Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Disappointingly, the Conservatives continue to perpetuate the myth that affordability challenges and inflation are being driven by carbon pricing. On this side, we're always more than happy to meet with first nations, as we do regularly. The Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and the Minister of Indigenous Services have said this in the House of Commons and in the media. We would be happy to listen to their concerns here.
However, I think it's important to say, in the context of this meeting, being a public one, that the Conservatives continue to, once again, perpetuate the myth that pricing carbon—with a very similar plan to what they ran their last electoral campaign on—is driving inflation and affordability. Those are categorically false claims, Mr. Chair. It's been refuted by all economists across the country. There is not one economist in this country who is pointing to carbon pricing as a leading driver of inflation or food costs.
Now, the Conservatives were waiting for the food cost report to come out this week, and it did. It pointed to two factors, primarily, that were driving food costs. Number one is climate change, not carbon pricing. We ought not to get those two things confused. The second is the labour market. It's challenging out there. There is a labour shortage in Canada, the United States and elsewhere. Nowhere in that document did they point to carbon pricing, pollution pricing or carbon tax.
More recently, in a University of Calgary report that was then picked up by the CBC, Policy Options and lots of other publications, the results are unequivocally clear. This is not something you can have an opinion on. It's math. It's like climate change. You can't choose to believe in it or not. It's simple. It's actually not simple math. It's complicated math, but it's math that economists are very capable of doing. They have measured the impact of carbon pricing on groceries in Canada and, for a family of four in Ontario, it's less than $1 a month. There was a good article in the CBC this past week on the impact of removing the carbon tax in Ontario and what that would do. The results are out. It would cost your average Ontario family of four $300 per year. They get a rebate four times a year of almost $1,000, and that far exceeds any costs they incur from carbon pricing.
Mr. Chair, any reputable plan to fight climate change and lower our emissions includes a plan to price carbon. Those are not my words. Those are the words of Michael Chong, the member for Wellington—Halton Hills, in his leadership campaign; Erin O'Toole, the former leader of the Conservative Party; and Preston Manning, the former leader of the Reform Party. Carbon pricing works to lower emissions.
Only a few weeks ago, we had the commissioner of the environment here stating clearly, for all members and everybody watching, that Canada's emissions were on the rise in 2015. Since then, we've seen that blunted and turned around. Canada's emissions are now decreasing in every sector, with the exception of the oil and gas sector, where they continue to rise. The most important part of their presentation was when they clearly stated that one-third of the emissions decrease we've seen since 2015 can be attributed to carbon pricing.
Mr. Chair, again, on this side, we would be more than happy to continue to listen to first nation leaders. However, in the context of this motion today, I would once again move to adjourn.