Madam Speaker, I am sharing my time this afternoon with the member for Lakeland.
It is always an honour to rise in the House of Commons to speak on behalf of my constituents of Peterborough—Kawartha and of all Canadians. I am the shadow minister for families, children and social development, and I have been pretty vocal in my cry of the mental health crisis across this country, in particular for our kids. They are not doing okay.
Today, what we are going to talk about in the House directly impacts our children. Today is an opposition motion day put forth by our leader, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. An opposition motion has been put forth by us. We are the official opposition; we are not in government. We do not get to set the agenda and we do not get to set policy. We are here as opposing members to bring balance to the government. The problem is that we do not have just the Liberals in power; we have an NDP-Liberal coalition that signed a deal that is deeply hurting Canadians.
The opposition motion that was put forward today and that we are debating in the House is that “the House call on the government to introduce legislation, within seven days of this motion being adopted, to repeal all carbon taxes to bring home lower prices on gas, groceries, and home heating”. My Conservative colleagues can applaud for that. It is a very important piece of legislation and will give members an idea, when the vote happens, where the members of the House stand.
The reality is that there are very real consequences to decisions and policies made in the House, and there are very real consequences to taxing fuel, which is what the carbon tax is doing. When we tax fuel that a farmer needs to run his tractors on his field or to take care of his animals, we are then going to have to transfer that tax to the trucker, who is going to have move that food. We are then going to have to tax the manufacturer of the food. Members can guess who ends up paying that compounded price. It is Canadians, the people at home watching this. What happens to their hard-earned paycheque? It falls out of their hand like sand.
I asked last night, through my social media channels, to hear from my constituents, because that is what we are elected to do in the House. We are elected to listen to and be the voice of our ridings. There are about 115,000 people in my riding of Peterborough—Kawartha. We are a bellwether riding, which means we are reflective of the entire country. We are a bit of a microcosm of what happens in Canada. I asked people to share their stories with me of how the carbon tax is impacting their lives, and I asked if I could read those into the record, so that is what I am going to do right now.
I am going to start with Shannon Montgomery Sundberg, who writes that she does not even know where to start. She is a business owner and needs fuel for everything. She needs truck parts, plow parts, machinery, oils and insurance. Her customers are not able to pay what they owe, because their own families are struggling. Shannon says that she cannot afford to hire extra help; there is not enough work to keep the business going. The lack of income is starting to affect her mental health, for which, she says, there is no help.
Shannon writes, “It is so much more than carbon tax. It is a whole broken system. Ontarians are being forced out.” They feel that the government does not want them, and that it “should be helping its people, not stomping on them while they are down.” She says divisions created by the government make her cry almost daily. Everywhere she looks, she sees people in difficulty. As a mother of four grown children, who have spouses and children of their own, Shannon says that she worries every day about the cost of healthy food. She asks, “Can you imagine as a mother not being able to offer good healthy food to your kids and their kids because you are trying to hold on yourself?”
Shannon calls herself “a very proud Canadian”, but she nonetheless has a “disgusting feeling” towards the whole government. She writes, “Every single person under our Prime Minister has had every opportunity to walk away and/or speak up. We the people voted the Government in and we the people should be able to say enough is enough. We want a Government for the people.”
Chad writes, “We live in a rural part of Ontario. With the current fuel prices, to fill my truck and SUV for my wife and I for one week is about $325. We spent $500 last week on groceries as we have a family of 5; [that is] $825 in one week for groceries and fuel.”
Carol Anne Grant writes that their power bill for one month is now $400. With the cost of heating their home, she says, their whole pension goes to paying household bills, with nothing left for groceries. Stats from Food Bank Canada say that seven million people are not able to feed themselves and that 1.5 million people a month are using food banks. These are people with jobs. That is what is happening across our country.
This next message comes from Jeff Dunk, who writes that he works for a trucking company and that there are drivers sitting at home. There is not enough work because people do not want to pay the current rates for transportation.
Erica's message is pretty profound, as all of them are. Erica writes, “My husband and myself work decent paying jobs (combined over $100,000) and we have two kids. We rent our two bedroom home and have two vehicles. I run out of money two days after pay day.” One of their children is diabetic. She says, “the cost of groceries is ridiculous. I am spending about $400 every two weeks to feed my kids.” That means that the hydro bill is not getting paid, or sometimes they pay just enough to keep the lights on. Sometimes the heating gas bill is not getting paid.
Erica goes on to ask, “How is it that a family making over $100,000 a year can't be comfortable? We are just as broke as we were when we were barely making $50,000 a year combined.” She has worked hard and finally has a wage she always dreamed of, yet she says, “I am getting nowhere. I am stuck in the small rental because I can't afford the rent for anywhere else. I am penny pinching for two weeks to make it to next pay day. I am tired. I feel defeated. It is no wonder mental health has become a crisis. Trudeau is to blame for that.”