Madam Speaker, it is a privilege and an honour to be able to speak in this House on behalf of the constituents of Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan concerning this issue.
This past weekend I received a phone call from a constituent who is very concerned. This young man had been looking at his energy bills, and he noticed that on top of the carbon tax that he is paying on his energy and power bills, he is also paying GST. Come April, when the carbon tax will be tripled, so will his GST payments increase.
Why did he come to me? It is because he is facing some struggles and challenges at home. When someone takes the time to look at that and understand that they are paying more in compound tax, they are very concerned. A tax upon a tax is just not right for the people of Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, and it is not right for the people of Canada.
Policies should be there to help us, not to punish us, but I feel that is what is actually happening. The government in power right now is trying to coerce the people of Canada into changing habits. I do not think it is actually winning the people of Canada over, because the habits have not changed and the carbon reductions have not met the government's targets. The Liberal government is failing, not only with bad policy; it is failing the people of Canada, and it is not listening to the people of Canada.
In the House, we hear about a climate crisis. When I do research and I look at what is happening in Saskatchewan and the challenges that farmers face, I see that drought is an issue in my riding. When I go to the University of Regina and look at the history of droughts in our province, I see that it goes way back. It goes back to 1910, 1914, 1917 to 1921, 1924, 1929, 1931 to 1939, 1958 to 1963, 1967 to 1969, 1974, 1977, 1979 to 1981, 1983 to 1986, 1988 to 1992, 2001 to 2003, 2009 and, people could argue, 2021. They cannot solve a crisis by creating another crisis. The crisis that the Liberal government is creating is taxing and burdening the people of this country.
I know by the physical posture on the other side that my colleagues in the Liberal and NDP government are hearing the same concerns that we are having. They are hearing that their people are being taxed way too much, that the policies in place are not solving the problem and that people's concerns are food, fuel and essentials. They are hearing that people need to provide a roof above their heads for their families, and that they want to plan for the future.
I am here because I want a better future for my children. One of the things I also teach my children is to be able to listen. The Liberal government is not listening to the people of Canada. The gentleman who called me last weekend said that at this point he would spend $600 million on an election, just to get the government out. He would spend a little to save a lot. That says a lot about what people are going through. The Liberal government needs to listen to the people of Canada. No more taxes. Axe the tax.
It is about time the current Liberal government listened to the people of Canada. That is our job. We are in the House of Commons because we represent the common people of this country. We are commoners, and we should be looking out for the people who are in our ridings, who are our neighbours and who are our friends and family, and the government is not doing that.
It is time to axe the tax.