Mr. Speaker, I appreciate what the member had to say about the devastating effects on northerners. I come from a riding of primarily rural communities so I have some of the same issues he has in terms of people's dependency on fuel prices for a number of things. One is transportation and another is home heating fuel.
He talked about how dependent his riding is on the resource sector and how his riding needs to develop the resources it has. Earlier this evening, the critic for the Liberals talked about some of his solutions and seemed very unfriendly to the resource sector. Many of the things he was talking about sounded like taxation on the resource sector, which would make it much more difficult for the resource sector to continue to function as it has in the past.
The member opposite talked about how expensive it is to bring in the food and necessities. He talked about how expensive it is to bring tourists into his area, on which that economy depends. He talked about the devastating effects of home heating fuel increases. I think what he said was that it is not like they have a choice and he asked if it is food that they are going to give up.
The funny thing is that he did not talk about the Liberal plan to bring in a massive carbon tax. His leader seems to be shifting around a little and trying to find a different way to apply that tax, but from everything we understand about that carbon tax it would directly affect those things. It would damage the resource sector, which is so important to his people. It would drive up the price of food being brought into his area. It would make necessities such as home heating fuel exorbitantly higher. It would make it much more difficult for tourists to get there because it would be even more expensive than it is now.
Given the importance of those things, how can he justify not coming here tonight and speaking out against the carbon tax that his leader seems so determined to impose on Canadians, particularly on rural Canada? It would be bringing suffering and pain to rural Canada, which is one of the reasons why we oppose that tax. How is it that he is not speaking out on that?