Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I think we need to study this for sure. The reality is that first nations living in northern Alberta and northern Ontario are not of those “families who receive more back than they pay”. In fact, disproportionately it is northern remote communities that are affected to their detriment by the carbon tax. First of all, it's colder. They pay the carbon tax on the natural gas to heat all of the first nations buildings on reserve. They have to pay their tax on that the same as everywhere else, and in many cases, the carbon tax is more than the actual energy costs on the natural gas bill.
It's the same story on the propane. My own bill...but also I know that people send me their bills and show me them often. The actual energy cost is less than what the carbon tax costs. That means that 50% of the cost of heating the building is carbon tax.
Then there's the diesel fuel. Many of these communities are generating their power from diesel fuel, and when they're paying for that diesel fuel, again, that carbon tax is being placed on there, making it more expensive to do. There's a ratcheting-up effect that happens with this.
It takes energy to does everything. It doesn't matter what you're doing. Whether you're travelling, heating your home or processing something, it takes energy. Along the way, whatever you're doing, there's this carbon tax that keeps increasing and increasing the cost.
It's not like the GST. In fact, the GST is charged on the carbon tax. The GST is more of a flow-through tax. You can then get the rebate downstream, and it's only the end-user who pays the GST. No, the carbon tax is added to the price of everything the whole way through. People put that on the cost of their products when they go to sell them, and the next wholesaler along the way puts their markup on top of that, increasing that. There's an exponential growth on the carbon tax.