Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that.
I can appreciate a number of the comments being made around this table, particularly those by my colleagues Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Waugh. I believe both of them made really good points with regard to the carbon tax and the impact it's having on Canadians.
Mr. Waugh listed almost a dozen festivals and celebrations that are being cancelled or have been cancelled because money just isn't available. If we were to tap into that further, we would see that the reason money isn't available is that there are no individuals showing up at these things. There's a lack of demand. It's not a lack of want; it's a lack of demand.
To clarify, then, I'll say that Canadians want these things. They want to engage in cultural activities. With regard to Mr. Champoux's point, Canadians want to celebrate their culture, their tradition and their way of life, whatever that might be. There's a whole host of things within that. However, when they don't have the income to be able to participate in those activities, it results in a lack of demand. Again, the want is significant, but the demand is not. As a result, we're seeing these things being cancelled.
With regard to Mr. Lawrence's point, the carbon tax has a significant impact on the disposable income of a home and on people's ability to be able to afford activities within the realm of arts and culture. Instead of being able to engage in these activities, which tend to be a lot of fun and, as Mr. Lawrence said, provide the “why” to life, too many people are stressed out and concerned about affordability issues. We have literally millions of people in this country lining up at food banks every single month. We're told that we can expect another million to be added to that lineup in this coming year of 2024, in the months ahead of us. The reason is that Canadians are struggling to be able to pay their rents, to put fuel in their vehicles, to put food on their tables and to pay for other activities, such as putting their children in sports or the arts.
This is a problem. This is a really big problem. It is appropriate for this committee, then, to take that under consideration and to care about Canadians in this way. That is the reason for the motion that we've moved here today.