I have received a number of questions and comments from nearly every transportation sector stakeholder I have met concerning the carbon pricing scheme announced by the Prime Minister. I have asked many questions, in every forum possible, on whether the government had even considered the impact of this tax on transport, agriculture, manufacturing, home heating, potash, oil and gas, and the list goes on, before the announcement was made. All of our questions to date have been ignored by the government.
It's obvious to those of us on this side of the table that they don't actually know what the impact of this tax will be on these sectors and that they will go ahead with it regardless. The Minister of Environment even acknowledged that the government had not done any analysis of how this new tax will impact Canada's competitiveness relative to the United States, and the other countries our exporters compete against, before mandating this tax. I will quote the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change: “We have committed with the Prime Minister, working with the finance minister, [to] doing a review of competitiveness and review of carbon pricing to look at this issue, because I think it is really important going forward.”
We also still have no information on how this carbon tax will affect marine shippers that operate between countries and carry the flag of convenience of a country without carbon pricing, and, more relevant for Canadian consumers, how interprovincial flights will be affected, as provinces will not be able to tax these.
According to a witness as the Senate of Canada's energy, environment and natural resources committee, Canadians must cut emissions by some 208 million tonnes in order to meet the Paris Accord climate targets—which is more than that produced by all road vehicles in Canada.
This is a very tall order. It is incumbent on the federal government to learn from carbon pricing mistakes being made both at home and in other parts of the world. The failed environmental policies of the Ontario provincial government of Premier Wynne have resulted in the most expensive electricity prices in North America. It is chasing thousands of businesses and job creators out of the province. The Minister of the Environment must come to this committee to assure committee members and the transportation sector that the outcome of this federal tax will not be the same on the transport sector as Ontario's has been on every single sector of its economy.
The transport sector is very price sensitive. Canadian railways compete with U.S. railroads and U.S. trucking. Airlines, which already lose five million passengers per year to border airports, compete with international carriers. Small remote communities disproportionately rely on transportation for basic necessities like food. Even a small change in the cost of transport within this country will have huge ripple effects across the entire economy.
I don't believe that increasing the overall tax burden on Canadians will achieve the desired long-term emissions reductions, and will only serve to exacerbate the economic challenges that our country faces. I don't need to mention that the transportation sector will be one of the most affected by this new tax, so I think the environment minister's visit to this committee is critical.
The environment minister's contention that this initiative will be revenue neutral is somewhat hard to believe, and I look forward to hearing the supporting evidence for that. It is hard to believe that a policy that could increase the federal government's accounts receivables by over $40 billion each year can be revenue neutral. This will become the second-largest source of federal revenue going forward, putting it ahead of the sales tax, the corporate income tax, the customs import duties, employment insurance premium revenues, and crown corporation revenues.
I also think that this motion is timely because Environment and Climate Change Canada recently released a technical paper called “Federal Carbon Pricing Backstop”. I will just quote from the document: “The backstop will also supplement (or 'top-up') systems that do not fully meet the benchmark. For example, the backstop could expand the sources covered by provincial carbon pollution pricing or it could increase the stringency of the provincial carbon price.”
This motion would give the minister an opportunity to provide more detail to this committee on the technical paper. I do hope that the members opposite will vote in favour of the motion and invite the minister of the Environment and Climate Change to come to speak to how this major government initiative will impact the transportation sector, in which we are typically taking on a number of issues.
In closing I want to thank you, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to table this motion.