QUESTION PERIOD — Environment and Climate Change
Carbon Tax
December 3, 2024
Senator Gold, it is becoming unbelievable how insensitive the Trudeau government is to working-class Canadians from coast to coast.
The common-sense Conservatives led by Pierre Poilievre have given you a way out of the quagmire in which you have put the nation. Number one, why don’t you get rid of the GST on new-built homes that are under $1 million and help free young Canadians who have been relegated to living in the basements of their homes?
Second, why don’t you get rid of the carbon tax once and for all to give working-class Canadians some reprieve? Instead of that, you are not only doubling down; as of April 1, 2025, you are quadrupling down. You are going to pummel working-class Canadians even further. Why is it that your government is so ideologically stubborn that you do not want to listen to the good advice from Pierre Poilievre, who is a far more experienced parliamentarian and who comes from a government in the past that was fiscally responsible compared to this mess of an incompetent prime minister we have? If you don’t believe in the ideas we’re putting forward, call an election before April 1 and let Canadians decide.
Hear, hear.
I am not going to comment on the characterization of either the Prime Minister or your leader. I will instead focus on policy.
If it is the position, Senator Housakos, of you and your party that it is ideology that underpins a government’s commitment to using all tools, including market-sensitive tools, however unpopular they may be in many quarters, to fight an existential crisis that we and our children and grandchildren are facing, then you can define that word as you wish.
This government continues to believe that it has a sensible plan to balance the needs of —
Excuse me, Your Honour. I cannot hear myself think. May I have a few more seconds?
This government has a serious plan, and Canadians are benefiting from it and will continue to benefit from it, as will future generations.
Senator Gold, that’s what’s so incredible about this: The only thing your plan of taxing Canadians to death and quadrupling the carbon tax has done is create historic line‑ups at food banks across this country. You saw the report in Ontario: Hundreds of thousands more people are visiting food banks because of your government, your carbon tax and your unwillingness to give Canadians a break.
There wasn’t a question there, though there was a lot of gesticulation and, for the hundredth time, an incorrect, inaccurate and, dare I say — with respect — incompetent reading of the impact of the carbon tax on actual costs in this country. I understand the political points you want to make. That’s your highest principle. However, that’s not good policy.
