Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member of Parliament for Calgary Forest Lawn.
Canadians are desperate. They are desperate for a new government. That is because after nine years of the Prime Minister, life has never been harder for Canadians. His failed policies, propped up by the NDP at every opportunity, have doubled the debt, doubled housing costs, caused the worst inflation in 40 years, sent a record number of Canadians to food banks and unleashed crime and chaos in our communities.
Canadians deserve better. They should be able to come home from work with a paycheque that puts a roof over their heads and food on their tables. However, that is not the reality for far too many Canadians.
The Prime Minister's cost of living crisis has become so severe that even working Canadians have to depend on food banks or are skipping meals just to get by. In a single month last year, food banks had a record two million visits. Year over year, the Prime Minister's inflation and taxes have caused grocery prices to surge. The average Canadian family will pay $700 more above and beyond the high prices they paid last year.
The Prime Minister's plan to quadruple his punishing carbon tax is only going to make things worse. In the midst of an ongoing affordability crisis in our country, the Prime Minister hiked taxes again on groceries, he ignored Canadians who are begging for relief and he turned a deaf ear to premiers across the country.
Despite the NDP leader's recent claim that he opposed the carbon tax because of the burden it places on workers, Canadians know that the Prime Minister hiked the carbon tax with the enthusiastic support of his NDP partner. In fact, NDP members voted for the carbon tax at least 24 times in this place. They are every bit as responsible as the Prime Minister for adding to the cost of fuel, groceries, home heating and just about every necessity that Canadians need.
The NDP-Liberal carbon tax is punishing Canadians for going to work, taxing moms and dads for driving their kids to hockey or to dance classes, penalizing the seniors who are on fixed incomes for eating a nutritious meal and diving deep into the pockets of Canadians for simply trying to stay warm in the winter. Punishing Canadians for life's basic necessities is cruel and it does nothing to safeguard the environment.
The costly carbon tax is even more punishing in my province of Saskatchewan. When people live in a rural or small community, public transit simply is not an option. They simply have to drive further distances to get to work or to simply go to school. The reality is that people are going to drive a little further to get groceries or prescriptions, never mind a doctor or specialist appointment that could literally be hours away. When temperatures dip to -50C, heat is not a luxury; it is a necessity. That is the lived experience in Saskatchewan and for so many rural Canadians across the country. It is a reality that the government conveniently ignores time and time again.
Just like how the Liberal-NDP government pretends that Canadians are somehow better off because of its punishing carbon tax, it conveniently ignores all the evidence around it, including reports from the independent Parliamentary Budget Office. In fact, we learned last spring that the government hid its own reports to that effect.
The PBO has been clear that most families will pay more in carbon tax than they get back in rebates. This year, families in Saskatchewan will pay, on average, $2,618 in carbon taxes alone. That is money better spent on their own families' priorities and needs.
Let us not forget about our farmers, who are paying massive carbon tax bills. By 2030, Canadian farmers are expected to pay $1 billion in carbon taxes on the propane and natural gas they use to heat and cool their barns, greenhouses and grain-drying operations. Never mind the carbon tax costs that are added to every purchase they make for their farm operations.
Farmers are leaders in sustainability and they deserve relief. The Prime Minister is dead set on getting those dollars from our farmers, using his Liberal-appointed Senators to gut Bill C-234, a Conservative bill that would have offered carbon tax relief for our farmers.
Shamefully, the Prime Minister is willing to jeopardize the viability of farm businesses and food security in our country just to drive home his own activist-driven agenda and pay for his own reckless spending. Farmers in my riding have had enough. They want a government that does not punish them for their hard work. They just want to earn an honest living and grow safe, delicious, nutritious food for Canada and for the world.
Fortunately, there is hope on the horizon. A Conservative government will restore common sense in Ottawa. The Conservatives have a plan to axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime. We will bring down inflation with a dollar in savings for every new dollar spent. We will cut the carbon tax that is adding to the cost of everything for Canadians. The Conservatives will bring home lower prices so that Canadians can reap the rewards of their hard work. We will remove the gatekeepers who have slowed housing construction. We will create well-paying jobs for Canadians by green-lighting energy projects at home instead of driving away production into the hands of dirty dictators.
The Conservatives will take meaningful action to address the crime and the chaos that have become far too commonplace in communities across the country. We will do that by dismantling the Prime Minister's catch-and-release system that is endangering the lives of Canadians. We will also end the Prime Minister's dangerous drug experiment that is flooding our streets with taxpayer-funded hard drugs. Instead, we will invest in treatment and recovery so that Canadians can bring their loved ones home drug-free.
After nine years of the Prime Minister, Canadians are desperate. They are so desperate for much-needed relief. What Canadians do not need are media stunts from the NDP leader.
The NDP leader told Canadians that he was tearing up his coalition agreement with the Liberal government. He told Canadians that the deal was done, that the Prime Minister did not deserve to govern. Now that the votes have been counted in that Winnipeg by-election, and there is a simple motion in front of the House, the NDP leader has conveniently changed his tune.
The motion we are debating today is very straightforward, “That the House has no confidence in the Prime Minister and the government.” If the NDP leader were sincere in his declarations to Canadians, there should be no question. However, what Canadians are once again learning is that NDP members are not focused on what is best for Canadians. They are focused on their own interests and protecting their own pensions. Despite their desperation to try to distance themselves from the terrible record of the Prime Minister, which, to be clear, is equally their own record, having voted hand in hand with the Liberal government for its failed policies and activist-driven agenda, the NDP is once again failing to be the opposition party that it was elected to be. It must be arts-and-crafts time as it is too busy taping up that coalition agreement that the NDP leader ripped up.
Across the country, Canadians are begging for relief. It is time for the Bloc and the NDP to stop protecting the costly Prime Minister who is hurting Canadians. Enough is enough, and time is up for the Prime Minister. The NDP and Bloc need to join Conservatives and give Canadians the carbon tax election that they so desperately need.