National Council for Reconciliation Act  I think this is one of the most important things that the current government has ignored. On the carbon tax issue, Ontario first nations are having to sue the government. The member spoke about the excellent announcement that our leader gave yesterday with respect to the importance of giving back certainty and control to first nations.

National Council for Reconciliation Act  I cannot believe that we cannot have a non-partisan discussion about an important issue without the Conservative Party bringing up the carbon tax, which it seems to be so embroiled in.

Carbon Pricing  Mr. Speaker, last week, the environment minister revealed the truth about the carbon tax. I asked how many emissions were directly reduced from the carbon tax in an Order Paper question. The minister's response was “the government does not measure the annual amount of emissions that are directly reduced by federal carbon pricing.”

Carbon Pricing  Now that the environment minister has exposed his own carbon tax scam, will he finally axe the tax?

Agriculture committee  One of those things, interest costs, is not like the rest. I think it's the only one of those cost components that is not attracting a carbon tax. To move forward on food affordability, Dr. Lee, given the discussion earlier on the success of the carbon tax, should we remove the carbon tax from the other four or add it to interest costs somehow and fabricate some carbon in that component?

Agriculture committee  I think there's an interesting precedent to think about. Should food have been treated differently when it came to the carbon tax? The carbon tax today is a relatively small amount, but it is an amount that's growing and we expect the impact will continue to increase. The reality is that the vast majority of emissions from agriculture and food are exempt from carbon pricing today, but they all aren't.

Agriculture committee  Some of your members are saying how important Bill C-234 is, that 40% of their energy bills are from carbon taxes. We've certainly had bills from across Canada showing that, in some cases, the carbon tax is actually more than the natural gas they're paying for. By increasing the carbon tax again on April 1, and quadrupling this tax over the next few years, what impact is this having on the financial health of farming in Canada?

Agriculture committee  I think I may stay with that line of questioning, because you said, Mr. Charlebois, that you cannot correlate food costs with the carbon tax. In fact, the carbon tax is higher this year than it was last year. It's been going up by a certain amount, predictably, for investments every year. How do you explain then that this year it will be a 2.5% to 4.5% increase, when last year it was a lot more, if in fact the carbon tax is going up and not down?

Agriculture committee  A large part of production is the fuel price for trucks that transport our food. They have to pay the carbon tax. We see that the NDP-Liberal government wants to quadruple the carbon tax. In fact, it's going to go up on April 1. Given that the carbon tax is inevitably going to increase the cost to transport goods to the grocery store, do you believe that it's going to have a direct impact on Canadian families and will be a reason for the higher food prices that we'll see on the grocery store shelves coming up?

Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, 2023  Madam Speaker, the member is asking how a Conservative government would possibly carry out international relations if it does not sign agreements that include a carbon tax. It is very simple: We will not sign agreements that include a carbon tax. We will negotiate to ensure that agreements we sign do not include a carbon tax. In this particular case, I think it would be very simple.

Natural Resources committee  Now, Minister, does the government measure the annual amount of emissions that are directly reduced from the federal carbon tax?

Committees of the House  In fact, the majority of provinces in this country have actually elected governments that do not support the carbon tax. That is something the member should not forget when trying to impose that left-leaning ideology that has been so destructive on the people of my province, as an example. It is time to bring some common sense back to the conversation.

Committees of the House  When it comes to our plan to axe the tax, let us be clear that increasing the cost of transportation is not a bug associated with the carbon tax, but a designed feature of it. The purpose of a carbon tax policy is to increase the cost of transporting people and goods, supposedly to deter that transportation. The problem is that people still need to eat and to get around, and in the process, they end up paying more without the supposed impacts on emissions.

Committees of the House  At every stage of the food supply chain or when it comes to transportation, whether that is a mom taking her kids to hockey practice, a school bus taking kids to school, trains carrying the goods from our ports, ships taking our goods overseas or bringing in goods from other places, increased cost is the design of the carbon tax. That is not serving the best interests of Canadians. What is so unfortunate about this entire conversation is that for the last eight-plus years that this has been a debate, the Liberals have claimed one thing on the carbon tax but, truly, it is meant to punish Canadians at every step of the process, to change their behaviour.

Business of Supply  That said, I agree with the member on Chalk River. I invite my colleague to convince her own party to stop talking about the carbon tax for one of the next fifteen opposition days. Chalk River would be an excellent topic.