SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
October 30, 2023 09:00AM
  • Oct/30/23 11:20:00 a.m.

The member’s question is a pretty difficult one to answer, because the federal government’s approach to scrapping the carbon tax doesn’t make much sense at all. The federal Liberals have decided to pause the carbon tax on one type of home heating fuel, but continue to increase the costs for those who use less emitting types of home heating fuel, like natural gas and propane.

Most of the people here in Ontario, as I have already said, more than 70% of the people in Ontario are using those lower-emissions fuels. Ontario families just shouldn’t be punished because of a decision made by the Prime Minister and his team in Ottawa. The feds need to expand this pause for all people across Ontario. They’re the government of Canada and they should be putting a pause on this for all residents across Canada, not just in Atlantic Canada. It’s time that the opposition parties stand with us and oppose this federal carbon tax once—

When it comes to home heating and natural gas, we need the federal government to come to the table and join us in trying to make life more affordable for the people of Ontario, not just the people of Atlantic Canada but for people across Canada.

As the Premier said this morning, this tax is wrong. It’s hurting people in Ontario. It’s hurting people right across Canada. It’s not fair to the people and we should—

As the Minister of Agriculture has been saying for a couple of years now, Mr. Speaker, it’s driving up the cost of fruits and vegetables in our grocery stores. And it’s pretty simple, because the carbon tax is applied to the fertilizer that the farmers are using. The carbon tax is applied to the fuel that runs their tractors. The carbon tax drives up the cost of the distributors’ trucks to get it to the grocery store. Then, the carbon tax also drives up the cost of energy at those grocery stores, and it drives up the cost of the individual’s fuel to go to the grocery store to get the fruits and vegetables.

This is a terrible tax. We’ve been fighting this tax here on this side of the House since 2018. We need the federal government and we need opposition to come together to make life more affordable for Ontarians.

404 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border