Parliamentary Speeches

Mr. Speaker, gas prices hit $2.40 a litre in Vancouver. They just jumped 10¢ a litre in one day in other markets. What is the NDP-Liberal solution? It is more price gouging. The costly coalition voted to triple the tax on gasoline and other essentials. The biggest price gougers in Canada are these two parties that form this costly coalition. When they do triple the tax, how much will it cost across Canada to buy a litre of gas?

Mr. Speaker, that is factually false. His own Parliamentary Budget Officer said that in the four provinces where the rebates exist, 60% of people pay more in carbon tax costs than they get back in rebates. In six provinces out of 10, they do not get any rebate at all, even though the federal government will force those provinces to triple the tax after a vote by the costly coalition of the NDP and Liberals. How much will eastern Canadian rural families be forced to pay in higher taxes on their home heating when the Prime Minister triples the carbon tax?

Mr. Speaker, it is not working. He has not hit a single, solitary climate target since he brought in this tax. According to the Liberal Premier of Newfoundland, rural families will have seen an 80% increase in their home heating costs when the carbon tax kicks in there. Forty per cent of Atlantic Canadians live in energy poverty. The Prime Minister can insult these people and call them polluters while he jets around in his private jet, or he can recognize that heating one's home in January in rural Newfoundland is a basic necessity. How much will he impose in extra costs on those families when he—

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister does not have a climate plan; he has a tax plan. His climate promises have failed every single year, and now he has a tax hike on farmers. I asked him how much a farm family would have to pay, and he did not have an answer. Here is the answer: That family will pay more, which means more of the food production will be sent other ways, to other countries, where they have lower environmental standards. That food will then have to be shipped, trained and trucked back to Canada, adding more pollution and leaving us more dependent on foreign farmers. Why does the Prime Minister want to drive pollution up, farm production out and jobs down?

Mr. Speaker, I asked a simple yes-or-no question. The Prime Minister has had 1,001 days to think about the answer. His officials informed him that this group murdered our citizens, yet by failing to list the group as terrorists, he is allowing it to raise money, coordinate, plan, operate and recruit right here on Canadian soil. It is not banned from doing any of those things. One last time, will the Prime Minister show some respect and actually answer a question? Is this a terrorist group, yes or no?

Mr. Speaker, the accounting firm MNP reported this week that almost half of all Canadians are about $200 away from not being able to pay their bills. That means insolvency for nearly half the population. This is the result of seven years of this government's inflationary policies. What is the Liberals' solution today? It is to raise taxes, including by tripling the carbon tax on gas, home heating and groceries. Will they cancel this plan to triple the tax?

Mr. Speaker, the accounting firm MNP reported this week that almost half of Canadians are $200 from insolvency. That means that they are about to default on a debt or other legal payment. They cannot afford groceries. Four in five families have had to cut their diets to pay their bills. Nine in 10 young people without a home say they will never afford one. The Liberal solution to all of this is to raise taxes on paycheques and on energy, including by tripling the carbon tax on gas, heat and groceries. Will they cancel their plan to triple the tax?

Mr. Speaker, Canada is a safe haven for this terrorist group, which killed 55 Canadian citizens by shooting down a civilian aircraft. The government has the legal authority today to list that group as a terrorist entity, banning it from raising money, operating, coordinating or, in other ways, existing here in this country. A thousand days after this murder of our citizens, it has not done so. Why?

Mr. Speaker, since the Liberals came to power, housing prices have doubled. According to the Royal Bank of Canada, it takes 60% of the average paycheque to cover monthly bills for an average house. That is the highest level in history. The Liberal solution is to triple the carbon tax on gas, heating and groceries. Canadians cannot afford to pay more. Will the government cancel this plan to triple the tax?

Mr. Speaker, the tax has failed. The Liberals have missed every single emissions target they have set since they put it in. According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the vast majority of Canadians are paying massively more in carbon tax costs than they get back in rebates. The problem is about to worsen as the government plans to triple the tax on gas, groceries and heat. Canadians are already cutting back on their diets. Adults are living in their folks' basement because they cannot afford a new house. Will the government cancel this insane plan to triple the tax?

Mr. Speaker, there they go. The Liberals want to divide and distract. They attacked the little old lady living in rural Newfoundland, calling her a polluter for the crime of heating her home in February. According to the Liberal premier of that province, after the forthcoming increase in the carbon tax, the increased cost of heating the homes of rural Newfoundlanders will have gone up by 80%. Worse yet, the government wants to triple the tax. Why will it not axe the tax?

Mr. Speaker, just what we need, a new government program to help us pay the cost of a government tax. People do not have to worry if they live in the countryside of Atlantic Canada, where 40% of people now live in energy poverty after the government has been in power for seven years, because there is a new government program coming. They do not need to worry about freezing in the dark as this new tax comes in. That is what it wants people to believe. Canadians are not stupid. Canadians are not polluters. They need to heat their homes and travel in a big cold country. Will the government cancel its plan to triple the tax?

Mr. Speaker, Mahsa Amini, two words that echoed around the world over the weekend, as hundreds of thousands of people protested against the terrorist regime in Iran. In Canada were among the biggest protests, but the Prime Minister did not have the guts to show up, because he did not want to have to explain why he had failed to criminalize the IRGC, the terrorist arm of the Iranian government, which killed over 50 Canadians when it attacked a civilian aircraft. Will the Prime Minister have the guts to stand today and announce that he is banning this terrorist organization?

Mr. Speaker, we do not need symbolic sanctions; we need real action against this terrorist organization, and we need it now. The minister says that he is still exploring. This terrorist organization murdered over 50 Canadians by shooting down a civilian aircraft over two years ago. The government promised that it would ban that terrorist organization. Not long after that, it still has not done it. It is perfectly legal for that group to raise money and organize logistics on Canadian soil after it killed our people. What kind of prime minister fails to stand up for his own citizens after they have been murdered? Why will he not stand in this place today and ban this group?

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to add my voice to those who condemn the oppression of the Iranian government against its innocent people. We stand with the Iranian people. Protests have been unleashed over the last several weeks as a result of the morality police murdering a young woman, Mahsa Amini, because she dared to confront the Iranian regime and fight for her freedom. These protests against that action have been nothing short of inspiring. The Conservatives, including my deputy leader, have been proud to join in these protests. For years, the Conservatives have demanded the government to hold the Iranian regime accountable. Unfortunately, the government lifted sanctions on Iran as one of its very first actions. The government still refuses to list the IRGC, a terrorist organization, as a terrorist body, allowing it to legally operate here in Canada. The Liberals claim they cannot do this, even though CSIS has reported that the IRGC is responsible for shooting down PS752, killing 50 Canadians. It is time for accountability. The Conservatives will fight to restore it.

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals and the Bloc want to punish Quebeckers for the crime of driving a conventional car by tripling the carbon tax. The federal government is currently blocking the production of green electricity in Quebec for electric cars. The Quebec government wants to build dams to produce this green energy for electric cars, but federal red tape will block these projects. Why does the government not cut the red tape, let Quebec build these environmentally friendly dams and, at the same time, get rid of the carbon tax?

Mr. Speaker, after seven years in government, the Liberals have no climate plan. What they have is a tax plan that has failed to reach a single solitary environmental target they have set. Meanwhile, gas prices have hit $2.40 a litre in Vancouver. This is the same city with the third most overpriced real estate market on earth. In other words, people cannot afford to drive, they cannot afford homes and, with food prices rising faster than in 40 years, they cannot afford to eat either. Will the government show some compassion for British Columbians and Canadians and cancel its plan to triple the tax?

Mr. Speaker, the only one draining EI of money is the government. It wants to raid the EI fund for $10 billion to take the money that Canadians pay in EI taxes and spend it on everything but EI. The minister admits that she is going to raise EI taxes by $2.5 billion starting on January 1, with Canadians facing the highest inflation in 40 years, just inflation. With Canadians struggling to feed themselves, what is the government thinking by raising taxes on paycheques?

Mr. Speaker, the government has been draining the paycheques and pocketbooks of Canadians. Just this week, the Angus Reid Institute published a poll showing that 51% of Canadians are struggling to eat. In Canada, a G7 country, the majority of people cannot afford groceries. That is from seven years of the Liberal government. Canadians are out of money and the government is out of touch. Why will it not cancel its tax hikes so that Canadians can afford to eat?

Mr. Speaker, the minister totally ignored the question. Fifty-one per cent of Canadians cannot afford to eat. Food bank use has tripled and hits records every single month, according to the Daily Bread Food Bank. Students are living in homeless shelters while they study. This is Canada after seven years of the current Liberal government, and it is getting worse now under this costly coalition. Will the Liberals wake up to what is going on in this country and cancel their heartless tax hikes?

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation when we honour the children who suffered in residential schools and reflect upon those who never made it home. It is also a time to redouble our efforts to provide first nations with a better future, clean water, an end to poverty and the autonomy for those willing nations to control more of their money, their land and their decision-making. Will the government discuss with the House how we can move forward together to achieve these goals?

Mr. Speaker, the cost of government is driving up the cost of living. The $500‑billion inflationary deficit has doubled our national debt. The Parliamentary Budget Officer said yesterday that Canadians will have to pay twice as much in interest on our national debt. They will end up paying $46 billion, which is more than the cost of the Canadian military. The Liberals' solution is to increase taxes on seniors and workers. Will the government cap spending so that it can cancel its inflationary deficits and taxes that Canadians are paying for?

Mr. Speaker, in fact, the Prime Minister has added more debt than all previous Canadian prime ministers combined and doubled the national debt. Those inflationary deficits have bid up the cost of the goods we buy and the interest we pay. Now, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, we will have to pay twice as much for interest on that national debt, $46 billion, which is more than the cost of the entire Canadian military. What is the Liberal solution? It is higher taxes on paycheques, gas, groceries and other expenses. Why will the government not cap spending and cut waste so that it can cancel its inflationary deficits and taxes?

Mr. Speaker, they are doubling what Canadians must spend on national debt interest, and they are tripling the carbon tax, tripling that tax on gas, heat, groceries and basically every good that has to be transported from one place to another. Now, at a time with 40-year highs in inflation, Liberals want to raise those taxes even further. Our young people who are going to school are living in homeless shelters because they cannot afford the cost of living. Will the government cancel this heartless tax increase?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals will tell Canadians they have never had it so good. They have never had it so good. Listen, the government is out of touch and Canadians are out of money. Here are the facts: “Food bank use triples, hits record almost every month: Daily Bread Food Bank”, “GTA food banks say they are facing the highest demand in their history”, “Inflation is driving Ottawa food bank use to record highs, with no end in sight”, and students are literally living in homeless shelters while they go to school. The Liberals think that now is the time to raise their energy costs by tripling the carbon tax. Will they cancel this heartless tax hike now?

Mr. Speaker, the answer is neither, just like when we were in government. We froze CPP taxes and protected the CPP, increasing its benefits to seniors every single year we were in office. Now the government wants to raise taxes on those very same seniors. According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, in every single province where the carbon tax applies, Canadians pay more in costs than they get back in rebates, and it is especially high in provinces like Quebec, where there is no rebate whatsoever and people will have to pay the increased costs the government is imposing. Will the government cancel this heartless tax hike today?

moved: That, in the opinion of the House, given that the government's tax increases on gas, home heating and, indirectly, groceries, will fuel inflation, and that the Parliamentary Budget Officer reported the carbon tax costs 60% of households more than they get back, the government must eliminate its plan to triple the carbon tax. Mr. Speaker, today we are debating the government's decision to break its electoral promise by tripling the carbon tax on gas, home heating, groceries and all other essential items Canadians need to survive. We have to recognize that this is a tax increase that will apply everywhere in Canada and will increase the prices in every province, even in the provinces where there is no refund from the federal government. This tax hike comes at a time when inflation is at a 40-year high and nine out of 10 young people who do not already own a home do not think they ever will. It comes at a time when students are living in shelters because they cannot afford rent. It comes at a time when four out of five Canadians have to cut back on food because they cannot afford groceries. It comes at a time when Canadians cannot even fill up their car or truck to go to work. This is exactly the wrong time to raise taxes on paycheques, gas and other things. Let us start by talking about fried green tomatoes. The little miracles of Manotick, SunTech tomatoes are from a beautiful little tomato farm about 40 minutes south of here, in the heart of the great Carleton riding, where some entrepreneurial farmers opened a greenhouse to sell beautiful local produce to residents in the area. They are delicious and they are legendary right across the region. Unfortunately, the farmers learned that the carbon tax from the government would apply to the CO2 they release into the greenhouse. Now, of course, CO2 is required to expand growth and increase the produce that comes out of the greenhouse. This CO2 does not even go into the atmosphere; it goes into the plant life, something the Liberals may have missed in grade 4 science class. The reality is that it makes the tomatoes more expensive. What is the consequence of the tax on these tomatoes? Well, it is, at times, more expensive to buy a Manotick tomato in Manotick than a Mexican tomato in Manotick. Why? It is because the taxes are lower in Mexico, even though the pollution is higher. What does this price signal do? It tells the customer to buy a tomato from the other side of North America, which has to be trained and trucked all the way up to Canada, burning fossil fuels the whole way there and increasing emissions along the way. What happened to the local 100-mile diet that environmentalists used to promote? Well, this tax makes that diet more difficult and less affordable, the big logical fallacy of the Liberal carbon tax. It drives up the cost of domestic production and drives that production to foreign, more polluting jurisdictions that then require higher transportation costs and more emissions to bring products back to Canadian consumers here at home. Our approach should be exactly the opposite. We should bring production home and have our food, our energy and our resources right here in Canada. Let us look at the three falsehoods of the Liberal carbon tax. The Liberals said it would help us meet our targets for emissions reduction. They have now been in power for seven years and have not hit a single solitary emissions reduction target. In fact, even in the year 2020, when large parts of our economy and our population were locked down and unable to even drive, they came nowhere close to reaching their targets. Let me tell the House how far they missed them. They missed them by 57 megatonnes. That is equivalent to all of the emissions of the four Atlantic provinces or equivalent to our entire electricity sector. In other words, if we had turned off all of the electricity in Canada in that year, in addition to having been locked down during COVID, then we would have still fallen just short of meeting the targets the Liberals set for themselves. In order words, the carbon tax did not hit those targets. It did not come anywhere close and, in fact, we expect the emissions will again start rising now that the lockdowns are fortunately behind us. That is the first falsehood. If the Liberals were really serious about reducing emissions, they had many options. They could have signalled their support for small modular nuclear reactors so that we could use our prodigious know-how to supply Canadians with emissions-free nuclear energy. We have the biggest supply of uranium as feedstock right in Saskatchewan and the best nuclear engineers right here in Ontario. We have a need for this electricity in provinces nationwide. We have provinces that have signed on to memoranda of understanding to replace high-emitting sources of electricity with small modular nuclear reactors, but of course our Minister of the Environment has said that he does not even agree with nuclear. I do not know where he expects electricity to come from, but certainly nobody is going to invest in creating these modular reactors if the Minister of the Environment himself is against them. The Liberals could have backed up carbon capture and storage, of which the Canadian energy industry is leading in the world. It is the industry putting carbon back in the ground where it came from, the carbon trunk, which allows that carbon to go back to geological formations where it can be safely stored. The government was slow to support it and insufficient in that support. The Liberals could have incentivized industry to further reduce emissions. They could have also used Canada's clean energy production to displace dirty foreign production. We have 1,300 trillion cubic feet of natural gas right here in Canada. With the hydroelectricity in Quebec, Newfoundland and British Columbia, we can liquefy that natural gas without any emissions at all. In fact, we have the shortest shipping distances from North America to both Asia and Europe, allowing us to reduce the cost and the emissions necessary to get that energy to those markets. That clean Canadian natural gas could displace dirty coal-fired electricity around the world. Liberals might want to dispute this today, but that was their contention not long ago. The Prime Minister showed up for a photo op to take credit for the previous Conservative government's approval of the LNG Canada project in northern British Columbia. He said at the time, “We know LNG produces...half the amount of carbon emissions as coal.” He then said that this project would have the effect of reducing global emissions by displacing dirtier sources of electricity in Asia. This is the quote: “So by sending Canadian LNG to markets that are today powered by coal, we will help those jurisdictions transition away from this energy source.” According to Rob Seeley, president of E3Merge Consulting, “for every unit of GHGs that British Columbia produces to get that LNG to market, the overseas production of GHGs goes down by a factor of 10.” In other words, by replacing foreign coal-fired with our Canadian energy, we can reduce emissions. Further, this same expert said: Shipping LNG at design capacity from Kitimat to displace coal-generated electricity in China would reduce global GHG emissions by 60 to 90 million tonnes annually, equivalent to the annual production of GHGs in all of B.C.... Would that not be something? What an achievement that would be. By the way, 60 million to 90 million tonnes of greenhouse gases is exactly what the Liberals promised the carbon tax would eliminate. It did not happen, but this project would have allowed it to. However, projects like this are not able to go ahead because of government gatekeepers standing in the way. When this Prime Minister took office, there were 15 LNG proposals on the table. Not a single one has been completed, seven years later. Imagine the emissions we could have reduced and the paycheques we could have grown if we had gotten out of the way and allowed these projects to proceed. We could export more of our civilian-grade uranium, so that foreign jurisdictions could shut down dirty coal and replace it with clean Canadian energy. We could support Quebec and Manitoba as they attempt to export and get better revenues for their hydroelectricity. There are countless ways we can combat the emissions of our country and the world without taxing and punishing our citizens, and if the Liberals had done that, maybe they would not have missed every single target they have set. The second promise the Liberals made is that the carbon tax would make everyone better off. Everyone would pay this tax, but there would be a cheque in the mail that would compensate them for it. It sounds like one of those scam emails that I get that say, if I just give them my bank card information, they will make a big deposit and I will be rich, and it is always from an uncle on the other side of the world somewhere. It turns out that the cheque bounced. According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, and I am looking at the numbers right here on the table he set out, the net cost to Albertans of this carbon tax when it is fully implemented will be $2,282 per household. In Saskatchewan it will be $1,464 per household, and in Manitoba, it will be $1,145 per household. In Ontario it will be $1,461. That is in net costs, so it is with the rebates the government has promised. That is, by the way, the least of the problem. For the six provinces that do not get any rebate, they will be far worse off. We must remember that the carbon tax may be provincially administered in British Columbia, Quebec and some other regions of the country. However, it is federally imposed, so even if provinces have their own regimes, they will have to triple their carbon tax in order to meet the mandate the federal government has put in place, and they will get no rebate at all. Those provinces will be vastly worse off than the cases I just mentioned. This, at a time when Canadians cannot pay for their groceries, cannot gas their vehicles and are fearing the cost that winter will hit them with in just a few short months. This is exactly the last time we need to raise a tax. Think about it. The Liberals are proposing to bring in a 40¢-a-litre tax on gasoline. How many of the single mothers, of the working farmers, of the welders or of the waitresses can afford to pay another 40¢ a litre in gas taxes. Every party in this House, except the Conservatives, want to hit those working people with those higher taxes. We will stand in the way. We will fight back. We will defend consumers against this tax. The final falsehood is that the Liberals said this carbon tax would never go above $50 a tonne. That was it. They said at $50 a tonne they would be done. That was before the election. After the election they said the tax would have to be tripled. They said it was so ineffective that they needed to make it three times the size in order to do the job, and that is just what we know about. If they are going to triple the tax after just one broken election promise, we can imagine if they were, God forbid, given another mandate. What surprise would we hear the next day after the election? How high would the tax have to go, a dollar a litre in new taxes or tripling home heating bills? What other costs would the Liberals surprise Canadians with if they got the chance? They have broken their promise on this. They have broken their promise on income taxes, which they said would go down. They have broken their promise on countless other taxes, and we can expect that they will only break more promises, because they need to raise taxes in order to feed their insatiable appetite for spending. Canadians will not let them. Conservatives will run on a low-tax agenda in the next election, and we will win and deliver that low-tax agenda. We forget sometimes that it is our small businesses that will be asked to bear a disproportionate burden. They get no rebate at all. Unlike large industrial corporations that get a complete exemption from the carbon tax, small businesses have to pay it on the cost of heating their restaurants, firing up their stoves in order to feed their patrons, transporting their goods and running their factories. All of them have to pay those taxes, because they are not big enough to get the exemption that the large industrial corporations have received. Therefore, we can expect more small businesses to make up the difference by having to raise prices on consumers or lower wages on their workers, all making Canadians worse off at a time when they can least afford it. Small and medium-sized businesses do not get an exemption. The tax will cost them more, three times more if the Liberals stay in power thanks to their coalition partners, the New Democrats. That is why we are going to keep standing up for our small and medium-sized businesses, which are creating jobs and providing goods and services to consumers. The Conservatives will always stand up for small and medium-sized businesses by cancelling this tax increase. Of course, this tax comes on top of other taxes. The Liberals propose to raise taxes on paycheques. Starting January 1, they will raise EI and CPP payroll taxes, even though they have enough funds at the current rates to fund both of those programs, including with the regular increased benefits that can be expected. They want to jeopardize the paycheques of Canadians to raise taxes and run big surpluses in the EI account, which they then will use to fund overall government spending rather than to provide workers with protection against unemployment. Conservatives believe that EI should not be a cash cow for government. It should be a protection for our workers, and we will not support any increase in the EI payroll tax. Our theory, our principle, is that a dollar left in the hands of the person who earned it is always better than in the hands of the politician who taxed it. We want this to be once again a country where hard work pays off, where the person who puts in that extra hour, takes that extra shift or earns that extra bonus keeps that money to give their kids a summer a camp or to give their family an opportunity for a small camping trip or, God forbid, to upsize their house or move from an apartment into a place of their own. This should be a country of opportunity, of boundless possibility, for anyone who is prepared to put in the work. It is appalling to me that a single mom of three earning $55,000 a year who goes out and earns another dollar loses 80¢ in government clawbacks and taxes. That is according to a study by this very finance department of the current government. We are punishing the people who do the work of this nation. Our workers deserve rewards for their work. Our small business owners who take risks and mortgage their homes to survive and to supply our communities with services and our people with jobs deserve to keep the fruits of their labour. That is why Conservatives will always stand on the side of the people who work hard, who pay their taxes and who play by the rules. We will put Canadians back in control of their money, their lives, right here in Canada, the freest nation on earth.

Madam Speaker, the centre of my economic plan is to make government affordable so that life is affordable. The reality is that the cost of government has driven up the cost of living. The half-trillion dollars of inflationary deficits have meant more dollars bidding up the price of the goods we buy and the interest we pay. Inflationary taxes have driven up those costs further. The Canadian dollar is and will always be our only national currency. It will be the only currency with which we ever do government business, pay taxes or receive benefits from the government. The problem here today is that this government has been ruining the purchasing power of that dollar by printing cash through inflationary deficits. It has given us a 40-year-high in inflation, which I predicted and warned this government would happen. I will make sure it never happens again.

Madam Speaker, the Bloc Québécois wants to give the federal government more power and wants to further centralize powers here in Ottawa. That is the truth. Furthermore, the Bloc Québécois is in favour of foreign oil from Saudi Arabia and other countries. It is against clean energy from Canada. The Conservative Party supports clean energy here in Canada. We do not support oil that funds foreign dictators.

Madam Speaker, let us start with nuclear technology, zero emission nuclear technology, which can supply electricity to Canadians from coast to coast. Second, we can expand carbon capture and storage, another thing that the NDP is against. Third, we should be mining lithium, cobalt, nickel and other minerals necessary for electrification, but do it right here in Canada. Of course, the NDP is against that. It is against mining lithium, cobalt and nickel in Canada. The NDP would rather we import it from coal-burning economies on the other side of the planet that fund foreign dictatorships. I want those jobs to be here for our people. The member wants higher taxes on the working-class constituents he is supposed to be representing.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for inviting me to Prince George, British Columbia. I met people across this country who told me incredible stories. Some are getting by, most are falling behind, and there are people in this country who are just hanging on by a thread. Working-class men are taping up their boots because they cannot afford new ones. A miner in northern Ontario could not afford to diesel up his truck to drive to see his dying parents in Thunder Bay one last time. There are countless stories of this kind right across this country. These people need hope. Conservatives will transform their hurt into the nation's hope, and we will give them back control of their lives.

Madam Speaker, I find the question ironic coming from the Green Party, which, along with the Liberals and NDP, has as its stated purpose higher gas prices. The Green Party wants higher gas prices and it simultaneously complains about those prices. That is the obvious contradiction. The irony is that the member is not against oil company profits. He just thinks it should be foreign oil companies that are making those profits. We believe in turning dollars for dictators into paycheques for our people by bringing back production here to Canada and then having the highest possible environmental standards so that the production in this country is green and clean for real.

Madam Speaker, the member talks about electrification facilities in his neighbouring riding. The point I made at the outset is that we need to mine the minerals that go into those vehicles in the first place. That cannot happen if we impose seven- to 10-year delays on the approval of those projects in the first place. The reason countries like Chile, China and others are mining and manufacturing these minerals into a ready state in which they can go into batteries and other electrification is that they have faster approvals. We can protect our environment and go through all the same steps to ensure a pristine future for our kids, but it should not take seven to 10 years to do it. We can do it quickly, and then we can have the cleanest and greenest production on planet earth.

Mr. Speaker, this Prime Minister has added more to our national debt than all previous prime ministers combined. The $500‑billion inflationary deficit has increased the cost of everything we buy and the interest that we pay. The finance minister has admitted that she wants to raise EI taxes by $2.5 billion. This will take earnings off of workers' paycheques. Will the government cancel these tax hikes so that workers can keep more of their money?

Mr. Speaker, it is never the right time to raise taxes on the working poor, yet that is exactly what the minister admits she will do. She admits that raising the EI premiums, the EI payroll taxes, will take $2.5 billion extra out of the hands of Canadian workers, and not to fund EI. She also admits through her own public filings that the government will take $10 billion more in EI taxes than it will pay out in benefits, money the Prime Minister will raid from the account and spend however he likes. Will the Prime Minister get his hands off the EI fund and the paycheques of our workers?

Mr. Speaker, we were terrific economic managers together, and we will be again. I am just getting a little practice on answering questions. We will be doing more of it when we are in government soon. EI payments have gone up for the average $60,000-a-year worker, from $930 when I was the minister to $948 now. That is a small increase, but the big $2.5-billion tax increase is just ahead. The minister admits the money will not even go to EI; it will go to government spending. Why will the Liberals not get their hands off the EI fund and the paycheques of our workers?

Mr. Speaker, it is both. The total payroll tax of a $60,000-a-year earner went from $3,400 under the previous Conservative government to $4,168 today. The reality is that none of that was necessary and the Liberals want to use the money for anything but EI. On top of that, now they plan to triple the carbon tax, raising gas, heat and grocery costs and killing jobs for many people in many sectors. Their policy is paycheques down and costs up, and in fairness they are succeeding at both. Will they stop that policy and cancel their tax hikes?

Mr. Speaker, that is absolutely false. The Conservatives protected the CPP, increased benefits for seniors every single year we were in office and did it without any tax increases at all. We can do that again. Everybody agrees that we should keep contributing. Nobody agrees that we have to hike taxes on workers to do it. To get back to the carbon tax, the Liberals want to triple this tax on groceries, gas and heat at a time when Canadians can barely afford to pay their bills. They want to add 40¢ a litre to gas taxes right now with 40-year-high inflation. Will the government cancel this tax on Canadian energy?

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to express the official opposition's total solidarity with all the families in Atlantic Canada and eastern Quebec whose lives have been disrupted by hurricane Fiona. We offer our condolences to anyone who has lost a loved one and our support to anyone who has lost a home or a business. Would the government please tell us its action plan to help, and how members of this side of the House could join in solidarity with the government to make that help a success for our fellow Canadians in the east?

Mr. Speaker, P.E.I. potato farmers were already suffering because of the self-imposed export ban. Now they may have lost another year's crop. Dairy farmers out east are without electricity, meaning they might lose livestock. Fishers are losing boats, wharves and other critical infrastructure. Traditional bureaucratic government programs are very slow to respond. What will the government do to speed up a response to help those who feed all of us get back on their feet?

Mr. Speaker, Nova Scotia Power reported that the ArriveCAN app blocked American crews that were trying to rush into the province to help with the recovery response and wasted valuable time. Originally, the public safety minister denied that had happened, only to be contradicted by the emergency preparedness minister who said that, in fact, there had been an issue at the border. Will the Prime Minister suspend the ArriveCAN app today, not Saturday, so no more holdups happen at the border for those who are trying to help those in desperate need?

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the official opposition Conservatives and, I think, all Canadians, we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in eastern Canada, the Atlantic provinces and eastern Quebec, and especially in the Magdalen Islands. We are here today to show our support, but also to make plans for getting everything back to normal. It will be a long and difficult road, but we will work as a team, as Canadians always do. To those particularly hard hit in Newfoundland, Labrador, P.E.I., Nova Scotia, eastern Quebec and New Brunswick, we are with them. Conservatives will do everything we can. To the emergency workers, police, paramedics, fire services, power workers, military personnel and all those who have gotten out as volunteers to help clean up the mess, pick up the debris, remove the downed trees, restore powerlines and take the initial steps toward normalcy, I thank them on behalf of all Canadians. I would specifically like to acknowledge the devastation that Fiona has brought to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, the stories and images of fishing boats and infrastructure demolished, homes and apartments being engulfed by waves and swept out to sea. These images are gut-wrenching for every single Canadian. As one local resident put it, “This is hands down the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” Worse still, in Port aux Basques, as many across the country have now heard, one of two lives was lost to the storm so far. It was a 73-year-old woman trying to leave her home as it was swept to sea by the waves. Loss of life leaves families, loved ones and an entire community feeling helpless. P.E.I. potato farmers, who were already suffering under the government's self-imposed export ban and missed an entire season as a result of decisions by the government to shut down their industry, and many are still unable to sell their seeding potatoes, which are still subject to that same ban, now face the prospect of losing an entire year's crop. Dairy farmers are without electricity, risking the threat of losing valuable livestock, and fishers have lost boats, wharves and other critical infrastructure. Too many down east are going through extraordinarily challenging times, and there are no two ways about it. That means we need to stand with the people on the ground. Slow bureaucratic programs with big headlines and no delivery simply will not do. The government will need to act quickly to restore order, to bring back the communities that have been devastated and to get the businesses, farms and fishing communities back on their feet. Speaking of feet, we here in the Conservative caucus will hold the government's feet to the fire to make sure that happens. The devastation of Fiona is not just the hurricane wreaking havoc on our eastern family. Memories of Juan, Dorian and many other storms have brought hardship and devastation. In the presence of destruction and loss, however, Atlantic Canadians have proven their iron resolve to rise again and rebuild their lives, and they will rebuild again. We stand ready to work and help them along the way. We will do what is necessary to build upon their resilience and to provide them with the infrastructure and the funding that is necessary. On this journey, we would be remiss if we did not thank our American allies who have stepped up to fulfill their side of the agreement. We know of power workers from Maine coming across the border. It reminds us of the Halifax explosion back in 1917, which killed thousands of Haligonians. A train departed from Boston loaded with medical supplies, surgeons and other medical professionals. This assistance has always been bilateral, of course. Canadians came to the rescue of Americans fighting to retaliate against the terrorist attacks of 9/11. We, as North American neighbours, have always been dedicated to the continuation of this friendship, so I would like to take a moment to thank the Americans who have come across the border. In particular, Central Maine Power sent 16 line crews to help. We thank them for their work and we promise to reciprocate if, God forbid, ever a need should be so required. I know that my colleague from Cumberland—Colchester, with whom I am splitting my time, will build on that solidarity. Reports are surfacing, however, of government getting in the way again. We heard that American crews working to get up into Canada and help with the rescue were held up because of the infamous ArriveCAN app, which unfortunately is with us, but mercifully only until Saturday. We call on the government to eliminate this app today so that it does not cause any more disruptions. We do note that the public safety minister has denied these reports, but then his cabinet colleague, the emergency preparedness minister, contradicted him and said that there was indeed an incident and a delay at the border, although he described it as “inconsequential”. I would remind him that minutes are consequential in an emergency. There is no time for gatekeepers, glitchy apps or boondoggles when Canadians are in desperate need. I would like to thank my Atlantic caucus, who have kept me apprised. We met on Saturday to discuss our response. They have been in contact with their local representatives, with their populations, with their fishing villages to find the needs and bring them to our attention. I would like to thank the premiers, the local officials and residents first-hand, many of whom I have had a chance to speak with over the last several days. I would like to thank the member for South Shore—St. Margarets, who reached out to local organizations, including the Maritime Fishermen's Union, the Prince Edward Island Fishermen's Association, and Fish, Food & Allied Workers in Newfoundland. On behalf of the official opposition, we will continue to pray for everyone's safety. As the east coast rebuilds following the damage and devastation of hurricane Fiona, we as Canadians must continue to work together. In the words of the legendary Stompin' Tom Connors, soon the birds will once again be singing on every tree, and all nature will seem inclined to rest.