Mr. Speaker, when I asked my question last week, it was as a result of being at the International Plowing Match, which was a fantastic event in my riding.
Most members of Parliament should take the time to speak with the people who produce our food. I did that, and the message I got back from them was loud and clear: The carbon tax is making their lives a whole lot more difficult because it makes everything they do more expensive. If they are driving their combines, they are paying a carbon tax on the gas. If they are drying their grain, they are paying a carbon tax on the gas to dry the grain.
What does that do? It does a whole bunch of things. Number one, it makes exports more difficult because Canadian products are now more expensive. Who is our number one trading partner? It is the United States. They do not have a carbon tax on their farmers, so our farmers are automatically at a disadvantage when they are trying to export their products to the United States. There is a bill, which the Liberals opposed, to remove the carbon tax on farm fuels. It would be a great solution.
The other problem with this is that it makes everything more expensive. We know this because everyone throughout the supply chain is now paying a carbon tax, and that makes the price of food more expensive. What have we seen as a result of that? Canadians are saying they cannot afford to pay for food. We hear from seniors visiting food banks. Those numbers are skyrocketing. I have constituents calling my office and sending me emails every single week saying they cannot afford their grocery bills, their grocery bills are now going on their credit cards and they are paying off their credit cards with their line of credit. This is an economic disaster, and it is caused by the Liberal government.
Liberals are going to say things like Conservatives do not care about climate change and what about natural disasters, all these kinds of things, or they will come up with the one big one, which is that most Canadian families get more money back. All of these things are completely inaccurate.
First of all, the carbon tax will not prevent natural disasters. Canadian carbon emissions are 1.5% of global carbon emissions. Even if we completely eliminated all our emissions, a country like China will use up all that space in less than one year, because of a year-over-year 10% increase. Its year-over-year increase is more than our entire carbon emissions. Therefore, even if we go to zero, it will not stop any of the effects the Liberals are talking about because there is no carbon dome over Canada. As much as they might try to say that is what happens, it absolutely does not.
The carbon tax is hurting Canadians. The Liberals can quote the PBO all they want, but when it looked at a distributional analysis of the cost of the carbon tax throughout the entire economy, Canadian families are paying more, but then they are also paying it to heat their homes. They are paying it to drive to work. In my riding, people heat their homes with propane and they drive long distances to work. The carbon tax is killing them. It is making them have to make terrible choices with their personal finances.
The simple solution is to cut the carbon tax and deal with greenhouse gas emissions in another way, because Canadians cannot have alternatives. People in my riding drive their cars, heat their homes with propane and they have no alternatives. They get punished no matter what, as a result of the government.