Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's great to be here talking about the issue of the carbon tax again, but I want to start with the comments from Ms. Zahid. I agree with her that there are a lot of trolls on social media. There are a lot of nasty comments. There are horrible un-Canadian things that are said by many people online on social media these days. It's sad that it's come to that in our country.
As my colleague Tom Kmiec said, Conservatives are not immune to this either. I don't want to get into an argument of who gets it worse, but I think all of us as politicians have experienced this. It's something that unfortunately we can't control or that we haven't yet figured out how to control. From my perspective, I've always been very fair with what I've said. I will continue to be that way and communicate that way.
Ms. Kwan spoke about the way in which this bill has gone through. I just wanted to remind everybody—sometimes so much time passes that we forget the original orientation of things—that this whole lost Canadians cause started with a Conservative bill from the Senate, Bill S-245. If we recall back, the whole point was to make it very simple. It's been tried to be fixed many times over the years. It has always failed. It has always gotten mired down in complications, which is exactly where we find ourselves today.
I just want to remind everybody that the whole intent was to make a very simple bill to fix a very specific problem of lost Canadians. The Senate actually pushed all the readings through in one day to get it here. The intention was to bring it to the committee. Everybody had previously agreed to this, so get it in and get it into law. It could have been in law for at least a year, at this point, yet because the government chose to hijack that bill and add a whole bunch of other complexity to it, that caused this problem that we find here today.
I just want to remind people that it was always our intention as Conservatives to fix this mistake, this problem, with lost Canadians, and to fix it quickly. That was our intention. However, because of the government's interference in the bill and trying to complicate things and solve 18 problems at one time, here we are. There's a very good chance that this won't get solved in this Parliament, which is a shame.
I want to talk a little bit more about the carbon tax. It has been mentioned a few times today, but I have a bit of a different angle on this. Back in the fall, when the NDP-Liberal government chose to remove the carbon tax on home heating for those voters in Atlantic Canada—it's been pointed out this was a political decision that was made to supposedly protect votes in Atlantic Canada, which of course hasn't happened—there was an outcry.
I have a quote I want to read. It comes from Saskatchewan. Let me read it here. It says:
This exemption is a clear recognition that Canadians are struggling with crushing inflation and higher costs but it has specifically left out relief for the people of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta....
Instead of picking and choosing who gets relief based on Prime Minister Trudeau’s election map, we’re calling on the federal government to extend relief to all Canadian families.
Who does that sound like? Who do you think said that? I think most people would guess that it sounds like the Premier of Saskatchewan, Scott Moe. In reality, these are the words of the NDP leader in Saskatchewan, if you can believe it. The NDP leader said those words, which are essentially the same as what Premier Scott Moe said. I think most western Canadians have that belief. It's shocking. The NDP have completely reversed their position. The people on the ground have reversed that position.
I have a second quote from the NDP leader, Carla Beck, from a recent Regina Leader-Post article, as follows:
Standing beside one of Regina’s business thoroughfares...Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck denounced federal policies that have failed this province...especially [the] carbon tax.
The carbon tax has got to go. Saskatchewan people can’t afford it, Beck said.
Of course, most living here would agree.
I just find it kind of humorous that at a provincial level, everybody, all politicians, are running as fast as they can away from the carbon tax. Even at the federal level now, finally, the NDP are starting to. Because of the extreme pressure and the obvious math of the next election, we're seeing them start to change it.
I also want to point out that when our province of Saskatchewan decided to stop collecting carbon tax on home heating, as was done in Atlantic Canada, for me personally, my bill went down by $20 a month instantly. That's not an insignificant amount to Saskatchewan people.
That's about $240 a year for me and I think that's about the typical average that can be expected. That's a significant amount of money. That's just one little piece of it on the carbon tax. That's pretty significant.
I think it's interesting how things have evolved and how important it is for the government to wake up, listen to what people are saying and understand that very large numbers of people in this country—not just in western Canada but right across the country—very much dislike this carbon tax. However, the government continues to be adamant that it not only wants to continue with the carbon tax but continue increasing it every year and quadruple it from where it is.
That's why this amendment to the motion is important. It's to allow Canadians to have their say and have a carbon tax election, so that Canadians can speak up and tell government what they want. Then we can move forward from there.
Mr. Chair, we have spoken about this quite a lot, so I would like to make a motion that we adjourn this meeting.