This view breaks the statement into its steps and names what each one does.
Mr. Speaker, Thanks · 31 wordsI thank my colleague, the member for Long Range Mountains, for sharing her time with me. I truly appreciated the words she had to share with the House. They were fantastic.Thanks Procedure · 15 wordsIt is always an honour to rise on behalf of the people of Bow River.Procedure Anecdote · 53 wordsDuring the debate on Bill C-38, I invited the Prime Minister to Bow River.1 I asked him to stand in a field in southern Alberta at 10 o’clock at night, beside a farmer and his son facing the rain. That invitation still stands, even though the harvest is wrapping up in southern Alberta.Anecdote Claims · 15 wordsIt is probably the most expensive harvest these farmers have faced in their entire lifetime. Anecdote · 109 wordsAt this time of year, the work on our farms does not end when the sun goes down. The crop still has to come off, trucks still have to run and the livestock still has to be fed. The harvest is when a family finds out what a year of work will bring. The seed has been paid for, the fertilizer has gone on the ground and the machinery payments keep coming, and now the family has to bring the crop home. They cannot leave the crop standing until diesel gets cheaper. They cannot ask the weather to wait while Ottawa makes up its mind. It is the harvest.Anecdote Claims · 52 wordsA modern combine burns 60 to 80 litres of diesel an hour.2 Harvest days run 12 hours or more. That is 800 litres a day for one machine on one farm in one day. Diesel in this country now averages about $2.60 a litre, 3and it has hit record highs for weeks. Reasoning · 27 wordsIt should not cost this much to fuel the country with the fourth-largest oil reserves on earth.4 Canada should have the most affordable diesel in the world. Positioning · 13 wordsThe government will point overseas, at the geopolitical and the Strait of Hormuz.Positioning Aside · 2 wordsOh my.Aside Claims · 75 wordsWars and global turmoil affect fuel prices everywhere, but they do not explain the extra costs Canadians have to bear. Canadian diesel is now 24¢ a litre more than the American average and 31¢ a litre more than the global average.5 A wheat farmer in Montana, just a short drive south of Taber, Alberta, sells into the same world market as my neighbours, but an Alberta farmer is paying 24¢ a litre more for diesel. Reasoning · 18 wordsBefore any seed is in the ground, our farmers are already starting the season at a competitive disadvantage. Claims · 35 wordsCanadian farmers are paying more for fuel than their competitors in the United States and other markets for three main reasons. These are high taxes, a weak Canadian dollar and an overreliance on American refineries. Procedure · 14 wordsThat is why I support this motion and our emergency fuel relief action plan.Procedure Claims · 14 wordsAt the end of September, the national diesel price was around $2.60 a litre. Reasoning · 15 wordsFor a farmer, this is a bill that grows with every hour the combine runs. Claims · 91 wordsThe Grain Growers of Canada has put that cost into terms this House should understand. One large combine burning 70 litres an hour and working eight hours a day for 30 days, with bulk diesel rising from $1.10 to $2 a litre, has added to the harvest a bill of more than $15,000.6 This is the increase for one machine. It is not the increase for the tractor pulling the grain cart, it is not for the trucks hauling to the elevator and it is not for the truck delivering fuel. Reasoning · 29 wordsThat money could pay down the operating loan. It could replace worn tires. It could help carry the farm through the winter. Instead, it goes into the fuel tank. Claims · 15 wordsFrom the fuel tank, it goes into government coffers. A farmer can work longer hours, Positioning · 9 wordsbut a farmer cannot bargain with an empty tank.Positioning Claims · 23 wordsThis motion is not just for our farmers. It is for every Canadian family that sits down at the dinner table each night. Procedure · 6 wordsThink about a loaf of bread.Procedure Claims · 72 wordsBefore it reaches the shelf, someone has to grow the wheat, someone has to harvest it, someone has to haul it to be milled, the flour must reach the bakery and the bread must reach the store. Each of those trips requires fuel. The same is true of potatoes, corn, vegetables, meat and the feed that keeps livestock growing. Every step carries tax. The last stop is the family at the till. Reasoning · 23 wordsBy the time that food reaches the checkout, the family buying it is paying the compounded cost of every tax along the way. Claims · 65 wordsThe government cannot claim to care about food affordability and grocery prices by sending Canadians a few hundred dollars each year and ignoring what is driving those prices higher. It is the fuel for the farmers, truckers and businesses that produce and deliver our food. Parents feel it every week. They put groceries back at the till. They buy less meat. They skip fresh fruit. Procedure · 8 wordsThe Conservatives are not asking for anything complicated.Procedure Claims · 16 wordsOur emergency fuel relief plan has two parts. The first part would save Canadians money today. Promise · 31 wordsWe would take every federal tax off diesel sales until at least Canada Day. That means extending the full excise tax cut until July 1, 2027, and taking off the GST. Claims · 43 wordsThe government announced plans to keep the excise tax off only until January 31, 2027, 7and half the tax would return in February. The full tax would return on April 1, April Fool’s Day, just as farmers are preparing for another growing season. Positioning · 41 wordsWhy bring the tax back just as the seeding bills start to arrive? It only goes to show that the government does not keep farmers in mind when it drafts policy and, by extension, it does not keep Canadians in mind.Positioning Claims · 39 wordsFarmers plan their year in the winter. They sit down with their families and then with their bank and work through the numbers before a single seed goes into the ground. They need to know what fuel will cost, Reasoning · 11 wordsbecause uncertainty at the pump becomes uncertainty on the entire farm. Promise · 24 wordsWe would also take the tax out of making diesel, permanently scrap the federal industrial carbon tax and permanently scrap the clean fuel regulations. Claims · 39 wordsAccording to Environment and Climate Change Canada’s projections, and as reported by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the clean fuel regulations are projected to add up to 16¢ per litre to diesel and 17¢ per litre to gasoline by 2030.8 Positioning · 4 wordsThat is not small.Positioning Claims · 62 wordsNatural Resources Canada’s agriculture sector energy use analysis indicates that 2023 fuel use on Canadian farms was roughly 3.8 billion litres of diesel and 1.5 billion litres of gasoline.9 That consumption would mean $613 million in additional diesel costs and another $254 million in gasoline costs for the agriculture sector alone.10 Altogether, that is nearly $870 million added in annual fuel costs. Reasoning · 20 wordsThese are costs that farmers cannot simply absorb and that ultimately work their way through the entire food supply chain. Claims · 28 wordsThat alone more than wipes out the $600-million benefit seen by increased canola sales.11 The second part of our motion today is about fuelling our country at home. Reasoning · 10 wordsCanadian workers should be turning Canadian oil into Canadian fuel. Claims · 16 wordsInstead, we rely too much on American refineries. We pay for that diesel in American dollars, Reasoning · 13 wordsand with a low Canadian dollar, every one of those litres costs more. Promise · 15 wordsWe need to create shovel-ready zones and prepermit land for refineries, pipelines, rail and storage. Reasoning · 17 wordsA company that follows every safety and environmental rule should know it can build before even applying. Promise · 34 wordsWe should let companies deduct 100% of their investment in the first year in new refineries, refinery expansions, pipelines, rail, diesel and crude storage and the equipment to run the oil through those plants. The ask · 14 wordsThe Conservatives call on the government to build a strategic reserve for refined fuel. Claims · 7 wordsToday, Canada keeps no national emergency reserve.12 Reasoning · 9 wordsThat is a problem, especially in a global crisis. Procedure · 4 wordsThe goal is clear.Procedure The ask · 35 wordsBoost Canadian diesel production to one million barrels a day, give every Canadian business and every Canadian family access to affordable Canadian diesel and close the price gap with the United States within five years. Procedure · 7 wordsThis comes back to two kitchen tables.Procedure Anecdote · 68 wordsAt one table, a farm family is working through the bills. The farmers have had a long day in the field and the numbers are bigger than they have ever been before. At the other table, a family is working through a grocery receipt. That family is deciding what needs to be left off next week’s list because the bills are higher than they have ever been before.Anecdote Claims · 8 wordsThe families might live hundreds of kilometres apart, Reasoning · 9 wordsbut the relationship between the two cannot be ignored. Claims · 8 wordsThe cost of fuel hits both of them. Reasoning · 17 wordsWe should not ask either family to accept another speech about affordability without action to follow it. Positioning · 15 wordsThe Liberal government’s actions have fallen short. They have made matters worse for Canadian families.Positioning Procedure · 5 wordsToday, members have a choice.Procedure The ask · 38 wordsThey can call on the government to extend tax relief. They can support making fuel easier to produce, store and move. They can stand with the people who grow our food and the people trying to afford it. Reasoning · 16 wordsThe crop will not wait and the bills will not wait, and neither should this House. The ask · 8 wordsI urge all members to support this motion.
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