Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to be able to speak for the first time in this new Parliament on a subject that I find extremely relevant. Before I begin, like many of my colleagues, I would like to say a few words of personal thanks, and look back at the spring election campaign, which was not without its challenges, emotions and hardships. I want to send a heartfelt and very sincere thank you to a wonderful team of volunteers. The Bloc Québécois gang in Drummond was absolutely fantastic. We almost had to turn people away at the door. We had so many volunteers and so many people willing take part in the campaign, which was not going to be easy from the outset. We already knew that, yet volunteers of all ages—young, old, not so young, older and those who have been young longer than others—got together and came together to lend a hand and run a campaign that was extraordinary in many ways. I want to thank those volunteers sincerely.
We all do it here in the House. I know we are all very grateful for the work that is being done in our respective ridings. However, the work of our supporters is essential. It allows us to be in direct contact with our people as well, to hear their concerns and to know how to align our positions. I do not think we thank them enough. We do it at the beginning of every Parliament, when we should be doing it almost on a weekly basis, so I want to thank all those people who have been truly essential, exceptional and who have maintained a fantastic morale, which gave me great sustenance throughout the campaign.
I especially want to thank two volunteers who are, in my opinion, extraordinary. Perhaps members will understand my bias here. They are my parents. My parents are 85 years old. During election campaigns, they complain that they are not given enough work. My father complains, at 85, that I do not give him enough areas to cover to go and meet people. My mother complains that we do not give her long enough lists for phone canvassing. They come knocking on the door early in the morning. They are the last to leave. Frankly, I could not be prouder of these two volunteers, my parents, Henriette and Louis. I want to emphasize how fantastic they are. I am convinced that they will still be there in the next election. They are truly exceptional people. They deserve a statue. I am working on that.
I also want to acknowledge and recognize the unwavering support of my immediate family, my wife Caroline, our children Tom, Lily-Rose, Alexandrine and Christophe. Frankly, without them, without their understanding of what an election campaign is and what the life of a member of Parliament entails, I would not be able to do this job. I think that everyone in the House would agree.
Last but not least, I want to salute my outstanding team in Drummond. Andrée-Anne, Isabelle and Marlène have been providing impeccable service to the people of my riding for years. Once again, I am very privileged to be able to count on such fantastic, dedicated, committed, competent and delightful women. I am truly surrounded by exceptional people. I would also like to acknowledge Rémi, the newest member of my Parliament Hill team. He has run for the Bloc Québécois twice and is a full-fledged member of the Bloc team in his own right. I am very proud to have him with us.
As I said earlier, I am very pleased to speak to this Bloc Québécois motion. We were looking forward to this opposition day. I want to highlight some of the key points in the saga of this rebate for a carbon tax that had already been abolished. To make a long story short, government funds were used to send out rebates and refunds for something that was supposed to be paid later. However, the quarter covered by the April 22 rebate did not exist. The carbon tax had already been abolished, as of April 1. In short, money was used during the election campaign for false reasons, literally.
Who was left out of all this? As today's Bloc Québécois motion says, those who were left out were Quebeckers and British Columbians, who had acted responsibly by joining the carbon exchange with California, Washington State and soon Oregon. To call a spade a spade, this fictitious rebate was nothing more than an election giveaway.
Anyone with a modicum of decency, ethical integrity and respect would look favourably on the request we are making today, which is to compensate Quebeckers fairly for the election giveaway they helped fund through their taxes. After all, we are talking about an estimated contribution of $814 million. That is not just pocket change.
Since this is my maiden speech in this Parliament, Madam Speaker, I would like to pause for a moment and tell you that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Shefford.
I would like to point out a few things about this rebate business. The first is that, by repeating a slogan based on falsehoods probably spread by the oil companies themselves, certain people succeeded in making Canadians believe that the carbon tax was eating into their purchasing power and costing them dearly. In reality, deep down inside, the Conservative members knew perfectly well that 80% of households outside Quebec and British Columbia that were subject to the carbon tax were receiving more money from the rebate than they were paying. They were benefiting from the system. There is a good reason why the OECD condemned the decision to eliminate the carbon tax.
We must admit that this was a politically savvy election-time decision, because it cut the ground from under Pierre Poilievre, who had spent months making the carbon tax his number one issue. Thanks to lies and repeated slogans, the public came to believe that the carbon tax was bad for their budgets and that it was basically the root of all evil. There were claims that food banks were swamped and that requests for MAID had shot up because of the carbon tax. That is how far people went in the 44th Parliament. That is quite the feat.
The other great feat is the government's ability to renege on its climate action commitments. That came as a real shock to me. I thought that it was very savvy of the Liberals to say they would eliminate the carbon tax and that they were going to win the election, since they had stripped Pierre Poilievre of his only argument. I thought that, after the election, they would announce another massive action plan to fight climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but no. After the election, they talked about building oil pipelines from one end of the country to the other. It was not merely an election strategy. They really were reneging on their greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.
Within six months, all of the fundamental values that Quebeckers hold dear have been swept aside. The fight against climate change is no longer a priority. Money is what matters most. There is money to be made transporting oil from one end of Canada to the other. The Liberals do not care about the Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement, the BAPE, or about environmental requirements. They will shove these pipelines down our throats if they have to. Within six months, we saw a stunning change of course. From an environmental standpoint, the Liberals have turned into Conservatives. I am looking at members on each side of the House, and I do not know which party I am looking at.
The motion we are moving today is quite straightforward. It is a motion for fairness and respect that will also ensure that Quebeckers are no longer taken for a ride. We want to know where the money is coming from, we want a budget, but we have not been given answers. Billions of dollars in tax cuts are being announced, but we do not know where that is going to come from. The challenge against Bill 21 at the Supreme Court of Canada has already racked up $1 million in costs in just a few months, and there is no transparency on that. I think we have earned the right to feel fed up and to demand respect.
We are asking that Quebeckers be reimbursed $814 million, which corresponds to their contribution to the amount paid to the rest of Canada for the phoney carbon tax rebate. It is a motion for fairness and respect that makes a lot of sense, and I do not understand why my colleagues in the other parties do not support it. That is the least we owe to the Quebeckers who elected us.