Debates of Oct. 23rd, 2018

Carbon Pricing

[Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade, Lib.]

Mr. Speaker, it does not matter how many times my hon. friend repeats the same sentence, it will not make it accurate.

Unlike the Conservatives, who think that pollution should be free, we have a plan to ensure that big polluters pay under our system. We have been clear from the beginning: pricing pollution is important to protecting our economic competitiveness.

Maybe my hon. friend could explain why, in British Columbia, in Quebec, where they have had a price on pollution for a long time, those are among the most competitive and performing economies in Canada.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, I am taking the Prime Minister at his word. It is his own backgrounder that says that large industrial polluters are exempt from this plan. The Liberals are trying to trick Canadians into thinking that somehow they will be better off with a new tax. If they want Canadians to believe that they will be better off when the music stops after this Liberal shell game, will they finally table the documents that indicate what the true costs of the Liberal carbon tax will be?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade, Lib.]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. friend has spent a lot of time pretending that there is some hidden cost to a Liberal plan. What he is not telling Canadians is that he either has no plan himself or his plan is so appalling that he has to hide it until after the election.

Let us be very clear. We committed to Canadians in 2015 that we would put a price on pollution and have a serious plan to attack climate change. Only a Conservative would find it shocking that today we are respecting an engagement we made to Canadians in the last election.

International Trade

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Mr. Speaker, as time goes by and we get to know more about the USMCA, Canadians are quickly coming to the conclusion that the Liberals did not get a good deal. Because of the drug cost increases it will bring, because of yet another breach in the supply management system it will create and because there is no guarantee that steel and aluminum tariffs will be gone, workers in these industries all across the country feel that their government has let them down.

Why did the Liberals roll over instead of standing up for Canadians?

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I just do not understand why the NDP will not acknowledge that our extraordinary team negotiated an agreement that is very good for Canada.

This agreement will provide us with stable access to the biggest global markets on the planet. That is something worth celebrating.

Of course we will fight to get rid of steel and aluminum tariffs.

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am not the one questioning that; Canadians are.

Just to be clear, Canadians are the ones who will feel the pinch because of steel and aluminum tariffs and changes to supply management. Postal workers will feel the pinch too. Why? Because the new agreement will cut duties for online purchases in the United States only if they are delivered by private couriers, such as FedEx or UPS. What is a clause like that doing in a free trade agreement?

Basically, that clause gives U.S. companies a leg up at the expense of our Canadian public service.

Again I ask: Why did the Liberals roll over instead of standing up for Canadians?

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, NDP attacks always lack credibility because New Democrats do not understand the importance of free trade agreements. Liberals do understand it.

It turns out that Canadians are very satisfied with the agreement we spent the last 14 months negotiating. Why? Because it ushers in a period of long-term stability with access to the biggest markets in the world. That is something worth celebrating.

The Environment

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the IPCC told us we have 12 years to cut our greenhouse gas emissions by half if we want to avert a global climate catastrophe. This is science. This is serious.

We are not doing enough to fight climate change, and everybody knows that the Liberals will never meet their targets. In fact, Greenpeace considers that the Prime Minister did not tell the truth last Sunday when he said that we will meet our targets in 2030. He is trying to defend the indefensible: his own failure.

Will he admit that Canada is not back but is falling behind?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade, Lib.]

Mr. Speaker, what we are happy to tell Canadians is that Canada is taking serious action to fight climate change. We said to Canadians in the last election that we would have a plan that would reduce our emissions and respect international obligations we made as a country.

We also said, and in fact there was a Nobel Prize in economics given recently for this exact premise, that putting a price on pollution is among the most effective measures to reduce pollution. Unlike the Conservatives, who think pollution should be free, we have a plan. It is working, and it will benefit the Canadian economy and middle-class Canadians.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yes, we must put a price on pollution, but the Liberal plan does not work. The IPPC is telling us that the clock is ticking, but the Liberal-Conservative pipeline coalition could not care less about science.

This is like a competition: the Conservatives want to bring energy east back to life, whereas the Liberals are buying Trans Mountain with our money and leaving the door open to the return of energy east. If this continues, we are going to end up living in a desert, like in Mad Max. The Prime Minister will be pleased; in the desert, all you have is sunny ways.

Seriously, what do they find so hard to understand?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade, Lib.]

Mr. Speaker, we have clearly understood that Canadians expect their government to diligently fight climate change. Canadians understand very well, unlike the NDP perhaps, that a serious plan to fight climate change is in the interest of the Canadian economy and will create jobs for the middle class.

The province of Quebec, where my colleague was elected, is the perfect example of how well this can work.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Mr. Speaker, earlier today we found out that the Liberal environment plan is to buy the votes of Canadians. As more and more provinces bail out of the Prime Minister's failed carbon tax plan, he has decided to bribe Canadians with their own money, and today the Prime Minister admitted as much.

How can we trust the government to give us back our own money when it has broken so many other promises? Canadians know they are going to pay more taxes than they will ever get back from this Liberal government.

When will the Liberals stop insulting us and admit that this is simply a massive tax grab?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade, Lib.]

Mr. Speaker, what the Prime Minister said today in Toronto is that our government made a commitment to Canadians in 2015 that we would have a robust plan to tackle climate change. We have said from the beginning that putting a price on pollution is one of the most effective measures to reduce pollution. We have also said that we would reinvest by reimbursing Canadians the money they are paying for the price on pollution. In fact, middle-class Canadians, on average, will receive more money than they are paying for the price on pollution.

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's carbon tax is not a tax on the Canadian provinces. It is a tax on the Canadian people who do not have any more to give: Canadians who are single parents, Canadians who are struggling with young families, Canadians who are retired and have paid Liberal tax after Liberal Tax, and they do not have any more to give. Now they will be hit by this new Liberal carbon tax.

Canadians are fed up with the Prime Minister's new taxes and want to know: When will he stop demanding more?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade, Lib.]

Mr. Speaker, again, I think it is important to remind members that the Conservative Party voted against a middle-class tax cut that was important to Canadians.

The member talks about vulnerable seniors. The Conservatives voted against increasing the guaranteed income supplement to help the most vulnerable seniors. If they want to talk about seniors, they were going to raise the age of eligibility to 67 for old age security. We brought it back to 65.

They have no plan to fight climate change. We have a plan that is going to make a difference for Canadians and improve the Canadian economy at the same time.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the only plan the government has is to continue to put its hands in the pockets of single mothers who are trying to get their kids to school, to soccer, whatever it may be, and vulnerable seniors who really cannot afford to have another $100 a month tacked on to their bills, and they are giving large emitters a pass. Now, magically, the government would like to have them believe that it will leave more money in their pockets. Well, this is simply untrue.

The Liberal carbon tax does not lower emissions. When will the Prime Minister listen to our provinces and scrap the tax?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade, Lib.]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. friend wants to talk about putting more money into the pockets of hard-working Canadian families. It is too bad that she voted against the Canada child benefit, which did exactly that.

If the Conservatives have no plan to fight climate change, the good new is that this government does. We have a plan that will make a real difference in the fight against climate change, will create good jobs for middle-class Canadians and will ensure that hard-working Canadians come out ahead in the fight against climate change.

That is what we said we would do. That is what the Prime Minister announced today in Toronto.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, earlier today the Prime Minister promised that Canadians would get refunds of all the taxes they paid, but look at the fine print. Right here, it says in their backgrounder that they will get “most” of the money back they pay in taxes. Then, looking a little further, it says that the taxes will also fund $1.4 billion in new government spending here in Ontario alone.

First it was all, then it is most. Is it not true that after the next election it will be none?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade, Lib.]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. friend knows that that is not exactly true. We said from the beginning that asking large emitters to pay a price on pollution would give them an incentive to reduce pollution. That is exactly what our government is doing.

If my hon. friend thinks that it is a mistake to work with the hospital sector, with the education sector and with low-income housing advocates to ensure that they are also able to reduce their emissions and be more efficient, then he should stand up and say so.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, well, of course, we all support money for hospitals and schools and helping the vulnerable. That is why we already pay taxes. This is not a justification for imposing yet another layer of taxation on top of what Canadians already pay, but the government's own documents, which I have in my hand, clearly lay out that large industrial polluters will pay nothing whatsoever, while middle-class families will pay more.

Is this not just a tax grab to fund more out of control Liberal spending?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade, Lib.]

Mr. Speaker, my hon friend knows that that is not the case. He knows that his party does not have a plan to fight climate change. He knows that his party for 10 years under Stephen Harper did absolutely nothing to respect Canada's obligations globally and domestically to fight climate change.

Canadians know this is real. We saw in my province of New Brunswick historic floods this spring. We have seen the same across the country. We have seen wild fires out west.

We need a coherent plan to fight climate change even if the Conservative Party does not have—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Order. The hon. member for Cape Breton—Canso, along with everyone else, will come to order.

The hon member for Carleton.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are planning to raise the cost of gasoline, home heating and basically all the essentials that Canadians require just to survive. In exchange, they say, “Here is $12.25” right before the election. Their own government documents admit that these $12.25 cheques will not compensate people for these higher costs.

Is that not yet more evidence that this is merely a tax grab to flush the coffers of this out-of-control spending big government?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade, Lib.]

Mr. Speaker, I am surprised to hear the hon. member for Carleton talk about election gimmicks. Canadians remember very well his showing up at an event with a Conservative Party T-shirt and presenting a government cheque.

That is something we will not do in the fight against climate change. If he thinks that constitutes an effective plan for climate change, he should stand up and say so.