Oral Questions
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…
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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, 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…
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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, 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, 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…
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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…
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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…
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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
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, 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…
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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, I will try again. At this rate, eliminating the carbon tax by the Bank of Canada—
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 →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…
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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 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, 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 →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…
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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, part of the reason we cannot get houses built is because we cannot even get workers to work. A mom of a young adult told me that her son completed college and has a full-time job. He does training, travels as requested and has duties, but he cannot afford to live or rent near work. He lives at home; he drives over an hour each way, paying too much in gas to save for a mortgage or fi…
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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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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, 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 →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from York—Simcoe for putting Bill C-280, the financial protection for fresh fruit and vegetable farmers act, forward. It is a very important bill, and it has been a long time coming. I was elected nearly four years ago and we have been talking about this through the last two Parliaments, and I know it was talked about long before then. It is great …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my colleague did make some good points. The member mentioned independent grocers. I work a lot with independent grocers, and he is right; they do face a lot more challenges than big chains. There are challenges in trying to get competitive pricing on goods they want to buy and resell in their stores. That is just one of the issues that independent grocers face. If we have more competi…
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Mr. Speaker, I find it interesting that my colleague is talking about the price of food increasing but does not do the simple, basic math. When one taxes a farmer and puts a tax on fuel for farmers to take the food from the field to the farm, and when one taxes truckers to ship it to the grocery stores and then puts the carbon tax on the fuel for the families to go to the grocery stores to buy the…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, with whom I sit on the agriculture committee, for his great speech. He brought up a few points with respect to farmers. We know that grocery prices have increased in the stores. For farmers, input costs have gone up. The biggest thing is the carbon tax. The second is interest rates on loans, so the costs have gone up for servicing debt. Minimum wage has gone up i…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it is not rocket science; it is basic math that the NDP-Liberal government just does not seem to get. If it costs the farmer more to grow the food and costs the trucker more to ship the food, it is going to cost Canadian families more to buy the food. After eight years of raising taxes on families, farmers and truckers, they want to quadruple the carbon tax. The Prime Minister is not …
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the government, Canadians are seeing record inflation, and they are seeing their grocery prices skyrocket thanks to the carbon tax. Tiff Macklem, the Bank of Canada governor, agrees and said that the carbon tax announcements that have it going up increase inflation each year. The NDP-Liberal carbon tax has increased the cost of apples by 61%, and that is just one …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the NDP-Liberal carbon tax on farmers who grow the food and the tax on truckers who ship the food is a tax on people who buy the food, and they want to quadruple the tax. The Conservative leader would axe the tax, so that people pay less and bring home more, and so that they pay less for gas, groceries and home heating. Carbon tax 1 will add over 45¢ a litre to diesel fuel and carbon …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP): (a) what measurable goals are projected to be obtained at the onset of this agreement; (b) what is the projected benefit from this agreement to the Canadian economy within the next five years; and (c) does the CPTPP conform with the World Trade Organization rules?
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Mr. Speaker, during question period today, the Prime Minister kept deflecting on how the second carbon tax is going to hurt our farmers and put our food security and safety at risk. I would like unanimous consent to table the Parliamentary Budget—
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With regard to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s Directive 2009-09: (a) which agricultural groups were consulted on making the decisions within the directive; (b) on which dates did consultations take place; (c) in what manner did consultations take place; and (d) what guidance was provided on gene-editing for resilience?
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Mr. Speaker, we cannot fight fires with inflation—
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we cannot fight fires with inflation. The government's inflation is causing the cost of food and groceries to skyrocket. Farmers pay carbon tax to get their crops from the field to their warehouse and from their warehouse to the grocer's warehouse. Then the grocer pays carbon tax to get the food to the grocery store, and then families pay carbon tax to drive to the grocery store to bu…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 150th anniversaries of two amazing communities that I have the privilege of representing: Inwood and Watford. Inwood and Watford are both rooted in agriculture and have contributed to the growth and development of our region. They have also nurtured a strong sense of community and a culture among their residents and visitors. The people of Inwood and Watf…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise to table the supplementary opinion of the Conservative Party of Canada for the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food's report on food price inflation. While we appreciate the work done by the committee and the study for this report, we believe more information must be made available to Canadians in terms of the Liberal government's policies and its contribution to foo…
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Mr. Speaker, the carbon tax could cost each farmer $150,000 per year, and that is before the second carbon tax comes next month. This tax on tax on tax drives up the cost of food production. It is simple math: If it costs the farmer more to grow food, it is going to cost Canadians more to feed their families, and it is going to put the future of our Canadian farms at risk. No farms, no food. Will …
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Mr. Speaker, I come from a rural area and hear from young moms and other moms all the time. We do not have child care spots available; that is just the reality in our rural areas. Privatized child care spots are all that can be found, if people can find them in home day care. We do not have enough workers. There are not enough people going through programs in colleges to support the day cares that…
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Mr. Speaker, I do not hear the Liberals talk about agriculture. Carbon tax 1 is already driving up the cost of food production. Now carbon tax 2 will increase the cost of diesel, pricing our farmers out of the market. Inflating the price of groceries makes it more expensive for families to put food on the table. Rising input costs put our Canadian farmers at a competitive disadvantage to the point…
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Madam Speaker, the reality is that we live in a vast country. We live in a country that has predominantly agriculture in our rural areas. We have pastimes in this country. Since the inception of this country, we have used hunting rifles, and the Liberals are coming and targeting law-abiding farmers, hunters, indigenous Canadians and sport shooters. They are targeting things that are pastimes in Ca…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague, although I do not need the mansplaining. I think I understand the bill very well, and so do my constituents. Five hundred of them have written to me on my recent mailer. Here is one from Laura. She said, “As a retired police officer, I strongly object to taking guns from legal gun owners. They are not the problem.” Here is one from Fred, who said, “It is n…
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Madam Speaker, sure, I have another note from Don from Dover Centre, who said, “Legally owned firearms is not the problem in this country. It is the ghost guns and the illegal guns brought into Canada.” I have another from Eric, who said, “This bill is nothing more than an attack on legal firearms owners in Canada. It does nothing to make Canadians safer. I am a legal firearms owner who enjoys hun…
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Madam Speaker, I have heard from many constituents in my riding, including many who are in the airsoft industry and many who are hunters and farmers. In fact, James from Chatham said that the bill is “Nothing more than misguided nonsense from the...government. Expensive and stupid.”
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Madam Speaker, today I rise to talk about how the Liberal Party has turned its back on law-abiding firearms owners, while it has given gangs and criminals the green light to continue terrorizing our streets with little worry of any consequences. Bill C-21 is nothing more than the government's overreach, an attempt by the Liberals to push forward their flawed ideology on firearms ownership. Nobody …
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