Mr. Speaker, the debate is a tough one, because we were told about the original plan that there would be a $250 cheque to certain Canadians, not to the people most in need but to people who worked in 2023, which would not include many people living on very fixed and small incomes, people on disability benefits and seniors.
We were the first party to notice that it was not a fair plan. On November 22 we put out a statement asking how we could give a cheque of $250 to some Canadians but fail to notice that it would not apply to retired Canadians living on a fixed income and would not apply to people living on disability benefits.
After all the time that we have in the House called for a Canada disability tax benefit, it has still not been delivered, and the $250 cheque was dangled out there. We do not know where it has gone now, because in the last 24 hours it has crystallized that we were going to be debating in this place and fast-tracking only a GST tax holiday on only certain goods that would qualify as necessities. Furthermore, it would be for only a two-month period on and around Christmas. It would be at a cost of $1.6 billion from the treasury of Canada.
It is a tough issue. It is less difficult now that the government has pulled away the $250 that should have been targeted at people who need it most. Who knows? Maybe it will come back to us in some other form, but there is something about it. I struggle with it. I probably have to say, knowing how much Canadians need a break right now, that I do not know that I can vote against a GST tax holiday on certain goods over a two-month period.
However, I have to say that it makes me feel queasy. It makes me feel as if I am voting for something that Doug Ford would have come up with. In fact I think Doug Ford did come up with it, and it is not good policy. Whether it is good politics, we will see.
It would be a GST tax break on certain items. I heard earlier from a Conservative in this place that it would apply to jigsaw puzzles, and I thought, “Well, we do not have to worry about that.” We have all seen the Conservative commercials. We know the leader of the official opposition has jigsaw puzzles. We get to see them on TV quite a lot.
It is not good policy when it is not targeted to people who need it the most, and it is not good policy when it is $1.6 billion without the government's saying it is going to pay for it with an excess profit tax on the big grocery stores and their corporate management and corporate greed. It is not good policy when we do not say that we are going to actually pay for the GST tax holiday by finally applying an excess profit tax on big oil and the obscene levels of corporate profits they have been making, especially since Putin invaded Ukraine, which amounts essentially to war profiteering by big oil.
Therefore we struggle with this, and as Greens we struggle with it, because we know Canadians need a break on things that are essentials, but there is a very complicated list of what would be considered essential and what would not.
The break would also not be permanent. We look at it as a two-month break over the holidays. It is transparently a vote-buying scheme. Would it deliver relief to people who need it the most right now? It certainly would be of benefit.
I think of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. It is very clear that the retail sector does not see that the tax holiday would help it a lot through the Christmas season. However, it would help restaurants with respect to both in-restaurant meals and takeaways, and that is a perk for families and for people who have been pinching pennies. Nonetheless, the people who have been pinching pennies and not going out for restaurant meals are not the same people who are lining up at the food banks.
I have to say it is rare for me and my colleagues here to struggle with how to vote on something. I am usually pretty darn sure from the get-go. I read a bill and I think, “Well, this is something I can get behind. This is something I believe in.”
What do Canadians really need right now? We need a comprehensive security policy that protects us from the ravages of the climate crisis, which itself drives up grocery prices, makes food more expensive, makes life in Canada more precarious for those who live in flood plains, who are flooded year after year, or who are in communities that get fire evacuation orders year after year, or who live with the ongoing trauma of the effect of living through a heat dome in British Columbia. There are numbers of people who still feel that trauma, or the trauma after hurricane Fiona.
We need comprehensive policy that makes sense. While the Conservatives want to axe the carbon tax, that tax is rebated to people. The GST is something that was put in place under the Mulroney government. The GST, overall, is not a progressive tax; everybody pays it. If people are buying really big luxury items, they are going to pay more. This tax holiday for a two-month period is at least not designed around really large luxury goods.
It says it is about the necessities that Canadians need, like car seats and diapers. I just had a baby granddaughter. My gift to my daughter for her baby, Lily, will not get a GST tax break because it is a service. My daughter and my granddaughter will never see a throwaway diaper because they are buying cotton diapers. I got them a laundry service. That actually saves people a lot of money. Buying throwaway diapers costs about $6,000 a year for the average infant. Buying cloth diapers up front costs a bit more. It is just the work and the labour for a new mom to have to do all that laundry. It is usually the new mom and not the new dad.
I do not want to dive into all the questions of what really costs in our society, where we can save money by doing things differently, by avoiding the throwaway or by investing in something that is a service in community. There is a small business that delivers, every week, clean and healthy cotton diapers for babies. That is not what anyone means when they talk about how everybody needs diapers when there is a new baby. The whole time my daughter was in diapers, I did not buy a throwaway diaper, not once.
I did not suffer for my sacrifice. I had really good, reusable diapers, and I still have one left. I treasure that one diaper left from my 33-year-old daughter. My gosh, it is the best rag ever for washing up a mess. They cannot be bought anywhere; people just have to save them if they were smart enough when they had a new baby to invest in cotton diapers. It is a really good product.
I am struggling with this because I do not know that a two-month GST tax holiday on some goods and not others is what Canadians really need the most. What we really need is to eliminate poverty, focus on food security for all, invest in our society with the kind of tax changes that make the biggest difference, and give Canadians the chance to know that this is a caring society that has eliminated poverty with a national, guaranteed, livable income for all. That makes real change. This makes small change.