Mr. Speaker, before I get started, I would like to say that I am sharing my time with the member for Lethbridge.
We are here talking about a motion regarding diesel prices, which are basically out of control. They are getting higher, with the potential to go even higher, and our Conservative motion is to cut diesel taxes to save Canadians money and produce more fuel here at home.
We have already seen how a weakened economy over the last 10 years has made us vulnerable to tariffs, and this is going to get worse with a diesel shortage. No matter where the dispute is happening, this diesel shortage is coming, and it is going to affect Canadians in more ways than one. The Prime Minister blamed the provinces for taxes, but the Prime Minister forgot to mention his own taxes on fuel, which include the industrial carbon tax, the clean fuel regulations on diesel and the GST on diesel.
I have seen this before. I was in MLA in B.C. when the Coquihalla Highway was washed out, and in turn the pipeline that was sending fuel products from Alberta to B.C. was shut down. That turned to rationing for people living in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island of 30 litres per fill-up. It was that bad, and in fact, the public safety minister at the time, Farnworth, said that it could work if people were not greedy and would not take any more. There were even travel restrictions. It got so bad that our neighbours to the south helped us out on request by shipping more fuel to Vancouver, and Alberta was doing everything it could to turn the taps back on again. This is where we are heading if we do not take this issue seriously.
When we are talking about rationing fuel at a government level, a citizen is at the bottom of the list of those using fuel. The priority will be emergency service vehicles, as it was in B.C., public transit vehicles and commercial transport trucks, which are relevant here, because the cost of groceries depends on the transport of food products to the grocery stores. That is not to mention the farmers who need diesel for the harvest. None of these producers or transporters are going to absorb that cost. They are going to pass it on to the consumer, who is already struggling.
Two million people are visiting food banks in Canada. The price of groceries and goods is going to go up if we do not address this in the short term, the medium term and the long term.
The priority goes further, to road repair, military vehicles, critical infrastructure, home care workers and municipal service vehicles. If someone lives in a northern community like mine, municipal service vehicles matter when they want to pick up garbage or want to clear the roads and the highways of snow. Fire trucks, ambulances and B.C. first nations government service vehicles will be a priority. They were a priority during the fuel crunch back in 2022 in B.C.
B.C. ferries, coast guards, tugboats, emergency vehicles, pilot boats, Canada Post, vehicles for the provision of critical government services and airport authority vehicles were all priorities at the top of the list in B.C. when we faced a fuel shortage, as were school buses, taxis, agriculture and farm-use vehicles, veterinarians supporting flood response, and intercity buses. That was a very temporary shortage of fuel that B.C. was experiencing.
However, it went further. There were travel restrictions in B.C. The travel restrictions for British Columbians applied to Highway 99, Highway 3 and Highway 7, and they were enforced by the RCMP. Only approved travel was allowed. If a citizen wanted to travel to visit their family members, under the fuel crisis it was not allowed, and they could be charged. They could be charged and fined if they did not follow the fuel restrictions. There were essentials as well, including a person returning to a principal residence or an aboriginal exercising their rights as affirmed by section 35 of the Constitution Act of 1982.
This is serious. Nobody is blaming the Liberal government for the wars or the issues happening all around the world that are causing diesel shortages globally. No one is blaming the government. We are talking about what is possible, right here and right now, to help offset the price at the pump for Canadians and help with affordability. That is all we are asking for. In fact, it is something the Conservatives have suggested before to make life more affordable for Canadians. The Liberals took up some of our Conservative ideas, like getting rid of the carbon tax, but they then turned around and said they were going to create the industrial carbon tax. It was kind of a bait-and-switch move. That industrial carbon tax applies to farmers.
In terms of refining more product here, that is another old issue. During the fuel shortage in B.C., Premier Horgan himself said that we needed more refining capacity and the best place to do that was in Alberta. That is what we are talking about today. We need to cut the red tape and get more capacity to address affordability issues for Canadians.
What made it absurd in B.C. was that at the time, the B.C. NDP were using every tool in the tool box to shut down the pipeline from Alberta to B.C., even though they were told that legally they could not do it and constitutionally they could not do it. They were using every tool to shut down the pipeline. The Alberta NDP, which was in power at the time, then created legislation to turn off the taps to stop fuel from flowing to British Columbia.
We had the NDP fighting the NDP. What did the B.C. NDP do? They threatened to go to court. This is after B.C. was entertaining a legal challenge to stop a pipeline from Alberta to B.C. B.C. turned around and said that if Alberta shut down the pipeline that sent fuel to B.C., it was going to go to court. I was sitting in the legislature scratching my head thinking that on one hand, we did not want oil shipped to B.C., but on the other hand, we wanted the fuel to continue.
The interprovincial trade barrier that the Prime Minister promised to get rid of is a lot bigger than wine. It has gotten to the point where we are talking about diversifying away from the United States, but not touching fuel products because everybody knows how interconnected we are. Yes, we produce diesel here. We could produce more, but we take crude oil and pipe it to the United States, and it turns it into fuel products like jet fuel, gasoline and diesel and sells it back to us.
If we want to be an energy superpower, if we want to be more independent, we have to look at refineries. If we want to address affordability, we have to look at refineries, that supply and demand. Being part of the G7, Canada was part of that announcement saying that we were going to release more reserves to alleviate the crunch. Canada does not have reserves.
I ask every member in this House to please support our motion to make life more affordable for Canadians.