Rob Moore

[Public Safety, November 29th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, Canadians were shocked to see footage of a violent carjacker shooting at commuters. Of course, this individual was out on bail. The rate of violent crime in Canada has gone up 50% since the Prime Minister took office, and gun crime has gone up every year. According to a report just released by the Fraser Institute, Canada's rate of crime is 14% higher than it is in the United States.

When will the Prime Minister reverse his hug-a-thug policies?

[GST Exemption, November 29th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, at their busiest time of year, the Prime Minister has just buried small businesses under a mountain of complicated bureaucracy. Only Liberals could dream up a policy where Pokémon cards are GST-exempt but hockey cards are not, where train and Lego sets for kids are GST-exempt but train and Lego sets for adults are not and where physical video games are GST-exempt but downloadable games are not. Small businesses are being told to make these ridiculous assessments or risk paying hefty fines to the CRA.

Canadians are calling for real tax relief. The Liberals are defending an indefensible policy, but they are under strict orders not to step outside the party line. One Liberal MP, who was threatened into silence, said, “It says a lot about where our government is at right now and it says a lot about some of the shackles that have been put around MPs.” Canadians know this says a lot about how bad things are after nine years of the Liberal Prime Minister.

When will he finally call a carbon tax election—

[Government Business No. 43—Proceedings on Bill C-78, November 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, where do I begin? This is a government that has increased the cost on Canadians exceptionally, beyond anything we have ever seen before, doubling the cost of a mortgage, doubling the cost of rent and increasing the cost of home heat. It is all due to its carbon tax, its inflationary measures. How is it possible the Liberal government has been able to do that? It is with the support of that member and the NDP when they voted 24 times to increase the carbon tax. We will take no lessons on supporting Canadians from that bunch.

[Government Business No. 43—Proceedings on Bill C-78, November 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, that is what is so perplexing about this. The essentials Canadians are really struggling to pay for right now, based on what I hear from my constituents, are fuel for their vehicle to get themselves to work and get their kids to school, food to put on their table, heating their home and paying their mortgage or rent. Canadians are suffering as they try to pay for these essentials. Those are the exact expenses we on this side of the House are addressing with our commitment to axe the carbon tax that has increased the cost of all those things.

What I listed off, from what this government is doing, is a confusing list where they purport to cut maybe the cost of a leotard, but then not the cost of skates or ski boots. They purport to cut the cost of a magazine, but only if it has less than 5% advertising. They have created a monster. They know it. It was rushed out, and Canadians deserve so much better.

[Government Business No. 43—Proceedings on Bill C-78, November 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, this is the House of Commons. As members of Parliament, we represent our constituents, so I am going to allow one of my constituents to answer that question. They wrote, “Ridiculous. No break on groceries, fuels or utilities. I was just reading the PM's plan to take a tax break, and I am not impressed. First off, we all know the government will want to recover this lost revenue later, and that will hit our wallets again. The GST holiday is crazy.”

I could not agree more. My constituents understand, as I just illustrated, that this is a trick that is incredibly complex for our small businesses. We have been talking about this for a long time. Only Conservatives are committed to real tax relief for hard-working Canadian families.

[Government Business No. 43—Proceedings on Bill C-78, November 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, it is an honour to join in this debate tonight. A desperate government makes a transparent attempt to distract Canadians, Canadians who have been suffering. I listen to constituents in my riding of Fundy Royal, where individuals and families are struggling to make ends meet. They are struggling to put food on the table, to pay their mortgages and to pay their heating bills. Why is that? It has something to do with a government that has doubled the cost of a mortgage, doubled the cost of rent and increased the cost of groceries. Every April 1, by increasing the carbon tax, the government is also piling on new costs for people to drive their kids to a hockey game or to get themselves to work.

The government offers up what amounts to a tax trick after piling all these costs on Canadians, after making it so difficult for hard-working Canadians. I include small businesses in this, which I am going to speak about shortly. If it was not so serious, if people were not hurting so much, it would be laughable.

Who would think of an idea to lift the GST off a Christmas tree but only if someone buys the Christmas tree December 15. If they buy it before then, they do not get the break. This is just a small example of the kind of complication this is going to add and the misery this is going to pile on small businesses at what is sometimes their most challenging time of year.

Today I had the opportunity to speak to an individual at a small business in my riding of Fundy Royal. It is in a small community. Small businesses in my riding are the backbone of our community. They give back so much. They are the ones coaching and providing support to charities in the region. They are the ones helping out those who need a hand and providing employment in small communities. This individual, with desperation in her voice, was telling me that, after everything they had gone through with the pandemic, after barely hanging on, she cannot implement this change the government has brought in. At her busiest time of year, she does not have the resources to change all her systems over to accommodate what the government has just dumped in her lap.

Any one of us would struggle to decipher what the government is doing. The CRA, which is ever so helpful, has come out with some guidelines, and we need to take a look at them. Exempt now for two months from the GST are toys that “[i]mitate another item, whether real or imaginary” or “[i]nvolve building, creating or assembling structures, objects or models by using pieces, parts, materials or modelling compound”. Okay, that makes some sense.

However, not exempt are “[t]oys and model sets that are marketed for adults (for example, adult Lego or train sets)”. How is the small business owner in my riding supposed to decipher those things? The CRA directive on what qualifies as a toy includes this: “Card games, including playing cards and Pokémon cards”. A Pokémon card is eligible for this two-month reprieve. However, if someone buys their kids hockey cards, that is not eligible for the exemption.

Physical video games will be tax-free. When I was growing up, we finally got the opportunity to get an Atari because someone else had bought a Nintendo. It played physical games. When someone else got a Super Nintendo and I got a Nintendo, again, this played physical games. However, young people are now downloading video games. They are not buying physical games. According to the CRA, thanks to what the government has done, physical video games qualify, but online-only and downloadable video games are not included. I can assure everyone that the people on that side of the House, the Liberal government members, do not understand the confusion they have just wrought; Canadians are certainly not going to understand it. The person who will be responsible for all this will be the small business owner.

The individual I spoke to today told me how horrified she is that, in trying to interpret this mess, she will be on the hook and that CRA and the government will be coming after her if she gets it wrong and charges GST where she was not supposed to or exempts it when she was not supposed to.

Let us talk about children's clothing and footwear. “Sports clothing, dancewear, such as jerseys, ski jackets, leotards and dual-purpose swimwear that can reasonably be worn outside of sports or dance activities” are exempt. However, “Specialized clothing and footwear designed exclusively for sports or [those same] recreational activities” are not exempt. “Adult clothing and footwear...if it's purchased for a child”, so if someone buys clothing for a child, but it happens to be adult size, again, are not exempt.

It goes on when we are talking about physical books. They say on the other side that physical books are tax-free. Okay, that is simple enough to me, but now look at how the CRA helpfully explains that. “Guidebooks and atlases that do not mostly contain street or road maps” are exempt so if they do contain mostly street or road maps, they are not exempt. “Magazines and periodicals (that have no more than 5% of their printed space devoted to advertising)” are exempt, so for the entrepreneur in my riding who owns her business, who has to do all the accounting, if she sells a magazine that has 6% advertising, then it is not exempt, but if it is 5% advertising it is exempt. How is she, at the busiest time of year, supposed to decipher this mess?

The Liberals tell us that books are tax-free; however, “Colouring books, scrapbooks, sticker books, sketchbooks”; “Books designed primarily for writing on, such as address books, diaries, journals, and notebooks”; “Certain directories and collections of street or road maps”; e-books and audio books are not GST-free.

That is just a short example that just scratches the surface. I guarantee no one in here understands what I just said, and the individuals in my riding who are trying to run a small business should not be expected to have to deal with this.

At a time when people are suffering, on this side of the House we are offering actual help; we are offering to axe the carbon tax that has increased the cost of everything for my constituents who are seniors, have young families, are entrepreneurs or are farmers. The carbon tax has increased the cost of heating their home, driving to work and taking their kids to hockey. The government has increased the cost of food because it is taxing farmers, truckers and everyone along the supply chain who puts food on a family's table. In Canada, our food cost increase has outpaced the U.S. by 36%. What is the difference between us and the U.S. right now? We have a carbon tax and they do not. Canadian families suffer from the misguided policies of the government.

According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, “Only 4% of small business owners believe they will have stronger sales as a result” of these temporary measures. However, they go on to say that “small firms”, perhaps like the constituent I was talking to today, will face approximately “$1,000 in additional costs to reprogram their point-of-sale system to remove and then reinstate” applicable taxes. I think in some cases that $1,000 may be underestimated.

A constituent of mine, who is a business owner, wrote to me today, “The GST holiday is crazy. To take the GST off takeout, restaurant, alcohol and, considering the fresh, healthy groceries don't have the tax...is only taking taxes off less healthy junk food options.”

My constituents get it, small business gets it and we on this side of the House get it. We are going to provide real tax relief for Canadians by axing the tax and we are going to stand up against the Liberal government's gimmicks.

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I gather that my colleague knows the answer to this question as well.

Of course, had the Liberals done the right thing at any stage of this debacle, this would not be necessary. However, doing the right thing and the Liberal government do not go hand in hand. Taxpayers' money has been wasted. All of this could have been avoided if the Liberals had done the right thing. However, that is why we are here today: They did not.

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, that is an effort, on full display, to talk about anything but the millions of dollars wasted, misappropriated and sent to insiders under the green slush fund. These were not general insiders but Liberal insiders from the Liberal government, and it is the last thing they want to talk about.

This is not from me. It is the Auditor General of Canada who said that 20% of the projects were ineligible and $58 million was sent for ineligible projects. Out of 226 transactions examined for the audit, 82% were conflicted. The price tag of these conflicted transactions was $330 million. Members do not have to take the Conservatives' word for it; this is directly from the Auditor General, and that is an inconvenient truth for the government.

As we heard from the Liberal member opposite, Liberals want to speak about anything but what we have exposed here and what the Auditor General has exposed. Conservatives will not stop fighting for accountability for every taxpayer dollar that was spent and misappropriated by the government.

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, that is why, at the outset of my remarks, I mentioned the farmers and nurses in my riding, as well as the construction workers I saw going off to work this morning when I was on my way here. It is easy for us in the House to talk about hundreds of thousands of dollars misappropriated to an individual's company or $390 million over a number of cases where the money should not have been awarded because of a conflict of interest or ineligibility. However, where did that money come from? There is only one source for all this money, and that is the taxpayers whom we all represent.

Taxpayers work hard for their money. When they earn that money, they are taxed on it; when they spend that money, they are taxed on it. They deserve, from each and every one of us in this chamber, absolute accountability for the money that has been spent. However, accountability is what the government, at every turn, has sought to avoid under the green slush fund. It hurts the Liberals very badly that we are not going to stand for that. Conservatives are going to expose that every day.

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I think the remarks I gave were fact-filled remarks. I pointed to the fact that SDTC had existed since 2001, but these conflicts began under the current government. There is an old expression I remember from when I was just a child: Sometimes the truth hurts. The truth of the matter is that these appointed individuals had conflicts. The individuals on the board's awarding of millions of dollars to their own companies was unprecedented. It did not happen under the previous Conservative government; it happened under this government. The change in approach happened under the Liberal government, and Canadians are demanding accountability from the government for the waste in the green slush fund.