Michelle Ferreri

[Excise Tax Act, June 17th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, it is always a wonderful honour to rise in the House of Commons to speak on behalf of the people of Peterborough—Kawartha and, of course, all the people across Canada who feel they do not have a voice.

The bill we are talking about today is a private member's bill put forward by my friend and colleague, the member for Cumberland—Colchester, who is a doctor himself. He has seen the implications across this country of not just a health care crisis in access to primary care but also the consequences resulting from inflation, a cost of living crisis and, really, a downfall of leadership. These things are all connected to our mental health.

The summary of Bill C-323 explains that the bill would amend the Excise Tax Act in order to exempt psychotherapy and mental health counselling services from the goods and services tax. Basically, right now, psychotherapists and mental health counsellors are the only ones who have to charge tax, HST. Members can imagine that, for people who do not have coverage, this extra tax that they have to pay out-of-pocket is a really big deal. When we look at people who cannot afford housing or food, this is impacting their mental health; now they cannot afford access to mental health and counselling services.

My colleague, the member for Cariboo—Prince George, has dedicated a lot of his life's work to mental health. He was key in creating the 988 suicide helpline, a critical piece of legislation. It is very simple to use the helpline for suicide awareness. However, the member also amended the bill before us to include massage therapy, so registered massage therapists would not be excluded from this.

It is interesting that, in Canada today, counselling therapists and psychotherapists are the only regulated mental health service providers that must remit tax on their work. I want to talk about this a bit because, many times, we hear people say that this is not political or partisan. However, every single thing in our lives is politics. There is a great saying: “If you do not want to get involved in politics, politics will do you.” However, we have seen a massive movement in the last nine years, quite frankly, where people would have otherwise said, “I'm not political, and I don't want to do that”, as Canadians are quite friendly, congenial people and do not like confrontation. However, when their lives become miserable and they suffer, they have to stand up, pay attention and get involved, which is what we have seen across this country.

The incidence of mental health issues in our country has drastically increased. All we need to do is go outside and walk the streets. Substance abuse disorder is an illness. There is a reason somebody is using drugs or substances to mask their pain; they cannot manage the feelings, emotions or stress in their life.

Do members know of the shocking stats in Canada? I will read some of these. We have 22 people a day who are dying of overdoses. However, this is not some socio-economic crisis of people who are lower income or something like that. I have people come into my office, moms and dads, whose kids come from loving, beautiful homes, but something happened. There is one story of a young boy in my riding who died of an overdose. His mom came to see me, and we talked about him. She said, “You know, things really changed for him when he started to use marijuana as a teenager.” She said, “The doctor said it to him so perfectly that when he used marijuana, he didn't have the same reaction as someone else, and he was basically allergic to it. Some people can have sugar; some people can't.”

This was really profound to me, but the problem is that almost seven million Canadians do not have access to a doctor. They do not have access to somebody who can explain to them what is going on or give it to them in common terms.

There are kids who are lost right now because of a combination of a whole bunch of factors. When parents are not okay, the kids are not okay. Parents are sitting around the dining room table, and they are stressed about trying to pay for housing, trying to afford groceries and every single thing. We have people who are making more than they have ever made in their life, and they are taxed to death. Now we have another tax coming in. It is a job-killing tax. In a doctor shortage crisis, It is going to pull back doctor retention and recruitment in this country even more. People need doctors to refer them to a specialist, and Canadians do not have access to that. What does that come down to? It comes down to more tax.

This is an article from the Canadian Medical Association. It reads:

Increasing the capital gains inclusion rate for corporations will create another barrier to retaining and recruiting physicians in a time when our health system and the providers within it are already under constant strain....

This not only undermines the well-being of health care professionals, it jeopardizes the stability of our struggling health care system. The risk of already over-stretched physicians leaving the profession or reducing their hours in response to heightened taxation is real.

Dr. Kathleen Ross of the Canadian Medical Association went on to say that “incorporated doctors are unlike other businesses as the corporation is primarily used as a vehicle for retirement savings or parental and sick leaves.” In response to the Minister of Finance's comments about provincial governments, Dr. Ross said, “We do support remunerating physicians according to their expertise”; however, in her view, “pushing the issue onto other governments is not the right approach.” I am talking about that policy because it is all connected.

Right now we have the lowest GDP per capita of any G7 country. That means people have never been poorer. How did that happen? There has been wasteful spending, but taxation used by the government is also a big piece of it. The Liberals and NDP have a coalition. It spends and spends. The government has to make up that money. This may be the hundredth time I will say this, but the government does not have money. It has our money. It has taxpayers' money. I will keep talking about that in the House of Commons. If the government spends too much of it, it has to make it back in revenue.

The current private member's bill is saying that there has been enough taxation. Forty-six per cent of Canadians' paycheques are going toward taxes. That is unbelievable. One has to work until June to pay for the taxes in this country before one actually even starts making any money. This takes away one's motivation to go to work. Then there is this carbon tax in place. Conservatives have been saying for months that the tax should be axed; we know the carbon tax drives up the cost of every single thing in this country. Fuel is being taxed. We need fuel for everything. Farmers grow the food that has to be trucked to the grocery stores. The business owner has to raise their prices to cover those increased costs.

The Liberals and NDP think that the carbon tax is the best thing for the environment, that everything is great and that they are doing a great job. The Parliamentary Budget Officer wrote a report on the economic analysis of the carbon tax; the report revealed that it is costing $30 billion more. That is almost $2,000 per Canadian family. They gagged the PBO. On May 14, the environment minister had his bureaucrat, his deputy minister, write a letter to the PBO, asking him not to release the report.

Conservatives put on the pressure, and the report was released; everything we have said is confirmed. The government is taxing people into a mental health crisis. It is not compassionate. It is not pragmatic. Evil is what it is. It is irresponsible. The most compassionate thing a leader can do is make life affordable and give Canadians the autonomy to make decisions for their lives, to be able to provide for their family, to want to go to work, to have purpose and to feel proud and confident.

This private member's bill is a very simple piece of legislation that removes the tax for psychotherapists, mental health counsellors and massage therapists to ensure that people can access the resources they need. We support it. We ask for the support of the House, and we hope it gets passed and Canadians can afford to live and improve their mental health.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, June 12th, 2024]

With regard to the Canada Revenue Agency, broken down by tax year since 2019: (a) how many trusts and corporations assessed and paid capital gains and what was the total amount of capital gains collected from this group; (b) how many trusts and corporations assessed and paid taxes on capital gains (i) of less than $50,000, (ii) between $50,000 and $100,000, (iii) between $100,000 and $250,000, (iv) of more than $250,000; and (c) for each group in (b), what was the total amount collected in taxes on capital gains?

[Taxation, June 11th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, 93-year-old Liz Diachun, who will have to pay $40,000 in capital gains because she was trying to gift land to her grandson and daughter, has a message for the Prime Minister. She is not rich. She does not have an extra $40,000. She is trying to help her family. She would like to know which bank would lend a 93-year-old $40,000.

Peter from Peterborough also has a message for the Prime Minister. He wants to know why the Liberals think it is okay to change the rules that dictate his retirement plan. He purchased an investment property in 1986 that was supposed to be his retirement. Now, because of the Liberals' increase in capital gains, he no longer has enough money to retire.

The Liberals claim they want tax fairness for every generation. How is destroying the retirement of Canadians fair?

[Carbon Pricing, June 10th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for that perfect example of deflecting.

Again, this is not hearsay. This is a letter sent by the minister's office to the PBO. He is saying to the PBO that this is the real cost of the carbon tax. Conservatives have been saying for months to axe the tax because we know that it drives up the cost of literally everything. It is causing misery. The Liberals say that this is not true.

If it is not true, why the gag order? Why are they not allowing the PBO to release the carbon tax cover-up that shows the true cost of what it is costing Canadians?

[Carbon Pricing, June 10th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the Liberal-NDP government, here are the facts. One in five Canadians knows someone accessing a food bank, 25% of Canadians are going hungry and 44% feel financially worse off than just one year ago. Canadians are not doing well, despite the Prime Minister gaslighting them. It gets worse. There is now a PBO report that reveals the true cost of the carbon tax.

Why are they not allowing the PBO to release it? He has been gagged, and now we want to know why.

[Committees of the House, June 3rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I am actually going to ask my colleague the same question that he asked me.

Why does he think that there seems to be this kind of attack toward families and not wanting to give them the opportunity to have a good time, basically to have fun?

[Committees of the House, June 3rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, there has been an attack on families since the day the Prime Minister came into office. Canada has the lowest birth rate in history. He does not care about the family. He cares about power and control, and so does the NDP leader, because he sold out his soul to ensure that he keeps power. That is the reality of the Prime Minister.

[Committees of the House, June 3rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, there is a deep ideological clash here. The other thing he left out is that the Prime Minister has spent more money than he has brought in. That is just a fact. The Prime Minister says that the budget will balance itself and that he does not care about monetary policy. We have heard that over and over again.

I want to bring up some points. I will go back to Brian Haass, who owns Haass Acres, and my interview with him. I said to him that people did not really understand how significant the carbon tax is on their day-to-day life, and he said that he really believed people did not “grasp the gravity of this carbon tax” in how it affects their day-to-day lives. He said, “It affects absolutely every facet of your life. Everything you own, everything you buy, everything you do is carbon taxed, compounded on top of more tax.” Then one pays the tax on top of the tax.

This year, the Prime Minister's carbon tax will cost families $2,943 in Alberta; $2,618 in Saskatchewan; $1,750 in Manitoba; $1,674 in Ontario; $1,500 in Nova Scotia, $1,605 in Prince Edward Island, $1,874 in Newfoundland and Labrador and $1,963 Canada-wide. Canadians do not have this extra money.

[Committees of the House, June 3rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, it might not have been his intention, but it is actually verbatim what he said in the House. That is the reality of it, and I think there is this element of shame. As I said earlier in my speech, the Minister of Health went on a full-blown rage and said something to the effect of, “Let us be like the Conservatives and go on a road trip for 10 hours, where our kids do not get any bathroom breaks and we let the planet burn.” That is what he said. I am not saying it; he said it. Whether he intended that or not is not the point.

I find her question about what the Conservatives would do fascinating. We say it repeatedly, and I will say it again. If one trusts Canadians, especially farmers, who are environmental stewards of this land; if one trusts businesses that are environmentally friendly, that care for the planet and want to do the right thing; and if one gets out of the way so they can afford to invest in their businesses and not have to shut down, then they will do the right thing. However, the Liberal government prevents businesses from doing anything. They are leaving this country. We have nobody coming in. They do not even want to do business with Canada. That is the first place to start.

[Committees of the House, June 3rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time this evening with the member for Calgary Rocky Ridge.

It is always a true honour to stand in the House of Commons to represent the amazing people of Peterborough—Kawartha, as well as so many Canadians across the country who feel that their voices have been muffled after nine years of the Prime Minister.

What are we talking about in the House tonight? We are talking about the concurrence motion of an NDP report of the finance committee. The report reads:

Given that the Canadian grocery sector made more than $6 billion in profit in 2023 and that millions of Canadians have reported food insecurity in the last year, the Standing Committee on Finance call on the government to immediately take action by implementing an excess profit tax on large grocery companies that would put money back in the people's pocket with a GST rebate and establish a National School Food Program, and that this motion be reported to the House.

That is the motion that was put forward by the NDP. We, Conservatives, put forward an amendment, which reads:

That the motion be amended by deleting all the words after the word “That” and substituting the following:

“the 19th report of the Standing Committee on Finance, presented on Monday, May 6, 2024, be not now concurred in, but that it be recommitted to the Standing Committee on Finance with instruction that it amend the same so as to recommend a more efficient alternative to address food insecurity among Canadians this summer by calling on the government to eliminate the carbon tax, the federal fuel tax, and GST on gasoline and diesel between now and Labour Day.”

Here, in its fundamental essence, is the difference in the choice that Canadians have between two ideologies. We have one Liberal-NDP approach, where they say,“Let us put a band-aid on this”, and then we have the Conservatives who are saying, “Let us actually figure out what is causing the cost of food to rise so rapidly, and let us try to fix it. Let us try to make life more affordable for Canadians. Let us ensure that their paycheques actually work for them, and that they are able to have autonomy and freedom and be able to not have that stress of feeding their children.”

I want to talk about Food Banks Canada's latest report card launch. I co-sponsored this event, and I have to tell members that it was shocking, abysmal and heartbreaking, to be honest. The stats that came out of this report card from Food Banks Canada were the worst ever. It was a morning event, and there was representation from the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party and the Bloc, but not one single NDP member of Parliament was there.

I want to tell members some of the things that came out of that, and this is from the Food Banks report, which states, “Canada has reached a critical turning point as poverty and food insecurity worsen in every corner of the country”. We know that 61% of food bank users in Canada last year were first-time users, that there was a 50% increase in food bank visits, that one in four Canadians are experiencing food insecurity, that 44% feel worse off financially compared to a year ago, and that two million people a month are accessing a food bank, which is a historical high, and one in three of those are children. The problem is, if we continue to tax and punish the people who grow the food, it will keep driving up the cost of food.

There is something I find so remarkable. I have even heard a member from the Liberals say this, and I heard it on the recent Power Play program of May 22, where there was a Liberal and an NDP member talking about this. They actually said that an excess profit tax would eventually be downloaded to the consumer. What do they think the carbon tax is? Who do they think pays for the carbon tax?

If it costs the farmer more to grow the food, he is going to have to download that to the trucker who comes and picks up the food. Now, the trucker has increased costs and that cost is then increased down to the grocery store owner who has to put it onto the shelf, and then guess who has to buy that? It is the people.

They actually say that, then they vote for it, and then we have this wild ideology, which has been said in the House, with them saying, “You know what? Why don't you just let the planet burn?” That is their go-to. They shame people. We saw this across the board with vaccinations. We saw this in so many things, and they will say, “If you don't do what we say, if you don't think like us, you're a bad person.”

This is a message I got from David Jones:

Hello Michelle, thank you so much for all you do for our city, and for striking back against our current Prime Minister, and his completely out of touch and irresponsible leadership of our country.

My family and I, which consist of myself, my wife and our three young children are struggling to pay for gas now with the new tax that's been introduced. We want to voice our opinion, and hopefully give you more fuel to tell our Prime Minister that this tax makes no sense, and is harming the very people that it's supposed to help. I work for a nonprofit in town helping youth who are at risk, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to be able to afford to get to the places I need to be to support them in these increasingly challenging times, as they face record highs in fentanyl overdoses and completely unaffordable living conditions in our country, and in our province, and in our city.

This was from the Jones family. I thank them for writing and telling me this.

Brian Haass is a farmer in the Otonabee-South Monaghan township. Brian has been speaking out about the carbon tax and what it is doing to consumers and small businesses. Small businesses are shutting down at record rates. They cannot compete anymore. They are getting squeezed out. Then we have this record-high usage. This all comes down to making life affordable. The more we tax people, the less money they have in their paycheques and they cannot make ends meet. Everything goes up. If people spend more than they are making, it drives up inflation and we have this vicious cycle. Why not make life more affordable? It is literally the most compassionate thing to do.

Right now, the Liberals are spending more on servicing the debt than they are on health care. I do not need to tell people watching this about health care in this country. They already know what it is. They already know they have to wait in the waiting room. They already know there are people who have overdosed. Last week, at 7 p.m. on a Tuesday, in front of the Rideau Centre, a person overdosed in the middle of the sidewalk. That is the reality of this country under the Prime Minister.

I want to talk about what Brian Haass said. He is a farmer, one of the ones growing the food. Carbon tax has put 60% on Brian's drying costs in the last two years. I asked, “How does that impact [families] buying food at the grocery store?”, and Brian said, “It's incredible because that's just one spot where we get nailed with the carbon tax. When you bring your wheat in for example and you dry the wheat...boom, carbon tax. Then, when we truck the wheat to the elevator, carbon tax. Then when the elevator trucks it to the mill there's another carbon tax to make the flour. Then when it goes to make the bread there's a carbon tax. Then the freaking loaf of bread has to be wrapped in something. There's carbon tax on that. Then it has to get to the warehouse. Another carbon tax on the fuel for example. And on and on till it gets to your grocery store shelf.” Bread has gone up 75% under the Prime Minister.

Tanya Bailey sent me her gas bill today. Her customer charge is $22, her delivery is $39, her transportation to Enbridge is $16 and the federal carbon charge is $50.17. It is to the point that people have completely lost hope. They have lost everything. People are losing their homes on top of it. Building has been halted and builders cannot build. Builders testified at the HUMA committee, saying there is no chance they will meet their target because the carbon tax and all of these things add to the cost of building houses.

Conservatives put forward a common-sense motion today and said people need to be able to focus on something positive. When they are sinking, they need to know. Summer is coming. Families need each other more than ever. Kids need their parents and parents need their kids. They need connection. They are on their screens and are disconnected mentally and physically because they have to go to work to pay for this. Both parents are struggling so much. We put forward a common-sense motion that would save Ontarians, in particular, $590 if the Liberals cut the carbon tax on fuel between now and Labour Day. We just want to give them a break. The message was, no, people should put their kids in a car and “let the planet burn”. That is what the Minister of Health said.

I stand here today and say that Conservatives will fight for them. We are listening. We know life is challenging and we understand that the bigger picture is to make life more affordable. That is the goal.