John Barlow

[Carbon Pricing, October 1st, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to give the Prime Minister some facts. The fact is that food prices have increased nearly 40% since the Liberals were elected 10 years ago. I saw it at the grocery store this weekend. Pork shoulder is up 37%, and my coffee was up 25%. A little package of lunch meat was almost $10.

The Prime Minister said that he would be judged by food prices. Food Banks Canada has now said that a quarter of Canadians are struggling to put food on the table. That should never be the reality in this country.

Will the Prime Minister do the right thing, support the Conservative motion and scrap his taxes on farmers and the food Canadians rely on?

[Carbon Pricing, October 1st, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, we know the Prime Minister was doing a classic Liberal bait and switch when he told Canadians he cancelled the carbon tax. I want to quote the food professor, Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, who put it perfectly:

“The carbon tax was not eliminated.

“Only the consumer portion was reduced to zero. The industrial carbon tax remains fully in place—and has actually increased since April 1. We have argued numerous times that the carbon tax across the supply chain is undermining the competitiveness of our agri-food sector.”

Why is the Prime Minister pulling a bait and switch and taxing farmers and the food Canadians rely on?

[Carbon Pricing, October 1st, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, we know the Prime Minister was misleading Canadians when he cancelled the carbon tax. I want to quote the food professor, Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, who stated it perfectly: “The carbon tax—”

[Business of Supply, September 25th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, that is a great question. The “let them eat cake” attitude from the Liberals is what is frustrating Canadians. They say that the debt-to-GDP ratio is at 47% and that Canadians should be thrilled with that. The fact is that 60% of Canadians are food insecure. Of Canadian families, 60% do not know where their next meal is coming from. There are four million Canadians around the greater Toronto area alone who are going to food banks. They are being forced to feed their families at the food bank.

Those are the facts. These are the things Conservatives are focused on, not the massive deficit spending the Liberal government is focused on to enrich its friends.

[Business of Supply, September 25th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I too certainly respect my colleague from the Bloc and his passion for Canadian agriculture.

Food prices have not come down because the Liberals have not eliminated all the taxes they put on food production. Yes, they eliminated the consumer carbon tax. Canadians are very welcome for the work we did to force the Liberal government to do that. There is no way it would have eliminated that tax if not for the pressure put on it by the Conservatives.

I would say this to my Bloc colleague: The Liberals have not removed the industrial carbon tax. They are moving ahead with the P2 plastics ban. They are moving ahead with front-of-pack labelling. They have maintained the tariff on fertilizer imported into Canada. All of these things are having an impact on the price of food, from the farm gate to the grocery store shelf.

[Business of Supply, September 25th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I like it when the Liberals try to protect themselves with numbers they can fudge at any time. They are trying to lecture Canadians by telling them that they have never had it so good and that their fiscal position is great. I would ask the Liberal member to go to the grocery stores in his constituency and see what the response is if he tells Canadians and his constituents that they have never had it so good, that they should not be worried about beef going up 33%, apples going up 24% and coffee going up 22%.

[Business of Supply, September 25th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, the budget is coming soon. He says it like he is proud of it.

The Liberals will have perhaps a $100-billion deficit, as much as three times higher than that of the last Liberal government, when the then finance minister made a big scene and quit because she could not handle these types of deficits. Ironically, she is quitting again. Maybe the deficit is that much worse, and once again she cannot stand beside it.

Among households with an income of under $50,000, 73% are worried they will not be able to afford groceries if this trend of higher food prices continues.

Food prices are higher. Between March and June, beef went up 33%, canned soup went up 26%, canned tuna went up 19%, potatoes went up 16%, oranges went up 12% and whole chickens went up 11%. These are very real consequences of bad Liberal policies and broken promises. When taxes continue to be added on for those who produce the food, those who truck the food and those who process, manufacture and sell the food, what is going to happen? Canadians are the ones who will pay those higher prices, and that is exactly what is happening. Food prices are up nearly 40% since the Liberal government was elected 10 years ago. That is the record the Prime Minister has to abide by.

The new food price index report will come out in a month or two, and we will see exactly what is going on, but already, “Canada's Food Price Report 2025” predicted that we will see food prices increase this year by 5%. We are right on track for that type of increase. As a result of that, Canadians spent $800 more on groceries this year than they did the previous year. Those numbers could go up again next year. Again, there are very real consequences to mismanagement and fiscal ineptitude.

According to Food Banks Canada, in a new report that came out earlier this summer, more than a quarter of Canadians are now experiencing food insecurity. It gave the Liberal government an F grade. For those making $75,000 or under, 57% of their income is now being spent on essentials, such as groceries, utilities and transportation. According to the food bank report, 25% of households are struggling to afford food, which is up from 18% in 2023. The poverty rate rose for the third consecutive year, and the official poverty rate was 10%, increasing 38% since 2023. About 40% of Canadians are feeling worse off this year than they did the year before.

Neil Hetherington, the CEO of one of Canada's largest food banks, said the Toronto-based Daily Bread Food Bank will see four million visitors in 2025. That is double the visitors the food bank served two years ago. We should let that sink in. As a result of the affordability crisis caused by Liberal fiscal mismanagement, four million Canadians are using food banks, and that is only in the Daily Bread Food Bank in the Toronto area. That does not include food banks across this country. B.C. food banks reported that they will be seeing more than 225,000 monthly visits, up 15% since 2023. About one-third of B.C. food bank users are children, which accounts for more than 70,000 visits.

Today, Canadians simply cannot afford food, and they are now resorting to breaking the law. As we saw yesterday in a CTV News report, a Waterloo region farmer has now raised the alarm about the incredible increase of thefts from his apple orchard. He said that 500 pounds of apples from his orchard have been stolen. He himself has caught 250 pounds of stolen goods on a number of occasions, with families coming to the orchard just trying to feed themselves.

I am sure today we will hear a number of excuses from the Liberals about why this is not their fault, despite policies that they have implemented, such as a tariff on fertilizer that is having an impact on Canadian farmers, an industrial carbon tax, and taxes on manufacturing and food production. All of these things are having an impact. In fact, net income for farmers fell by $3.3 billion in 2024, the largest net decrease in income for Canadian farmers since 2018.

Yesterday, the Minister of Jobs and Families said the past predicts the future, and that is exactly what we are seeing. The Prime Minister promised Canadians he would be judged by prices at the grocery store. Judgment has been rendered. Those were his words, his promise and his failure to Canadians.

[Business of Supply, September 25th, 2025]

moved:

That, given that the Prime Minister said Canadians would judge him by the cost at the grocery store, and that,

(i) food inflation is 70% above the Bank of Canada's target,

(ii) food prices are up 40% since the Liberals took power,

(iii) Daily Bread Food Bank expects 4 million visits to its food banks in 2025,

(iv) food bank use in Canada is up by 142% since 2015,

the House call on the Liberal Prime Minister to stop taxing food by eliminating:

(a) the industrial carbon tax on fertilizer and farm equipment;

(b) the inflation tax (money-printing deficits);

(c) carbon tax two (the so-called clean fuel standard); and

(d) the food packaging tax (plastic ban and packaging requirements).

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Middlesex—London.

It is important that we have an opportunity to rise today to speak about a very important issue that I know all of us are hearing about from our constituents: affordability and the affordability crisis, which is no more acute than with food. The Prime Minister proclaimed to Canadians, almost on his first day after the election, that Canadians should judge him by the price of food at the grocery store shelves. These were his words, his promise. Therefore, it is his failure.

They are the same old Liberals. In fact, his predecessor Justin Trudeau, in October 2023, also made a very similar proclamation. He said that he would stabilize food prices by Thanksgiving. In fact, the current finance minister said the exact same thing. He said, “I have secured initial commitments from the top five grocers to take concrete actions to stabilize food prices in Canada” and that we would see that by Thanksgiving.

None of those things happened. In fact, since that proclamation and the proclamation of the new Prime Minister, food prices are up more than 6%. In August, food inflation surpassed overall inflation by 84%. Since August, food prices are up 3.5%. It is the same old Liberals, the same old promises, the same old broken promises. It is another bait and switch by the Liberals.

Canadians have gotten exactly what they voted for. Canadians are now facing a crisis, a crisis that hits them where it hurts them the most: in their ability to feed their families. Families across Canada are being squeezed at the grocery store, in housing costs, in rent and when they try to heat and house themselves.

Just as they did in the previous Liberal government, all that the Liberals in the current Liberal government can do is give excuses, saying there is a global recession, that this is out of their control and that this is happening everywhere else around the world. That is simply not true. When the last Liberal prime minister made the same promise only a couple of years ago, at that time food inflation in Canada was rising 37% higher than it was in the United States. In fact, it is now worse. Under the new Prime Minister, food inflation in Canada is 50% higher than it is in the United States.

The Prime Minister cannot blame retaliatory tariffs for the higher costs of produce and food in Canada, because he is elbows down. He quietly removed the retaliatory tariffs during the election and then removed additional ones earlier in the summer. This international businessman who is going to get deals done with elbows up and who is going to fight for Canadians has quickly and quietly been elbows down, and in the meantime, Canadians are the ones paying the price.

When we talk about these numbers, there are very real consequences that real Canadians are feeling. We talk about food inflation and higher costs, but what this comes down to is that 61% of Canadians are feeling food insecure. That means more than half of Canadian families do not know where their next meal is coming from. They do not know if they will be able to feed their families the next day or at the next meal. As a result of that, they are making very difficult choices, not only at the grocery store shelf but when they are doing their household budgets. Households do budgets, something the Liberal government has never quite gotten around to doing. It has been more than 18 months, and still there has been no budget.

[The Economy, September 24th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, let us look at the past record.

Justin Trudeau promised Canadians that he would lower food prices by Thanksgiving 2023. It never happened. The current Prime Minister told Canadians that he should be judged by the cost of food at the grocery store. Well, judgment has been rendered. Beef is up 33%, grapes are up 22%, coffee is up 24% and now we have apple farmers raising the alarm about a sharp increase in theft of their product because Canadians cannot afford the grocery store.

How many people and how many families are going to be forced to the food bank before the Prime Minister admits to Canadians that he broke his promise?

[The Economy, September 24th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, after 10 years of Liberal mismanagement, Canadians cannot afford to put food on the table. In August, food inflation outpaced overall inflation by 84%, and food prices have gone up another 3.5%.

It was the Prime Minister who told Canadians he would be judged by the cost of food. It is now Canadians who are paying the price for 10 years of Liberal photo ops, higher inflation and broken Canadian promises.

Is this the Canadian dream the Prime Minister promised, a country where Canadians cannot feed their families?