Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise on behalf of the very real taxpayers of Algonquin—Renfrew—Pembroke. I want to state very clearly that Canadian taxpayers are real, despite the gaslighting by the Liberal secretary of state in her reply to my question on food prices and fuel taxes. The Liberal Party introduced a new fuel regulation that requires all gasoline to be diluted with even more ethanol. Those regulations clearly increase the cost of fuel. The Liberals claim that this price hike is imaginary.
For the benefit of Liberals listening, here is a direct quote from the Liberal regulations: “It is expected that increases in transportation fuel expenses will disproportionately impact lower and middle-[class] households, as well as households currently experiencing energy poverty or those likely to experience energy poverty in the future.”
The government wrote those words. It knows for a fact that its regulations make fuel more expensive for Canadians. Those extra costs are not imaginary. They are real. They will disproportionately harm Canadians with lower and middle incomes.
The Liberals do not care about lower and middle-income Canadians anymore. The Liberal Party's base looks like its cabinet: affluent and privileged. That party has completely lost touch with average Canadians. It keeps saying that its solution to food insecurity is a government-run program for food. Canadians do not want handouts. They do not want to need food programs. The only thing worse than forcing people to rely on food programs is making children pay for it.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. That is probably something we should teach kids in schools. The Liberals borrowed money to fund their new social programs. This means that children eating those Liberal unfunded lunches will be on the hook for the bill in the future. When those kids graduate from school, instead of a diploma, they will receive a tax bill. Borrowing money for today's handouts is the exact opposite of an investment. Instead of generating a return on the money, we pay interest on the debt.
Canada has been here before. Pierre Trudeau needed NDP support for a minority government. They ramped up spending while suffocating the economy in protectionist measures.
Justin Trudeau needed NDP support for his minority government. They ramped up spending while suffocating the economy in woke measures. They always seem to claim that they see a light at the end of the debt tunnel. That is just the headlights of reality hurtling toward them like a freight train.
The government can pretend its expensive fuel regulations, costly food packaging ban and economically damaging industrial carbon tax are make-believe, but for Canadians paying the bill, these taxes are very real.