Mr. Speaker, we are having this debate this evening because in the 30 months since the government was sworn in, the prices at the pumps have skyrocketed.
In January 2006 in my riding, the average price was 83.2¢ a litre. On May 25, 2008, yesterday's average price was $1.25 a litre. That is a 51% increase on the government's 30 month watch.
Gasoline prices are now higher than ever. It is a fact that should prompt some reflection in all corners of the House. Our society has some major choices ahead.
It was striking to hear the Prime Minister in his Q and A session in Beamsville, Ontario, last week admit defeat in this regard. He said, “The ability of governments to affect the price of gasoline per se is so small that it's not even worth doing”.
As if to distract from his bald-faced unwillingness to help those Canadians most hurt by higher gasoline prices, he went further and lashed out with a vengeance. He said, “What we don't need right now...are governments that come in and specifically impose carbon taxes on our economy”. He said that they are risky and “foolish”.
For weeks now, government members have been talking about how our plan will apparently raise the price of gasoline. That is interesting because our plan has not even been released yet, and I can tell the House that we have not faxed the government a copy of it by mistake.
This nonsense about a Liberal plan for higher gas prices is the result of a continuing propensity by the frontbenches of the government to just make things up on the fly. They have not seen our plan yet, but their shock and awe attacks betray their fear of the notion of tax shifting.
Here is why. Because the government has no plan to deal with gasoline prices, it has chosen to sit on the sidelines doing nothing in the face of all the advice and international trends.
The government says it is bringing in a cap and trade program in the fall. Let those members stand and deny it. What will be the net effect of bringing in a cap and trade program in the fall? It will have a profound effect on fuel prices.
Are government members telling Canadians that truth? Absolutely not. They are too busy firing ministers.
The government has presented Canadians with no analysis of its cap and trade program because it has not done anything. It is eerily reminiscent of the infamous “Turning the Corner” plan released amid more shock and awe last April.
Since then, no fewer than 10 very respectable Canadian and international organizations have shown that the government's math does not add up and that it will never achieve its targets. It is no better than if we had planned to fail in the first place.
Yes, we Liberals are working on a real plan to tackle climate change, and Canadians are saying that it is about time. We are not alone.
At the World Economic Forum last year, Sir Nicholas Stern said that environmental taxes should play an essential role in combating global warming. In fact, he stated that ruling out a carbon tax is “a risk we cannot take”.
Someone should tell the Prime Minister and the parliamentary secretary who was up moments ago that Sir Stern is no leftist cooking up a money-sucking “socialist scheme”. Sir Stern is best known for being the former chief economist of the World Bank. He went on to be the expert author of the U.K. government's highly praised report on the economic effects of climate change.
In short, he is precisely the kind of person we ought to be taking advice from. He said:
Unless we act quickly and effectively, we will not bring down carbon emissions...we must cut our emissions from current levels by around 40%.
Carbon taxes are a responsible response to an unprecedented threat to our civilization. Sir Stern said:
This is the biggest market failure the world has ever seen. The market hasn't worked because we haven't fixed it. Equity demands that the rich countries, who are largely responsible for the problem, do more about it.
We know that in the coming weeks and months our bold proposal will prompt a national debate on how to reconcile the economy and the environment so that no Canadian is left behind.
The Conservative government's usual strategy is always the same. It is to attack any and every group that would dare contradict it. But the politics of fear are tired and tiresome.
Here is the good news. We have Tom d'Aquino, the president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, agreeing with David Suzuki. We have Andrew Coyne, hardly a left wing editor of Macleans magazine, agreeing with the Toronto Star. Why is this? Because the system is overdue for just such a shakeup.
This is about tax shifting, which brings us to internalize a neglected externality, that is, to put a price on carbon and to stop treating the atmosphere as an unlimited waste receptacle.
The very heart of the Liberal plan will cut taxes on the things we want more of. We want more income. We want more innovation. We want more savings. We want more investments. We want more productivity, as Canada is losing the productivity race. It shifts those taxes onto the things we want less of. We want less pollution. We want fewer greenhouse gas emissions. We want less smog. We certainly want less waste.
This is what we mean when we say our plan will be revenue neutral. Every new dollar in revenue will be given back to Canadians in tax cuts.
This is about solid economic and environmental policy. A tax shift requires a shift in our way of thinking. The Prime Minister's thinking is so 1960s: that we have to choose between a strong economy and a clean environment. Conservatives say we cannot have both.
The Prime Minister's thinking is that there is no room for the federal government in the lives of Canadians. As a result, the government does nothing while gas prices continue to skyrocket, and at the same time it allows greenhouse gas emissions to soar.
It lets the manufacturing sector whittle away to nothing while refusing to invest in the advanced green technologies that could create the jobs of the future.
It does not have a plan to fight poverty. In fact, it does not even mention the issue.
Liberals, on the other hand, believe that thinking that pits the economy, the environment and social justice against each other not only demonstrates a lack of imagination, not only demonstrates a party stuck in a time warp, but is simply wrong. We can do better as a country and we must.
Our environmental and economic plan will help the middle class and it will lift many Canadians out of poverty. It will reward those who go the extra green mile, those who go beyond the minimum to reduce pollution by putting even more dollars in their pockets. Industry will be rewarded for its efforts with lower corporate taxes that can be reinvested in newer technologies to further improve the environment and the bottom line. It is a scenario where we all win.
The only group in Canadian society today that appears not to understand that we are racing toward a carbon constrained future is the Conservative Party of Canada. On this side of the House, we ask, “Why would Canada not want to win that race, the race toward a cleaner, more eco-efficient economy, higher energy efficiency levels, less wasteful consumption, lower income taxes and higher productivity?”
No, we in the Liberal Party will not pursue the politics of fear. We will not race to offer the latest tax gimmick to the Canadian people. We will do our job responsibly. We will tell the truth about the climate change crisis, what the science is telling us to do and how important it is for us to move forward by putting the adequate and proper price on carbon. Pricing carbon makes a big difference in the marketplace and it prepares Canada to win the race of the 21st century, which is to become a cleaner, greener, fairer society.
