Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Schmidt, we heard Mr. Bewick say a few minutes ago that Canada is in the midst of an affordability crisis. I agree. I have in front of me a report put out by Agriculture Carbon Alliance. Are you familiar with it?
I'm just going to go through a couple of things as they pertain to Alberta.
They canvassed different sectors. The Alberta chicken farmers said they conducted an energy utilization survey among their farmers to quantify the impact of the carbon price. Depending on the size of the operation, the carbon price was estimated to cost an average of $41,000 annually to our chicken farmers. Also, in terms of Alberta, the Alberta Cattle Feeders' Association put a number of about $14,000 on it, which equates to 75¢ per tonne of grain that is produced. Then the Alberta poultry farmers said, “as for financial viability, we face the following. Every $10 per tonne of carbon tax costs us significantly more each month, and when the cost goes to the intended level of $170 per tonne, our cost will rise to an average of approximately $40,000 per month”.
These are incredibly high numbers. I know the government members have made the case over the last eight years that people get back more than they pay. That is obviously not the case if you are a poultry farmer, a cattle feeder or any of the other examples that I gave.
We have this bill in the Senate right now. It's Ben Lobb's bill. It was passed in the House. It was tied down by Liberal senators in the Senate. Are you of the mind that this bill should pass the Senate as quickly as possible?