Senator Housakos: Government leader, I’m not using any talking points. This is a place of Parliament, and there is an existential crisis facing Canadians. We’re trying to engage in a debate to come to some conclusion about what the government needs to do. Before we figure out what government needs to do, we need to figure out if what the government has been doing is successful.

The inflation rate in 2015 was 1.13%. I will invite you to go back and visit the inflation rate throughout the period of 2006 to 2015. That’s not a talking point. These are statistical facts. I invite you to see the incremental growth and explosion in inflation over the last seven years.

Will you answer a very simple question? Given the facts that the inflation rate has gone up seven times — multiple times — by several hundred per cent compared to 7 or 10 years ago, would you say that it is a reflection of a failure over the last seven years of this government in dealing with keeping inflation at a reasonable rate? It’s a simple question.

Senator Gold: And the simple answer is no.

Hon. Leo Housakos: Government leader, I have a simple question and it is, of course, a follow-up question about what we have been talking about the last couple of weeks: the challenge that Canadians are having with the cost of living. Young families, poor families and middle-class families are struggling, and the only people getting richer under this inflationary tidal wave under your government are wealthy people.

The question I have for you, government leader, is a simple one: Can you tell us what the inflation rate is today in 2022 in Canada, and what the inflation rate was in 2015 in Canada?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): We do agree, of course, that seniors are an important and valuable part of our community. We owe them the respect that they deserve and that they have afforded us who have come after them.

This is not a punitive measure. The carbon tax that is coming into effect in the provinces that you mentioned, first of all, is a function of the fact that those provinces have chosen in the exercise of their own jurisdiction to not put into place an adequate carbon pricing or equivalent regime.

Second, as I’ve mentioned on many occasions, the measures that will be put in place in those provinces are also accompanied by rebates to individuals and families of a significant amount of money. At the end of the day, the carbon pricing that is put into place in those provinces that do not have their own plan is one that is necessary to address climate change, and it is one that protects Canadians from the full impacts of that on their daily lives.

Senator Gold: Thank you for your question. We do want the same things, and this government disagrees with the opposition on the best way to get there. The government believes that the price on pollution — the carbon tax — is, in fact, the best way to go forward, and the government is also of the view that the subsidies that are going directly to families in those jurisdictions in which the tax is imposed is also a fair way to mitigate the impact of it.

The government is always considering and reconsidering the policy instruments that it uses. That’s what a responsible government does.

Hon. Raymonde Gagné (Legislative Deputy to the Government Representative in the Senate): Honourable senators, with leave of the Senate and notwithstanding rule 5-13(2), I move :

That the Senate do now adjourn.

Senator Gold: I don’t have the number of other countries that are using this particular method and approach.

I will underline — as I have done on many other occasions, and as all senators know — that, of all the different measures to address climate change, carbon tax is the one most supported by most economists around the world because it uses market forces and is, in that regard, the most likely to succeed and the least disruptive, as compared to others.

Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): My question is also for the Leader of the Government.

According to this year’s Climate Change Performance Index published during COP 27, Canada ranks 58 out of 63 countries when it comes to protecting the climate, even trailing behind China and the United States. After seven years of Liberal rule and seven years of carbon taxes, Canada is number 58.

Senator Gold, when will the Liberal-NDP government finally admit that their climate change plan is not working and that taxing Canadians more and more will not do anything positive for the planet?

The Hon. the Speaker: Is leave granted, honourable senators?

Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!

[Translation]

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I wish to draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of Miranda Rosin, Richard Ireland, Bill Given, Leslie Bruce and Ken Cretney. They are the guests of the Honourable Senator Sorensen.

On behalf of all honourable senators, I welcome you to the Senate of Canada.

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I wish to draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of Shannon Cornelsen. She is the guest of the Honourable Senator Simons.

On behalf of all honourable senators, I welcome you to the Senate of Canada.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for the question.

Any product or technology that will assist producers to do their part to reduce emissions is welcome. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I will make inquiries and report back as quickly as I can.

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Senator Gold, in a recent email from CMHC, they noted that “CMHC exists for a single reason: to make housing affordable for everyone in Canada.”

Yet under your government’s watch, housing prices in Canada have more than doubled over the last six years. Would you not agree, then, Senator Gold, that means your government has been a spectacular failure on this file?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): No, I do not agree, Senator Plett. I guess it remains my duty to remind the Senate yet again of the shared jurisdiction on housing between provinces and municipalities, to say nothing of the role of the private sector. I may also remind this chamber of the many measures that the government is doing through its spending power and in collaboration with the provinces and territories to support the creation of new housing and to support those who are seeking to enter the housing market or to pay their rent.

Some Hon. Senators: Hear, hear.

Senator Pate: Thank you for that, Senator Gold.

Given the shortcomings of Bill C-5 and the reality that the 20 individuals granted conviction reviews over the past decades were all men — only one of whom was Black and one of whom was Indigenous — what measures in particular will be implemented from the recommendations that you mentioned in the report commissioned by the Minister of Justice and completed by the Honourable Harry LaForme and the Honourable Juanita Westmoreland-Traoré?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for the question. Respectfully, it’s the position of the government that the assertion and assumption is incorrect.

Canada and this government has put into place a serious, responsible climate action plan that includes many features, one of which is the price on pollution. It is a market-driven mechanism that works to create incentives and disincentives for companies to do their part. It takes time for these things to take effect.

The government remains convinced that the measures that it has put in place — of which this is one of a large suite of measures — is the right thing to do for Canada, for our economy and, indeed, for the planet.

Senator Plett: Leader, whenever your government is pressed on this or other issues, we always hear your talking points. They’re always about your compassion for those who are experiencing hardship and the ways in which you claim to be supporting them. But raising taxes on a vulnerable population at a time when they are having trouble putting food on the table — in other words, pouring salt on an open wound — is not compassion, Senator Gold.

I know that while we may disagree on how to get there, we both are ultimately after the same outcome, which is to serve Canadians in the best way possible. Would you not agree, Senator Gold, that this tax hike is making the situation even worse? Will your government at least commit to reconsidering this tax hike?