I will just be very brief.
I would say that we're all concerned about the cost of living crisis that Canadians and students are facing. I would suggest that the biggest part of that is in the housing department. With students, we also have tuition. Because of the decline in federal and provincial funding for post-secondary education, which I talked about earlier, we've seen a rise in tuition. Tuition is about 10 times what it was when I was in university. Food has been going up too.
However, when we talk about the carbon tax, the big increase in fuel prices.... Gas has gone up by about one dollar a litre in British Columbia over the last three years. The carbon tax has gone up seven cents. Over 90% of that increase that farmers and everybody are facing is because of excess profits in the oil and gas sector. The Conservatives never mention their friends in the oil and gas sector and all the money they're making now. The same goes for the big players in the grocery sector and the excess profits there. That's what's driving that inflation, so that covers that.
Should we be studying this in this committee or should we even be talking about it in this committee? No. I think we should suggest to our colleagues in the finance committee or the environment committee that this would be a great study. I'd like to get all the facts, because I think the Conservatives wouldn't be happy with the facts.
I will just leave it there. I would just say let's vote on this.
