Debates of June 14th, 2024

Carbon Pricing

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Madam Speaker, $30 billion is the true cost to Canadian families of the Liberal-NDP carbon tax that the environment minister tried so desperately to cover up. That is $1,800 in cost to every household. It is no wonder the environment minister did his best to gag the Parliamentary Budget Officer and cover up the true cost of the carbon tax.

Instead of sending a memo to the PBO demanding his silence, why does the environment minister not instead send a memo to the PMO with his resignation?

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and to the Minister of Innovation]

Madam Speaker, it is clear that the Conservatives do not care about the future of our planet. They will not stand up for our children and our grandchildren.

On this side of the House, we are advancing tax fairness for Canadians with our new capital gains regime. That means people earning their hard-earned incomes on their paycheques will not pay a penny more, unless they earn over $250,000 a year from the sale of an asset.

Conservatives believe that those who are flipping burgers should pay more tax than those who are flipping stocks or homes.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Madam Speaker, the Liberals' response to questions on more taxes is talking points that add more taxes.

The Minister of Environment interfered with the work of the independent Parliamentary Budget Officer. He repeatedly stood in the House and misled Canadians, saying that they would be better off financially with the carbon tax, all the while covering up the fact that the Liberal-NDP carbon tax will cost Canadians more than $30 billion a year.

Instead of working to increase the economic vandalism of the carbon tax, why does the environment minister not just do Canadians a favour and resign?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Madam Speaker, what Canadians are seeing this morning, those who are here and at home, is that Conservatives just do not care. That is the bottom line of all the questions we have heard this morning.

Canadians understand that what we did in the last budget was about generational fairness. That is the core issue that Canadians want us to address. That is why we made changes to the capital gain taxes, because we want to invest in the next generation. We want to invest in workers. We want to invest in seniors. We want to invest in our future.

However, here we go again, and the Conservatives voted against that fairness.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Madam Speaker, the NDP-Liberal government misled Canadians by claiming they would be better off with a carbon tax scam.

It turns out that the environment minister's own carbon tax data shows that it will cost families nearly $2,000 more after the higher costs on groceries, home heating and gas. That is $30 billion in economic vandalism per year.

Now, Conservatives have forced the release of all the carbon tax cover-up documents. Will the radical environment minister finally climb down from his tower and resign?

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, Minister of Labour and Seniors]

Madam Speaker, let me repeat the numbers because the numbers bear repeating. It is $1,800 a year for a family of four in Alberta, $1,200 a year in Manitoba, $1,120 in Ontario, $1,504 in Saskatchewan, $760 a year in New Brunswick, $824 a year in Nova Scotia, $880 a year in P.E.I., and it is $1,192 for a family of four in Newfoundland and Labrador.

That is cold, hard cash, and the Conservatives would know that if they bothered to check their own bank accounts.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Madam Speaker, how many times have the Liberals falsely stated, even today, that eight out of 10 Canadians get more back than they pay? I guess they figure that if they say something often enough, people will start to believe it.

However, Canadians know because their pocketbooks tell them so. Conservatives have forced the end of the carbon tax cover-up, and now the public budget watchdog's report confirms that Canadian families pay nearly $2,000 more in carbon tax per year. They also know that it will cost our economy $30 billion per year in economic activity lost.

When will the environment minister resign—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. government House leader.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, there are a lot of great farmers in Chatham-Kent—Leamington.

It is shameful that the Conservative leader, who has never seen the top of a combine or a hay baler, hides behind farmers and workers to justify his opposition to our plan on tax fairness. We are increasing the capital gains sheltering for farmers—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

I am going to interrupt the hon. government House leader. We will have order, or there will be questions taken away. Order.

The hon. government House leader.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Madam Speaker, it is shameful. The leader of the Conservative Party has never been seen on a hay baler.

He is opposing our program to give tax fairness to farmers. We are increasing the capital gains sheltering for farmers by boosting the lifetime exception for qualified farming properties to $1.25 million per owner.

The member over there should be standing up and celebrating tax fairness for farmers.

Housing

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Madam Speaker, the federal government's very own Public Sector Pension Investment Board partnered up with the rich real estate CEOs to invest in 71, 75 and 79 Thorncliffe Park Drive.

Now, they are hiking rents and evicting people, and the Liberals are letting them get away with it. When the NDP tried to summon the very same CEOs to explain themselves, the Liberals and the Conservatives teamed up to block it.

Why are the Liberals partnering with rich CEOs to jack up rents and to evict people from their homes?

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing]

Madam Speaker, the member knows about this very well because she put in an Order Paper question not too long ago about this matter. She keeps on raising the name of the company Starlight, which did not have any relations with CMHC, so we can take up that matter at committee.

More substantively on the issue of housing, the current government is the first in Canadian history to put forward measures to protect renters and, in fact, to attach conditionality to infrastructure funding. Provinces want access to infrastructure funding. They have to respond by putting in place protections for renters, whether they include supportive housing or co-op housing; all the things the NDP rightly championed were behind that vision for the country.

Indigenous Affairs

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Speaker, Jordan's principle is supposed to uphold equity and health services for indigenous children and youth, yet multiple organizations in Winnipeg Centre are going without funding. Biigewin is owed almost $600,000, and Spirit Horse is owed almost $400,000. Staff are going without pay. The minister would not work without pay, so why should indigenous organizations?

When will the Liberals uphold Jordan's principle and ensure that indigenous organizations are paid what they are owed?

[Jenica Atwin, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indigenous Services]

Madam Speaker, for generations, first nations families and people have suffered tremendously through discriminatory and systemically racist child welfare practices. One of the first things we did as a government was to implement Jordan's principle in 2016 to ensure that first nations children can access the care they need, when they need it. Last year, we also reached a milestone compensation agreement that was co-developed with first nations partners. We are actively working with partners on strategies and best practices to speed up approvals and reduce administrative burdens faced by service providers.

I will work with the member to make sure that this issue is dealt with.

Housing

[Churence Rogers, Liberal, Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL]

Madam Speaker, for far too long, successive governments have failed to fund and protect affordable housing across Canada, but our government is changing that. Last week, we made a historic $1.5-billion investment in the new co-operative housing development program; it is the largest investment in co-op housing this country has seen in 30 years.

Can the parliamentary secretary for housing, infrastructure and communities please share with Canadians how the co-op housing development program is going to create a new generation of co-operative housing across Canada?

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing]

Madam Speaker, as a former mayor, our colleague understands very well the place of co-op housing in communities, large and small. Two hundred and fifty thousand Canadians live in co-ops. It is an affordable option. These are non-profits, of course, which come in various types. They may be large apartments or townhouse complexes. They vary, but they fundamentally provide a sense of community to the people who live there.

The Leader of the Opposition insulted these 250,000 Canadians by calling it Soviet-style housing. He styles himself as some sort of student of history. He should read his history. He should come up with a housing plan that actually makes sense. The Conservatives have no vision because they do not care.

Innovation, Science and Industry

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Madam Speaker, last night, the Auditor General revealed that the Prime Minister's hand-picked Liberal cronies running the billion-dollar green slush fund gave companies they owned not the $76 million that was revealed last week but, actually, $319 million of taxpayer money. That is on top of the Auditor General's findings that $59 million was spent on ineligible projects by those Liberal robbers. That is almost $400 million of taxpayers' money that the Liberals took to enrich themselves.

When will the Liberals get the money back?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Madam Speaker, here are the sleepy Conservatives again. We have said it time and time again. We investigated what happened at SDTC. We made sure that the chair and the CEO resigned. We launched an investigation. We suspended the fund to the organization. We supported the Auditor General's report, and now we have provided a new governance mechanism to make sure that we can support the small and medium-sized businesses in this country that are fighting climate change.

When will the Conservatives get on board and support our actions?

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Madam Speaker, the Liberal minister was sleeping at the switch. He sat idly by for five years and did absolutely nothing as Liberals stole $400 million of taxpayer money. It took a Conservative motion in the House to be passed to send documents on these corrupt Liberals to the RCMP, despite Liberals voting against it. The Liberal hacks broke two laws, and their lobbyist, the minister of the environment, joined the minister of industry in the getaway car as the Liberals funnelled $400 million to themselves.

When will the Liberals demand the return of the $400 million stolen by the Prime Minister's friends?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Madam Speaker, I am happy. I know it is Friday, so let us wake up the Conservatives. They have been sleeping. I launched the investigation when they were sleeping. Here we go. We started the investigation. We made sure that people would come back and have a new governance model. We made sure we would support our small and medium-sized businesses. We know they are against climate change, but now we have learned they are against small and medium-sized businesses. Can one imagine that they are against small and medium-sized businesses? We are going to fight for Canadians every step of the way, restore governance and fight climate change.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Madam Speaker, yesterday the Auditor General confirmed that a staggering 400 million taxpayers' dollars improperly went out the door at the Liberals' green slush fund. Board members illegally funnelled $319 million into their own companies. Meanwhile, the current minister and former minister turned a blind eye to corruption on a level that makes the sponsorship scandal look small.

Now that the corruption has been exposed, what specific steps is the minister taking to get taxpayers a refund?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Madam Speaker, here we go again. Another one just woke up and asked a question about something we have dealt with. Canadians want governance. That is what we did. They want to make sure we get to the bottom of things, which is what we did. They want to make sure we restore funding to small and medium-sized businesses so we can fight climate change together. I do not mind these sleepy Conservatives asking me questions, because I will always fight for Canadians, I will always fight for small businesses and will fight against climate change.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Madam Speaker, we will not take any lessons from this government, and especially not from this minister, who has been asleep at the switch for five years while a very serious situation was happening with the green fund at Sustainable Development Technology Canada, or SDTC.

We thought things could not get worse, but we were wrong. Yesterday, the Auditor General tabled a report that shows that these people put nearly $400 million in the pockets of Liberal cronies. That is the reality. What is more, $319 million went to the directors of the green fund.

When will the minister finally wake up? The whistle-blower himself recognized that the minister did not act in time.