Mr. Chair, if Premier Horgan blocks or delays the pipeline, leading to new costs, who will absorb those costs?
House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2021, with 50% of the vote.
Business of Supply May 22nd, 2018
Mr. Chair, if Premier Horgan blocks or delays the pipeline, leading to new costs, who will absorb those costs?
Business of Supply May 22nd, 2018
Mr. Chair, if Premier Horgan causes losses for the pipeline, who will pay for those losses?
Business of Supply May 22nd, 2018
Mr. Chair, if Premier Horgan's delays to the Trans Mountain pipeline cause losses, who will pay for those losses?
Business of Supply May 22nd, 2018
Mr. Chair, it really is sad that the minister has gone into hiding. I have now placed three questions to him. He will not stand up and answer those questions. This is an occasion when the minister is supposed to come here and answer for his spending, but he has apparently snuck out the back door and is refusing to answer those questions.
I appreciate that the parliamentary secretary is very articulate and knows his files, but if the minister really believed in what he was doing and had the competence to implement his agenda, he would be here to answer the questions. Therefore, the question—
Business of Supply May 22nd, 2018
Mr. Chair, on the issue of the Trans Mountain pipeline, the minister announced that his government is prepared to “indemnify the project against any financial loss that derives from Premier Horgan's attempts to delay or obstruct the project”. If the premier causes losses to the project, who will pay for those losses?
Business of Supply May 22nd, 2018
Mr. Chair, my question is for the finance minister. The minister's office reportedly called the Canadian Association of Mutual Insurance Companies and told the group, which the office regulates, not to testify at the finance committee on the budget. Does the finance minister think it appropriate for his office to tell witnesses not to speak up on his budget?
Business of Supply May 22nd, 2018
Madam Chair, he was able to comment on Alberta, but the cannot comment on Ontario. That is because the carbon tax, which he will mandate federally and which the Wynne government has already implemented provincially, is funding things like rebates for millionaires who can afford Teslas and also to buy carbon credits from California and other foreign jurisdictions. That is what provinces like Ontario, under the existing government, would do with this federally mandated carbon tax.
My final question for the minister is this. The distribution of the cost of the carbon tax is known to him. What would be the percentage cost of the carbon tax to a family living below the poverty line, and would that family living in poverty pay a higher percentage of its income in carbon taxes than would, say, a millionaire like the finance minister?
Business of Supply May 22nd, 2018
Madam Chair, the finance minister is now commenting on the provincial policies in the various jurisdictions. That is just fine. In Ontario, using the policies of the Wynne government, as he is proposing to send the Ontario government the revenues from his federally imposed tax if it does not collect its own, what would be the net cost to an Ontario family of this new carbon tax?
Business of Supply May 22nd, 2018
Madam Chair, the only jurisdiction in question is the federal jurisdiction. It is a federal budget bill that is imposing a federal tax in provinces that do not have their own. I am not aware of any finance minister in history who has imposed a tax like this without telling Canadians what it will cost beforehand.
I will ask one more time. Will the finance minister tell Canadians how much it will cost the average Canadian family to pay his fully implemented carbon tax?
Business of Supply May 22nd, 2018
Madam Chair, not a single jurisdiction in the country has a carbon tax that has returned more in tax relief than it has collected in new taxes. In each of those jurisdictions, governments have more and taxpayers have less.
The minister can understand why taxpayers would be suspicious when he says he will simply collect this money from them in higher gasoline and home heating taxes, and then give that money to a bunch of provincial politicians to manage. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation says that the minister's new tax will cost $2,500 per family. Trevor Tombe, a professor at the University of Calgary, says it will be $1,100. Which of those two numbers is closest to the finance department's estimates?