Mr. Speaker, it is always a honour to rise on behalf of the amazing residents of Vaughan—Woodbridge to fight for a more affordable life. Speaking of affordable, I would like to take the opportunity to say that it is unfortunate that the Prime Minister put together a costly majority government, not through the ballot box but through politicians who betrayed their constituents and betrayed their principles, principles they ran on and sought public office on, principles they will be held to account for during the next election.
We have been calling for relief at the pumps. Our motion today calls for the Prime Minister to adopt the Conservative plan to suspend all taxes on fuel until the end of the year. Earlier today, the Prime Minister confirmed once again that Conservatives have the solutions for Canada, but Liberals seem to want to introduce only half measures that will not deliver the full benefits to Canadians.
This morning, the Prime Minister announced the suspension of the federal fuel excise tax on gas and diesel. The suspension takes effect on April 20 and runs until September 7. Any measure that reduces the cost of fuel for Canadians is a step in the right direction, but this is only one part of the four-part plan of our Conservative motion before the House today. Unfortunately the Liberal government and the Prime Minister missed three of the other points of our plan and are not removing tax until the end of the year as we have proposed.
Conservatives have brought forward a plan to eliminate the fuel excise tax, the GST on tax and diesel, the industrial carbon tax and the clean fuel standard for the rest of 2026. This would cut costs by 25¢ a litre and save families, on average, $1,218 this year. This morning's announcement addresses 10¢ of that tax on gas, and only until September 7.
A parent in my riding got up this morning, strapped their kids in their car and drove them to school. They then went to work. Before they did any of that, they stopped at the pump. One year ago, that fill-up cost them roughly $92 for a minivan. Last week, it cost them more than $127. Next week, it might be more. Over the years, deliberate policy choices the Liberal government has made built a tax structure on fuel that now squeezes Canadians every time they grip the nozzle.
The Prime Minister says he wants to govern in a collaborative way, but the results are nonexistent. It is time for his rhetoric to match reality. It is an illusion that the Prime Minister will deliver on affordability, when he is out to remove only one tax, the fuel excise tax, and only from April 20 until Labour Day.
The CAA's own price tracker tells the story plainly. Gas across Canada now averages more than $1.82 a litre, up from $1.32 a year ago and just $1.52 six short weeks ago. That is a 38% spike in the cost of getting to work, getting kids to school and getting food to market. For millions of Canadians who are already living paycheque to paycheque, this compounding crisis, layered on top of crises the government has created, is too much to bear.
That is why we are here today to debate the motion. Conservatives have brought a specific plan to deliver immediate relief at the pump. We are calling on the government to adopt it. We need to provide immediate relief for families.
Government members are going to rise today and tell us that this is about global oil markets. They will reference the Middle East. They will explain the Strait of Hormuz. We have heard the Prime Minister use at a press conference the exact same description I just referenced, saying it is beyond Canada's control and asking what we could possibly do.
The global market explanation has one flaw that can be exposed with a single fact: Americans face the same global oil market, but Canadians pay almost 20% more at the pumps than the Americans do. It is the same disruption, yet when an American family pulls into a gas station, it pays dramatically less. The question that the House needs to be asking is why.
The answer is that it is the federal Liberal tax policy. Americans do not pay the fuel excise tax on every litre. They do not pay the clean fuel standard. The hidden carbon tax, which the Parliamentary Budget Officer himself confirmed, costs Canadians seven cents per litre, with no rebate attached. Americans do not carry an industrial carbon tax that will rise to $170 a tonne.
Here is a precise outline of what Canadians pay in addition to what Americans pay, in federal tax alone on every litre of gasoline: 10¢ a litre in fuel excise tax, which Conservatives are calling to be removed until the end of the year, not just until Labour Day; eight cents a litre in GST on gas and diesel; and seven cents a litre in the hidden carbon tax, with no rebate attached. That is 25¢ in additional costs per litre for all Canadians. On top of that, we have an industrial carbon tax already at $110 per tonne and rising to $170 per tonne.
Therefore, when we talk about global markets' being the cause of rising prices, it is indeed an immediate factor, but there are deep-rooted factors caused by our federal government that we could take decisive action on and address today.
There is another added dimension in the crisis the government hopes Canadians do not notice: The higher the price is on fuel, the more the government collects. According to a former Liberal top economic adviser, Tyler Meredith, every $10 increase in the price per barrel of oil brings roughly $2 billion in additional revenue for the federal government through the higher taxes paid by the oil industry from higher profits.
For context, oil is currently trading at $45 to $55 above pre-war baselines. The federal government stands to collect $9 billion or $10 billion in additional annual revenue if these prices are sustained. These figures have been validated by independent economists, such as Scotiabank's director of forecasting and modelling, Olivier Gervais.
The Conservative plan asks for $5 billion of that $9 billion windfall to be returned to Canadians, who generated it. Let us be clear: Conservatives are not asking the Liberals to spend money they do not have. We are asking them to return money they did not earn, which is money that flows directly to Ottawa precisely because Canadians are paying more at the pump.
After years of Conservatives and Canadians from across the country pleading it do so, the government eliminated the consumer carbon tax, yet what the Liberals try to hide from the public is that two more taxes remain in place, and both of those taxes are growing.
The clean fuel standard is silent. It is invisible on the price board at the pump, but that seven cents per litre is there every time we fill up our vehicle. Then there is the industrial carbon tax, currently at $110 per tonne and scheduled to rise again to $170 per tonne. The Liberals will tell us that this tax hits only industry, but the Canadian Federation of Independent Business tells us that nearly 70% of small businesses have seen their energy costs rise, and 32% of them already have raised their prices just to cover it. The Fraser Institute analysis found that the trajectory to $170 per tonne will cost the average Canadian worker $1,160 in lost annual income, eliminate 50,000 jobs and shrink our economy by 1.3%.
All this is to say that Liberals can try to reduce the impact of this all they want, but businesses do not absorb taxes. Taxes flow through to the shelf, and consumers pay more. Every time a Liberal member rises in the House and suggests that the industrial carbon tax does not touch ordinary Canadians, they contradict the lived experience of every small business owner and every family who has watched their grocery bill rise and the price at the pumps go up.
To reiterate, this four-point plan will be before the House—