Mr. Speaker, my colleague and I share one thing in common. We both represent great rural–urban ridings. My colleague has the second-best maple syrup production in Canada. The riding of Kitchener—Conestoga boasts the world's largest one-day maple syrup festival, so my colleague and I have a lot in common.
However, my colleague mentioned the farmers and how they are unable to calculate what this cost would be to them. I checked with one of the farmers in my riding, and he said that based on 50,000 litres of fuel that he uses per year, at 12¢ a litre, that is $6,000 he is going to have to pay in additional costs. Now we know that cost is going to be passed on to consumers. The government claims to stand up for the middle class, but this cost is going to add to the cost of their groceries and everything else.
I wonder if my colleague could muse as to why he thinks the Liberal government would be obstinate in not declaring what this will cost the average Canadian family.