John Barlow

[Committees of the House, September 23rd, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I am really having a difficult time. I do not know if my NDP colleague has spoken to his leader, but to save their hide in a Manitoba by-election, they announced that they no longer supported a consumer carbon tax. The member has some indignation over the cost of doing nothing, but his party and his leader have just announced that they are going to do nothing because they understand the political price they are paying by supporting the Liberals' carbon tax. They are trying to save face and fool Canadians, but Canadians are not buying that trick.

[Committees of the House, September 23rd, 2024]

Madam Speaker, the member is saying that is not true. Those are stats from Stats Canada, his own government's data.

[Committees of the House, September 23rd, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I do not know who the member is speaking about, but I certainly campaigned in my riding in the last election on getting rid of the carbon tax, and I know my colleagues did as well.

The Liberal member does not like the facts. He is questioning the study by Dalhousie University on the impact the carbon tax is having on food prices. He talked about how amazing the pork industry is in Manitoba. I cited his government's own data, noting that the number of head of hogs is down by 265,000 and net farm income in Manitoba is down by more than 30%. Those are stats.

[Committees of the House, September 23rd, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I appreciate your putting the NDP in its place here.

The last policy is the plastics ban the Liberals are putting forward, which we know will drive up the cost of food, especially fresh produce, by 56%.

All of these policies are driving up costs for Canadian consumers. Our argument to the Liberal-NDP government is this. It should stop talking about the things it is going to do and actually do them, because the answer is right in front of it. The answer is to axe the tax, the plastics ban, the front-of-pack labelling and the clean fuel standard. We will then see grocery prices come down for Canadians. If the government will not do it, a Conservative government will do it, and it should call a carbon tax election so Canadians can decide.

[Committees of the House, September 23rd, 2024]

It does not matter if he can afford it; he is going to pass it on to consumers.

Madam Speaker, that is a ridiculous argument. What businesses out there, when the government increases taxes on them, say that they are sorry, that they are making too much profit?

[Committees of the House, September 23rd, 2024]

Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today to speak to this concurrence debate on a Conservative supplementary report on the variance in food prices.

It is interesting to hear my Liberal, NDP and Bloc colleagues not really talking about the impact that the carbon tax and other Liberal-NDP policies are having on Canadian farm families and our supply chain, which in turn, are driving up prices for Canadians and consumers, who are witnessing this first-hand at the grocery store shelves. We have talked a lot over the last week, our first week back in the House of Commons, about the impact we are seeing on food security in Canada. These numbers are truly startling, when we are seeing the number of Canadians who are now experiencing food insecurity in our country, a G7 country, up 111%. That is almost nine million Canadians struggling to find their next meal, millions of Canadian parents unable to feed their kids and 25% of our population struggling to put food on the table. These are numbers that I certainly never thought I would see in my lifetime.

The Liberals have been saying all afternoon that Canadians have just never had it so good, and I do not know what they are talking about. The stats are startling, and they are not only the stats on Canadians experiencing food insecurity but also the government's own data on on-farm income shows that it decreased 3% in 2022.

On-farm income is down $9.1 billion, from $13 billion in 2022, which is a drop of 41.7% from 2022 to 2023. Let us put this into some more specific numbers. In British Columbia, net farm income is down 36%; in Alberta, it is down 55%; in Saskatchewan, it is down 42%; in Quebec, it is down 43%; and in New Brunswick, it is down 55%. The member for Winnipeg North is saying that Manitoba farmers have never had it so good, but in that member's own province, that income has decreased 38%.

Why is this happening? It is because the carbon tax is costing Canadian farmers almost a billion dollars a year. It is continuing to go up year after year, but that is only what we are seeing in direct costs. They are also seeing higher costs on fertilizer, fuel, feed and every other input they are putting into their farm operations. Machinery and employment, all of these things, are seeing their prices go up.

On trucking, we have just heard that the Canadian Trucking Alliance has said that the impact that the carbon tax is having on their industry alone will be $4 billion by 2030. Bison Transport is not a huge trucking company, but it is a fairly substantial trucking company in western Canada. One of its owners is a constituent. Bison Transport paid $7.8 million in carbon taxes last year. That is one trucking company. It is halfway through this year, and it has already paid $4.5 million in carbon taxes. When its year-end is done, it will have paid close to $10 million in carbon taxes. That is just one trucking company, and they are passing those costs on to the consumer.

It is very difficult to square the circle of the Liberals saying that the carbon tax has no impact on food prices. Give me a break. Of course it does. That does not even talk about rail. CPKC and CN also charge producers and their vendors a carbon tax on everything they haul. Saskatchewan farmers paid $17 million in carbon taxes to the railways last year. That is $17 million, and we are wondering why farm incomes are so low and why we are seeing such a stark reduction in farm income.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture has talked to all of its members about its operating expenses and their farms. Operating expenses on Canadian farms are up 19%, the largest increase since 1979. What is the coincidence between 1979 and 2024? I will let members think about that for a second. They are the Liberal governments led by the current Prime Minister and his father, and they dump those costs onto Canadian farmers without any thought as to the consequences that will happen to Canadian consumers.

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, the pre-eminent expert on food prices and the food supply chain in Canada and a professor at Dalhousie University, commonly known as the “food professor”, said that the Liberal-NDP carbon tax increases wholesale food costs by 34% in every single category.

The Liberals like to talk about the experts, the 200 economists who say the carbon tax is not increasing the cost of living. I would like to know who those experts are because the pre-eminent expert on food costs and the supply chain in Canada has clearly stated that the Liberal-NDP carbon tax increases food costs in all categories by 34%. Why is this number so different from what the Liberal government professes? Dr. Charlebois said that the CRA and Finance Canada are not properly quantifying the costs of the carbon tax for food supply or food production. I am very surprised that the Liberals would be selective on which numbers they use.

The Liberal member across the way has talked all day about using facts and figures. The Manitoba pork industry has never been stronger. I just told members about how Manitoba's agriculture farm income is down 38%. That is a fact. That is his own government's data. By this data, in Canada's pork industry, the number of hogs in Canada is down 265,000 head. I wonder why his numbers are so different from his government's numbers. That number is actually expected to go down another 2% in 2024. It is horrible when Liberals have to listen to the facts and the data that their own government has compiled.

As the opposition, we brought forward four recommendations that would address the volatile price of food and food for Canadians.

The first is to axe the tax. Eliminate the carbon tax, which is driving up the cost of everything consumers buy, including food.

The second is to do an in-depth study of the impact of both carbon taxes. I have to admit, whether it meant to or not, the government has now done that work. Carbon tax 1 punches a $25 billion hole in Canada's economy. We now know, as a result of an Order Paper question by my office, that carbon tax 2, the so-called clean fuel standard, adds another $9-billion sledgehammer hit to our economy. Therefore, both carbon taxes make up a $35 billion hit to Canadians. That is money coming out of their pocket. It is damaging their paycheques and certainly hurting Canada's economy.

The third recommendation is to eliminate the front-of-pack labelling policy path that the Liberal government is going down. It is a completely activist, ideological policy; certainly, no one has asked for it. It will cost the industry $8 billion. Does the government think the industry is going to just absorb those costs? That is like our NDP colleague saying that it is going to be a tax on profit. I am sure Galen Weston is going to happily take that tax out of his pocket and his profits and just not worry about it. Of course, those costs are going to—

[Committees of the House, September 23rd, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I am going to ask a question in English because I want my friend to clearly understand my question.

Total net farm income across Canada decreased by about $9.1 billion. In Quebec, the decrease was almost the highest in the country, with net farm income going down more than 43% last year. The reason for that net loss in income for farmers is the much higher input costs on feed, fuel and fertilizer, which are a result of Liberal-NDP policies, such as the carbon tax.

I would like to ask my colleague a question. How does he go home and talk to his constituents while continuing to support the Liberal government when he knows that its policies are destroying family farms, our rural communities and their economies?

[National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste and Combat Food Insecurity, September 20th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I apologize to the interpreters for that.

The Liberals would have the solution if they would just listen to common-sense Conservatives and axe the carbon tax, which is driving up costs for farmers, truckers, manufacturers, food processors and retailers. This drives up the cost of food on the grocery store shelf, which Canadians are struggling every single day to pay for.

I appreciate the comments from my Liberal colleague from Winnipeg North saying how important it is for Canadians to donate and volunteer at food banks. In fact, it has gotten so bad that the member for Kingston and the Islands had to donate $1,000 to a local food bank. If only more Liberals were following his lead and donating to food banks. Food banks would not be facing record numbers, and in many cases, we have food banks saying that they cannot meet the demand, if Canadians were not facing an affordability crisis as a result of the Liberal government.

Let us take a look at some of the other programs that the Liberals have brought forward that are actually making the situation worse. The Liberals have also talked about a P2 plastics ban on front-of-pack labelling. Again, this sounds like something that would be positive but, yet again, surprise, surprise, the Liberals have not done any consultation to understand the consequences of these types of policies. An in-depth report by Deloitte on the Liberals' P2 plastic ban policy said that the impact on food prices would be profound. I will go over the list that came from the Deloitte study.

This would increase the cost of fresh produce by 35%, reduce the actual availability of fresh produce in Canada by 50%, cost the industry $5.6 billion, increase fresh produce waste by 50% and increase health care costs by more than a billion dollars as a result of lower fresh produce consumption.

The front-of-pack labelling issue, which the Liberals are moving ahead with, will cost the industry $8 billion, as companies are having to switch over and change all of their label manufacturing processes. The Americans have also said that this is a trade issue and they will not be importing products into Canada, which would again reduce access to these fresh products. What will happen? We will drive up food prices yet again.

As Conservatives, we have offered solutions to these problems. For example, Bill C-234 would remove the carbon tax from the natural gas and propane farmers use for drying grain and for the heating and cooling of barns and greenhouses. This would save farmers more than a billion dollars this year. That is not including when the carbon tax is increased on April 1. What happens when we reduce costs and input costs for farmers and truckers? It reduces the food costs on the grocery store shelves. Once again, the Liberals have opposed that legislation and, in fact, they instructed their senators in the Senate to gut that private member's bill. We know that, unanimously, every single farm stakeholder group in this country supports Bill C-234 to make farming and food more affordable.

We have brought forward a number of alternatives to try to address the affordable food issue. Two years ago, the Liberals imposed a self-imposed potato export ban on Prince Edward Island. In fact, not only did they block farmers in P.E.I. from exporting fresh and seed potatoes, the Liberals paid $24 million to destroy 300 million pounds of fresh potatoes.

We had farmers from Prince Edward Island drive to Ottawa, and they were handing out five-pound bags of free potatoes to everybody they could find on Wellington Street. This was before the Liberals were very scared of truck drivers coming up to Ottawa. In fact, they were helping feed Ottawa residents. This continues to be the story of the Liberals professing to want to solve problems that they themselves have actually caused.

While I appreciate the sentiment of my Liberal colleague in bringing something forward that the Liberal government has done multiple times as part of its mandate but with no results whatsoever, the facts are clear: When the Liberals get involved, they make matters worse. That is what we are hearing from Canadians, who are struggling with food insecurity in record numbers. When one-quarter of the Canadian population does not know where their next meal is coming from, we need to let that sink in.

Liberal policy has made Canada into a developing country where Canadians are struggling to feed themselves. We need to come up with real solutions, and a Conservative government, under the guidance of the member for Carleton, will ensure that Canadians can afford to put food on the table and feed their families.

[National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste and Combat Food Insecurity, September 20th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, it is often said that the road to hell is paved with the best intentions, and I think the motion brought forward by the Liberals on a national food strategy is very similar to that. What is interesting is that on multiple occasions, the Liberals have tried to address a problem that they, in their policies, have created.

Let us go over the timeline. In 2018, the Liberals brought forward the National Zero Waste Council report on a national food waste strategy. In 2019, they brought forward another report, from Environment and Climate Change, on reducing food waste in Canada. In 2020, they spent more than $20 million on the food waste reduction challenge. I guess there were no results from the millions of dollars spent on these different programs. Now, in 2024, we have another motion with another national strategy for food waste reduction.

That seems to be the traditional Liberal logic. The Liberals cause massive problems with a record number of Canadians being forced to go to food banks to feed their families and a record number of Canadians facing food insecurity. However, rather than getting to the root cause of those problems, which the Liberal-NDP government caused itself, they establish yet another level of bureaucracy and red tape, and hire a bunch more public sector workers to try to cover up the problem.

As part of this motion, the Liberals want to establish a national food waste hierarchy. I do not know exactly what that intends to solve. In fact, every policy the Liberals have brought forward has, in fact, made matters worse. I talked about that earlier. Feed Ontario said the number of Ontarians going to food banks is up one million people. That is an increase of 25%, setting a new record.

In a new report, the government's own data shows the number of Canadians facing food insecurity is up 111%. Let us think about that for a second. That means almost a quarter of our population does not know where their next meal is going to come from. These are not just numbers. These are millions of Canadian parents who cannot feed their kids.

The Liberals put all these great-sounding programs up in the window, but they have tried this multiple times in the nine years of the Liberal-NDP government. In fact, none of them have done anything. There have been zero results, other than spending millions of dollars and forcing more and more Canadians into food banks, when they have the solution to the problem. We have been talking about it all week since we got back into Parliament on Monday. They can solve the food insecurity issue by axing the carbon tax.

[The Economy, September 20th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, the real news is the number of Canadians facing food insecurity is up 111%, that is 25% of Canadian families who cannot afford to put food on the table.

Let that sink in. How is that even possible? That is the stark reality Canadians are facing as a result of the Liberal-NDP costly carbon tax driving up costs on farmers, truckers and food production.

The Liberal-NDP government has already said it does not work for the people, it works for the Prime Minister. Will the NDP-Liberal government put Canadians first and call a carbon tax election?