Madam Speaker, it is good to be back in the House of Commons here, after the summer, to bring back what we have heard not only in our communities. I have had the honour and privilege of travelling and hearing the stories of Canadians from coast to coast to coast. In sharing those stories not just from my riding in eastern Ontario, but from P.E.I., northern Ontario and the Lower Mainland in British Columbia, I have to say the conclusion of many Canadians, and a growing number of Canadians, is very clear: After eight years of the Liberal and NDP coalition, Canadians are hurting. They are struggling financially, and some of the statistics that have been coming out have proven exactly that. Nearly half of Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque because they cannot afford to make ends meet. The cost of living is at a 40-year high. Grocery bills for the average family are expected to go up over $1,000 per year this year alone. What they are seeing time and again from Liberal and NDP MPs is just how out of touch they are.
We have a carbon tax in this country that is hurting, not helping, the pocketbooks of Canadian families. We have a carbon tax that is not an environmental plan. It is a tax plan, because emissions are going up. We have a government with a coalition partner in the NDP that is cancelling clean energy projects. A tidal energy company in Nova Scotia walked away from a clean energy project. Numerous projects like hydro-electric in Quebec are cancelled, which were lower emissions, and instead, we have this group of MPs saying not only that we need a carbon tax but that it needs to be increased. When all is said and done, in the coming years it will add 61¢ a litre to the price of fuel in this country. That is 41¢ in the first carbon tax. There is a second carbon tax coming on top of that of 17¢. Of course in typical Liberal and NDP fashion, the government taxes the tax, so when all is said and done, in the coming years, it is going to get worse at the pumps, it is going to get worse to heat people's homes and the cost of living will be going up because of these increased costs in carbon taxes.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer says that in the province of Ontario alone, when the Liberals and New Democrats are done their carbon tax increases in the current round that they have in the coming years, it will cost Ontario families out of pocket $2,300 more per year. That is before any of these phony rebates that they say cover it. They say that people need not worry, but should just pay more carbon tax and that the Liberals and the New Democrats will just cut it back to them and that it is cost neutral for them, but it is not.
Here is the part that is most frustrating that the Liberals and New Democrats just do not get: Farmers, truckers and businesses get zero rebates in the first place and they are passing that along to consumers. I am thinking that in P.E.I. where I was this summer, where there are four Liberal MPs, I heard repeatedly, the 14¢ a litre increase that came to Islanders on July 1 was bad economic news for P.E.I. The worst is yet to come.
Our Conservative plan is common sense. We would axe the carbon tax. We would focus on technology and not taxes. Canadians are hurting. They are struggling to pay the bills. We are seeing grocery bills stubbornly increase because Liberal and NDP MPs keep taxing our farmers, our truckers and our stores more. When will the Liberal and NDP coalition get what I know they have been hearing in every part of this country? Why will they not just axe the tax?