QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Environment and Climate Change
Carbon Tax
April 2, 2019
Minister McKenna, Prime Minister Trudeau recently flew back and forth twice in one week commuting from his family vacation in sunny Florida to Ottawa to try and contain his government’s huge SNC scandal. You might want to have a word with your leader because those corruption-induced cabinet shuffles sure do create one heck of a carbon footprint.
Minister, your government’s carbon tax won’t just squeeze middle-class Canadians at the gas pump; it will increase the price of everything, even flights for family vacations. A family of four flying from my hometown of Regina to visit Parliament Hill in Ottawa in 2022 will pay an additional $190. By 2030, they’ll pay an extra $460 for those flights. That will ruin many family vacations.
Your government lauds its so-called rebate to Canadians under this carbon tax scheme but while you give pennies with one hand, you grab fistfuls of dollars with the other. By the time Canadians pay more for gas, groceries and for those flights because of your carbon tax, the rebates will be long gone.
Why won’t you be honest how much your carbon tax sleight of hand will really cost Canadians?
Thank you, senator. I’m very happy to answer your question. We’ve tabled the documents in Parliament.
Let me give you an example: A family of four in Ontario will receive $300. They will pay $244. We believe in transparency. We have developed a system that makes sense, putting a price on pollution is the most effective way to reduce emissions. I’m proud that we have companies across the board that support this.
We have our Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, we have major energy companies that understand the importance of putting a price on pollution, consumer good companies, all five major banks, telecoms companies. The Nobel Prize winner in economics last year proved that putting a price on pollution works, and we have done it in the most affordable way.
Preston Manning supports putting a price on pollution. Brian Mulroney supports putting a price on pollution. Former Premier Charest introduced the cap-and-trade system along with California. Actually, if you go to my Twitter feed, you will see a video where Stephen Harper supports putting a price on pollution.
We understand that we need to be taking action to make life affordable and to create good jobs. That is exactly why putting a price on pollution is a key part of our climate plan. We’re doing a number of other measures which are also important, but you cannot have a credible climate plan without having a price on pollution.
It’s extremely unfortunate that it’s been 337 days since the leader of the federal Conservative Party said they would have a climate plan. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen one. If you don’t have a plan for climate change in the 21st century, you don’t have a plan for the economy.
