Mr. Speaker, our position is that we should permanently get rid of the industrial carbon tax, which applies to the upstream production of petroleum and the refining of diesel products. We should permanently get rid of the so-called clean fuel standard, which is a tax that drives up gas at the pump by at least six cents a litre, rising to 17¢ a litre. It should be gone forever. We propose to suspend until at least Canada Day the excise tax and the GST.
The combined effect of that will be in the neighbourhood of 20¢ a litre, and that would reduce the costs for our truckers who bring us products, our farmers, our rural people who drive diesel-powered vehicles and people in Atlantic Canada and parts of Ontario who still heat with diesel. Everything is more expensive when we drive up the cost of diesel.
I noticed that the member forgot to mention that Canadian diesel prices are 24¢ to 30¢ a litre more expensive than American and worldwide prices. That is a homemade problem, made by the government, for which the Conservatives have the solution. We ask them to vote for our plan for diesel price relief for all Canadians.