SoVote

Mrs. Marie-France Lalonde (Orléans, Lib.)

Dec/7/23 2:03:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on November 25, I had the honour of taking part in Santa's parade of lights along St. Joseph Boulevard, which we are proud to call the heart of Orléans. We celebrated the 26th anniversary this year of Santa's Parade of Lights, the largest Christmas parade in eastern Ontario. It is always a special moment to walk along St. Joseph Boulevard to give out candy canes to the young ones and see such a big crowd, 150,000 people, gathering on a beautiful Saturday evening. A total of 75 floats, decorated and filled with lights, took part this year in the parade. This event would not be possible without the devotion and hard work of the Ottawa Professional Fire Fighters Association. I want to especially thank the chairman, Bob Rainboth, as well as his entire team for their leadership and for participating in raising money and toys for the fire fighters' Help Santa Toy Parade fund.

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Context: House Hansard - 264 - Dec/7/23

Mr. Luc Berthold (Mégantic—L'Érable, CPC)

Dec/7/23 2:25:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what is true after eight years of this Liberal government is that children are asking for gift cards so they can eat at Christmas. That is unacceptable. After eight years of this Prime Minister, housing prices have doubled and interest rates are through the roof. Grocery prices have risen by 23% and will continue to rise next year. Will the Liberals do the right thing for once and vote to end the carbon tax so grocery prices can come down and people can have enough to eat this Christmas?

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Context: House Hansard - 264 - Dec/7/23

Mrs. Shelby Kramp-Neuman (Hastings—Lennox and Addington, CPC)

Dec/7/23 2:45:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is no wonder food bank usage and the need for food programs are exploding. It is because the Prime Minister's taxes are directly making food prices more expensive. The rising cost of everything is not sustainable for Canadians. After eight long years of the Prime Minister and his NDP enablers, families are forced to choose between paying rent or putting food on the table. When will the tired Liberal-NDP government share some Christmas joy, axe the tax and deliver some relief for Canadians?

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Christmas

Context: House Hansard - 264 - Dec/7/23

Mr. Glen Motz (Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, CPC)

Dec/7/23 4:05:13 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have it on good authority that the Prime Minister's favourite Christmas movie is The Grinch. In fact, it may be where the Prime Minister came up with the idea for his carbon tax. Just like the Grinch took the food off the plates of the Whos in Whoville, the Prime Minister is also a fan of taking food off the plates of Canadians. The Grinch took more of a hands-on approach to ruining Christmas by personally going into their homes and stealing the food. That may have seemed too much like real work for our ivory-tower Prime Minister. He simply used the CRA to collect his carbon tax, but the effect is still the same. He has removed the presents out from under the Christmas trees of Canadians and left the pantries of Canadian families empty. Here is a twist: Even the Grinch came to realize that what he had done was wrong and he remedied his ways. That is what we are doing here today. We are giving the Prime Minister and the NDP-Liberal coalition the opportunity to prove to Canadians before Christmas that their hearts are not two sizes too small and to remedy their ways. We all know that the next election will be a carbon tax election. Even this grinch of a Prime Minister knows that most Canadians will no longer vote for him and are rejecting the inflationary carbon tax, which really does nothing for the environment. Maybe, just maybe, the Prime Minister, in the Christmas spirit and all, will allow Canadian farmers, first nations and families to afford to eat and heat their homes this Christmas and will provide some relief from his Christmas-killing tax. Maybe he does not understand. We know that he refuses to listen to common sense, but maybe one of his ministers will be able to relay a message. Here is the message, so they should get their pens ready: A tax on farmers is a tax on food, period. It is pretty simple. However, it is worse than that. It is a tax on healthy, locally grown food. Annoyingly, it costs the consumer more to buy food, but that generally seems to sum up the Liberal approach. The carbon tax on healthy food is where this tax becomes even more nonsensical, but that is also not unlike the Liberals. Take, for example, the produce grown at Big Marble Farms, a large greenhouse operation just outside the city of Medicine Hat. Do members know that carbon dioxide is used to feed greenhouse horticultural crops? Big Marble, and all greenhouses, use CO2 generated from heating and operating their facilities to feed their crops. Just think about how nonsensical the carbon tax really is when considering that. The Liberals tax the very CO2 that enriches greenhouse crops to utilize their full photosynthetic potential. This environmentally friendly process of using the CO2 generated from greenhouse operations using natural gas helps grow plants. However, the Liberals claim that for environmental reasons, they need to tax the carbon that produces fresh vegetables. Just to illustrate this further, Big Marble Farms will pay over $500,000 in carbon tax this year alone. It will pay $500,000 for feeding the crops and produce that it grows in its greenhouses. Agricultural producers across my riding will each spend tens of thousands of dollars annually on the carbon tax. In order to remain in the business of supplying Canadians with fresh produce, grains, meat and other food, in most cases these costs are passed on to the consumer. It is a tax that disproportionately affects those in my riding trying to grow food and those wanting to eat healthy and local food. Let us take that same greenhouse-grown produce and compare it to the food we see in our grocery stores from other countries, which is not subject to a ridiculous tax. They grow it, ship it thousands of kilometres to Canada and sell it in our groceries stores cheaper than we do. Why? It is because they are not subject to the carbon tax on production or transportation. It makes absolutely no sense, none whatsoever. In fact, “Canadians are reducing their expenditures on groceries, either by reducing the quantity or quality of food they are buying or by substituting less expensive alternatives.” What does this lead to? For starters, projections for 2024 show a 2.5% to 4.5% increase in food prices. Notably, meat is projected to rise another 5% to 7%, vegetables will be up another 5% to 7% and bakery items will be up another 5% to 7%. Why are food prices rising? Rising production costs are contributing to these price increases, all because of the carbon tax. It hurts Canadian farmers, it hurts Canadian families and it hurts our first nations. In fact, a new food price report shows that a family of four will now pay $700 more on their groceries in the coming year. That is on top of the price increases we have already experienced in 2023 and 2022 Do members want to know why we should care at all about this? Let us start with the fact that we are experiencing the highest level of food bank use in Canadian history. In Medicine Hat, the Root Cellar Food and Wellness Hub is our food bank. It is currently feeding 4% of Medicine Hat and the area, which has a population of well over 75,000 constituents. It is a heartwarming level of generosity by the Root Cellar team and the community that contributes, but it is an agonizing statistic when we let it sink in. The decisions that were made in this chamber by the NDP-Liberal coalition government have led to hungry families in my riding and across this great country. I hope that if there are any members in this House, or in the Senate for that matter, who lack the self-awareness required to vote against farmers, first nations and families, they are reminded of this by their own families, by their own neighbours and by their own constituents while they celebrate this Christmas. Food Banks Canada's 2023 hunger count revealed there were nearly two million visits to food banks in a single month, a 78.5% increase over March 2019. It is unbelievable. With that many community members relying on food banks to eat, the NDP-Liberal members must know that some of these visits were made by their own constituents and by their own neighbours. They are going to have to face these people. I do not know how they are going to do that and justify their decisions in those moments they meet them. I am thankful that the Conservative leader put forward a motion to help them. I have the ability to speak to that motion today, thankfully, and will vote in favour of helping those in my community and across this country. How could the Liberal-NDP coalition government and the Prime Minister ever vote against the farmers, first nations and families growing our food, heating their homes and eating? To try to understand how they could even consider voting this way, I may have to look back to Dr. Seuss's book about the Grinch for the answer: No one quite knows the reason.It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right. It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight. But I think that the most likely reason of allMay have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

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