Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise today to speak about a very important topic, which is the Liberal-NDP government's almost religious dedication to the carbon tax, where they ignore the impact it is having on Canadians right across this country. Listening to most of the debate today, I find it interesting that the overarching message from the Liberal government is that Canadians have never had it so good and that paying the carbon tax is a benefit to Canadians.
As I was sitting here only a few minutes ago, going through my Gmail account, I received an ad from the Ottawa Food Bank. It is desperately asking for help because 490,000 visitors are expected this summer, with 40% of them children. If Canadians were really benefiting so much from the Liberal carbon tax, then why are food banks right across Canada talking about visits and demand being up more than 50%? Food banks are unable to meet demand and are asking for donations and volunteers while we see families, many of them first-time users, now using the food bank. It is quite hypocritical for Liberals to say that Canadians have never had it so good when we see record lines at the food bank.
I do not know why the Liberals are being so coy with the economic analysis of their carbon tax. They refused to table those documents; they actually muzzled the parliamentary watchdog and did not allow him to table that document. If the Liberals are so proud of the impact the carbon tax is having on everyday Canadians, they should be more than happy to table those documents here in the House and brag about the impact it is having. By their metrics, the carbon tax has never been more successful. If their goal is to ensure that Canadians cannot put gas in their car, cannot afford to put food on the table and cannot afford to heat their homes, the Liberal carbon tax is doing exactly what they wanted. Certainly, many Canadians will not be able to afford a summer vacation. If those are the metrics of success, then they are to be congratulated.
The carbon tax has caused an unaffordability crisis right across this country, and Canadians have had enough. If the Liberal members of Parliament and their NDP and Bloc partners can honestly say that their constituents are telling them to please keep racking up the carbon tax, because they are enjoying seeing their grocery bill go up $700 this month or their fuel go up 61¢ a litre, they are delusional. Otherwise, they are misleading the House to say this is the message they are getting.
Liberals are saying their documents prove that what the Parliamentary Budget Officer was saying was incorrect. I want to mention what the Parliamentary Budget Officer said when he was being harangued by the member of Parliament for Whitby, who put his foot in his mouth trying to challenge the Parliamentary Budget Officer. The Parliamentary Budget Officer was adamant, and he said that the overall conclusions were that the vast majority of households are worse off with a carbon pricing scheme regime than without. He was confident this would remain, based on preliminary analysis and discussions with government officials and stakeholders.
That is a pretty damning statement. The Parliamentary Budget Officer's job is to analyze government legislation and policy, yet the Liberal government is trying to say there is nothing to see here. It says that Canadians have never had it so good and are quite pleased with what is going on.
The Liberals were under relentless pressure not only from the opposition but also, I would argue, from Canadians right across this country. They demanded to see the documents the Liberals refused to table, which highlighted the economic impact of their carbon tax. After it was tabled today, I can see now why the Liberal government was so anxious about tabling those documents. The documents show that the carbon tax steals $30 billion from the Canadian economy every single year. It is costing every Canadian household close to $2,000 every year. I am not sure where their argument would come from when they take $2,000 out of the pockets of Canadian taxpayers and give them back a little, which does not come close to what is being taken by the carbon tax.
Initially, the government's argument was that the carbon tax was going to be revenue-neutral. We have gone from revenue-neutral to the vast majority of Canadians being worse off with the carbon tax than they are getting the phony rebates. That shows how far this has come since 2016. The government keeps having to change the story about Canadians being maybe a little bit better off; we now know the exact impact. This is devastating to Canadians and increases prices right across the supply chain and on just about everything Canadians do.
I know that the Liberals have talked quite a bit today about these 300 economists, these 300 Liberal elites who are supportive of the carbon tax. Unlike the Liberal government and their NDP cohorts, I know that on this side of the house, Conservatives are not listening to 300 Liberal elite academic economists. We are listening to our constituents. We are listening to Canadians, who have a very different point of view of the impact the carbon tax is having on their everyday lives.
I want to quote from a letter I received the other day from a small business owner in Bragg Creek, Alberta, one of my constituents. This is quite common in the letters I am getting every single day. It reads:
As the owner of a heating company operating in rural Alberta, I hear every day from my customers how [the Prime Minister's] carbon tax has forced them to make the decision weather to “heat or eat” and how the hike on April 1st is only going to force them into deeper and deeper poverty.... The fact that anyone in this great [country] has to live impoverished is already distasteful, the Liberal government seems to take pleasure in our suffering.
The same is true for businesses. Especially rural businesses. We are barely staying above water as it is.... We need...the government [to] release the [small business] carbon tax rebate.”
Where is the rebate small business owners were promised? He has not seen it.
I have dozens of these letters. I know my Conservative colleagues across this floor have similar ones.
As the shadow minister for agriculture and agri-food, I would certainly be remiss if I did not talk about the impact this is having on Canadian food production. I know we have said this many times in the House, but when one taxes the farmer who grows the food, the trucker who ships it, the manufacturer who processes it and the retailer who sells it, there is no question that the Canadian consumer is going to be paying for that carbon tax at the grocery store shelf when they go to buy that food.
The Agriculture Carbon Alliance did a study. It took a number of farmers from across Canada and asked them to give it their carbon tax bill for the one month when it was at its highest. Fifty sample farms paid a total of $329,644 in carbon tax in one month. That was before the April 1 increase of 23%. In Alberta alone, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, Alberta farmers paid $17 million in carbon taxes last year just on natural gas and propane. That was to dry their grain and heat and cool their livestock barns. This year, Alberta farmers will pay $20 million in carbon taxes. By 2030, that number will be $209 million. Again, according to the PBO, whom the Liberals tried to muzzle, in Ontario, farmers paid $44 million last year in carbon taxes just in natural gas and propane. After the increase, Ontario farmers will be paying $53 million in carbon taxes. By 2030, that total will be $566 million in carbon taxes. One farm in Simcoe—Grey paid $25,000 in carbon taxes in one month.
There is no way that farmers can be economically viable under the pressure of those costs. Now the Liberals want to add a capital gains tax hike on those farmers, something that the Minister of Agriculture had no idea was actually going to be in the budget. We know that this policy is going to be devastating to succession planning for Canadian farmers and young farmers trying to get into the business. How is it possible that the Minister of Agriculture did not know about this pillar of the Liberal budget?
In conclusion, it is crystal clear that the Liberals were trying to hide the real data from Canadians; this is going to cost Canadians more than $30 billion a year and almost $2,000 per household. That is insurmountable. The Minister of Environment should resign, and the Minister of Agriculture should not be too far behind.
