Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Premier.
I'm sorry that you had to experience the inner wranglings of partisanship here at the beginning of our committee deliberations today.
I'll move quickly here. Canadians, including those in New Brunswick, are speaking very loudly from coast to coast, so we understand very clearly that the cost of the carbon tax is prohibitive. Most Canadians are worse off as a result of its impact on their standard of living and their ability to make ends meet at the end of each month. The PBO has made that very clear.
Seven out of 10 premiers, including you, have called for this hike in the carbon tax to be spiked. They also want immediate relief and would prefer that this tax be axed altogether.
It's punitive. It's prohibitive. It disproportionately affects those of us who live in small towns and rural communities, and there are a lot of those small towns and rural communities here in New Brunswick. It also inhibits development and growth in our industries, especially within our agricultural and natural resource sectors, which, of course, has an impact here in New Brunswick. There are a lot of impacts of the carbon tax overall. I want to give you a lot of ramp to talk about that.
Also, we're hearing very loudly that seniors who are on fixed incomes—