Discussion · Government Orders
Elizabeth May Green
“I do not support pausing the gas tax. Stephen Harper was right to keep it permanent to pay for public transit. Government taxes are not the main reason gas is expensive. The Green Party wants a clear date to stop using fossil fuels, and we should only use Canadian fuels until then.”
“Mr. Speaker, I do think it is important to remember that, while it is rare that on any climate issue one would invoke Stephen Harper’s legacy, the current government’s climate policies are so bad that they do bring to mind things that Stephen Harper did better, such as deciding that the gas tax should be permanent and should be used to fund urban transit. I think there is a bit of bait and switch when they say they are going to relieve this tax. I think what the Liberals are doing is fuelling, no pun intended, the wrong message, as if the narrative is correct that somehow it is the extra taxes from government that are making gas more expensive. It is a factor, but a much larger factor is that we have structured our economy and our use of fossil fuels around shipping out low-value exports and not creating the jobs here. Part of the Green Party policy, just to make it clear for my friends across the way, is to pick a date on which we will transition off fossil fuels and only use Canadian fossil fuels till that date.”
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Mr. Speaker, I do think it is important to remember that, while it is rare that on any climate issue one would invoke Stephen Harper’s legacy, the current government’s climate policies are so bad that they do bring to mind things that Stephen Harper did better, such as deciding that the gas tax should be permanent and should be used to fund urban transit. I think there is a bit of bait and switch when they say they are going to relieve this tax. I think what the Liberals are doing is fuelling, no pun intended, the wrong message, as if the narrative is correct that somehow it is the extra taxes from government that are making gas more expensive. It is a factor, but a much larger factor is that we have structured our economy and our use of fossil fuels around shipping out low-value exports and not creating the jobs here. Part of the Green Party policy, just to make it clear for my friends across the way, is to pick a date on which we will transition off fossil fuels and only use Canadian fossil fuels till that date.