Madam Speaker, today I stand to reiterate a specific question I had asked the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, and I hope the parliamentary secretary will be able to assist me with this.
I asked this question:
Mr. Speaker, this Prime Minister has dictated that the provinces must collect his carbon tax. In true Liberal fashion, Premier Wynne has secretly planned to apply HST to their new cap-and-trade plan and will hide the cap-and-trade tax in the delivery charge. Ontarians are [now]...paying more for heat and hydro [and also]...tax on tax.
When will the Prime Minister stand up for...Ontarians and tell his Ontario Liberal friends to start helping the middle class instead of taxing them to death?
For anyone watching, unfortunately the response I received that day was:
Mr. Speaker, 80% of Canadians live in a jurisdiction where there is already a price on pollution.
The good news is that provinces stepped up when the previous government did not. We know that putting a price on what we do not want, pollution, will foster what we do want, which is good jobs....
However, if we look at the question versus the answer I received from the minister, it does not even touch on the true issue.
In Ontario, the carbon tax was put forward effective January 1. Ontario is calling it “cap and trade”. This came forward because Jeff Yurek, who is a member of the provincial Parliament and also represents Elgin—Middlesex—London, brought to the attention of the Ontario government the fact that the HST was being applied to this tax. Therefore, we already know the carbon tax is going to affect everyday Canadians by increasing their food, transportation, and anything else they will be impacted by.
In the province of Ontario, when we look at our hydro bill, the carbon tax is not noted. By calling Hydro One, we found out it was put under the delivery charge, and that is where we can find the HST. When looking at this, we are talking about a tax on tax. This is a huge concern for us because if people are already having difficulties paying for their food and hydro for their homes, we are now not only applying a 3% to 4% carbon tax, we are also applying a 13% tax on that. Therefore, we had to bring this forward.
The Prime Minister and the Minister of Environment and Climate Change said that there would be no impact, and that it would be revenue neutral. However, the Library of Parliament has come forth and has indicated that this is absolutely not the case.
We are not going to talk about the carbon tax; we are going to talk about the tax on the tax. That is the question I have for the government and the parliamentary secretary today. They have an opportunity to do what is right. If we truly are trying to do something for climate change, we should not be picking our winners and losers. Nor should we be nickel and diming Canadians.
According to the Library of Parliament and the information received, in Alberta and B.C. alone, $280 million will be collected. Therefore, we know this is not revenue neutral. If all provinces do the same, is the government willing to reconsider not only the carbon tax, the cap and trade, but also the fact that an additional 13% has now been applied to it?
Canadians cannot afford this plan. What are you going to do about the tax on tax?