Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Calgary Nose Hill.
As always, it is an honour to rise in this place to represent my constituents.
This is an important topic. It is not a secret that the Liberal government believes strongly in its carbon tax. In fact, the Prime Minister has extended, some would say overextended, all of his political capital to create a national carbon tax for all of Canada, or almost all of Canada. One province has refused, another just rejected it, and possibly more will be rejecting it after upcoming elections.
That is ultimately the problem, because the whole theory to carbon tax is that when people become so financially crippled that they can no longer afford to buy gasoline, they will in turn use less of it. By extension, they will burn less carbon, and that will lower our greenhouse gas emissions.
Even where a carbon tax has existed the longest, which is in my home province of British Columbia, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. Many say that means it is a failure. The elites and the experts will say it is failing only because the carbon tax is not nearly high enough.
The Prime Minister was quoted as saying that high gas prices “are exactly what we want”. He meant specifically to encourage people to financially suffer to the point where they can no longer afford to buy gasoline, and thus use less of it.
Here is the problem with that theory: democracy. I would submit to this place that when people are pushed to the brink of not being able to afford things like gasoline that they need in their everyday lives, and this applies to all of society, they will vote out the carbon tax.
This is a big part of what happened in the recent Ontario election. Gerald Butts' fingerprints are all over Ontario for driving up costs on everyday Canadians. It is not a secret that he is now following the same formula while running the federal Liberal government. Let us look at this motion as an example.
The entire premise for a carbon tax to work is that prices get so high people can no longer afford to use as much gasoline. The federal Liberal government has in its possession documents that clearly show how much the Department of Finance believes this national carbon tax will cost Canadian families. What does Gerald Butts do? He orders that this information be kept secret from the very Canadians who will be forced to pay it. Why is that? Let me ask the question another way.
When Canadians are told that the government is hiding information from them related to a tax that they are being forced to pay, what will they say in response? Every person in this room knows the answer to that question. They will say it enrages them, especially when it comes from a Prime Minister who had promised to be “Mr. Transparency”.
What was that quote again? Oh yes, “sunlight is the best disinfectant”. Where is the sunlight here? It seems to have gone the way of sunny ways.
Here is the other thing, though. It is not just everyday Canadians. Here is another example I will share from a different perspective. In 2008, at the time the B.C. carbon tax was first introduced, basically 100% of all cement used in British Columbia was manufactured in British Columbia. Why not? Concrete is not exactly a lightweight, inexpensive product to import and then transport to other jurisdictions.
What happened when B.C.-produced concrete became subject to a carbon tax in 2008? Well, naturally, it became more expensive. By 2014, B.C.-produced concrete only accounted for roughly 65% of all concrete used in British Columbia, because cheaper concrete was being imported from jurisdictions with no carbon tax. That is a 35% loss of market share in B.C.'s own market.
As a result of this, the B.C. government is now providing provincial subsidies to the B.C. concrete industry. There actually is a term for this now, and it is called carbon leakage.
Here is how carbon leakage is defined in the B.C. NDP 2018 budget document:
...industries that compete with industry in countries that may have low or no carbon price. If BC industry loses market share to more polluting competitors, known as carbon leakage, it affects our economy and does not reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
This is a flat-out admission that carbon taxes do not work because they create carbon leakage. Where do members think the term “carbon leakage” is found in the budget document? Subsidies and exemptions cost everyday taxpayers money.
Where is the carbon leakage exemption for the average hard-working Canadian family? We all know there is no carbon tax exemption or relief for anything. Heck, the current Liberal government will not even tell people how much it will cost them. This is why the member for Carleton has put this motion forward.
What is this Prime Minister afraid of? Is he afraid that if Canadians learn the true costs of his carbon tax, they might not vote for him in the next election? Is he worried his brand might take another hit at the polls? Surely, for a Liberal government whose number one favourite talking point is that the environment and the economy go hand in hand, one would think the Liberals would be proud to release the true costs of what they say will save the environment. This Prime Minister tells us that the carbon tax is necessary to save the environment, yet when we ask how much greenhouse-gas emissions will actually be reduced because of his carbon tax, he cannot say.
To recap, Canadians are basically being told that yes, the Liberals are making them pay a carbon tax; no, they will not tell them how much it will cost them, and no, they cannot tell them how much it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions either. Seriously, is it any wonder a growing number of Canadians are opposing and rejecting this carbon tax? Most of them have never even heard of carbon leakage or the fact that large-scale industrial greenhouse gas emitters are increasingly getting an exemption or a subsidy from the carbon tax while there is nothing for the average Canadian.
Fortunately, in this case we know that the Office of the Information Commissioner has now launched an investigation to determine why the data about the financial costs of a carbon tax per household are not being released to Canadians. We also know that this Prime Minister does not have a super-stellar record with independent officers of Parliament, typically because he believes he can do whatever he wants without consequence and regardless of the rules.
In this case, there is what is right and what is wrong. If the members of the current Liberal government believe strongly in their carbon tax, and I believe that many of them strongly do, then they should not be afraid to tell Canadians what the Department of Finance officials believe this carbon tax will cost them. That is the right thing to do. Sadly, all we know is that the government has once again whipped its members into doing precisely what Mr. Butts wants them to do, and that is to hide the cost of the carbon tax from Canadians.
I do not really believe members on the government side do not see the problem with hiding the most basic information from Canadians on a signature policy from this Prime Minister. We can only surmise that the information is being hidden because the Prime Minister has his own reasons to do so. I suppose if the current Liberal government wants to hide the true cost of its policies from Canadians who are left to pay the bills, so be it.
I disagree with that type of governance. I would encourage all members of this place to send a message to this Prime Minister and his inner circle, asking them to be that ray of sunshine, to serve as the disinfectant, to provide transparency, and to support this motion from the hon. member for Carleton.
These are important debates. Let us not shy away from sharing the information and then letting Canadians pick a side. When people are told what the situation is, given the information so they can digest it, and hear from both views, they are in the best position to make that choice. Every election cycle, we trust them to make the right choice. I believe the people are never wrong. What is wrong with letting the people of this House and of this country have that information, and letting them decide whom they want to believe and which policy is in our national interest?