2023 Fall Economic Statement
Inquiry--Debate Adjourned
November 28, 2023
Rose pursuant to notice of Senator LaBoucane-Benson on November 22, 2023:
That she will call the attention of the Senate to the 2023 Fall Economic Statement, tabled in the House of Commons on November 21, 2023, by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, P.C., M.P., and in the Senate on November 22, 2023.
She said: Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to last week’s Fall Economic Statement. The statement provided relief to many Canadians on some key economic concerns regarding a crackdown on excessive cellphone fees and banking fees, which are issues that I have been pointing out for many years.
Another issue that I have been attacking at our Banking Committee in regard to housing affordability is the rigid rules imposed by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, or OSFI, on our financial institutions for mortgages. The federal government is now calling on our financial institutions to allow a longer mortgage period to relieve the pressure of high interest rates for homeowners as we move to decrease inflation, notwithstanding that most of the inflation has been caused by petroleum companies doubling their profits in the last years.
The Fall Economic Statement also touches on a recent announcement of a pause for home heating oil, which allows me today to make clarifications.
Colleagues, for many years, I have sat here listening to budget bills that provided billions of dollars to urban communities for their transit systems. Since 2015, the federal government has announced $13 billion to upgrade urban transit systems. In the last budget, they announced an additional $14.9 billion, which constitutes a total of $27.9 billion for urban transit only.
During these announcements, these budget bills, I sat wondering: “How was that fair? How was that fair for rural communities in Canada?” The reality is that it was not, since most rural communities do not have transit systems.
Reflecting on the why of these billions for urban transit announcements, I said nothing. Why I said nothing is because these projects to remove carbon emissions in urban centres at the end of the day is better for all Canadians.
When the federal government announced a week ago the home heating oil pause for rural communities, I felt a little better about my tolerance for the billions of dollars for urban transit. However, to my great surprise, in this chamber and outside of this chamber, many senators from both rural and urban areas described that policy as unfair. Criticism towards Atlantic Canadians was unwarranted when one looks at the entire picture, the facts and not the rhetoric. My heart was pounding every time someone stood up against this first-ever measure for rural Canadians to deal with reducing their carbon emissions.
Well, today, honourable colleagues, I am silent no more. Today, I stand to defend our rural Canadians. Today, I stand to defend our Atlantic region from selective opinions that took no consideration at all of all carbon emission investment the federal government has provided to urban transit to reduce urban emissions.
I’ve never heard in this chamber any criticism of investment for urban transit. Criticism towards rural Canadians — not only from Atlantic Canada — who finally got a break to reduce their emissions from the federal government was unfair. Our lower-income rural Canadians also want to be full participants in Canada’s and the world’s emission-reduction initiatives.
Here are the facts about the three-year pause, facts that you can verify in the paper issued by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, or PBO, on November 17.
That announcement has three elements. First, it pauses the fuel carbon pricing on home heating oil for every Canadian. Second, it doubles for three years the carbon-pricing rebates in rural Canada. And third, it adds $5,000 to the Oil to Heat Pump Affordability program, providing, in partnership with provinces that want to participate, that for low-income homeowners the average heat pump would be free and helping homeowners reduce their emissions and their energy bills by up to $2,500 a year. Hopefully, this third element is clear to you.
Now, let’s go to the impact of pausing the carbon pricing on heating oil for all Canadians, which represents 1.1 million homes. Out of those 1.1 million homes, 267,000 are in Ontario, 287,000 are in Atlantic Canada, and the rest, that is 546,000 homes, are spread in all rural areas of Western and Northern Canada. Are you still telling me this is an Atlantic program?
The three-year pause from the few months in 2023 to the fiscal year of 2026-27 is estimated to be $1.075 billion. In addition, the facts are that the pause on fuel carbon pricing on heating oil for rural areas corresponds to 26% for Atlantic Canada, 24% for rural Ontario and 50% for all other rural areas west of Ontario.
Now that you have the facts on this first component of the announcement, let’s move to the facts regarding the second component, which is the doubling of the rebate for rural Canadians by province for the fiscal years 2024-25 to 2030-31 — seven years.
Newfoundland represents an amount of $161 million; Nova Scotia, $189 million; New Brunswick, $117 million; Ontario, $1.005 billion; Manitoba, $243 million; Saskatchewan, $449 million; and Alberta, $881 million top-up. That makes a total of $2.97 billion.
I would like to raise a certain concern here. I would like the attention of Senators Downe, Francis and MacAdam because, as per the Parliamentary Budget Officer, or PBO, there is no top-up for P.E.I. because, again, there is an issue with Statistics Canada that says the entire island of P.E.I. is a cosmopolitan area; it’s not considered rural. Colleagues, we have to work, look and clarify this situation one more time for P.E.I.
The doubling rebates for rural Canada are distributed as follows: 15.5% for rural Atlantic Canada, 33.8% for rural Ontario and 52.9% for Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, which takes the greater share of that percentage. Again, colleagues, Atlantic Canada is only 15.5% of that portion.
Honourable senators, now that you have all the facts about this announcement for rural Canadians, do you not see that some — including the media — have criticized Atlantic Canada in a very biased way that is unacceptable to me? You should understand why I am standing here to present the facts, not the politicized myths.
The total amount for part one and part two of the announcement represents an investment of $4.04 billion over seven years for rural areas. Compare that to the urban transit announcement that I mentioned earlier that amounts to $27.9 billion. Notwithstanding the fact that urban transit users write off transit expenses on their income tax while rural residents need a car, fuel, insurance and car repairs to go to work without being able to expense any of that on their income tax. Now you understand why I cannot stay silent to some calling it unfair. At least look at the facts.
The Senate requires a higher degree of analysis from each of us, individually and collectively. I have always stood in this chamber for fairness for all Canadians, but when faced with statements that have not been researched being made against Atlantic Canadians and rural Canadians, I will stand up. I will stand up even alone, if need be, but I will stand and state the facts to correct the rhetoric. Thank you.
Thank you, Senator Ringuette, for your comments. They are always interesting.
I was caught off guard when the federal government designated Prince Edward Island as “cosmopolitan,” I think was your word, not rural. I was wondering if you could elaborate on that. What does that actually mean regarding this initiative announced last week by Prince Edward Island?
As you know, in our province, we have no natural gas. Oil and propane are imported, and additional transportation costs are extremely high. I know many people who had oil bills of $800 to $1,000 every four weeks. The provincial government has a program that if your household income is below $75,000, you get free heat pumps. The federal government has now announced an additional program, but P.E.I. is well on the way with heat pumps, solar panels and other offsets.
I’m wondering if you could elaborate upon that comment about P.E.I. Thanks.
From the document of the PBO that I have studied, the PBO didn’t put any allowance in the doubling for rural areas of P.E.I. because, technically, according to Statistics Canada, the entire island of P.E.I. is a metropolitan area. That’s why I wanted to alert our P.E.I. colleagues that we need to investigate this. If it needs to be corrected, we need to correct this because this would be greatly unfair.
I live in a community of 15,000, and it’s not considered metropolitan. It’s considered a rural community.
Your time has expired, senator. Are you asking for more time?
Five more minutes, please, senators.
Is it agreed?
Thank you, Senator Ringuette, for your commentary. I think it’s timely so that Canadians understand that homes are heated with oil across the country. I appreciate that outlay. I also appreciate your commentary around facts-based analysis.
The challenge I have is similar to Senator Downe’s in that I have to question all aspects of the information now because if the province of Prince Edward Island is considered a metropolitan area — a single entity — I have to question the folks who made that statement. I’ve been to P.E.I. many times. I’ve biked across the island on the bike paths. The vast majority of that time, you’re pedalling through farmland and the seaside. Summerside itself is barely a metropolitan area.
That calls into question the legitimacy of the commentary made by the PBO or whomever, but it also makes it suspect in terms of the reliability of the rest of the analysis that was done.
The analysis from the PBO is very much accurate. The fact that he didn’t include P.E.I. in his data is, again, statistical.
This is the second time in six months that I have raised the issue that Statistics Canada is not being accurate for the residents of P.E.I. We need to get together, and I’m willing to work with Island senators in order to clarify all of these unfortunate situations for Islanders. It’s not correct. As far as I’m concerned, the entire island of P.E.I. is a gathering of rural communities.
Senator Ringuette, you spoke about a sum of $15,000. There was a $10,000 incentive from the federal government that was increased by $5,000. For the time being, New Brunswick is the only province that has a free heat pump program.
In your speech, you also mentioned that other provinces will likely get in on the project. That would be a good thing, especially in Ontario, where there are about 200,000 families who are still using heating oil. Several provinces were offering incentives for electric vehicles, but those amounts have been discontinued, namely in Ontario where there was a $7,000 incentive. Do you have any information about the Atlantic provinces, for example Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia? Do they also have a program like New Brunswick’s so that they can take advantage of that three-year window to make this change?
No, I do not have that information. In fact, I have given you the most up-to-date information. At the moment, New Brunswick is the only province that has signed an agreement with the federal government to help homeowners install heat pumps.
We have to recognize that, across the country, we are talking about 1.1 million homes in rural areas that can take advantage of these heat pumps within the three-year window. A lot of effort has been put into this. I am pleasantly surprised that New Brunswick has already signed an agreement, and I hope that all the other provinces will do the same. It is easy to criticize, to say that the cost of living is challenging and to blame the federal government, but it is time for the provinces to get on board, too, if they truly recognize the challenges people are facing. Thank you.
