Mr. Speaker, the riding of the member for Foothills and my riding suffered a devastating flood in 2013 in Alberta. My colleague and I often talk about a simple question when this point comes up: How much tax does somebody in my colleague's riding have to pay for his riding not to flood again? The argument is that if Canadians pay a certain amount of tax, it is going to prevent a flood. That is completely ludicrous, especially when the tax is not going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Instead of spending $8 million on a hockey rink and $200 million on work permits for illegal border crossers, the government should be trying to balance the budget and invest in flood mitigation infrastructure. Have we heard anything about that? No, we have not, because the infrastructure minister is focused on renovating his office, $1 million for that.
I cannot believe the argument that if something is taxed, it will prevent a forest fire. That is bananas. We need things that actually work, such as investments in infrastructure in the context of a balanced budget. I am done with this rhetoric.