44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 13, 2024 10:00AM
- Jun/13/24 3:44:14 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, we just heard today about how much the cost of the carbon tax would be to our economy. We are looking at a $30-billion hit to our economy, costing over $1,800 per Canadian family every year. However, the only reason we have this information out is because of the pressure from the Conservatives in this place. This document that we were told really did not exist we have now seen was true. The Parliamentary Budget Officer was telling the truth.
I wonder if the member could comment on this new revelation and on whether she knew of this information, as a Liberal MP, before it was released today.
112 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 3:45:14 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, what I can confirm is that we will always be there for Canadians and Quebeckers. We will ensure that they have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink. Thanks to our price on pollution, eight out of 10 families in Canada are getting more money back than they spend.
Once again, I think it is a good system, one that is also recognized across the world.
70 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 3:45:51 p.m.
- Watch
Uqaqtittiji, if the Liberals are so confident in their climate policy, why will they not be transparent and share their economic analysis with Canadians?
24 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 3:46:14 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, we can be confident because we are seeing results. We are here to fight climate change, unlike the official opposition, which has no plan.
We are here to protect the environment and to fight climate change. Climate change is becoming increasingly costly. We really need to take action. That is what we have been doing since we have been in office.
63 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 3:46:44 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, it is being stated in the House today that somehow families are worse off, according to the Conservatives. However, the facts are the facts, and eight out of 10 families are actually better off with carbon pricing.
The Conservatives are focused on cuts, while we are focused on investments in Canadians. Could she speak about how that will help Canadians across the country?
65 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 3:47:28 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, the opposition party is there to propose cuts. This is a critical time in the fight against climate change.
I think that the measures we are implementing year after year show Quebeckers and Canadians that this important issue is a priority for us. We are helping municipalities, indigenous communities and developers to undertake innovative projects to make the energy transition and turn to clean and renewable energy.
We have no choice. This is what we have to do.
80 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 3:48:15 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today in the House to speak to this important issue dealing with climate change and a price on pollution. It is a shame, however, that the Conservatives, once again, use an opposition day to promote their ideology. They work hard every day in the House to simply promote a set of opinions that they purport to be facts.
The motion does give us an opportunity to speak about something that at I think is on the minds a lot of Canadians, and that is climate change and the impacts of that.
While the Conservatives have no plan to deal with climate change, we have been steadfast and focused on ensuring that future generations have a planet and that with the impacts of the rapidly changing climate, our communities are going to be resilient. Investments need to be made, and all orders of government have a role to play in dealing with the impacts of climate change.
It is also crucial that we reiterate this. The government's carbon pricing plan is one of the most effective ways to implement change, but it also puts more money into the pockets of eight out of 10 Canadian families. I want to speak to some facts to ensure that Canadians hear the numbers that we are dealing with. The average Canadian family in Alberta is $723 ahead with the price on pollution. In Ontario, my home province, a family is $255 ahead with the rebate.
The Conservatives want to take that rebate away. However, what they do not address is that climate change is real and that the impacts and the costs that Canadians face as a result do not go away. This rebate allows for 100% of the revenues collected in the jurisdiction to go back to that same jurisdiction. It allows Canadians to invest in some greener choices, if possible, but it also allows them to offset some of the costs associated with climate change and the impacts that we face.
I spent nearly a decade in municipal politics before running to serve my community of Pickering—Uxbridge in this place. One of the things we dealt with the most at the municipal level was infrastructure and how we could put infrastructure in place that was resilient and adaptable to the changing climate and storms. We used to refer to “hundred-year storms”, which were happening more and more.
Our plan also supports municipalities that need help to ensure their communities truly are resilient and can adapt to what we see more often. We saw catastrophic wildfires in the country. We have seen flooding. In my community of Uxbridge, we had a horrible tornado that damaged businesses, infrastructure, other important community spaces and the homes of individuals.
The cost of inaction is far greater than any proposal to put a price on pollution, but that is something the Conservatives feel everybody should deal with on their own. They do not think the federal government has a role to play in ensuring that communities are resilient. The federal government is going to be there for individuals who are impacted.
The irony in all of this is that the Conservatives know that Canadians care deeply about climate change and the impacts on our planet. In the last election, the Conservatives actually ran on a price on pollution. However, their plan reminded me a lot of going to an arcade, buying tickets and trading them in for a prize. I think there was a bike on the list, gift cards and things like that.
What Canadians can really use to help deal with affordability issues and resiliency in their own homes in dealing with climate change is cash, not a gift card for a bike or Tim Hortons. That is exactly what Conservatives ran on, because they realized that not dealing with climate change was not politically viable.
If we fast-forward to the current leader, they want Canadians to forget that climate change is real, that the impacts are real, that the financial costs are real and that our government's plan is not only reducing emissions but also ensuring there is more money in the pockets of Canadians, like I said, in eight out of 10 families. That is precisely what Conservatives do not want to talk about. They want Canadians to think that this is some sort of ideology and tax policy, when it is ensuring Canada's future. It is ensuring affordability for Canadians, and it is ensuring that we are reducing emissions in a way that allows Canadians to move forward in that work together. It is about fairness. It is about ensuring that our communities are resilient. It is about supporting each other as we experience more severe weather events right across this country. It is about making sure there is more money in the pockets of Canadians right across this country.
Conservatives do not have a plan to deal with the environment, so they are trying to distract Canadians from the reality. I think they are going to be in for yet another surprise when they realize that Canadians care deeply about this issue. They care deeply about the environment and want Canada to be a leader. If we want to talk about the economy, countries around the world, in trade and doing business with other countries, are going to expect each country to have a very real plan to deal with climate and reduce carbon emissions. Canada will lag behind if we do not address the very real issues of the world and if we do not do it in an economically responsible way.
It is a shame that this motion was brought forward today. It would be incredibly important for this House and Parliament to constantly debate the very real issues of climate change. Unfortunately, Conservatives want to pretend it does not exist. In the last speech, we heard about the fact that this plan will have a one-third reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, the equivalent of seven million more cars off the roads. These are very real results.
We are making our communities resilient, focusing on affordability issues for all Canadians and making sure that it is not free to pollute anymore. Canadians will be watching. They will see that if anyone who runs for office and wants to hold the highest position in this country is not serious about climate change, they are not serious about Canada's future and they are certainly not serious about Canada's economy.
1098 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 3:57:16 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, the member did not really address the motion. The motion is about the production of documents. We have seen the government withhold information from Canadians.
The member ran in 2015 on a promise to be the most open and transparent government in Canadian history, which would be open by default and would release data to Canadians that is the property of Canadians. Under the government, why did it take the presence of this motion on notice for the Liberals to reluctantly, after weeks of obfuscation, finally release the data? It was some of the data, as they have not conformed with the substance of the motion. The Parliamentary Budget Officer, an officer of Parliament, was actually being told to suppress information and had to resort to the broken ATIP system to get data.
135 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 3:58:14 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, the irony in that question is unbelievable, given the cuts that were made to our independent public servants under the Conservative government whenever they had opinions that did not suit the Conservative government. In fact, we have said time and time again that eight out of 10 Canadian families would be better off under our pricing of pollution. Over 300 economists have also confirmed that, but Conservatives do not want to be confused by the facts.
78 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 3:58:53 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, it is always a bit disconcerting when we have debates on carbon pricing and the fight against climate change. On the one hand, the government has clearly not done enough for the past nine years, but on the other hand, the official opposition is proposing to do even less. It is quite disconcerting. In my riding, groups are coming to me or writing to me because they are very concerned that Canada is not doing enough.
The Liberals are always bragging about their efforts, their results and so on. According to the International Monetary Fund, in 2022, Canada gave $38 billion U.S., or $50 billion Canadian, to oil companies. The five major oil companies in Canada made profits of $200 billion in 2022. I am not even counting the $35 billion that Trans Mountain cost.
I would like my colleague to tell me, at a time when we need housing, when seniors are struggling, and when people are having trouble finding a family doctor, how can they send $50 billion to the oil companies?
182 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 4:00:00 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I, too, hear from constituents who are deeply concerned about climate change. In fact, I agree with my hon. colleague that there is more we should be doing and we must be doing, but it becomes very difficult when we have an official opposition that does not even believe climate change is real and that continuously puts forward motions like this, when instead we could be pushing each other to do more and to take more action to make Canada a true leader in fighting against climate change. Instead, Conservatives want to put their hands over their eyes and pretend it is not an issue. I look forward to working with Bloc members, who take this as seriously as I do and as our government does.
128 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 4:00:54 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I would just like to take this opportunity to check that we actually have quorum to continue this debate.
21 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 4:01:21 p.m.
- Watch
We will do a quick count.
And the count having been taken:
The Deputy Speaker: We do have quorum.
Questions and comments, the hon. member for Langley—Aldergrove.
29 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 4:01:41 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, despite what the Liberals say, they actually do not have a plan for dealing with climate change. Just ask the people from Abbotsford, Princeton and Merritt in my home province of British Columbia, who got zero dollars from the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund. The Liberals' plan is to tax people, but not to actually help communities with climate-resilient infrastructure.
Where is the money for the province of British Columbia?
73 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 4:02:11 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I agree that we need to be investing in communities. That was a big portion of my speech. I take the member opposite in his sincerity for wanting to ensure that there is resiliency in communities like his that have been impacted by climate change. The problem with that statement is that it is his party that would actually reduce the ability to fund resiliency and infrastructure projects. Conservatives want to cut the budgets that would allow this to happen. They want to make pollution free again. While I agree with his sincerity around resiliency and investments, he comes from the party that actually wants to cut all of these funds and leave cities and communities on their own to deal with climate change.
126 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 4:03:08 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise in the House. I am going to split my time today with the hon. member for Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, a great guy, a fantastic guy. I look forward to hearing his words of wisdom here this afternoon.
Primarily, even though the costly coalition wants to talk about climate change, the motion is about the duplicity of the NDP-Liberal government that Canadians have sadly had to put up with for a long time. I am not sure why, but the Liberals continue to want to somehow induce scandal upon themselves and keep facts hidden from Canadians. Of course, today, the facts, as presented from the secret report, which was in some way, shape or form made available this morning, are that the Liberals' carbon tax is going to cost Canadians $30.5 billion, yes, “billion” with a “b”, which turns out to be about $2,000 per Canadian family. Certainly, this is above and beyond the direct costs of the carbon tax at the pumps, on people's heating bills and on food.
This is really no surprise. There are many, many things that the government has wanted to keep hidden and, thanks to the great work of my colleagues here on this side of the House, we have been able to uncover many of those things. Certainly, the carbon tax, though the government would have people believe it should be named something else, is the tax on everything. We have heard it multiple times in this House, and I think it bears repeating: When they tax the farmer who grows the food and tax the trucker who ships the food, the person who buys the food in the end has to pay for that cost. That is just simple economics, but good luck trying to explain that to the costly coalition. It really fascinates me, because it appears that maybe the Liberals' constituents experience it differently than those of us on this side of the House.
As I have said in this House many times, I was a family doctor for 26 years, and people reach out to my office as a member of Parliament every single day wondering how they are going to make ends meet. I would suggest that often the relationship with a family physician is an incredibly intimate one, where people often tell their deepest secrets, and that is something that I never heard in my office previously. Certainly it is not because I lived in an incredibly affluent neighbourhood and that just was not happening there. We live in a rural place. It is very average in terms of income, but I never heard that before, and that is incredibly troubling. Therefore, when we begin to hear this from everyday Canadians, we really wonder how difficult times are out there, and we actually know that they are incredibly difficult.
We know, though, that there are some Canadians who want to speak up on behalf of others, including the Parliamentary Budget Officer. Certainly we know that on television the Parliamentary Budget Officer said, “overall, a vast majority of people will be worse off under a carbon pricing regime than without, and we don't expect that to change.”
551 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 4:06:46 p.m.
- Watch
I have a point of order from the hon. member for Pickering—Uxbridge.
14 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 4:06:51 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I am rising to offer some very brief comments in response to the question of privilege raised by the member for Winnipeg Centre on June 6.
There is a tradition in this House that when a member apologizes, the House accepts this apology, whether people feel it is sincere or not, and the member for Saskatoon West has apologized. What I believe to be unresolved on the issue is the inappropriate changing of Hansard to try to erase what the member for Saskatoon West said from the official record. There is an old saying that the cover-up was worse than the crime, and I believe that the change made in Hansard by the member is completely inappropriate and goes beyond the scope of permitted changes.
House of Commons Procedure and Practice, third edition, on page 1228, states, “Members may suggest corrections to errors and minor alterations to the transcription but may not make material changes to the meaning of what was said in the House.”
The change that the member for Saskatoon West made to the blues goes entirely against this practice. The edit made material change to the meaning of what the member said. While it was appropriate for the member to apologize, it was not appropriate for him to try to cover up what he said. I ask that the Speaker consider this point.
231 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 4:08:18 p.m.
- Watch
I thank the hon. member for that.
I want to remind colleagues that, when we have responses to points of order or whatever, it is always a courtesy to the members who are speaking to bring these things up between speeches. Therefore, I would ask that the next time we wait until after the speech, or maybe after questions and comments, to do those things.
Resuming debate, the hon. member for Cumberland—Colchester.
74 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/13/24 4:08:47 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, before I was so rudely interrupted without precedent, I was getting to the point about the Parliamentary Budget Officer and his good nature once again being besmirched by the government.
Certainly, we know that on June 3, the Parliamentary Budget Officer appeared before the finance committee to say, “the government has [an] economic analysis on the impact of the carbon tax itself.... We've seen that—staff in my office—but we've been told explicitly not to disclose it and reference it.”
This is another cover-up from the costly coalition. It is no surprise to Canadians that the government wants to keep its dirty laundry hidden. This is something it does regularly, to me and all Canadians. It does not want Canadians to know the true cost of the carbon tax. Why? It is because it is a tax on everything. It is causing hardship, misery and a constant state of anxiety for Canadians, who are simply trying to live their lives and put food on the table.
In the wonderful place in and around Truro in Cumberland—Colchester, which I represent, the Colchester Food Bank served 482 more households this May than it did in January 2023. It is mind-boggling when we think about it, but what do we hear from the caustic coalition? Yes, I did say “caustic”, not “costly”, but they are equally appropriate. We hear that another $1,800 to $2,000 per household is nothing, that they should not worry about it. Food banks across Nova Scotia saw a 27% increase in visits in 2023. Last winter, it was reported that the food bank in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, where the housing minister lives, was busier than it has ever been. What is certainly mind-boggling is that we get calls from the member for Central Nova's constituency frequently, and we have to explain to them why their cost of living is much greater than it is.
The CBC reported that folks in Louisbourg, many of whom are seniors, have been going days and even weeks without a proper meal, and some children have not been attending school because they do not have food. The members opposite would just say that they would create another program to feed the children for them. Why do we not give their parents an appropriate job, an appropriate paycheque, stop taking money out of every pocket that they have and let them feed their own kids? What a common-sense idea.
Of the Canadians who went to the food bank last year, 61% were first time users. They are real people, and we know they deserve better. We also know that Canada's Food Price Report in 2023, from Dalhousie University, reported that a family of four would see their grocery bills rise by $700 this year. Perhaps the costly coalition does not think that is a lot of money, but I grew up in a trailer park, in very humble circumstances. As my dad would say to me, and I know this is not proper grammar, “Son, those 20 dollarses do not grow on trees.” We certainly know that they do not; it would be great if they did.
We know that one in five Canadians is out of money, skipping meals or accessing charities, such as food banks, for their basic needs. Two million Canadians visited a food bank in a single month last year and, very sadly, one-third of them were children.
We also know that the members of the costly coalition are the kings and queens of cover-up. Where should we start? Interestingly, it would seem that maybe it is an accident that they are covering up or forgetting things. A former minister testified about the green slush fund and had a sense of dementia. Everybody who testified there could not remember anything. It appears that this is a foundational feature of the costly coalition, not a glitch; this is how it wants things to be.
There are cover-ups such as the top secret lab in Winnipeg. We had to have four orders of Parliament, which were all denied, to produce some documents.
We had the president of PHAC brought here, in front of the bar, to be embarrassed in front of all Canadians.
We talked a bit about the green slush fund. We know that the chair of the green slush fund approved $200,000 to her own company. That is absolutely shocking.
Of the projects that were approved, 10% were ineligible. In 90 cases, reporting $76 million of funding, these projects did not even qualify for funding. It is not shocking, but we see this over and over again.
We hear about meddling in our elections. We hear from NSICOP that there are members of Parliament who have befriended other governments. This is, of course, another cover-up that we are trying to allow Canadians to see.
In summary, what do we see? We see, again, a cover-up and a costly coalition that is costing Canadians right out of their lives. They are unable to afford their basic necessities of food, shelter and, in many cases, of course, in the rural area where we live, gasoline for their vehicles to even get to work. We hear cases where people are taking on two and three jobs to try to pay their bills. Of course, with the coalition that allows criminals to go free, they lose their car. What happens then is they have to take on another job to pay for that car.
It is time the truth were told; it is time it became known that the carbon tax costs this country billions of dollars. It is time for the Minister of the Environment to resign.
975 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
