QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Carbon Tax
June 22, 2023
Senator Gold, as we break for the summer holiday, Canadians continue to suffer from the results of the inflationary Trudeau economy. The hardest-hit Canadians are going to be whacked a second time by the Trudeau government with a second carbon tax on July 1 — on Canada Day, of all days. As we all know, senators, middle-class and poor Canadians spend a higher percentage of their earnings on fuel, food and the things they need to sustain their families. We have also seen reports come out from the Parliamentary Budget Officer highlighting how this action — the second carbon tax — is going to cost Canadian families thousands of dollars more over the next decade from coast to coast to coast.
While your government continues to say, in their talking points, that inflation is out of their control, and there is nothing they can do about it — you said it a moment ago in regard to a question from Senator Martin — I have a simple question: In order to bring some relief to poor and middle-class Canadians, can you press pause on this cruel second carbon tax?
Thank you. Without parsing how you characterized my answer — because I think it was somewhat incorrect — as I have said many times before, the price on pollution is an important tool in this government’s efforts to slow down climate change, as well as to help mitigate the ravages that we are increasingly experiencing, not only in every corner of our country, but also in this world.
Your question makes me also reflect on the recent ceremony, to which I referred, of the raising of the Survivors’ Flag. What is the link? Person after person, and Indigenous leader and survivor after Indigenous leader and survivor — the answer is clearly “no,” Senator Housakos.
I will take the liberty of reminding us of this: It is not simply government policy that is attempting to mitigate the crisis. This is a responsibility that we have. We are borrowing this land from our grandchildren, as was said. We have a responsibility, and the government is doing its part. Yes, taxes and rising costs are a challenge for Canadians. The government has stepped up and is helping Canadians, and it is doing so in a responsible and fiscally prudent way. The art of governing is the art of making important choices, and dealing with more than one subject at a time — this government is on track to do precisely that.
Let me get this straight: After your first carbon tax, where you pummelled middle-class Canadians into the ground, forcing them to become poor, while you have had no impact on your environmental targets — you’ve hit none of them; it’s zero — you are telling me that a second carbon tax to continue your insanity in your failed policy of saving the environment — by killing poor and middle-class Canadians — is somehow a magic bullet. Congratulations — you have failed on your environmental targets; you have succeeded in setting record-high inflation; and you have succeeded in growing the number of poor Canadians in this country, as well as the dwindling middle class. The question is simple: Will your government, at least, try some of these common-sense policies that we are putting forward as an opposition, and put a pause on this second carbon tax in order to give badly needed relief to middle-class and poor Canadians who are suffering while we go on vacation?
I have resisted, and I will continue to resist, being sucked into these kinds of simplistic and partisan talking points. The short answer is that this is not a serious response to a global environmental and economic crisis. The country would be served better — at least in this chamber, if not in the other place — with serious policy alternatives instead of simply repeating talking points for the benefit of your Twitter feed.
