Thank you, Chair.
Back to the motion, we know—and I believe we just talked about this in the House as well last week—that the Senate is expected to vote on Bill C-234, which was to remove the carbon tax from grain drying and barn heating. As I stated previously, many of the farmers I represent are also employed in other areas in order to supplement their agricultural income, and many of them have families. We know we're farm families. We know that the House talked about this last week, and that this would be a big deal—to remove the carbon tax from grain drying and barn heating.
I've heard from many constituents and Canadians across the country on how much the carbon tax is costing them. Some of our farmers have outrageous bills. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars are just going to the carbon tax, which has not reduced carbon emissions in the atmosphere and hasn't done anything for the environment. However, it has hurt the pockets of Canadians.
I received a note from a Canadian. The carbon tax on his SaskEnergy bill, which is just the heating, is $38 a month plus the GST that is then collected on top of that. That equals $456 a year for just the carbon tax, not including the gas used, the delivery charges or the GST that the government wants to charge on top of the tax. Canadians are paying tax on a tax, and our farmers are definitely not exempt from that.
We know that farmers...but also members of the House of Commons, even some of us who sit around this table, have voted for Bill C-234 to go to the Senate. That's why it is in the Senate at this point in time. We know too that the Liberal Prime Minister has appointed “independent” senators, which we know are not independent. Many of them had Liberal Party memberships before their appointment to the upper chamber. We are hearing rumours that Liberal ministers are individually calling those appointed senators by phone to tell them not to vote for this, to hold this up and to prevent this from going further, because the Prime Minister had decided to carve out special carbon tax exemptions on home heating for those who live in certain parts of the country, mainly Atlantic Canada. They see that, if this does pass, there will be more holes and flaws in the carbon tax ideology, which I would agree with.
We know that Bill C-234 would save farmers billions of dollars. Coming from a rural part of Canada, I know how much our farmers are donating to the food banks, for example. When the government decides to take more out of their pockets, they have less time and less expendable income that they can then sow into their communities to help fellow community members.
I also know—we all know, actually—that removing the carbon tax will lower food prices for Canadians, as I said.