Debates of Oct. 20th, 2026

Canadian Fuel Affordability Act

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Madam Speaker, that is a good question. I think there would be some programs that would instantly be on the chopping block, such as, unfortunately, the national school food program, which helps 400,000 children. The dental care program would be another one on the chopping block. The Conservatives have made that very clear. They have also shown no support for the Canada pharmacare program in dealing with issues like diabetes, which is a very serious thing. There are numerous programs that the government provides to provide support to Canadians. Unfortunately, we do not hear that coming from the Conservative Party, because they are preoccupied with one subject matter, and that is tax cut after tax cut, and they are not even consistent with that.

We, too, support tax cuts. Under the Prime Minister , we gave an income tax cut, and 22 million Canadians benefited. The excise tax is a suspension. The carbon tax was permanent.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

Madam Speaker, it is very clear that the Canadian economy runs on diesel.

Highway 1 runs through my riding. I suspect it is not terribly far away from the member's riding. When I drive down Highway 1, it takes two hours each and every time I go to the airport to fly out to Ottawa. The majority of the traffic is semi-trucks, which run on diesel. The previous motion we had before the House would have cut the price down, because we are about 24¢ to 31¢ higher than the world price on diesel.

There is more the government could do to provide relief to Canadians and lower that price even further. Why will the Liberals not do it?

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Madam Speaker, the very first action the Prime Minister took was to reduce diesel costs by more than 20¢ a litre, and that was a permanent cut. We are talking about the carbon tax. Then we had the suspension that is currently in place. We understand the importance of diesel in the economy.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

Madam Speaker, it is always an honour and a privilege to rise on behalf of the great people of southwest and west central Saskatchewan.

Before I begin, I will mention that I will be splitting my time with the member for Calgary Skyview.

Back home in southwest and west central Saskatchewan, the harvest is, according to the Government of Saskatchewan data, about 97% to 98% complete, which basically means that people are looking to clean up the sloughs they had to leave because they are still a little too green or a few areas of their fields need to be cleaned up a bit later. By and large, the harvest is complete.

I want to say thanks and send a big congratulations to all the farmers back home who have completed another harvest season. It is definitely not without its challenges. We have the diesel prices, which we we are dealing with today. We had a lovely three inches of rain in the middle of harvest that put people, in some cases as much as 10 days out of the field, having to wait for the fields to dry up so they can get back to harvesting again. We will never complain about getting rain, but that was certainly something we were not anticipating. Nevertheless, we will take rain whenever we can get it. I would give them another quick congratulations.

When we look at the prairie economy, in Saskatchewan, in particular, but this would be true of Manitoba and of Alberta, the manufacturing capacity we have in Saskatchewan is largely based on agricultural manufacturing. I am from a farming community called Frontier. My parents farmed south of Frontier.

We have two success stories in Frontier. The first one is Friggstad Manufacturing. Friggstad Manufacturing started off making air seeders, cultivators and various farm implements in Frontier. Olaf Friggstad was the visionary behind it. The Friggstad family, including Olaf and his brothers, some family members, his sons and his nephews, got into the family business and created a terrific company. It was eventually bought out by Flexi-Coil and relocated to Saskatoon. Then replacing that, there was a brief period of Talon Tools operating out of the plant, but then Honey Bee Manufacturing replaced it.

Honey Bee Manufacturing, to this day, is still operating in Frontier. It has doubled the shop capacity it took over when it bought the plant location. It exports combine headers around the world and has done very well. There are many other successful farming operations that have become manufacturing products. Honey Bee started in a shop. The Honey brothers made a big tractor and created swathers and headers. They had the idea and started in their own shop before they moved to the plant in Frontier.

When we look around the province, there are many great companies in existence. I think of companies like Schulte, Seed Hawk and Väderstad. In Swift Current, there is S3 as well, which is across multiple provinces. It even has some operations in the United States. It does very well.

We have a very unique irrigation project in Saskatchewan. I mentioned Lake Diefenbaker in a question earlier. I want to talk about a smaller project. There is a water reservoir called Duncairn Dam. Out of that, they irrigate toward a little community called Rush Lake, a small town in Saskatchewan. They irrigate from Duncairn Dam. They built this a long time ago, long before we had sophisticated equipment.

They are able to channel irrigation to get all the way down to Rush Lake from Duncairn. It is probably about 50 kilometres of channels to get all the way to Rush Lake from Duncairn. It is flood irrigation that happens there, and they produce at least 30,000 hay bales in a given year. There are people growing hay crops. There is a bit of grain and cereal crops in there as well. It is mostly used by ranchers to grow the hay that they need to get their crops off.

The Rush Lake hay bales are definitely a local legend. Everybody knows about the Rush Lake hay flats, and that is what it is largely used for. My family has benefited from this in the past. My uncle Darcy and my grandpa Albert owned some plots in the Rush Lake hay flats. Everybody in the area knows about the Rush Lake hay bales and what that represents for the area. It is a success story of what modern prairie farming ingenuity actually entails.

When we look at all of this, what is the common thread to Bill C-38, which we are debating here today? This is about the Canadian fuel affordability act, which would remove some of the federal tax on fuel.

Diesel fuel, as I said earlier, drives the national economy, such as the machinery used to pull a Friggstad air seeder or cultivator, which I did on my farm growing up. I proudly drove our 9280 Case and pulled a Friggstad cultivator, and we had a Friggstad air drill. Our header for our combine was a Honey Bee header, so we supported the local economy that way, but the diesel fuel that powered this equipment was very important, and that is what this motion is about here today.

I was talking to some of the producers in my area. Back in April, the price of diesel went from $1.38 to $1.95 for the farm bulk price in seven days. At the end of April, when farmers were planning to get their crops in the field, they were looking to purchase the fuel that they needed to get through seeding season, and the price went from $1.38 to $1.95. That is a direct hit to the bottom lines of our farmers, and that is a cost that farmers cannot pass on. Grain farmers cannot pass that cost on; they have to pay whatever the current price is. There is no relief for them.

The only relief that does exist is that they can get an exemption on GST. They have to pay the GST up front, but they can get that back. That does not change the fact that they were paying $1.95 in April, right at the peak of seeding season in Saskatchewan.

Let us fast-forward to September. From the middle of September to the end of September, the price for diesel was about $2.25 a litre. It kind of fluctuated from there down to about $1.90, right at the peak of harvest season. I was talking to some producers. One farmer I spoke to had used 100,000 litres of fuel to get through harvest. His combines, the tractors that he uses to pull the grain carts in the field, the semi-trucks that he uses to haul the grain from the field back to the bins or maybe to the elevator or to the local terminal all use diesel fuel. I look at $2.25 a litre in the middle of harvest; that is what our producers are having to deal with.

I am talking to farmers who have had to basically budget a doubling in the price of fuel in order for them to operate their farms. When they are trying to forecast for next year, they are already looking at the price of fuel and understanding they are going to have to write an even higher number in there to get the crop in the ground in April and May this coming year. That is what our farmers are facing here today.

That is why we had a motion. The government voted against it shamefully and defeated our opposition day motion that we had a few weeks ago, speaking to the diesel price. We are approximately 24¢ per litre higher than the United States on average and 31¢ per litre higher than the world average. That is what our farmers and our producers have to deal with and what they are faced with. It is not because of something extraordinary that is happening here. It is because of other federal taxes.

I will applaud the government here today for this bill extending a bit of fuel tax relief to our farmers, producers and truckers, to make sure that they can have a little more cost certainty in getting things done.

However, the government can go so much further. There is so much more that it can do, to provide that meaningful relief. We had that opposition day motion before the House. The government voted against it shamefully. It is ridiculous that its members would do that. Again, this is how it directly impacts the price of food: If I am going to the grocery store to buy groceries, the groceries do not just magically appear at the shelf. Everything gets to the grocery stores and everything gets to the clothing stores. Winter is coming up in Saskatchewan, so all the kids' ski pants, jackets, toques, mitts and sports equipment get to the store. They were brought in on a truck that went down Highway 1, through my riding, to get to wherever they are going. Whether they came up from the States or came in from a port, they came in on a truck and were transported across this country. The fuel prices in Canada are skyrocketing, and there is still more that the government could do to provide that relief.

The House could do those things that would actually help to bring down the cost of essentials for Canadians, whether it is food, fuel, fertilizer or kids' winter clothes that they need to be able to get through the winter or the sports equipment that they need to be able to have a little bit of fun. Also, lots of parents drive diesel-powered vehicles, SUVs or trucks. That extra 24¢ to 31¢ a litre is impacting the ability of Canadians to just enjoy a few nice little things like playing hockey or playing volleyball.

[John-Paul Danko, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the member opposite's speech, learning some more about farming in rural Saskatchewan. I found that really interesting, very much acknowledging that agriculture is a very difficult industry with very thin margins and a lot of uncertainty. There is uncertainty in commodity pricing for what is sold, but also uncertainty in inputs and uncertainty in weather. I have a lot of respect for farmers who, day in and day out, find a way to make ends meet and do the job that they care so passionately about. Of course, our government removed the consumer carbon tax, which is a permanent reduction in the cost of fuel.

However, I do take issue with the presumption that it is the Government of Canada that is causing the global increase in diesel fuel prices. The United States' war against Iran and the ongoing war by Russia against Ukraine are primarily the global cause of the increase in diesel pricing in Canada as they are in the United States and around the world. Will the member opposite acknowledge that?

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

Madam Speaker, if the member had truly paid attention to my speech, he would know that I said, and this was written in our previous motion, that it is 24¢ per litre higher than the United States, across the border, and 31¢ higher than the world average. The war, absolutely, has something to do with the cost of what Canadians are paying at the pump, but 31¢ a litre higher than the global average is ridiculous. That shows that there is something happening here in Canada. It is things like the industrial carbon tax.

This member talked about repealing the consumer carbon tax, which people paid at the pumps and was added on to all kinds of products that people could not see. It was baked into what they paid for food and things like that. There is more that the Liberals could do. They have hidden it. They have also added the Liberal fuel standards, which are driving up the cost of diesel and driving up the cost of production in this country. Those are things that the government controls. These are things that the government could repeal. It is not going to do it.

The government even has a new Liberal member from Saskatchewan and all that he has managed to deliver in his time in office is scurvy to the people in northern Saskatchewan, which is absolutely ridiculous. The current government could do more to provide relief for Canadians. I expect it to do more, and so do Canadians.

[Tako Van Popta, Conservative, Langley Township—Fraser Heights, BC]

Madam Speaker, I was listening to my colleague from Saskatchewan give a speech about temporary reduction of the fuel excise tax. Some of the issues that he raised show us that there are fundamental problems to Canada's economy. What we are hearing from these Liberals time and time again are temporary, short-term, band-aid solutions to what are really fundamental problems.

This bill would reduce the fuel tax by 10¢. My colleague just talked about diesel prices going up 15% or more in a very short period of time. I know we are in the same party and he is probably going to think the same way I do. Is he not getting a little tired of the Liberals talking about temporary, band-aid solutions when there are fundamental problems that need to be addressed?

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

Madam Speaker, my colleague is absolutely right. Every single time that we get up in this House, it seems that we are addressing another Liberal failure.

We passed Bill C-5 quickly because the government wanted us to help it pass quickly. That was a bill to help the government get around previous bad Liberal laws. However, that was not enough. The Liberals need Bill C-39 now. Bill C-5 did not do enough, so they created Bill C-39. Now, this House is actually dealing with Bill C-39 as well to deal with other systemic Liberal failures.

Bill C-38 would provide temporary relief for Canadians. It would be a short-term, welcome measure, but there is more structural, substantive relief that the government could provide to Canadians. The Liberals have increased government revenue, from 2020 to now, from about $380 billion to over $500 billion. Ask any Canadian what they have gotten for that massive increase in government revenue from these guys: nothing. They have gotten higher prices. Everything is more expensive in Canada since 2020, thanks to these guys. The Liberals are hauling in way more money, and yet they are delivering nothing for Canadians. It is shameful.

[Amanpreet S. Gill, Conservative, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Madam Speaker, let me begin by acknowledging the obvious: Suspending the federal fuel excise tax for a few more months will provide some relief, but this bill fails to provide any real long-term solutions for Canadians and the challenges they face today. Conservatives have been pushing this for a long time, but once again, we see the Liberal government take our idea, then fail to properly execute it.

Bill C-38 would extend the temporary suspension only until January 31, 2027, meaning Canadians would eventually face the return of the full tax. The government is presenting a temporary pause followed by a scheduled tax increase and calling it an affordability plan. That is not a plan. It is just delaying what comes next, just like all the inflation they caused. Canadians are still skipping meals because of it.

Fuel is not a luxury in Canada. Our country is massive and our cities continue to expand, meaning many residents must travel a considerable distance between their homes and workplaces. Transit is not an option for every shift worker, tradesperson, health care worker or parent. Many families need two vehicles simply to manage work, school, appointments and their children's activities.

When the government taxes fuel, it is increasing the cost of everything transported in this country. Groceries, building materials and medical supplies arrive by truck. The equipment used by contractors and energy workers runs on fuel. Higher transportation costs move through the supply chain until they appear on the receipt paid by the consumer.

Canada's truck drivers are essential to our economy. They transport our food, fuel, building materials, agricultural products and countless other goods that Canadians depend on every single day. Without truckers, grocery store shelves would empty, construction projects would stall and businesses across this country would struggle to operate. How can a trucking company plan its expenses, negotiate contracts, hire employees or invest in new equipment when the government provides no lasting certainty about fuel taxation?

I have had the pleasure to meet with representatives of multiple trucking companies operating in my home of Calgary, such as Kuldip Sandhu from Syndicate Transport, Inderjit Sangha from Rig Logistics Inc. and Randhir Brar from New Way Trucking. Each of these companies employs over 400 truckers who do the vital service of delivering the food all Canadians need. We all rely on their hard work and it is time for the government to show them the appreciation they deserve with a real long-term tax break on diesel. We need it now.

The trucking industry does not operate on a short-term schedule. Businesses make investments that last years. Owners take out loans, maintain expensive equipment, pay insurance premiums and compete for contracts in an increasingly challenging market. These are not expenses that disappear when a government tax holiday expires.

I know for a fact that even large trucking companies are struggling to stay in business under these conditions and they are facing increasing operating costs. Let us think of the small owner-operators who are hard-working and are working long hours just to cover the cost of diesel, maintenance, insurance and financing. What does that leave them to take home to their families? Nothing.

Owner-operators are vital to this industry, such as Harjinder Grewal, a hard-working Calgary father being punished by high diesel prices and who deserves real action to address this crisis. When diesel prices rise, the impact is immediate. When freight rates fail to keep pace with those expenses, the trucker is left absorbing the differences. When a trucker can no longer afford to operate, it is not just one business that suffers but also a family, a local employer and potentially an entire supply chain.

Bill C-38 is nowhere near enough. The government wants Canadians to believe that extending the temporary suspension of the federal fuel excise tax is a meaningful solution to the affordability crisis. While any reductions in fuel costs are welcome and we support them, we must ask a simple question: What happens when the temporary relief ends? This is why Bill C-38 falls short. It treats fuel affordability as a temporary political inconvenience instead of as one part of the growing, broader cost of living crisis.

People in Canada have endured rising mortgage payments, higher rents, expensive groceries and growing utility bills. If suspending the tax would help families in October, it would also help them in February. The timing of this would also cut out relief for some of the hardest-working Canadians: our farmers. The tax would go up right when they need diesel the most, for spring seeding and the hard work they will put in all summer to grow the food we desperately need. The government cannot argue that the tax is harmful enough to suspend now but harmless enough to restore a few months later.

Conservatives would take a different approach. We would amend the legislation so relief would last longer and give Canadians meaningful certainty. Conservatives call for the government to remove all federal taxes on gas and diesel until Canada Day 2027 at the earliest. Doing this would save all Canadians up to 25¢ per litre. This may not sound like much, but it adds up. In the end, this would bring as much as $1,000 of savings for the average Canadian family. That amount of money can help feed many struggling families.

The tax cut must also include the seven-cent-per-litre clean fuel regulations, the GST and a permanent cancellation of the industrial carbon tax, so Canadians are not forced to pay more for food and fuel.

Bill C-38 would not fix any of these issues for the long term. Conservatives are criticizing the bill not because it would lower the tax but because the relief would be too limited and too short-lived. I call on the government to work with the opposition to improve this legislation, extend the relief, remove all scheduled tax increases, stop taxing tax through the GST on fuel, and give families and businesses a certainty that lasts beyond the next political deadline. If the government refuses, then it should at least be honest about what Bill C-38 is. It is not about fixing the affordability crisis facing Canadians. It is about giving the illusion of addressing the crisis.

[John-Paul Danko, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

Madam Speaker, I am kind of struck that Conservatives often address the issue of the day with this kind of gotcha politics but often miss the big picture. In this case, the member talked a lot about the costs of diesel and trucking, but our government is investing in port infrastructure and in rail infrastructure, because the cost of shipping commodities by rail is half the cost of trucking, and by ship, it is four or five times less.

I have some local examples of that. In Hamilton, we are investing in what is called highway H2O, the St. Lawrence Seaway, getting more cargo onto ship traffic and getting trucks off highways. Across the country, we are also investing in rail. Again, I have an example from Hamilton. There is a 50% rebate on steel that is shipped by rail or ship, promoting alternative modes of transportation for cargo other than trucking, which is a real cost savings for Canadians beyond the initial excise tax issue we are talking about right now.

[Amanpreet S. Gill, Conservative, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Madam Speaker, do people know who delivers food? It is truckers. As I said in my speech, truckers are the lifeblood of our vast country, yet the government is making it harder for them to deliver the food we all need. Conservatives are fighting to give them a tax break on diesel until Canada Day, and we hope the government will work with us to give this break to Canadians, truckers, the whole trucking industry and farmers.

[Tako Van Popta, Conservative, Langley Township—Fraser Heights, BC]

Madam Speaker, my colleague's speech on the fuel excise tax temporary relief was very informative. That is the basis of my question: The relief would be just temporary. He should explain to Canadians once again that it would be temporary relief of roughly 10¢ a litre for a few more months, and then it would go down to five cents a litre.

Do Canadians take any comfort from this that there is going to be long-term relief to the affordability crisis that is facing us today?

[Amanpreet S. Gill, Conservative, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Madam Speaker, it is common sense. Canadians are going through tough times. Even with this temporary relief, the government would not be giving them what Conservatives have asked for.

For the long term, if the government gets rid of the carbon tax, then the diesel price could be pretty low. We are paying 25¢ per litre more than U.S. consumers are paying across the border for diesel. Everything depends on the price of diesel, because everything from groceries to construction goods has to be trucked or otherwise transported. If we can lower the cost of diesel, we can bring costs down.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, one of the questions I have been asking many of the member's colleagues concerns trying to get a clear indication of exactly what the Conservative Party of Canada's policy is. Some members will say they want to get rid of the excise tax permanently, while others have said they would rather have it suspended until Canada Day.

Does the member know, number one, what his personal position is, and, number two, what the Conservative Party of Canada's position is?

[Amanpreet S. Gill, Conservative, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Madam Speaker, Conservatives are pretty clear that we want temporary relief until July 1, 2027, Canada Day.

As I said in my speech, Conservatives are happy to see the Liberals steal more of our ideas on affordability, but we are disappointed to see that they are poorly implementing them. Our humble request is to please give Canadians a break so they can live their life.

[Dalwinder Gill, Conservative, Calgary McKnight, AB]

Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Calgary Heritage.

It is an honour to rise in the House on behalf of the people of Calgary McKnight. Canada is facing serious challenges, both around the world and here at home. Our economy is under pressure, and our relationships with other countries are changing. Energy plays a big role in all of this. That is why today's debate in the House is so important. Gasoline gets Canadians to work and their children to school. It gets seniors to medical appointments and tradespeople to their next job. Diesel powers the farm equipment that grows our food, and the trucks that bring it to our grocery stores. It moves lumber and concrete to construction sites so workers can build the homes we need. It fuels the buses that carry commuters across our cities.

The price of fuel is more than just a number on a gas station sign. It affects the cost of the products we use every day. When fuel costs rise, Canadians feel it far beyond the pump. They feel it at the grocery checkout, when they buy their children's school clothes and when they pick up everyday basics such as bread and milk.

For too many families, the pressure of rising food prices has become a crisis. Nearly one in four Canadians, about 10 million people, now lives in a food-insecure household. Families are being forced to make difficult choices. One in five people has skipped meals or reduced portion sizes because of financial pressure, and nearly half have cut back on meat, dairy and fresh produce. Alarmingly, women, single-parent households and people with disabilities are among those most affected by rising food costs.

Like me, many people in northeast Calgary came to Canada for the opportunity to build a better life. They came here to work hard, raise their family and start a small business, but after 11 years of Liberal policies, life has become harder and more expensive. Seniors on a fixed income are struggling to pay for food and fuel. Small businesses depend on fuel to receive supplies and serve their customers. Northeast Calgary is a major transportation hub, and truck drivers are spending more at the pump and taking less money home to their family. The Liberals should be making it easier for these people to earn a living, not planning to bring fuel taxes back.

Higher fuel costs also affect the decisions small businesses make about their future. A trucking company that spends more on diesel has less money to replace an aging truck, maintain its equipment or hire another driver. A small business owner may delay expanding because there is simply not enough money left. Businesses cannot plan for growth when the Liberals keep adding to their costs.

For years, Conservatives have warned that high taxes and unnecessary red tape drive investments out of our country. When a company takes its investment elsewhere, Canadian workers lose jobs and opportunities that investment could have created. We cannot afford to lose more. The government should be lowering costs so businesses can grow here, hire here and build their future here.

Conservatives have long called on the Liberals to lower taxes and let Canadians keep more of what they earn. For years we demanded an end to the consumer carbon tax. After defending it at every turn, the Liberals finally removed it, but that still left other federal taxes and costs on fuel in place. These included the excise tax of 10¢ per litre on gasoline and four cents per litre on diesel, the GST, costs imposed by the clean fuel regulations, and the industrial carbon tax.

Earlier this year, Conservatives renewed our call for fuel tax relief. We called on the Liberals to suspend the excise tax and the GST on gas and diesel for the rest of 2026, and to permanently scrap the clean fuel regulations and the industrial carbon tax.

The Liberals adopted only part of our plan. They suspended the fuel excise tax, but only until Labour Day. Conservatives pressured the Liberals to extend that relief because families and businesses could not afford to see those costs return. Bill C-38 would extend the full suspension until January 31, 2027. Half the tax would return on February 1, followed by the full tax on April 1.

I welcome a few more months of relief for Canadians, but what happens after January 31? Families will still need to drive to work. Truckers will still need to deliver goods. Small businesses will still need to serve their customers.

Conservatives will support Bill C-38 because every dollar Canadians save matters, but we are calling on the Liberals to go further: extend the fuel excise tax suspension and remove the GST on gas and diesel until at least Canada Day 2027. We are also calling on the Liberals to permanently scrap the clean fuel regulations and the industrial carbon tax, to give families and businesses relief that lasts beyond the next few months. Our plan would keep the 10¢ excise tax off every litre of gasoline, remove eight cents in GST and eliminate seven cents in costs from the clean fuel regulations. That adds up to approximately 25¢ per litre, or $20 on an 80-litre fill-up.

The Liberals have a responsibility to pay for this relief by putting their own spending in order. They cannot keep adding to the deficit and leaving further generations to pay the bill. Conservatives have called for reductions in wasteful spending on consultants, bureaucracy and programs that do not deliver value for taxpayers. Families across Canada are reviewing every expense to make ends meet. They deserve a government that is willing to examine its own expenses with the same care.

Canadians need more than a few months of relief, and Conservatives will keep fighting until the Liberals adopt our full plan to lower fuel costs and leave more money in the pockets of Canadians.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, Bill C-38 is all about the issue of affordability. I am glad the Conservatives are supporting it.

As to the question I have for the member, there are other affordability measures the government has taken over the last year or so. I want to make reference to two of them. One is the school food program, which feeds 400,000 children. The Conservatives are voting against it, and they say that they would get rid of it. I will also make reference to the dental care program, which is serving thousands of seniors in particular who are on fixed income.

Many of the people who would be affected by the Conservatives saying no to those two programs are represented by the member in his own riding. Does he believe the Conservative Party should revisit how its members voted on those two public programs, given the importance of affordability?

[Dalwinder Gill, Conservative, Calgary McKnight, AB]

Madam Speaker, years of deficit spending and high taxes have added to inflation, driven investment away and made life harder for Canadians. Now the Liberals are offering a band-aid for an affordability crisis that their own policy helped create. They need to stop the bleeding by cutting wasteful spending and lowering the taxes they imposed on families and businesses. Canadians deserve a long-term plan for relief so that they can afford the basics and get ahead.

[Tako Van Popta, Conservative, Langley Township—Fraser Heights, BC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech on gas affordability, which is fundamental to our economy, as he indicated in his speech. However, this is temporary relief, lasting only until, I think, January of next year, just a few months from now. After that, it is going to go back up again.

This is relief that Canadians need. What better way is there to give it than to reduce taxes? What comfort can we give to our constituents that this relief is not just going to disappear? I guess my question is, what would Conservatives do in place of what the Liberals are doing right now with their band-aid solutions?

[Dalwinder Gill, Conservative, Calgary McKnight, AB]

Madam Speaker, businesses need to plan their deliveries and equipment purchases and hire well in advance. Repeated short-term extensions make those decisions harder when owners are already facing uncertain costs. Conservatives are calling for the excise tax and GST relief to be in place until at least Canada Day 2027, along with the permanent removal of the clean fuel regulations and the industrial carbon tax. That would provide a longer period of relief while removing other costs permanently.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Madam Speaker, I made reference to two programs. One is the dental program, which supports many seniors the member opposite represents. I mentioned the school food program, which has a direct impact on many of the children the member represents. His response was that it was wasteful spending.

Does the member not recognize that there are children and seniors in his constituency who use those two programs? Is he sure that it is wasteful spending? Would he not reverse his position and support those two programs?

[Dalwinder Gill, Conservative, Calgary McKnight, AB]

Madam Speaker, seniors, who have worked hard their entire lives, should be able to afford basic necessities. Their benefits should be indexed to inflation so they keep pace with the real cost of living. However, years of Liberal taxes and rising costs have eroded seniors' purchasing power and stressed their savings. The government needs to cut the deficit and lower taxes to help bring down everyday costs so that seniors can live with dignity.

[Shuv Majumdar, Conservative, Calgary Heritage, AB]

Madam Speaker, I would like to take a quick minute to note that Canada mourns four of its soldiers. On Saturday, fire overtook a training exercise at CFB Wainwright, as we all know. Thirty-nine soldiers were injured, some critically, and four soldiers were killed: Sergeant Morgan Wong, Private Shaun Farrell, Private Aidan Goulding and Private Hayden Lykkemark.

At CFB Wainwright, Canadian soldiers train to defend our country. They serve alongside allies and uphold the values that bind Canadians together: courage, duty, sacrifice and service. Their loss belongs to the whole nation. To their families, their comrades, the injured and those who rushed to help, Canada owes them our gratitude, our prayers and our lasting support. On behalf of the people of Calgary Heritage, we will remember these soldiers for how they lived: in service to their country, in loyalty to each other and with the quiet courage of those who accept responsibility for others.

In Calgary Heritage, the work trucks leave the yards in the southwest before dawn. They haul materials to job sites across the city, and then turn south past the city city limits where the farms begin. Those same diesel engines pull the tractors that put the seeds in the ground and the combines that bring the crops home. When the price at the pump moves, the arithmetic hits the operator first, then the grocer and then the family filling a cart on a Saturday afternoon.

Last month, diesel reached a record $2.75 a litre. Even after the spike eased, it was still averaging roughly $2.64. That is about 70% higher than a year earlier and nearly 60% higher than the weeks before the war in Iran began interrupting shipments out of the Persian Gulf.

Global events explain why prices rose everywhere. They do not explain why Canadians are paying roughly 24¢ a litre more than Americans and about 31¢ more than the world average. The difference is not geology; it is policy. Statistics Canada reports that gasoline prices have risen 27.8% over the past year, energy costs 19% and transportation 8.4%. Diesel is a cost of living issue, because it is a cost of making and moving nearly everything. Every increase reaches the family filling a grocery cart.

Bill C-38 would extend the temporary suspension of the federal excise tax on diesel until the end of January. Conservatives will support it. Every dollar that stays in a working family's pocket matters. We fought for the first cut. We fought for the extension. The Liberals followed. The bill would still place an expiry date on relief: Half the tax returns in February and the full rate returns on April 1. Also, the GST continues to apply, and the clean fuel regulations continue to add costs that the government's own officials estimate at six to seven cents a litre today. The Parliamentary Budget Officer projects it could reach 16¢ by 2030. The industrial carbon tax also continues to raise the cost of production.

Taken together, these measures leave Canadians paying a premium that global markets alone cannot justify. A round-trip semi-haul between Montreal and Toronto that cost about $850 on New Year's Day now costs roughly $1,400. Rail fuel surcharges for October stand as high as 73% above early August levels. Some large farms are spending as much as $5,000 a day on diesel. Independent grocers operate on margins of about 2%. Those costs do not stay on the loading dock. They appear on the shelf.

The leader of the opposition put the same facts before the House on September 23 and again the following day. He described a full-scale diesel crisis. He noted that with the fourth-largest oil supply on earth, we do not enjoy the lowest prices. He identified three persistent causes: a weaker dollar, insufficient refining and transport capacity because governments have refused to get out of the way, and taxes that continue to apply. He called for an emergency fuel relief plan that would remove all federal taxes on diesel until at least Canada Day, permanently eliminate production taxes and set a national goal of producing one million barrels of diesel a day. Those are the measures on this side of the House that were advanced in successive opposition motions. Each time, the government and its partners have voted them down.

Just last week, the International Energy Agency warned that global diesel shortages could persist well into 2027. Why is the Liberal government scheduling higher fuel taxes while the crisis remains unresolved?

Conservatives support Bill C-38 because partial relief is better than none. We will continue to press for the full plan: removing the remaining federal taxes on diesel until at least Canada Day; scrapping the clean fuel regulations and the industrial carbon tax; and clearing the path for the pipelines, refineries and storage that would let Canadian diesel reach Canadian markets.

The objective is simple: eliminate the premium Canadians now pay; raise domestic production; and ensure that the fuel that moves our food, our freight and our families is made here and priced here.

A decade of Liberal carbon taxes and expanding bureaucracy have eroded the gains of Conservative GST cuts and smaller government from over a decade ago.

Canada has the fourth-largest oil reserves, and we should be among the best-prepared nations to withstand an energy shock. Instead, our 16 refineries operated at roughly 90% of capacity last year. Ontario and Quebec refineries import more than 99% of their crude from the United States, while 93% of the crude we export moves south.

There is still no pipeline connecting western Canada to eastern Canada. Energy east, proposed in 2013 and withdrawn in 2017, would have closed that gap. It was stopped not by markets but by a deliberate policy of obstruction that treated major energy infrastructure as something to be delayed or defeated.

The last new refinery, Sturgeon in Alberta, took years and more than $10 billion. New capacity requires permits, pipelines, storage and a regulatory environment that treats builders as partners instead of as adversaries.

How did a country so abundantly endowed allow itself to become so vulnerable? Russia's invasion has cut diesel exports and weaponized energy. Iran has turned Hormuz into an instrument of coercion while funding proxies across the Middle East. Conflict threatens the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb and the Suez Canal. Venezuela's collapse has removed another major supplier.

In a world of energy chaos, Canada could be instrumental in achieving energy security, security for our people and security for the world. Imagine if over the last decade, and especially from a year and a half ago, Liberals had made energy security a national undertaking: prepermitted projects, partnerships with first nations, approved pipelines to new markets with shovels in the ground today, more refining, and transport and storage ready for this age of disruption. Imagine Canadian energy reaching our provinces and allies at scale because we had built the means to move it.

Instead, the Prime Minister declares that Canada will become an energy superpower while preserving the net-zero orthodoxy and antidevelopment machinery that has held Canadian production back.

The United States holds a strategic petroleum reserve. After major withdrawals, it has fallen to approximately less than 20% of its accessible capacity. Today the United States is searching for diesel in all the wrong places. Canada could have stabilized supply had we built capacity before the emergency.

That is why Conservatives have proposed a strategic reserve of refined fuels and emergency prepermitting for refineries, for our growth as a country.

I appreciate the opportunity to address the House today and conclude my remarks here.

[John-Paul Danko, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

Madam Speaker, I listened to the member opposite's comments, and he did hit on a few key points that are relevant. At the same time, they were mixed in with a bunch of misinformation and rhetoric. First of all is the fact that fuel, oil and gas, is set at a global commodity pricing, so Canadian production is priced at a global scale.

Second, he talked about the disruptions in the fuel market, such as global diesel shortages; Iran, Ukraine and Venezuela; and that the U.S. is “searching for diesel in all the wrong places.” I completely agree with the member opposite that Canada should be increasing those exports to the U.S. to increase North American diesel opportunities. However, I will note that oil and gas exports and production have been at record levels and have been supported by this government.

Would the member opposite acknowledge that we are going in the right direction and there are more opportunities in the North American energy sector?

[Shuv Majumdar, Conservative, Calgary Heritage, AB]

Madam Speaker, I thank the member for the analysis, but I will say this. We have seen, over the last year and a half, nothing but illusions around the potential of getting Canadian energy to market. We have seen decisions to make a decision, and potentially having another decision for, potentially, a shovel in the ground at some point in the next 10 years.

The big, catalytic, transformational decisions around growth that the country needs to make today on energy, strategic reserve for critical minerals, agriculture and aquaculture simply have not been made. Even our own interprovincial barriers have not successfully been lowered. We are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of potential in our own country that should unleash the potential of what Canada could do for energy and resource security around the world, yet here is a government that goes around making big deals but does not produce a single actual decision to pursue the radically pro-growth policies our country and our people demand. Until that happens, everything else is just conjecture. It is not real, and it is not serving the people in this country the way it should.