Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I've been so rudely interrupted a couple of times now in making that very clear connection between the amendment we are discussing and the larger conversation around Ms. Bendayan's motion that is so specifically designed to not bring our country together but rather divide Canadians against each other. In this case, it's to divide Albertans against the rest of the country, to divide in every way possible.
I do find it really funny—and maybe this is because Justin Trudeau believes that Canada is a post-national state—that they don't believe in the idea of Canada. I find it really concerning, Mr. Chair, that you would have members of the Liberal Party who would be so offended by the fact that my story—as would be the case, I would expect, with every person around this table, every member of Parliament in the unique journey they take to be a part of Canada's House of Commons—speaks to what we are as Canadians.
Now the members opposite.... Why this is so directly relevant to the issue at hand is that members opposite are making this a concern for our country, which is a fair comment to make. The fact that they would deny the stories of Canadians to be a part of this conversation truly is an astounding revelation of the attitude with which the Liberals approach the governing of our country.
Mr. Chair, whether it's my family and my late Grandfather Kurek, who I spoke very, very briefly about, or whether it be other members, I know quite well that my Conservative team members here, all of them, have incredible stories that lend to the idea that has built Canada, specifically the infrastructure associated with that.
Mr. Chair, when we are talking about the divisions being brought to our country by a government that is so bent on ensuring that it push forward on policies like the carbon tax that have a direct impact on the livelihoods of Canadians.... Mr. Chair, I would venture back, if I could, to 2015. The conversation surrounding the carbon tax directly relates to this motion here because it's the consequences of the policies of this Liberal government and its attitude toward how it governs this country that have led to an untenable situation.
In 2015, in the conversation around the carbon tax, the then leader of the Liberal Party and now Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, time and time again, when asked about some of the intricacies about how the carbon tax would be applied, Mr. Chair, made it clear throughout the course of that campaign, for example, that he would not impose his will, the federal government's will, on Canadians and that he would not be overstepping his bounds as Prime Minister.
Yet, we saw how, even in the early days of the Liberals' mandate post-2015, provincial governments no longer mattered. We saw that the Liberals would do anything and everything they could to trample upon provinces, to trample upon any person, any group or any jurisdiction that did not fulfill their political objective. We see that very, very clearly with the carbon tax.
Mr. Chair, if I could, I'll take you back to one of the first meetings that the then environment minister, Catherine McKenna, had with her provincial counterparts. The press release, the invitation to that meeting, very clearly said that they wanted to come together to discuss climate action and actions on the environment.
However, Mr. Chair, what was interesting.... It was actually Scott Moe, who was the environment minister for the Province of Saskatchewan at the time, who attended that meeting. When he walked into that meeting, he found something, and it was not a collaborative environment, not a minister who was willing to listen, not a government that was looking out for the best interests of the country and willing to collaborate with its jurisdictional partners.
For the sake of brevity, Chair, I won't go into it, although there are members here who are different from those who were here Monday night. I talked a little about some of our history. It is relevant to dive back into the history of what led to the formation of how Canada is meant to operate as country. When Premier Scott Moe, who was the then Saskatchewan environment minister, walked into that meeting, he learned quickly that it was not meant to be one of collaboration. It was not meant to be one of discussion. He walked into that meeting and found that the Liberal minister, led by the Prime Minister and those activists who seem to control the Prime Minister's Office, had been handed instructions as to what they would and would not accept. At the time, it made quite a bit of news. The then environment minister of the Province of Saskatchewan, Scott Moe, actually walked out of the meeting. When asked by the media, he ironically said something that echoes throughout our history: “Just watch me.”