Pierre Poilievre

[Carbon Pricing, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, we have to do this all over again with him. The Parliamentary Budget Officer produced a report. I am going to read the title so he can google it right now. It is the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report on the distribution of costs and benefits under the carbon pricing program. He can look at page 3, where every single province that has the tax sees middle-class Canadians and 60% of families paying more in tax than they get back in benefits.

Why will he not get to know the facts and axe the tax?

[Carbon Pricing, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, since the Prime Minister introduced his carbon tax on the farmers who grow the food and the truckers who ship the food, it has raised the price on all who buy the food, with a record-smashing two million visits to food banks every single year, 50% of Canadians buying food past best-before dates and 20% of them becoming sick as a result of it. The Prime Minister promised he was going to help the middle class and those working hard to join it. Now the so-called middle class cannot afford food and homes.

Is that what he meant by help?

[Carbon Pricing, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister, just like his carbon tax, is not worth the cost. The tax is already up to 17¢ a litre, higher than he promised it would go, and he plans to quadruple it further to 61¢ a litre; this, after it is a proven environmental failure. Canada ranks 62 out of 67 countries when it comes to fighting climate change, and this is precisely because what he has is a tax plan and not an environmental plan.

Why will he not adopt our common-sense plan for technology and not taxes?

[Carbon Pricing, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I do support the Prime Minister paying more tax on the trust fund where he sheltered all of his money, absolutely. He does not, unfortunately, support his own policies, which is why he will not put them into a budget bill.

However, one tax the Prime Minister is increasing is the carbon tax on food, and he is doing it with the help of the NDP. We already have the second-highest carbon tax in the entire developed world, yet if the NDP-Liberal government is re-elected, it plans to quadruple that tax to 61¢ a litre on the farmers and truckers who bring us our food.

How will Canadians afford to eat, heat and house themselves?

[Grocery Industry, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the NDP leader was just asking about why the Prime Minister gave tens of millions of dollars in corporate handouts to powerful grocery chains. The answer, of course, is that he voted to let the Prime Minister do that. Not a single penny of that money could have gone without the vote of the NDP coalition partner.

However, we learned something else, which is that this might have been due to the influence of the NDP leader's spokesman and brother whose company is a lobbyist for Metro. Would the Prime Minister support an investigation into whether or not the NDP leader's spokesman and brother has been unduly influencing the leader of the NDP?

[Housing, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is absolutely right that we did not waste the billions of dollars that he has now put into his programs, but here are the results.

The average rent for a one bedroom when I was the housing minister was $973, and we built 80,000 apartment units at that low rate. Now the cost has more than doubled. Meanwhile, Stats Canada reports that incomes are down $17,000 per family.

Why are Canadians making $17,000 less to pay double the price for a home?

[Housing, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, this is more proof that the Prime Minister is not worth the cost. He tells Canadians they have never had it so good. He doubled the debt, doubled housing costs and forced two million people to a food bank. He brags that he spent $87 billion on housing programs, and what did it get us? It got us the worst housing inflation of any country in the G7, the second worst out of nearly 40 OECD countries.

Why does the Prime Minister always spend the most to achieve the worst?

[Finance, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, while common-sense Conservatives will axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime, the Prime Minister is not worth the cost after nine years. He has doubled the debt and doubled housing costs. He has increased spending by nearly 80%. What did we get for the money? We got the worst per person income growth in the entire G7 and the worst mortgage debt of all those countries.

When will the Prime Minister realize that the more he spends, the worse things get?

[Housing, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, is he seriously accusing me of causing Quebeckers anxiety? It is like he is saying that Quebeckers would never have noticed that their rent has doubled if I had not mentioned it. Does he think Quebeckers cannot read numbers? He says the economy is not about numbers, but rents are numbers. The prices we pay when we buy food at the grocery store are numbers.

Will he finally look at the numbers and see that he is not worth the cost?

[Housing, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives have a common-sense plan: axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime. Still, this Prime Minister is not worth the cost. He has doubled our national debt only to double the cost of housing, or triple it in Montreal, to be honest.

As the end of the month draws near, Quebeckers are worrying about paying the rent. Will the Prime Minister finally reverse his inflationary policies, which are putting Quebeckers at risk of losing their houses or apartments?