Thanks, Chair.
As I said at the beginning of the committee, I want to move my second motion. This has already been put on notice.
Given that four premiers have written to this committee requesting to appear in relation to the April 1st carbon tax hike, and seven out of ten premiers, representing 70% of Canadians, have voiced their opposition to the carbon tax, the committee invite premiers Furey, King, Houston, Ford, and Kinew to appear at the Standing Committee on Finance within two weeks of the adoption of this motion; and
Furthermore, the committee prioritize hearings with the premiers above all other business.
I am hoping we can get to a vote quickly on this, but as a brief background, these premiers wrote to the finance committee to appear the week of March 25. They wanted to call on the Prime Minister to spike that April 1 hike, as our common-sense Conservative leader has been calling for as well.
I will note that one of those premiers was a Liberal premier, Andrew Furey. Premiers Houston, Higgs, Moe and Smith wanted to speak at this committee, and our chair ignored that request on April 1.
The Prime Minister ignored those premiers and 70% of Canadians and he did not freeze the carbon tax scam. He ended up increasing it 23%, making the cost of gas, groceries and home heating even more expensive, as we see.
This is just on the pathway for them to quadruple this carbon tax. As we know, it's causing so much pain. We see too many Canadians going to food banks in a single month, and a million more are projected to. It's only going to make things even worse.
I would just note that the chair does have the ability to call a meeting unilaterally. On page 1095 of House of Commons Procedure and Practice, third edition, it states:
Committee members are convened, that is, called together for the purpose of meeting, by the Chair, acting either on a decision made by the committee or on his or her own authority.
These premiers were calling on our chair. Our chair ignored those requests.
The OGGO chair stepped up and listened to the calls of the premiers and called three of them, including the Parliamentary Budget Officer, who I will note also confirmed in that committee that the carbon tax scam leaves a majority of families worse off. Once again he said that in that committee, so thanks to him for showing up on the committee's request.
We believe it's important that the premiers, whose provinces have the federal carbon tax, have an opportunity to appear and voice their concerns about the carbon tax.
I'll leave it there. Thank you.