The Economy  Mr. Speaker, Canadians know full well they cannot trust the Liberals, who want to impose a carbon tax, who want to increase the price of gasoline, who want to increase the price of home heating fuel and electricity, and particularly put this burden on those Canadians with fixed incomes who can least afford that kind of tax burden.

The Environment  The other option, of course, which Ontario and Quebec do not seem to like, is to impose carbon taxes. I can assure everyone that when I was in Europe last week nobody wanted that either.

Budget Implementation Act, 2008  We have stuck them at the end of a line of almost a billion people long, I should say a million. When I listen to the opposition suggestions of what the carbon tax is going to cost Canadians, that is where my billions come from. Many people want to come to Canada. The legislation before us would actually break the back of a broken system and bring us to a system that would help.

Climate Change Accountability Act  What the NDP is proposing would require a 40% reduction in greenhouse emissions from where we are today. Much like the Liberals' hidden carbon tax plan, this simply is not possible without causing massive job losses and huge price increases in electricity, heat and gasoline. The costs that this bill would impose on Canadian families and businesses could be quite considerable.

Climate Change Accountability Act  Every witness group that was heard at the environment committee, including the leader of the NDP, said the bill should be costed, yet the NDP is moving forward without it being costed, I believe because they are ashamed of the costs for jobs and to heat our homes and the cost of energy. When we include that with what the Liberals are proposing with their carbon tax, we can imagine what would happen to the cost of energy in Canada. I would like to contrast the NDP plan and its approach with that taken by the government. In setting our greenhouse gas targets, the Government of Canada is not only looking at targets but it is looking at the best way to achieve them.

Taxation  Speaker, the Liberal leader has some explaining to do. He has spent the last two years telling Canadians that he opposes a carbon tax, but now the flip-flopping Liberal leader has changed his mind. He has decided to punish hard-working Canadians by imposing a massive gas tax. He wants Canadians to pay even more to drive their cars and heat their homes.

Business of Supply  Chair, I have no idea what piece of paper he is waving around. I can tell the member this: we will not be imposing a massive new carbon tax on Canadians, particularly Canadians with fixed incomes. If he is concerned about the economy, he should think about the manufacturers and think about the costs that this will mean for them.

Business of Supply  Chair, I think we all realize that carbon is ending up priced in our economy. That is a reality. We are opposed to a massive new carbon tax. So is the premier of Ontario, by the way, who is disagreeing with his little brother there on the benches opposite.

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, I agree with the suggestion by the Liberals that a carbon tax, which they want to impose on Canadians, will be a massive, punitive tax increase, particularly for people with fixed incomes, for seniors and pensioners.

Business of Supply  There is $70 billion. How is the opposition going to pay for it? Now we are starting to hear about a carbon tax, as the Liberals call it, a tax on gasoline, a tax on electricity, a tax on home heating fuel, a tax that would have the greatest punitive burden on those with fixed incomes, poor seniors in this country, people receiving minimal pensions, and so on.

Business of Supply  I do note that in the 13 years of Liberal government greenhouse emissions went up 30% and I notice that the member wants to introduce something called a carbon tax. We know what that will do to gasoline prices for Canadians. They will go up dramatically. We know what it will do to home heating fuel. It will go up dramatically. We know what it would do to electricity.

Business of Supply  I bet a lot of people in Peterborough in the riding of the hon. member for Peterborough are trying to watch that hockey game on television and want to have the ability to have electricity in their homes at a reasonable cost, and want to be able to put gasoline in their cars at a reasonable cost. All of that will be made terribly more difficult by the Liberal carbon tax.

Business of Supply  There was a massive deficit in the province of Ontario and we had to work many years to recover from that deficit just as we would have to here in the future with this new massive carbon tax and the big deficit that the Liberals intend to run.

Business of Supply  What is the vision for our country? We know what the vision of the official opposition is: carbon taxes, increasing the tax burden on poor Canadians and Canadians on fixed incomes. This is the vision. It is called Advantage Canada. When we became the Government of Canada it became clear that the previous government did not have an economic plan so we created the economic plan.

Business of Supply  They are outraged in all parts of the country, even in Windsor, Ontario. The Windsor Star wrote today: A carbon tax will penalize low-income earners, rural Canadians and suburban commuters...and it will negatively affect the ability of Canadian businesses, already struggling under the weight of a rising loonie, to compete internationally.