will do X, Y and Z that the NDP would like done, and we will see if that is enough to provide our support in confidence agreements. In this case, there is a list of 20, 25 or 27 things the Liberals said they would do. It was good enough for us to say that we want that, that we want dental care, pharmacare, anti-scab legislation and on and on. Maybe not everything was in there. There were other things we would have loved to have had in there. This is not what we would put forward if we were in government, but it was good enough for us. We will keep pressing the Liberal government to do better. This is an example of that.

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Mr. Blake Desjarlais (Edmonton Griesbach, NDP)

Nov/7/23 1:41:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians are facing the double crisis of affordability and climate change. It is no secret that Canadians from coast to coast to coast have been demanding action in the face of extreme weather events. There are countless numbers of families right across this country who were disproportionately impacted by wildfires, floods and terrible natural disasters that shocked entire communities. Those instances are not just one-offs. This is truly a pattern of disaster that is growing in intensity and growing in costs. I mean that. When I say costs, they are huge. Those are some of the largest costs in relation to our GDP that we have seen in decades. According to the Parliamentary Budget Office, for example, extreme weather events caused our GDP to be 0.8% lower than it should have been if we had combatted climate change more appropriately. That equals to about $20 billion to $25 billion less on reported GDP. That is funding that could have gone to supports for people, such as seniors and young people, and to supports for hospitals. It is nearly Remembrance Day, and it could have gone to supports for veterans. That is real capital, real money, that is just being drained because the government lacks the courage and the will to implement real climate solutions. On the other side, we have an official opposition party, with an official opposition leader who denies climate change even exists. That is plummeting us even further into a deficit. Imagine if we had, for example, even worse outcomes next year. God forbid we would have worse outcomes with worse wildfires and floods, and the number would get worse. It would be even worse if human lives were lost. I hope we can prevent that. We need real climate solutions and real serious leadership when it comes to climate change. I would be lost if I did not mention that this is not the first time New Democrats have called for real solutions to climate change in addition to real solutions to fight poverty. There were many times and many occasions when we tried to do that. It is not lost on me that Remembrance Day is coming very soon. I want to remind Canadians about a defining moment in our history when we rose to the challenges of global crises like we are seeing in terms of climate change. We do not have to look that far in our past to know that we have the solutions to combat things that would take away our future. That includes combatting the climate crisis. Canada, early on, when it was a young country, was seen as a relatively small and poor country, a country that could not levy resources in order to tackle huge issues, but we proved the world wrong once before. Canada can play a role in being a global leader and ensuring everyone has a dignified, clean and safe future. Tommy Douglas reminds us of a story of great Canadians who enlisted in our military in 1939 when Canada declared war on the terrible, fascist Nazi regime in Germany. For the first time in our history, we utilized the Bank of Canada and made it financially, fiscally and materially possible to feed, clothe and arm over a million men and women, and we put them in uniform. At home, we did something even greater: We put everyone to work. The government organized over 100 Crown corporations. We manufactured things that had never been manufactured before. We gave our farmers and our fishermen guaranteed prices, and we produced more food than we had ever produced in peacetime. In addition, we created one of the largest merchant navies in global history. We did all that without borrowing even one dollar from outside Canada. We were able to do that. Our collective consciousness, our united effort and our true Canadian spirit were unified in order to fight the terrible fascist regime in Germany. If we can utilize and restore our own will to ensure that we use the same resources to fight against poverty, social injustice and, yes, climate change, then we can in fact change our future for the better. We can change it for the next generation. New Democrats are calling, in this motion, for very serious solutions to very serious problems. It is no secret that climate change is having disproportionate impacts on our economy. It is also no secret that Canadians are struggling to get by. They are struggling to make ends meet and to pay the basic bills, which they have been working hard to pay their entire lives. We are talking about something as simple as home heating in Canada, which we all need. The previous New Democratic member spoke about the important differentiation between needs and wants of Canadians. It is important that we delineate what those needs are and that we provide relief so those needs are met. One relief measure is to ensure that the GST is removed from home heating. That is important because we made a tax commitment in this country to ensure all necessities would not have a tax burden on them. People need to eat and also need to heat. We need to make sure those important measures are dealt with. I invite my colleagues, from both the Liberal and the Conservative benches, to think about that critically and to say that we can do something good for Canadians. Earlier this week, New Democrats supported a motion by our Conservative colleagues that called for the removal of the carbon tax from home heating oil. We hope the Conservatives would support the removal of GST from all home heating as well. We think that is a better and a stronger policy. It would also ensure that more Canadians would have more money in their pockets, which is something that Conservatives talk about very often. I would invite them to support that very important measure. When it comes to making sure we have a plan to reduce our liability and to reduce our dependence on higher forms of carbon-emitting fuels, it is important that we utilize technology. Every time we talk about or debate climate change in the House, the Conservatives rise to say their solution is “technology” without ever mentioning what that “technology” is. When we have technology present for Canadians, like a heat pump, for example, that is growing in popularity, use and weatherability in Canadian climates, we see Conservatives reject those proposals. Why? The NDP has real proposals and real solutions on the table that could save Canadians thousands of dollars, and our country millions and billions as decades move forward. Finally, it is so important that we finance this, but we cannot finance this crisis on the backs of Canadians. Canadians did not make this crisis. They are showing up to work every single day and doing the hard work. They are trying to make ends meet for their families and doing everything right, but they are falling further behind. All the while, those who claim to play by the rules get away scot-free by evading taxes. It is time that our country does what is right, and reins in the huge windfall profits of oil and gas companies. We have seen that kind of courage in this world once already. During the pandemic, we saw the Conservative government in the United Kingdom bring in a windfall tax because they saw what we all saw. The fact is that we are seeing unstable oil prices and, currently, some of the highest commodity prices in a long time, which are increasing huge revenues for governments, but not enough, apparently, to invest in real climate solutions to mitigate what could be future damages to our economy. I would remind members that not long ago we saw massive issues in British Columbia. There were floods that essentially cut off an entire province by way of the supply chain to the rest of Canada. That had a real cost to Canadians. The impact was in the billions of dollars. On top of that, we also saw consequential seasons of wildfires, drought and serious related issues that continue to exacerbate the economic impact of climate change on Canadians. This costs Canadians real money. Real, tangible money in their pockets is being lost because these disasters continue to destroy communities and ways of life. We have the ability in our country to be as courageous as those veterans, years ago, who said they would serve our country so that tomorrow would be a better day. We have a chance to honour those commitments, to do what is right today for the next generation and to ensure that this motion passes. Then, we could have real, tangible solutions so that our kids would know we are taking the climate crisis seriously, so that our economy could stabilize by ensuring we have good revenues, and we could finally see a day when the affordability crisis would be under wraps from the efforts of this chamber. Then, we could show Canadians that we can unite and do what is right. I invite all members to do what is right. Our children are watching.

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Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.)

Nov/7/23 1:51:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in looking at the NDP motion, one of the first things that comes to my mind is that the biggest benefactor of the motion is actually Canada's wealthiest 1%. When we think about what they are proposing, we would be giving the biggest break on GST to Canada's 1% wealthiest. Would my New Democratic friends recognize that as being factual? The government has demonstrated, through the grocery rebates, that there are other ways we could support Canada's middle class. Why would the New Democrats want a permanent disposal of the GST on home heating when the biggest benefactor would be Canada's wealthiest 1%?

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Mr. Blake Desjarlais

Nov/7/23 1:52:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I find it disingenuous for a member to rise in this place and to speak as if New Democrats would be attempting, in some way, shape or form, to ask for a break for Canada's 1% when speaking to the direct need Canadians have in relation to the price of heating their homes. The member is fully aware of the fact we already do this for groceries. One can go into any grocery store today and see there is no GST on any of those groceries. We, as Canadians, understand that is a need. Canadians need to feed their families, and that is so important to their survival. The same is true with heating. We need to see GST removed from home heating so Canadians can heat their homes. The consequence of not doing that is their pennies would be even further pinched. The risk from that is they would fall behind. The ultimate risk is they would not have a home that is heated. New Democrats stand against that and invite the member to join us.

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Mr. Damien Kurek (Battle River—Crowfoot, CPC)

Nov/7/23 1:53:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I find it incredibly disingenuous that now, all of a sudden, the NDP members claim, along with their coalition partners, to somehow be standing up for affordability for Canadians. Over the last number of years, such as in February 2022, we have seen them consistently vote against a measure that would have reduced costs for Canadians. In April 2022, it was the same thing, and they voted against a common-sense measure to reduce costs for Canadians. In June 2022, it was same thing. They voted against a measure the Conservatives brought forward to reduce costs. In October 2022, again, they voted against a measure to reduce costs. In December 2022, and in February, June and October of this year, they voted against. Then, suddenly, we find that they are concerned about the impact the carbon tax has on affordability for Canadians. Can they at least admit they are wrong and maybe join with Conservatives to axe the tax so Canadians can keep the heat on?

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Mr. Blake Desjarlais

Nov/7/23 1:54:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member seems to conflate two important issues and principles in this debate. One is the equality of Canadians and ensuring that when there are taxes, those taxes are applied equally and fairly. What we saw with the move by the Liberals was to not do that proportionally for all Canadians. We disagree with that move. On the other hand, we do believe in carbon pricing, which is something the member who just rose campaigned on. Conservatives campaigned to have a carbon price that was worse than the Liberals' carbon price. When talking about disingenuous, I would say the Conservative Party of Canada, which flip-flops on whether climate change is real, is the most disingenuous in Canada.

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Mrs. Julie Vignola (Beauport—Limoilou, BQ)

Nov/7/23 1:55:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Budget Officer says that a wealth tax could generate a little over $1.05 billion per year, which is $4.2 billion over five years. That is less than the government would save if it were to reduce the subsidies, tax credits and tax avoidance measures it gives to oil companies. Why is the NDP settling for a measure that will not cover the cost of its ideas when it could tackle cleaning up the budget to fund more direct and equitable support for people?

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Mr. Blake Desjarlais

Nov/7/23 1:56:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is one of the better questions asked today, because it contemplates the revenue side of Canada's economy. I would like to suggest to the member to think about this in two ways. One, yes, there would be revenue generation from the windfall taxes on oil and gas companies that would amount to $4 billion to $5 billion. As a matter of fact, when we invest that amount of money in Canadians in terms of looking at the difference between the investment versus the impact to our economy if we did not do those things, we would see that is actually a larger amount. To put it in perspective, if we can prevent a climate disaster, for example, by mitigating the increase in our global temperatures by 1.5°C ideally or by 2°C maximally, we could save Canadians billions of dollars if we take action on that now. It is not only a question of revenue but also a question of how much we could save in terms of the direct impact to our infrastructure and to Canadians' way of life in future years. I agree with the member. There need to be more solutions to the revenue side of things, and I welcome co-operation between the Bloc Québécois and the New Democrats to find those solutions.

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Mr. Daniel Blaikie (Elmwood—Transcona, NDP)

Nov/7/23 1:57:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Edmonton Griesbach for making some important distinctions and bringing some clarity to an otherwise obfuscated debate. I wonder if he wants to take a just little more time to elaborate on why removing GST from home heating would be a better idea and on the problem the Liberals have created by introducing a regional schism into the carbon pricing program.

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Mr. Blake Desjarlais

Nov/7/23 1:57:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Elmwood—Transcona for his hard work and his incredible contributions in this chamber. To my own knowledge, in much of this, he is a good teacher and a very wise person. I am sure that many in the chamber have benefited from his wise advice. To make it very clear, New Democrats believe that taking GST off home heating is important because we represent Canadians as far north as Nunavut, for example, and as far south as Victoria, as well as everywhere in between. What we know about those Canadians and their experience is that winters get cold. Those cold winters imply that we need to ensure that the cost of heating is as low as possible. One way to do that is to remove GST from home heating. That is going to affect more Canadians, put more money back into Canadians' pockets and actually ensure that home heating is as low as it can possibly be. The government, at that time, will stand with Canadians. New Democrats, especially, stand with Canadians. We hope that the government and the Conservatives will also stand with Canadians as we contemplate removing GST.

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Mr. Kevin Vuong (Spadina—Fort York, Ind.)

Nov/7/23 1:59:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to bring attention to a critical issue that is threatening the safety of our children and communities. The matter involves the Liberal government providing exemptions for the operation of safe injection sites that would otherwise be illegal under the Criminal Code. There are four pillars of an effective drug strategy, but harm reduction without enforcement, prevention or treatment does nothing to break the cycle of addiction. There are 35 addiction experts who made a letter public that they wrote to the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions calling for safe supply to be reformed or abolished. National failures have local consequences. Downtown Toronto has become a war zone of increasing violence and danger. If the government provides exemptions that endanger children and communities, it must provide the funds to ensure that neighbourhoods that host such sites have the resources to keep them safe. In the absence of that, it is time for the Liberal government to listen to the experts and either reform or abolish safe supply.

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Ms. Viviane Lapointe (Sudbury, Lib.)

Nov/7/23 2:00:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, while the Conservatives offer anger to Canadians, our government offers solutions. Recognizing that rural Canadians everywhere need relief, we have doubled the pollution pricing rebate. We are also working with provinces to make heat pumps essentially free. Homeowners who switch from oil save up to $2,500 each year. This is welcome news for the almost 300,000 people in Ontario, including northern Ontario, who heat with oil. We know that oil is the most-polluting form of home heating; it is also the most expensive. Years ago, we helped Canadians get off coal, and now we are doing the same for people who heat with oil. We are increasing what is in their pocketbooks while decreasing harmful emissions. While the Conservatives lack any strategy to protect Canadians against climate change and are content to watch Canadian communities burn, I will continue to stand behind measures that address climate change and make life more affordable for the people in my riding of Sudbury.

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Mr. Damien Kurek (Battle River—Crowfoot, CPC)

Nov/7/23 2:01:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on Remembrance Day, Canadians honour the sacrifice made by past and present members of our Canadian Armed Forces. One such sacrifice is that of Flying Officer John Earl Stillings, known to our family as Jack, who was in the RCAF during World War II. He was on voluntary redeployment when the Lancaster bomber he was in was lost over the North Sea on a training mission. To memorialize my great, great Uncle Jack's death, his brother Blake wrote the poem Ode to Jack, which I share with members today: Your mortal frame must ever lieIn some deep cavern of the seaUnknown to man, by human eyeUnseen, for all eternity.But from that prison dark and cold,Unfettered, from its bonds set freeYour living spirit bright and boldShall soar, to course the sunlit skiesWhere you gave all for liberty. All of us, indeed all Canadians, owe our existence to those who sacrificed, from the soldiers who went to fight wars overseas to the CAF members stationed locally at camp Wainwright, across Canada, and around the world. On behalf of Canada's Conservatives, I saw this: may God bless our troops, may God bless all those who sacrificed and let us commit to always remembering. Lest we forget.

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Mr. Stéphane Lauzon (Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, Lib.)

Nov/7/23 2:02:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the people of my riding, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, are deeply committed to their children's future and to environmental responsibility. The fact remains that 450,000 households in Quebec are still heating with oil, an expensive method that is harmful to the environment. The cost of acquiring and installing heat pumps, which are cleaner and more cost-effective, is a barrier for many Quebeckers, especially in rural and remote communities. Although the $10,000 in direct assistance provided by the oil to heat pump program is commendable, it is clear that additional assistance is needed. I applaud the government's commitment to increasing its assistance and to working with Quebec to provide the additional support our families need for sustainable heating solutions. Unlike the Conservatives, who have no plan to protect us from the climate crisis, we are committed to making the transition to a clean economy in a way that leaves no one behind.

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