Debates of March 23rd, 2026

Industry

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I have asked the government more than once to provide some clarity on its complicity in the pump-and-dump scandal, Lion Electric vehicles.

I will give a quick recap. Lion Electric built school buses in Quebec, and the government of Quebec invested $230 million in an electric bus maker as part of its green transition efforts. It stipulated that all electric school buses purchased in Quebec must be produced there.

This was one more salvo from the green everything crowd, most of whom are just profiteers, as it turns out. In the case of Lion, this could not be more clear.

With all the hype, the mandate, the supposed inevitability of electrifying everything, what appears to be a monopolistic mandate, and a quarter-billion-dollar investment from a provincial government, the profiteers got to work. The hype machine ratcheted up. Private funds flowed to Lion at cheap valuations from connected opportunists. Then came the merger with the U.S.-listed special purpose acquisition company, known as an SPAC, that put almost half a billion dollars onto the balance sheet of Lion.

Why the confidence in this transaction? It is because two months before the transaction, the Government of Canada announced a grant of $100 million to Lion, half of which came through the strategic innovation fund and half from the Government of Quebec.

It was a well-funded company participating in the inevitable and supposedly cheap green transition that the Liberal government trumpeted loudly. What could go wrong? As it turned out, almost everything could: school buses that burned, school buses that cost more to maintain and insure, and school buses that were less reliable. All in all, it was a much higher cost to society than the buses they were destined to make obsolete, but the scam lies in the financial fraud.

Investors were duped out of the entirety of their funds when Lion faced the inevitable bankruptcy of a business built on hype, a house of cards and a false premise from government officials guilty at least of ignoring all the facts.

Here is the connected complicity: $50 million from the strategic innovation fund, $400 million in financing arrangements through the Canada Infrastructure Bank, and to top it all off, a loan guarantee from Export Development Canada to the lenders associated with the company, who were making money all the way home.

This is the very definition of socializing risk and privatizing profits: Heads, banks win, and tails, Canadian taxpayers lose. It was not just Canadians, as it turns out. The head of the Environmental Protection Agency in the U.S., Lee Zeldin, has publicly stated that the purchase of these buses by American entities cost American taxpayers $160 million in buses that were not delivered. In his words, the people involved got to keep all the money, and people need to go to prison.

The CEO of Lion Electric, Marc Bédard, cashed in $33 million of his shares prior to Lion's declaring bankruptcy. Michel Ringuet, an insider of Cycle Capital and closely associated with the government's $400-million green slush fund scandal, took 1.1 million shares himself.

My question to the government has always been, can it please disclose how much Export Development Canada has guaranteed funds to the financiers of Canada on this? It is an obscene amount of money, and it is something that needs to be disclosed.

Accountability rests with the government here. We are looking forward to it. I have asked many times, and I am asking again tonight that it provide those numbers from Export Development Canada.

[Wade Grant, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Mr. Speaker, with regard to the particular matter raised by my colleague, it would not be appropriate for a minister or parliamentary secretary to indicate an opinion on criminality. This is a matter for law enforcement and the courts to determine. However, it is important to acknowledge the member's concerns.

Canada's new government takes financial crimes seriously. This is why our government has introduced the first-ever national anti-fraud strategy through budget 2025. We have committed more resources to the RCMP, to a new Canadian financial crimes agency and to stronger FINTRAC authorities in order to better prevent and respond to financial wrongdoing accusations. The new financial crimes agency will bring together the required expertise to investigate crimes such as money laundering, online fraud and financial scams, and recover criminals' illicit proceeds.

For some prior context on the matter at hand, the government announced a contribution through the strategic innovation fund with Lion Electric in March 2021, of which $31 million has been disbursed according to the public accounts of Canada audit. This loan was paid out as a partially repayable contribution to Lion Electric, which the government continues to monitor as Justice Canada and the court-appointed trustees evaluate the next steps.

In this new global era, we know that unjustified U.S. tariffs have impacted our industries. These we cannot control but we can control our responses. We can work with the industries to strengthen the Canadian economy. The company has unfortunately faced a number of financial challenges, which resulted in the company seeking creditor protection in late 2024 and ultimately being sold to a group of Quebec-based investors in 2025.

As we continue to modernize our response to the changing global landscape and work closely with our cross-government partners, we will continue to ensure that Canadian taxpayers get responsible governance and responsible use of taxpayers' dollars, to create a stronger, more resilient Canadian economy.

It is absolutely vital, in this time of global uncertainty, that Canada remains focused on economic development, protecting and creating jobs, and attracting talent, both home and abroad, as well as investments.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I will first say that counting on a new task force for the RCMP to investigate crimes in the past is shutting the gate after the horses have left. I also do not expect the government to be actively investigating people who are clear insiders and well-connected with the Liberal government that sits today.

This is something that we need to get to the bottom of very quickly. The sole thing I am asking here in the House of Commons is for the government to finally acknowledge how much money the Export Development Corporation, which guaranteed the loans of the financiers who made money hand over fist from the Lion Electric “pump and dump” scam, has on its balance sheet as far as a liability goes for the taxpayers of Canada. They have not disclosed that. How many times do I have to ask for that? That is public information. The accountability should be there.

What is the number?

[Wade Grant, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Mr. Speaker, let me be absolutely clear. We will not tolerate financial wrongdoing.

Budget 2025 introduced new, strengthened measures to ensure stronger financial oversight and improved detection and prevention of financial crimes across Canada. We are committed to ensuring that our industries are not only protected from this current global environment, but strengthened and able to adapt to changing conditions. We will continue to ensure that public funds are safeguarded and used responsibly, while acting decisively to support responsible innovation efforts.

Carbon Pricing

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Mr. Speaker, it is a little over a week before another terrible April Fool's trick by the Liberal Prime Minister will be played on Canadians. The illusion that he would like everyone in Canada to believe is that the carbon tax is dead and buried, but what the Liberal Prime Minister is not coming clean with Canadians on, and what he does not like to talk about, is the fact that the industrial carbon tax is still lurking behind the shadows, and on April 1, that carbon tax is set to go up to $110 a tonne. Right now, it is about $95 a tonne. That is almost a 16% increase.

That industrial carbon tax trickles down to consumers in so many different ways. Every company in Canada that produces something, and every company, business and factory that uses energy, has to pay that carbon tax. Those costs get passed down to consumers. Every farmer who buys fertilizer and equipment, who has to pay for fuel to haul back and forth between the grain elevator and the terminal or who picks up supplies and inputs as we enter the growing season, has to pay that carbon tax. All of that gets passed on to consumers. The truckers who have to transport goods from the processing centres to the distributors have to pay that carbon tax.

In fact, when the industrial carbon tax was set at $40 a tonne, just a few years ago, studies showed that the effect of that on a Toronto to Montreal food haul added about $2,000 a year to the cost of just the trucking. That does not include any of the processing or energy costs that those companies involved in making or processing food pay. That is just the transportation alone, and that was at $40 a tonne. On April 1, when that jumps to $110 a tonne, that represents almost a threefold increase to the industrial carbon tax from just a few years ago.

I said that the industrial carbon tax was lurking in the shadows, and I use the word “shadow” for a very specific reason. It is because the Liberal Prime Minister, before he ran for Liberal leader, was often out on the world stage saying the problem with the carbon tax was that people noticed it. He actually said this over and over again in interviews, on panels and in his book Values: Building a Better World for All. He said that the consumer carbon tax was divisive and that people saw it when they filled up their cars with gas and when they paid their utility bills, so his solution was to hide it. He actually said in an interview that the right way to do it was to take it off of the receipts that Canadians had to pay and bury it on the back end. He literally said that we need, in effect, a shadow carbon tax, and that is exactly what he has done.

He wrote that book Values, and I reference that book for a reason. If I had written a book called “Values” where I defined myself as a human being on almost a moral level and professed my love of a carbon tax and my desire to leave oil and gas in the ground, when I decided to run for politics, people might not believe me if I suddenly claimed to have had a conversion and disavowed everything I had ever written.

The Liberal Prime Minister does not want to develop our natural resources. He believes in the radical, most extreme form of net zero, which would leave our natural resources in the ground. He actually said in an interview with the media that the best course of action for Canada is to leave up to 50% of our natural resources in the ground.

Why will the government not finish the job and eliminate the industrial carbon tax so that Canadians do not have to pay this useless tax on the consumer side or the industrial side?

[Wade Grant, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Mr. Speaker, let me be clear that I and this government take food affordability concerns seriously. We know that families across the country are feeling the pressure of higher grocery bills. That is why earlier this year we introduced the Canada grocery and essentials benefit, previously the GST credit. This new benefit will boost payments to Canadians by 25% for five years plus a one-time 50% increase, delivering up to $1,890 to families nationwide. This is significant money to help with rising costs, including for families in my own community of the Musqueam First Nation.

To understand the cost of rising food prices, it is important that we have an honest conversation about what is actually driving prices and what our policies are designed to do. Food prices in Canada—

[An hon. member]

Oh, oh!

[Wade Grant, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have two young kids, so it is okay. I have dealt with people yelling at me when I am trying to do my job.

Food prices in Canada, as in many countries, have been influenced by a range of global factors. Supply chain disruptions, geopolitical instability, extreme weather and rising production costs have always played a role in putting pressure on food systems worldwide. These are challenges that farmers and producers are facing not just here in Canada, but across the globe.

With respect to Canada's climate policies, it is important to clarify the facts. Canada's industrial carbon pricing system applies to large industrial emitters. It is designed to encourage efficiency and cleaner production while protecting the competitiveness of Canadian industries that operate in global markets. It does not apply to individual Canadians or to farms, and it is structured specifically to avoid driving investment or jobs out of this country. This approach ensures that Canadian industries remain competitive as more and more international markets place a premium on low-carbon production. Rolling back these policies would not lower grocery bills, but would introduce uncertainty for business owners and risk, leaving Canadian exporters at higher exposure to carbon border measures, which key trading partners are already putting in place.

The same principle applies to the clean fuel regulations. These regulations set performance standards for fuel suppliers and provide multiple flexible options for compliance, including blending low-carbon fuels or investing in cleaner production. They do not mandate a specific price increase at the pump, and the actual impact depends on how suppliers choose to comply. Independent analysis indicates that the overall impact on fuel prices is expected to remain modest. Suggestions that we cancel the clean fuel regulations are misguided. They have supported billions of dollars of investments in clean fuel projects while supporting sustainable jobs across Canada.

In short, climate action and affordability are not competing goals. Well-designed climate policies are supporting innovation and investment in Canada's energy sector while reducing emissions that contribute to climate change. That matters because climate change itself is already affecting food production through droughts, floods and other extreme weather events that disrupt harvests and supply chains. Climate action and economic resilience go hand in hand. Our approach is to support farmers and producers, strengthen competition and ensure that Canada's economy remains strong and competitive in the changing global market while also protecting the environment and public health for future generations.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Mr. Speaker, there is so much wrong with what that member just said. I wish I had more time.

First of all, this grocery rebate was the exact same policy that the Justin Trudeau Liberals tried. It failed because when the government creates more money, when it borrows more money to give out on the demand side, it causes more inflation. It is monetary policy that causes inflation, not global factors. Inflation is not like the weather. It is not something that just happens because of natural phenomena. It is because of domestic policies, including deficit spending bankrolled by the creation of money.

Do not take my word for it. This is exactly what happened in the previous Liberal government. It is what is going to happen today. The proof of that is the fact that every other country in the G7 is also facing those global factors. Under this Liberal Prime Minister's government, under his policies, Canada has the highest food inflation because it has the worst domestic economic policy.

The parliamentary secretary talked about the fuel standards, and their not mandating an increase, but the effect of the policies will be that increase. It is going to be 17¢ a litre. Canadians cannot afford that. Farmers cannot afford that. That is going to add to price increases.

[Wade Grant, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the government will not take steps that weaken Canada's competitiveness or create uncertainty for industries that support good jobs in this country.

Industrial carbon pricing and the clean fuel regulations are carefully designed policies that reduce emissions while protecting Canadian competitiveness and encouraging innovation. They provide flexibility for businesses, maintain investment confidence and position Canadian producers to succeed in global markets that increasingly reward cleaner production. Rather than dismantling policies that support long-term economic resilience, the government will continue to work with provinces, industry, farmers and indigenous partners to strengthen affordability, support economic growth and ensure Canada remains competitive in the transition to a low-carbon economy.

The Economy

[Arpan Khanna, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

Mr. Speaker, after 11 years of Liberal government, Canadians are now struggling to feed their families. We have a record number of visits to food banks, with 2.2 million people in a single month. We have the highest food inflation in the G7, which is double that of the U.S. We have a 10% increase in homelessness in Ontario.

These numbers are more than just stats. They affect Canadians every single day. Seniors are now calling my office asking to apply for MAID, not because they are sick but because they cannot feed themselves anymore. They feel burdened. We have single parents and working-class Canadians now calling themselves the working poor. They have decent jobs but still cannot feed their families.

In Canada, we have some of the best farmers. My riding of Oxford is full of them. They are hard workers. They roll up their sleeves. They get the job done. Our planting season is just around the corner. I am getting a lot of calls from farmers telling me that their input costs are skyrocketing. They are facing increasing fertilizer tariffs and costs. I will add that we are the only country to have fertilizer tariffs on our farmers. They are seeing the industrial carbon tax go up and rising fuel costs.

All these things are not only making it harder for the farmers to farm, but they are adding more costs for Canadians at the grocery store. This is not something we want to see. We should be providing great, nutritious food to our communities, to Canadians. We have the best land, the best farmers and the best resources. However, because of the Liberals' poor domestic policies, we have seen food unaffordability hit an alarming number. We have food insecurity in places we have never seen before. The government offers temporary measures, such as a one-time food price break. That is not going to do anything to lower prices.

As we see the rising price of gas, and we are seeing it today on energy, the cost of groceries is also going to go up. Experts are saying in the latest report that came out this morning, that with rising fertilizer costs and with rising energy costs, grocery prices are going to skyrocket this summer. We are not ready for that. Canadians are not ready for that.

My question for the Liberal minister is a very simple one: What is one policy or one measure that the Liberals have taken to lower the input costs for our farmers?

[Wade Grant, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to start off by saying that I was a basketball player growing up in high school, but I guess I am a hockey player tonight, and this is my hat trick. Here we go.

The global economy is more than a year into a profound rupture, with economic security, industrial policy and geopolitical competition increasingly shaping economic, financial and supply chain decisions. On top of that, heightened geopolitical tensions, including the recent events in the Middle East that disrupted global energy markets and shipping routes, have further underscored the fragility of global supply chains and are now contributing to elevated uncertainty.

However, there is some good news for the Canadian economy. Business sentiment in Canada has improved, and firms are diversifying suppliers and markets. Canada leads the G7 in inward foreign direct investment per capita, and businesses plan to increase their capital spending in 2026. Reflecting on this adaptability, the International Monetary Fund expects Canada to post the second-fastest growth in the G7 over 2026 and 2027.

However, we know that the high cost of living is an issue for far too many Canadian families. This is why the government is taking action to put more money in people's pockets. It is the right thing to do, and we want more Canadians to be able to support their families, build financial stability and contribute to our country's long-term national prosperity.

Last summer, we introduced a middle-class tax cut that will save two-income families up to $840 in 2026 and is expected to deliver over $27 billion in tax savings to Canadians over five years. We have also limited the goods and services tax for first-time homebuyers on new homes at or under $1 million, and reduced the GST for first-time homebuyers on new homes between $1 million and $1.5 million. This will save first-time homebuyers up to $50,000, allowing more young Canadians to enter the housing market and spurring the construction of new homes across the country. We launched Build Canada Homes, which will leverage public lands, attract private capital and support modern manufacturers to help build the affordable homes that Canadians need at scale.

We also tabled budget 2025, “Canada Strong”, which, as my hon. colleagues know, contains several targeted measures aimed at reducing costs for households, improving consumer protections and addressing housing affordability. For example, budget 2025 proposes to make the national school food program permanent. This program helps up to 400,000 children each year to receive meals every day and is saving participating families with two children an average of $800 per year on groceries.

The budget also proposes to start automatically delivering federal benefits to low-income Canadians. The Canada Revenue Agency will ensure that they receive the federal benefits to which they are entitled, including those they may not even be aware of. That includes the Canada groceries and essentials benefit and the Canada child benefit. These amounts will go up in the coming years, because the benefits are indexed to inflation to ensure that they keep pace with the cost of living.

Budget 2025 also renewed the Canada Strong pass for next summer so that younger families can discover Canada at lower costs. I know many in my community will benefit from that as well.

[Arpan Khanna, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I wish we could feed families with the word salad the member served up in the House today.

It is funny, because when the Liberals are asked about the housing crisis, they blame the Iran war. When we ask them about the 100,000 job losses, they blame the Iran war. When we ask about food insecurity and the cost of living crisis, they blame the Iran war. The Iran war started three weeks ago, but their failed policies started 11 years ago.

When we tax the farmer who grows the food, the trucker who ships the food and the processor who processes the food, guess who ends up paying? It is Canadians. Will the parliamentary secretary stand up in the House today and tell us if they will remove the fertilizer tariffs that only Canada is charging and reduce food prices for all Canadians?

[Wade Grant, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have seen that the Canada school food program has worked in my own community, where I see smiling happy kids every morning going off to school, coming home with full bellies and actually excelling in school for the first time in their lives. That is something that we need to be proud of.

At a time when global supply chain disruptions are driving up prices, the government is focused on bringing down costs, supercharging homebuilding and sustaining the important programs that support Canadians. We will continue pushing for a more resilient, affordable economy for everyone, while ensuring that Canada is resilient and not dependent on any single economic power.

[The Deputy Speaker, Tom Kmiec]

The motion that the House do now adjourn is deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m., pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 7:27 p.m.)