Thank you, Ms. Romanado.
What a pleasure it is to be back after 10 years. I wonder if you all missed me.
To all of my colleagues and guests who are here today as witnesses, thank you for presenting. I look forward to the questions that you may have. We may differ on some ideas, but it's really good to be back. Thanks for inviting me.
First, let me thank you for the opportunity to speak to this committee today.
I am here in my capacity as President of Canadians for Affordable Energy. We are a not for profit organization, with almost 200,000 supporters following us on a variety of social media channels and email. That following is growing by the day, as more and more Canadians become alarmed at what is happening on energy prices.
I will try to go back and forth in French and English, so I hope I don't lose the interpreters in the process. I know sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge technologically.
Our focus is simple. Affordable energy has to be and needs to remain our foundational effect on the well-being of Canadians. Keeping energy affordable requires constant attention, as there needs to be a steady push back against policy pitfalls that appear to threaten it.
COVID-19 and the lockdowns imposed because of it have had a huge—I can't underestimate and underemphasize that—economic impact on Canadians. Massive amounts of public dollars are being spent to soften the pain of that impact. Governments are using, unfortunately, the excuse of COVID-19 to spend even more, causing massive debt in our country. Our children and our grandchildren will have to pay for that, and this, of course, accumulates at an unprecedented degree.
An economic hit from an epidemic, of course, is to be expected. What is not expected is the piling on of more debt and wasteful spending under the guise of a response when, in fact, it's spending aimed at redesigning the economy in the image of the government's ideological bias.
The build back campaign of this Liberal government—and I say this as a former MP of more than 17 years standing in the Liberal Party—is all about that ideological bias. It is a radical green agenda that is trying to deconstruct the fundamental elements of our extraordinary country.
The people who will be hurt are ordinary Canadians in the millions. How? First will be through a carbon tax that is now set to go to $170 a tonne within a decade, adding thousands to every family's annual costs, of which only a portion will flow back to those in terms of rebates.
Second, it will be through the clean fuel standard that, despite claims of this government, amounts to a second carbon tax for the consumer, as it will drive the price of energy up. Third will be—I don't want to take away from Mr. Cairo—through building code changes that will make expensive housing even more unaffordable.
The question is: What if you can't have an affordable furnace in your home? What if you're required to meet a new building standard that dramatically raises the cost of basic energy services? This, in fact, is what is coming to us. It is obviously a building code campaign that I refer to as a third carbon tax.
Fourth, through huge outlays of taxpayers' hard-earned dollars on a variety of government programs that amount to picking favourites in fuels and technology, there are programs like electric bus subsidies and biofuel subsidies. These and other government actions are massive expenditures that will not expedite recovery. Some government spending will provide a temporary boost, but that will have the net effect of enriching a handful of those who have placed themselves strategically close to the government and, of course, decision-makers.
Think of renewable companies pushing how green and economic they are when you know full well that they can't survive without public dollars. Think of countless other companies that will pile on trying to find some way to access public subsidies to get their piece of the largesse. Think of hedge funds. Think of banks and lending institutions. Think here of the financial industry investors who are riding the green wave to create investment opportunities while virtue signalling with their rhetoric about how we need to act.
Our energy system is one of the most robust in the world. I think there is no debate on that. We are blessed with extraordinary fuels, technologies and human know-how, but we are now under the spell of those who say, “It needs to change, and we definitely know what's best.”
I see my time is up, but I want to point out that it's time to stop interfering with the economy. It's time to look at technology, not taxes.