Carbon Pricing  Speaker, that is rich coming from the government that relentlessly lobbied senators to block Bill C-234. Bill C-234 would remove the carbon taxes from the farmers who grow our food. We know inflation is hitting Canadians hard; whether it is housing, the cost of fuel or food, everything is getting more expensive under the NDP-Liberal government.

Carbon Pricing  Ray Orb of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities has indicated that our farmers can expect to lose 8% of their total net income if the carbon tax is quadrupled this spring. The Prime Minister is not worth the cost to our growers, our truckers and everyone who is struggling to put healthy food on the table of their family. Will the Prime Minister choose a death knell, alienating Canadians even further, or will he grab a lifeline and support Bill C-234?

Carbon Pricing  Speaker, our farmers are tired of the government's talking out of both sides of its mouth. The Prime Minister is demanding that our farmers absorb a quadrupling of the carbon tax and GST yet grow enough grain to stay solvent, feed the world and increase green fuel alternatives. After eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, farmers know where they stand. Is he even aware of how many Canadians have had enough of his attacks on farmers?

National Council for Reconciliation Act  Speaker, the way I see it is that the first nations feel as though the Conservatives are using them for political purposes on the carbon tax issue.

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.

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.