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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 337

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
September 17, 2024 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 337 - Sep/17/24
Mr. Jeremy Patzer (Cypress Hills—Grasslands, CPC)
  • Sep/17/24 7:19:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is always an honour to rise in this place on behalf of the great people of southwest Saskatchewan. As I begin my intervention here tonight, harvest is happening in Saskatchewan. We are not quite three-quarters of the way done in the province. There is a lot higher percentage done in southwest Saskatchewan. In fact, I was riding on a combine just last week with a farmer and we were literally on the last field that they were going to be harvesting for that particular year. There are many who are already completely done and have moved on. I want us to give a big thanks to them for growing the food that feeds the world and feeds our country, and doing so in the most sustainable way in the world. When I got up previously, I was talking about food bank usage and how the carbon tax was affecting and impacting that. There was a report from the Canadian Trucking Alliance indicating that, this year alone, the trucking industry is going to pay $2 billion in carbon taxes. In 2030, it is going to be paying $4 billion in carbon taxes per year on an ongoing basis. That is a 15% increase in being able to operate a truck. When we think about the cumulative impact that 15% has, it is going to be passed from the trucking company onto the people who are buying the goods. That may be the stores, or a farmer getting fertilizer shipped to his farm or getting seed delivered, things like that. Everybody is going to be paying 15% more. Who else is going to be paying 15% more? If we build that out a bit further, it will be a higher number. It will be the consumer when they go to buy food. When we are talking about food bank usage, the ability for food banks to buy food, or people who are buying food to donate to food banks, they are going to be paying an exponentially higher amount simply because of the carbon tax. That is on top of the impact the carbon tax has had already. There is another contributing factor in regard to the carbon tax. We all know about the first carbon tax. The Liberals want to increase that, and it is going to cost about $25 billion per year to the Canadian economy in 2030 when it is fully implemented, but that is not good enough for the Liberals. They are trying to appease carbon tax Carney. One carbon tax is not good enough, so they are going to impose a second carbon tax. That carbon tax, through the fuel regulations to be imposed on Canadians, is going to drive another $9-billion wedge into the Canadian economy. It is going to cost well over $30 billion a year in 2030 in carbon tax to the Canadian economy. What is that going to do to food prices in this country? What is that going to do to food production in this country? We know a bit from the Canadian Trucking Alliance about what it is going to mean for it, and it has some pretty strong words about the carbon tax and what the impacts of it will be. It said it is trying to do its bit, but the government has not provided any alternative for it to be able to do something else. It is completely crushing the industry, and there is only one place that it can pass that buck onto, and that is onto the consumer. I wonder what the government has to say about that.
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Context: House Hansard - 337 - Sep/17/24
Mr. Jeremy Patzer
  • Sep/17/24 7:27:30 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will quickly read a quote from the Canadian Trucking Alliance: Due to razor thin margins in the trucking industry, these added costs cannot be absorbed and must be passed on to customers. As virtually every good purchased by Canadian families and businesses involves truck transportation, this means those families and businesses are paying increasingly higher prices for those goods to pay for this ineffective tax. The member is from Quebec, and we hear from the Bloc as well as from some Liberal MPs that Quebeckers are immune to the carbon tax. Well, this statement would suggest otherwise. When a trucking company hauls goods into Quebec, it is going to pass on the cost of the carbon tax to the constituents in the member's riding. I am wondering what they would say about the fact they are going to have to pay the carbon tax that the government is forcing on them anyway.
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