Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, after eight years, the NDP-Liberal government is not worth the cost, but let us hear from some rural residents. Judy from Arkona writes, “The carbon tax is killing us,” and Scott from Tupperville says, “As a senior, I am finding it hard to cope.” Walter from Alvinston writes, “I have not even received a carbon rebate.” In his broken-promise budget, set to be delivered at 4 p.m. today,…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, even the polls tell us that the majority of Canadians are fed up with the Prime Minister overspending, over-promising, under-delivering and failing this country. Over $52 billion will be spent on servicing his debt alone. While Canadians are struggling, he raised the price of gas, groceries and home heating, raising the carbon tax by 23% just two weeks ago. This is punishment, not pro…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I rise on the question of privilege, and this is concerning false information contained in the government's response to Order Paper Question No. 2340, which was filed by the NDP member for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford. While it may seem unusual for me, as a Conservative member, to be rising about a government response to a question filed by the NDP, this is not just about the member wh…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to government surplus vehicles being scrapped rather than sold on the GCSurplus auction site: (a) how many vehicles were scrapped during the 2023 calendar year; (b) what are the details of each vehicle that was scrapped, including, for each, the (i) make, (ii) model, (iii) year, (iv) reason the vehicle was not listed on the GCSurplus auction site or otherwise sold as government surplus…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, all day long today we have heard that people get more back in the carbon tax than they pay, which is categorically false, as proven by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. Conservatives know common sense. If one does not take the tax in the first place, one will not have to give back anything to Canadians. With respect to Bill C-234, and I am wondering whether my colleague could comment …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address a question of paramount importance and profound concern to many of my constituents in Lambton—Kent—Middlesex: Will Canada cross the Rubicon and expand access to assisted suicide for otherwise healthy individuals whose mental disorder is the sole underlying medical condition, or do we have enough common sense and moral clarity to stop this radical and dangerous …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
My apologies, Madam Speaker. I will continue with the exchange. [The hon. minister]: I had conversations with five or six senators, yes. [The hon. member for Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa]: ...five or six senators. What are their names? [The hon. minister]: I don't have the names with me. [The hon. member for Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa]: Can you table those? [The hon. minister]: I'm sure we can make …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, we are here tonight debating Bill C-234 again. Why are we? It is because the Liberal-appointed senators voted to gut the bill from its original form to prevent it from passing. The panicking Liberals are resorting to every trick in the book, trying desperately to prevent farmers from getting a carbon tax carve-out for drying grain, heating barns and other farm operations. This is ah…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, after eight years of this NDP-Liberal government, Canadians who used to belong to the middle class are going hungry. The Prime Minister and his radical environment minister know that if it costs the farmer more to grow food, it is going to cost Canadians more to buy food. This Prime Minister is not worth the cost. Farmers, ranchers and producers are asking for Bill C-234 to lower thei…
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Mr. Speaker, the two million Canadians who rely on food banks deserve better than that cheap deflection. One in five Ontario households who struggle to put food on their tables deserve better. They need this government to stop inflating food prices. They need the Prime Minister to stand up to his radical environment minister and carve out the inflationary carbon tax for our farmers, producers and …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, again, this year we have seen record yields. I can say that in our harvest in the last crop year, I have seen record yields. In the 50 years that my father farmed, and my grandparents before my father, and in my 45 years of life, I have been through years when we have had droughts, when we have had floods, when we have had record crops and when we have had not so good crops. Farmers a…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I will take the opportunity to wish my colleague a happy birthday as well. As my colleague said, yes, I have spent years of my life in food production. In fact, we heard from one of my colleagues on this side of the House today and from many farmers in my area this year that they have actually had a bumper crop. They have had higher yields than they have seen in years with some of the…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the report from the public accounts committee entitled “Protecting Canada's Food System During the COVID-19 Pandemic”. In this report, we learn that the NDP-Liberal government spent $515 million, more than half a billion dollars, in various funding envelopes “increased risk of food insecurity”. This is the key question: How much food security did Canadians g…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I enjoy working with my colleague on the agriculture committee as Conservatives continue to stand up for our agriculture sector. My colleague is from Quebec, which is also another big area for growing produce. He talked in his speech about a plastics ban that the Liberal government has proposed. I am wondering whether my colleague could elaborate on how the single-use plastics ban wou…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I have to agree with my colleague; we do want to find common ground with regard to food security and making sure that Canadians can afford healthy, nutritious food. The key word is “afford”. While the member talked about record profits, one thing he did not talk about was the fact that there are record input costs for our farmers and producers in order to produce that food. There are …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to Farm Credit Canada's (FCC) Indigenous Agriculture and Food section: (a) how many employees or full-time equivalents (FTE) are currently assigned to the section; (b) is the section currently fully-staffed, and, if not, (i) when will it be fully-staffed, (ii) how many employees or FTEs will be assigned to the section once it is fully staffed; (c) what is the projected annual budget fo…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, after eight years of this NDP-Liberal government, life in Canada has become unaffordable. It is unthinkable to continue the inflationary carbon tax scheme while millions of Canadians are relying on food banks and are forced to choose between heating and eating. The government surely understands there is no way to produce food without using energy to dry grain, to heat barns and to bri…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I will say to Canadians that Conservatives on this side of the House will vote to axe the tax. We are calling on the House right now to send Bill C-234 back to the Senate in its original form so we can give producers and farmers a break on the carbon tax so their input costs go down and Canadian families can pay less at the grocery store.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I always enjoy working with my colleague at the agriculture committee. We worked really hard together on the code of conduct, which I did not get a chance to talk about yet. For the last several years, I have been a huge supporter of getting a code of conduct in place. This week, we heard that Loblaw and Walmart have no intention at this point in signing the code that is before them r…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I always find it a pleasure to work with my hon. colleague as well. The reality is that the government policies are increasing food costs. Part of it is the carbon tax. Families already cannot afford food right now, and they are going to have to pay another $700 to feed their families next year. Conservatives believe that families should be able to keep more money in their pockets. We…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, my colleague's question is a great one. The answer is that, at this point, there is no commercially viable option to the plastic packaging available right now. It is a global supply chain. It is not just Canada that we are working with. We are working with the globe. As I said, we import two-thirds of our fresh food in this country from other countries. If there were a commercially vi…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am here today to talk about grocery affordability and examining rising food costs in Canada. The agriculture committee submitted this report in June after a fairly lengthy study. This is a topic that has been near and dear to my heart for many years. I come from a produce background. Having a family farm and a produce business feeding Canadians is something that my family has prided…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share the joy and spirit of Christmas, which is deeply woven into the fabric of our communities in Lambton—Kent—Middlesex. In our communities, Christmas is more than a holiday. It is a celebration of Christ's birth. It is a season of unity and warmth that brings together families and neighbours, echoing the rich traditions and vibrant culture that define us. This year,…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government's punishing policies, Canadians are hungrier than ever. First, Canada's premiers asked for a carve-out. The Prime Minister said no. Then, farmers asked for a carve-out, and the Prime Minister said no. Now Ontario's first nation leaders are asking the federal court to exempt their communities from the federal carbon tax. Canada is unified…
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Mr. Speaker, it is almost like the Liberals think that farmers have not had it so good and that Canadians have not had it so good, but they are struggling to put food on their tables and to afford food. Brian, a farmer in my riding, told me he has paid over $16,000 in carbon taxes to heat his two chicken barns this year. The Prime Minister wants to quadruple the carbon tax. It is really not that d…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, under the government, there have been more people using a food bank than ever before. It is record numbers. The Prime Minister is responsible for bringing record-level hunger to Ontario. I understand that the self-proclaimed socialist environment minister has threatened to resign if the bill passes, but Canadian farmers need this carve-out immediately. This will make food prices cheap…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, after enduring eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, one in five households in Ontario is struggling to put food on its table. That adds up to 2.8 million people, including 700,000 children. This is shocking. These are the highest recorded numbers we have ever seen. It is painfully clear that the Prime Minister is not worth the cost. Will the Prime Minister tell his appointed sen…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I have been asking for the grocery code of conduct for over three years. Three years ago, I started talking about that. As a farmer who used to supply three of the five major grocery chains with potatoes, I know the grocery chains were imposing ridiculous fees on farmers and suppliers. They were constantly nickel-and-diming farmers and suppliers. Because farmers are price-takers, an…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I am here today to debate concurrence in the report on strengthening food capacity in Canada for food security and exports. I am a proud member of the agriculture committee. Members on the committee work very well together, and this was a study we did during COVID. We heard from a lot of people across the country about challenges that we face in our agriculture sector. I was able to…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, through this study, we saw that, during COVID, provincially inspected abattoirs were allowed to move meat across interprovincial borders because of some of the COVID protocols out there. If we removed interprovincial trade barriers, we would see a lot more movement of meat across this country, and we would see more abattoirs potentially opening up with capacity.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, farmers are innovators, and they have always been innovators. Farmers are trying to save money however they can so they can put money back into their businesses, grow their business, and continue to farm and grow food for Canadians. Unfortunately, the carbon tax makes their fuel more expensive. Again, if there were commercially viable options available for heating barns or drying gr…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his impassioned speech, but there is something I disagree with. Conservatives have been standing up for farmers non-stop. I come from a very heavy grain area where farmers right now are telling me that their corn is coming in at 30% moisture or 28% moisture, and they need to get their corn dried down to 13% or 15%. Well, guess what. They have to use natural ga…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my colleague talks the big talk. He wants to help Canadians with affordability, yet the bill would not do that. The government is quadrupling the carbon tax on farmers. The Senate is stalling Bill C-234, which could give $1 billion of relief to farmers to help bring down our food prices, and the government is also trying to take away the ability of free enterprises to make their own b…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I find it very interesting that yesterday the NDP voted with Conservatives on our common-sense motion to remove the carbon tax from all forms of home heating for all Canadians, instead of just singling out the 3% of Canadians who use heating oil for their homes. The New Democrats are neglecting the 97% of Canadians who use other forms, such as natural gas or propane, for their home he…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I will try again. At this rate, eliminating the carbon tax by the Bank of Canada—
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, it impacts the bill because, every step along the way, families would not need a government program if they could afford to buy food. If it costs more to put inputs into food for farmers, it is going to cost more for families to buy food for their kids. Why are two million people going to a food bank in a month? They should not need to, and it is because of the policies of the gover…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Pardon me, Madam Speaker, can I please revert back to the page before and start my time, because I have been interrupted about five—
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am wondering if my colleague tell me if he has done consultations with the provinces, as the education system is within the jurisdiction of the provinces and not in the purview of the federal government. What consultations have been done and what is the feedback he has had from provinces regarding this?
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, the purpose of this bill, as set out by the member for Acadie—Bathurst is “to establish a school food program”. While I see in his preamble that the member has recognized that education is in the exclusive jurisdiction of each province, it nonetheless bears pointing out that the member might have been well advised to have sought a seat in the provincial legislature where he could br…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, if it costs the farmer more to grow food and costs the trucker more to ship food, it is going to cost families more to buy food to feed their children. When the Bank of Canada governor, Tiff Macklem, appeared on Monday before the finance committee, my colleague, the member for Northumberland—Peterborough South asked the governor how the carbon tax affects inflation. Governor Macklem…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, Governor Macklem said there are two separate questions. The governor said, “...how much are the increases in the carbon tax adding to inflation each year? That number is about .15 percentage points of inflation. That's the direct impact on those three components.”
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, the three components the governor referred were those raised by my colleague, which were gasoline, diesel fuel and natural gas. Governor Macklem continued—
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, Governor Macklem continued by responding to the second question, which was what the effect on inflation would be if the carbon tax were to be eliminated. He said that it would create a one-time drop in inflation of 0.6%. If the carbon tax were eliminated, it would result in a drop in inflation of 0.6%. The overall inflation rate is currently at about 3.2%. At that rate, eliminating …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the government is living in a fantasyland. The Liberals have finally said the quiet part out loud and admitted that not all Canadians are equal to them. After eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, Canadians are struggling to pay their bills. The gimmicks the government is offering are not going to help families who are stressing over how they are going to afford to heat their hom…
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, the desperate Prime Minister is in total free fall, and he has admitted that his carbon tax is punishing Canadians. The Prime Minister has announced his re-election platform: Vote Liberal to increase the carbon tax on home heating, gas and groceries. Even the minister, the member for Long Range Mountains, admitted that the exemption was not given to all Canadians be…
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Mr. Speaker, first the NDP-Liberals wanted to triple the carbon tax; then they said that was not enough and added a second carbon tax. These two carbon taxes will increase from 14¢ to 61¢ per litre of fuel. The NDP-Liberal government is going to quadruple the carbon tax. However, it is basic math: If it costs more to grow food, it will cost more to buy food. After eight years, the Prime Minister i…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, after eight years, the Liberals continue to choose ideology over economic reality. The carbon tax continues to punish Canadians, who need to eat. Food banks across the country are seeing record visits, including from the middle class and those with full-time jobs. A quarter of our population is going hungry or cannot afford basic necessities. The Liberal-NDPs just do not understand ba…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, according to the 13th edition of “Canada's Food Price Report”, published in 2023, by September last year, families across Canada were paying in excess of 10% more for their groceries. This year, Canadians' grocery bills have increased by another 8% to 9% or more. Vegetables are seeing the biggest price increases, and as a result, Canadian families are cutting back on their purchases…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the fact of the matter is that a one-time payment is not going to do anything to help people in the long term. One of my constituents, Paula in Wallaceburg, writes that “renters need apartments that working people can afford. I make $27 per hour and I have no benefits, and my rent, for a 400-square-foot one-bedroom unit, is currently $1,400 a month, plus electricity, and I have to p…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I take offence to that, because I am telling the truth. What the member is referring to is actually only on food. We can ask the farmers how their bills have gone up with the carbon tax. We can ask how much inputs have gone up. We can ask how much packaging has gone up for products. We can ask retailers why packaging has gone up. It is because the carbon tax is paid on fuel that del…
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