Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Outremont. It is often difficult to stand after we hear these types of speeches to say goodbye. My experience with the hon. member has been nothing but professional and courteous. I remember, after being first elected, having a chance to meet him. In fact, everyone who visited me on the Hill would always want to meet the hon. member for Outremont. My wife just texted me and said that she would miss his smile. Certainly, she will miss in question period. I wish him and his family well.
Last week, the people of Ontario sent a warning shot across the Prime Minister's bow. It related to the carbon tax in particular. We are here on this opposition day with our motion to find out how much the carbon tax will cost the average Canadian family.
During question period, the minister tabled some documents from an April 30 report, basically propaganda from the government, talking about emissions and all kinds of things. However, nothing talked to the issue at hand, which is that the government knows how much a carbon tax will cost the average Canadian family and it refuses to tell Canadians and the House. In fact, I would guess that the question on how much the carbon tax will cost Canadians has been asked 200-plus times, and not just in the House but at various committees. The Liberals still refuse to answer that question.
Therefore, we are here today, once again, asking the question, and as the member for Carleton said, we are quite prepared to stay here most of the night to get the answers to the questions for which Canadians are looking.
We also know that just before the last election in Ontario, an Ipsos poll, specifically relating to the carbon tax was done. That poll found that 72% of people in Ontario saw the carbon tax as a tax grab, and 68% thought it would have no meaningful impact on the environment at all. The only poll that matters, quite frankly, was last Thursday when Ontarians sent a strong and clear message, not just to the Kathleen Wynn government but also to the federal government, that they would not to buy into this carbon tax scam.
This is a government that when first elected spoke about transparency and accountability. Oftentimes in the House I have thrown the Liberals' throne speech back at them. I heard the hon. member for Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte throw the throne speech back at them as well. The Liberals talked about transparency and accountability several times in the throne speech. They said that they would be the most open and transparent government in the history of the country, yet their actions have shown nothing to that order. They are not being transparent and accountable on how much a carbon tax will cost the average Canadian family.
Here is what we do know, but they will not tell us this. It will to cost 11¢ a litre for fuel. For the residents of Barrie—Innisfail, who commute up and down the 400, and for all those families involved in sports, taking their kids to hockey and soccer, that means 11¢ more a litre to fill up their tanks. I have four children. My son played AAA hockey. I had other sons who played representative hockey. It costs a lot to travel all over Ontario and have to pay for fuel, and yet the government, through its carbon tax, is proposing 11¢ a litre more.
We also know it will cost $200 a year more to heat our homes, $200 more that people can least afford. Think of the impact that will have on seniors. Think of the impact that will have disproportionately on young families, or single-income families that have to heat their homes, take their kids to dance lessons, hockey, baseball, or soccer. Whatever it is, it will cost them a lot more to pay for the carbon tax.
In a report that recently came out, the PBO talked about $10 billion being taken out of the economy by 2022. However, that number could actually be higher. It could be $35 billion taken out of the economy.
We are talking about competitiveness in our economy, and in an era of being uncompetitive, at least on this side, with increasing taxes and increasing regulatory requirements, when our biggest trading partner in the south is going in the completely opposite direction, how it is going to impact families in a negative way. It is going to impact businesses in a negative way. It will, in fact, have a cascading effect on our economy, because the price of everything is going to go up, not just the price of fuel, as people in B.C. have seen, but also the price of everything that is manufactured, everything that is delivered, and everything people consume, including groceries. There will be an impact because of this carbon tax.
One thing that is not mentioned that often but that is quickly becoming apparent to Canadians is that the government intends to have the GST collected on top of the carbon tax. I know that the Liberals' narrative is that they are going to send all that money back to the provinces, but in fact, the GST that is going to be collected on top of the carbon tax will all be revenue that will come back to the federal government. It is revenue the Liberals will continue to spend on programs that they feel are important to them and not necessarily programs that are important to Canadians.
When we talk about the impact on families with respect to this carbon tax, there will be some who will be insulated from it. Those people sit on the other side. The Prime Minister will feel zero impact from this carbon tax. He has a taxpayer-subsidized home and a taxpayer-subsidized driver. He pays nothing, while middle-class families will be buried, and those who are disproportionately affected, lower-middle-income families, are going to be paying more for this tax. The finance minister, who comes from business and from means, will feel no impact as a result of this carbon tax, because again, he has a taxpayer-funded driver. He will not be paying 11¢ a litre. Of course, the environment minister, who we see often in this House stand up and talk about the calamity that is going to come if there is no carbon tax with respect to the environment, will be just fine as well. The ones who will not be fine are those middle-class families that will have to pay more, and disproportionately, those lower-income families.
It should be no surprise to any of us who live in Ontario that we are on a similar path. We saw last week, as I mentioned earlier, the Kathleen Wynne government, after 15 years, literally get booted out of office, reduced to non-party status. There is a reason for that. We find the current federal Liberal government, this Prime Minister, his cabinet, and his caucus on that same path. It is the same playbook of debt and deficits that was used in Ontario, with the scandals, including cash for access, the gas-plant scandal, which was similar to the pipeline purchase we just saw, and insiders making money from the government green energy program, and the list goes on and on. We are heading down the same path of debt and deficits that people can ill afford.
Again, what we are spending all day doing is asking one simple question on behalf of the Canadians who sent us here: what will the carbon tax cost the average Canadian family? The Liberals refuse to tell us. They have documents that have been blacked out. We know that the information has to be known to the government. The challenge for the Liberals right now is that they are fearful of releasing that information on just how much it is going to cost Canadian families, because they do not want Canadian families to know how much it is going to cost. The political implications for the current Liberal government are similar to the political implications we saw last week in Ontario, where the Liberal government lost an election, overwhelmingly, because of bad policies, both fiscal and social, and those that are affecting middle-income families, all families, for that matter, and we will not stand for it. We want that information, and Canadians deserve to see it.