Scot Davidson

Mr. Speaker, politicians can talk a glass eye to sleep, but I have a simple question. We like to hear yes-or-no answers. Most of the time, and there are three clocks in here, the Liberals would not even tell us what time it is. However, I have a simple question for the member: Does she believe there is an affordability crisis in Canada, yes or no?

Mr. Speaker, I have just a simple question for my colleague. It frustrates Canadians when they cannot get a simple answer, so I am going to give my colleague an opportunity. The member for Toronto—St. Paul's struggled with answering the question, so I have a simple one: Is there an affordability crisis in Canada, yes or no?

Madam Speaker, “fill her up”. When is the last time we heard that? After all, with diesel prices at record highs, everyday Canadians who drive a truck for work or for personal use are running on fumes and whispering a prayer when they finally pull up to the pump. As a consequence of Liberal economic failures over the past 11 years, Canadians are paying 41¢ more per litre on diesel than the world average price and 32¢ more per litre than Americans. This is driving up the cost for farmers, businesses and families in my communities in York—South Simcoe and right across our great country, especially in rural and remote areas, which make up such a pivotal part of our Canadian way of life. This does not just affect Canadians who drive a truck. Diesel powers farm equipment that grows our food, machinery that powers our industries and tractor-trailers that deliver goods across the country and beyond. This is why Canada's Conservatives, as the official opposition, have brought forward this motion calling on the government to adopt our emergency fuel relief plan to provide immediate relief to Canadians struggling to afford fuel and faster energy infrastructure approvals for the future. It has been almost two years to the day since we were in the same place debating a different motion on fuel affordability. At that time, the former Liberal minister for natural resources stood outside these very doors here and said, “They have no view on how to build an economy of the future. Oil and gas will peak this decade. In fact, oil is probably peaking this year, and the economic plan of the Conservative Party of Canada is simply to produce more oil and gas into a market that inevitably, if we are going to fight climate change, will begin to decline.” The minister went on to say, “That is a ridiculous economic plan for the future of this country. It will leave Canada uncompetitive and poorer on a go-forward basis.... I encourage...the folks who sit on the Conservative benches to at least try to tell the truth.” The truth hurts. The Liberal government spent 11 years calling Conservatives and Canadians who supported pipeline projects climate deniers. The Liberal members, and I can see the Liberal member for Whitby across there, used the term 67 times in the last Parliament. They spent 11 years telling anyone who wanted to build an energy project that they were on the wrong side of history. It was not about economic viability or the merits of each project. It was all ideological. While the Liberals were dishing out insults and lecturing Canadians about a net-zero future, they also brought in devastating antidevelopment laws for our country. Conservatives warned that these laws would stop projects from being built, but the Liberals pushed them through anyway. As a result, critical energy investments sorely needed in the country died: 16 major projects worth over $176 billion. Canadians are paying for those failures at the pumps today. Two years ago, the Liberals said that oil was peaking, that the market was headed for decline and that Conservatives who wanted to produce more were ridiculous. Well, let us look at the market today. The G7 is releasing 100 million barrels from emergency stocks. Diesel is at an all-time record high. The market is not in a decline. This is a market the world actually needed Canada to supply, and the government spent a decade telling us not to build. Now the Liberals will tell Canadians that the price of diesel is out of their hands and that it is all due to global factors. There is no doubt that the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine have contributed, but why is it that a trucker in America faces those same factors and headlines, yet pays 32¢ a litre less than a trucker in Canada? A big part of that is the projects the Liberals blocked and the taxes they impose on Canadian fuel. They were wrong about the market then, and they are wrong to absolve themselves of responsibility now. They need to reflect on their failures and their ideological vendetta against Canadian energy production, which have led to this situation today. This is felt across Canada, including in the communities I represent. Just yesterday, I spoke to Garret, a local farmer. He told me that fuel surcharges are showing up everywhere now: on his custom work bills, on harvesting and on every single incoming shipment that he has. Every time costs go up, it comes out of the farmer's pocket, money that would otherwise go to equipment payments and barn repairs. He warned me that this is not just a problem for this season. Next year, it will show up in cropping, in the grain market and in what it costs to move milk and cattle. We know that when farmers' costs rise, the price of food rises with them. Garret paid $1.10 this same time last year, and just yesterday, he paid $2.28. That is why Conservatives are proposing the emergency relief fuel plan today, not just for our farmers, but for all Canadians. Canadians need relief now when filling up, and they need the infrastructure that brings costs down for good. We need to eliminate all taxes on diesel sales until at least Canada Day by extending the full excise tax cut until July 1, 2027, and removing the GST from fuel. We would permanently scrap the federal industrial carbon tax and the clean fuel standard, which increases the cost of producing diesel today and discourages the creation of new refineries for tomorrow, and we would close the price gap with the United States within five years by raising Canadian diesel and refined fuel production to one million barrels a day and supplying every region with Canadian refined diesel. Canadian workers should be turning Canadian oil into Canadian fuel. Under our plan, shovel-ready zones would prepermit areas for refineries, storage and transportation, so firms could build without even applying, as long as they follow all safety and environmental rules. That is cutting red tape and getting things done. They would also get a 100% one-year deduction, which would back new refineries, expansion, storage and pipelines. The Liberals were elected promising that they would move at speeds Canadians have never seen before. The problem is that Canadians are going broke at speeds Canadians have never seen before. No one has a monopoly on a good idea. We know the Liberals failed on energy production for over a decade, but today, they have an opportunity to do the right thing and support the Conservative emergency fuel relief plan today. I urge every member in the House to do the same.