QUESTION PERIOD — Environment and Climate Change
Carbon Tax
June 17, 2024
Leader, during Question Period last Thursday, I asked you about the leak to the CBC concerning the economic cost of the carbon tax. This is information the Trudeau government has desperately been trying to hide from Canadians. The CBC reported that the carbon tax is costing our economy $20 billion.
I should have known better than to trust the CBC, the government’s sponsor in the media. The true number, adjusted for inflation, is $30.5 billion per year. Even the CBC didn’t want to report that. That works out to about $1,800 for every single family in our country, leader.
How could the Prime Minister and his radical Minister of Environment and Climate Change be so reckless with our economy? Why have they been hiding it?
Thank you for your question. They are neither reckless with the economy nor hiding. The fact remains that a full, proper analysis of the report of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, or PBO, and the government’s full analysis of the cost and benefits of its carbon pricing regime demonstrate clearly that, on balance, the tax on pollution — the carbon pricing regime — addresses in an economically effective and responsible way the actual costs to our country — indeed, our planet — of climate change.
The government has released data that not only confirms that pollution pricing will help us reach our climate goals and account for one third of our overall reductions in emissions by 2030, but also shows that acting significantly outweighs the cost. Climate change is set to cost the Canadian economy $35 billion by 2030, leaving further generations the costs to bear.
Whose calculator have you been using: the incompetent Prime Minister’s or the radical environment minister’s?
Minister Guilbeault knew all along that the carbon tax was economic vandalism. That’s why he put a gag order on the Parliamentary Budget Officer, forbidding him from exposing the real numbers, leader. Why is this radical and secretive environment minister still in cabinet? If he won’t step down, leader, why doesn’t the Prime Minister fire him?
No amount of slurs that you can manage to squeeze into your question is going to change the fact that, first of all, the Minister of Environment has the confidence of this government. Second, as I’ve just said — and will continue to say — the overall cost of doing nothing about climate is enormous, with existential consequences for our economy and for our future. This government is acting on climate change and will continue to do so.
Senator Gold, you and your government knew all along how devastating this tax has been on individual Canadians and our economy. You knew the Trudeau government lied about it and covered it up, and you refused Conservative efforts to give Canadians even a speck of relief so families can enjoy a bit of a vacation this summer. Minister Holland even demonized hard-working Canadians for wanting to take a road trip this summer, when they can’t afford anything else after nine years of this Trudeau government.
You lied about Canadians getting more back in rebates than they were putting out. The PBO made it clear that you lied about the negative impact on our economy. And you tried to destroy the credibility and integrity of the public servant willing to tell the truth. Because that’s what your government has continuously done to people who stand up to do the right thing — they seek to destroy them.
Will you finally do the right thing and axe the tax and give Canadians a break?
All roads seem to lead to your same, rather tired exhortation, Senator Housakos. I am not going to repeat or use the same language that you used to not only smear but misrepresent — fundamentally misrepresent — the integrity of public officials and government alike. I’m not going to use that same language, but you are knowingly misleading this chamber for strictly electoral, partisan purposes. If that is what you believe the role of the Senate should be — and clearly, by your behaviour, that’s what it is; by one’s actions, one knows oneself — then we can respectfully disagree.
I’m hoping that the Canadians who are watching this and the members of this chamber think that we have more important things to do than simply parrot electoral talking points for electoral, partisan purposes.
Senator Gold, what Canadians are tired of is this government standing in the way of a Parliamentary Budget Officer who is telling the truth — that’s what they’re tired of — or a motion in the House last week that required the Trudeau government to turn over all data showing you knew all along how devastating this tax has been to the Canadian economy, data that Minister Guilbeault tried to cover up before attacking the PBO when he tried to expose the truth. By the way, the PBO is hired by this government.
Senator Gold, why hasn’t Mr. Guilbeault been fired, or is that only reserved by this government for people who tell the truth? Why doesn’t your government respect the findings —
Thank you, Senator Housakos, but I would ask that you respect order and decorum when I rise.
The Government of Canada stands by its analysis that the actions it’s taking to combat climate change through — among other things — a price on pollution are responsible and prudent measures.
Again, misrepresenting the position of the government does not do Canadians any service whatsoever.
