“High diesel prices make food, shipping, and everyday goods cost more for Canadian families. I want the House to vote for our plan to lower fuel costs. Our plan cuts all taxes on diesel until July 2027, removes red tape, and helps Canada refine more of its own fuel.”

“Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my speaking time with the member for York—South Simcoe. The price of diesel is still extremely high in Quebec this week. For farmers, truck drivers and all the businesses that depend on fuel to survive, this means having to pay hundreds, even thousands of dollars more every day just to be able to keep on working. Where does every price hike at the pump end up? It ends up as part of their expenses. It ends up making transportation and production costs higher. Eventually, it ends up taking money from families’ pockets. We know that diesel, which is what we are talking about today, powers the tractors used to grow our food. It powers the trucks used to transport our purchases far and wide because we do not live next door to the factories. It is also essential for manufacturing. In short, diesel is everywhere in our lives, even if we do not put a single drop into our own vehicles. When farmers and truck drivers pay more, who ends up footing the bill? It is always Canadians. That is precisely why we, the Conservatives, decided to take action. With the motion we are moving today, we want to introduce and offer an emergency relief plan to bring prices down at the pump for Canadians and Quebeckers right now. We want to produce more fuel here in Canada. We want to better protect our country from future energy crises. Our plan is simple and has two parts. First, we will save Canadians money by reducing the taxes that are driving up diesel costs. Second, we will increase supply at home by accelerating refining, storage and transportation, while encouraging investment in those areas. The truth is that the current situation makes no sense. Not many people know this, but Canada has the fourth-biggest oil reserves in the world. We have the resources, we have the workers and we have the know-how. Unfortunately, after 11 years of Liberal government, Canadians and Quebeckers continue to pay far more for their fuel than they should. A country with such abundant oil resources should be better shielded from energy shocks. We should be increasing production when markets are under pressure, refining more of our own oil, and helping to boost supply so that we can become a true energy power. However, the opposite has been happening over the past 11 years. Liberal taxes have multiplied, Liberal delays have multiplied, and Liberal bureaucracy has multiplied. As a result, refining, storage and transportation projects still take years to obtain the necessary approvals. Neither Bill C‑5, nor Bill C‑38, nor Bill C‑39, nor any other bill the government may introduce will change the speed at which projects are actually delivered, because these are Liberal bills. Unfortunately, it is all hot air and political theatre, while nothing is really happening. The Liberals will point to wars, geopolitical tensions and market volatility to explain increases in diesel prices, and they are not wrong. Yes, it is true that these events have an impact on prices, but there is one thing they do not explain: Why are Canadians paying more than Americans? Why are Canadians paying more than the global average price of oil? As far as I know, Americans, along with everyone else in the world, are facing the same wars and the same price volatility. That is the question we should be asking ourselves. Why do we continue to pay more here in Canada, when we have the fourth-biggest oil reserve in the world? Meanwhile, other countries are looking at us and saying that they will not invest in our country. I agree that the Liberals cannot control what happens abroad. They are having a hard enough time controlling what is going on at home. However, there is something they can do. They can control the taxes they impose on Canadians. They can also remove the barriers, the bureaucracy and the red tape they created here. They had 11 years to strengthen our refining capacity, improve our infrastructure and make Canada less vulnerable. They did not do so. Who pays for all those wasted years? It is Quebeckers, Canadians, families, the unemployed, people waiting in line at food banks, and young people who have lost hope of ever owning their own home because housing prices have become unaffordable. That is the reality. Our plan aims to improve the lives of Canadians, young Canadians, and Canadian families. The first part of the plan is to help Canadians save money, as I mentioned. We propose eliminating all taxes on diesel sales, at least until July 1, 2027. That means extending the excise tax reduction until that date and eliminating the GST on fuel purchases. When Canadians are already paying so much for gas, the government should not keep taking even more from them every time they fill up. It should leave more money in their pockets. As we saw, it was pressure from the Conservatives that forced the Liberals to suspend the federal fuel excise tax. We asked for this many times, and the Liberals laughed at us. Suddenly, they decide to adopt a Conservative idea. There were even two motions in the House, but they voted against them. In the end, they did it anyway. Recently, they announced that they would keep this measure in place a little longer, but they also officially announced that fuel prices will go up in February and will go up even more in March. They had already anticipated both increases, and they decided against a 10¢ hike in favour of two five-cent hikes. They figured that it would be less obvious and that Canadians would not notice. However, Canadians are not fooled, especially when they get to the grocery store checkout and see the total. Today, we are asking the Liberals to go further. We want them to get rid of the taxes that increase the cost of producing diesel, including the industrial carbon tax and the clean fuel regulations. They say they want to make life more affordable. The Prime Minister even said that affordability in Canada is the best it has been in a decade. I have not heard that from anyone in my riding. I asked my constituents if they felt that life was cheaper than it had been in a decade. I asked them if they felt that they had saved money across the board this year. Everyone said no and that it was the opposite. The Prime Minister is literally out of touch. I assume he is going to tell his people not to vote in favour of our motion this week, because he does not know just how much families are struggling to make ends meet. That is the reality of an out-of-touch Prime Minister who spends more time flying around burning gas than down here seeing how every family is living and is struggling to pay their bills at the end of the month. Canadians do not need another explanation or another theatrical announcement. They want their bills reduced, period. We want the price gap with the United States to shrink, and we want to get that done in the next five years. Canada is going to have to increase its diesel production. Its production of other refined fuels is going to have to be ramped up to about a million barrels a day. That is a lot, but we can do it. In fact, we have the capacity to do it: We have the oil, the workers and the know-how. There is no reason to put up with the United States buying our oil at a discount and then selling us diesel at a higher price. The second part of our plan is to source more domestically. Projects take a long time, and the government slept through the past 11 years. Now it is time to get projects into production faster, cut red tape and avoid supporting bills that stand in the way of these projects. We were presented with Bill C‑5, which was supposed to fast-track projects at a speed never seen before. However, there has been an 18-month delay, because the Liberals have had to bring in a second bill to do the same thing. They changed one word in the title, but that does not produce more results. We want to fast-track projects and establish Canada as an energy powerhouse. We want Canadians to be able to save money and have more money in their pockets. That is why we are calling on the House to support our emergency plan to reduce prices at the pump, lower costs for Canadians and Quebeckers, accelerate investments and strengthen our energy security. It is simple: We want to save families money, develop our resources, produce more energy and better protect our country from the next crisis. That is the emergency plan, and we urge the Liberals to support it. I challenge them to do this for Canadians.”

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  “Including the industrial carbon tax and the clean fuel standard.”

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“No one knows when the conflict in Iran will end, so we cannot just wait for fuel prices to drop. The government should cut fuel taxes right now to save Canadians money.”

“Madam Speaker, can my colleague predict when the conflict in Iran will end? Can she do that? The answer is no. What the Liberals are telling us is that they will wait and see what happens later. For months and months, they are going to keep taking money out of the pockets of Canadians, and then maybe, when the price of gas and diesel comes down enough, they will decide to do something about it. We Conservatives are calling for immediate action by maintaining the suspension of the excise tax and eliminating the industrial carbon tax, the clean fuel tax and the GST. These are measures that can be implemented immediately to save Canadians money right away. This is not about predicting the future; it is about the immediate reality that Canadians are actually facing.”

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“I want to suspend all fuel taxes right now until next July. The Bloc's plan involves too much paperwork and bureaucracy. Pausing the taxes immediately is the fastest, simplest way to help people pay for groceries.”

“Madam Speaker, I support any proposal that leaves more money in consumers’ pockets, but there is one aspect that troubles me. The problem with the approach proposed by my colleague is that it creates more bureaucracy, because people are needed to do the counting and the calculations. We Conservatives say that all taxes should be suspended quickly, immediately, until Canada Day next July. I understand that it will not be presented that way, but I believe that is the simplest and fastest solution and the one that would require the least paperwork while putting money back into people’s pockets right away, especially for those at home who are struggling to pay for groceries.”

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“The Liberal Party still prefers raising taxes to letting Canadians keep their own money. We Conservatives want to leave money in people's pockets so they can pay for groceries. The Prime Minister has even taken ideas from our own platform.”

“Madam Speaker, I would like to welcome my colleague. He is fairly new here in the House. I hope he is enjoying his current seat. That said, he should bear in mind the changes that have taken place over the last few months. They tried to make us believe that the Liberal Party had changed, but it is still the same Liberal Party. It is a party that prefers taxes over leaving more money in people’s pockets so that they can make their own choices. It is a party that takes a paternalistic approach. Instead of leaving more money in people’s pockets so they can manage it themselves, the Liberal Party would rather tell them what to do. That is the problem with the Liberal Party. It thinks it is just a bit better than everyone else at managing people’s money. We Conservatives believe that if we leave more money in people’s pockets, they will be able to pay their grocery bill at the end of the month. That is what is best. As for the various measures we did not support, I could draw up a list of all the measures that the Prime Minister has decided to swipe from our election platform. I want my colleague to know that I believe we have done far more than he has over the past 10 years to help Canadians.”

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“Diesel costs too much in Canada because the government stopped energy projects and added taxes. This hurts farmers, truckers, and families. I want the House to pass our plan to cut fuel taxes and help build more Canadian refineries.”

“Madam Speaker, “fill her up”. When is the last time we heard that? After all, with diesel prices at record highs, everyday Canadians who drive a truck for work or for personal use are running on fumes and whispering a prayer when they finally pull up to the pump. As a consequence of Liberal economic failures over the past 11 years, Canadians are paying 41¢ more per litre on diesel than the world average price and 32¢ more per litre than Americans. This is driving up the cost for farmers, businesses and families in my communities in York—South Simcoe and right across our great country, especially in rural and remote areas, which make up such a pivotal part of our Canadian way of life. This does not just affect Canadians who drive a truck. Diesel powers farm equipment that grows our food, machinery that powers our industries and tractor-trailers that deliver goods across the country and beyond. This is why Canada’s Conservatives, as the official opposition, have brought forward this motion calling on the government to adopt our emergency fuel relief plan to provide immediate relief to Canadians struggling to afford fuel and faster energy infrastructure approvals for the future. It has been almost two years to the day since we were in the same place debating a different motion on fuel affordability. At that time, the former Liberal minister for natural resources stood outside these very doors here and said, “They have no view on how to build an economy of the future. Oil and gas will peak this decade. In fact, oil is probably peaking this year, and the economic plan of the Conservative Party of Canada is simply to produce more oil and gas into a market that inevitably, if we are going to fight climate change, will begin to decline.” The minister went on to say, “That is a ridiculous economic plan for the future of this country. It will leave Canada uncompetitive and poorer on a go-forward basis.... I encourage...the folks who sit on the Conservative benches to at least try to tell the truth.” The truth hurts. The Liberal government spent 11 years calling Conservatives and Canadians who supported pipeline projects climate deniers. The Liberal members, and I can see the Liberal member for Whitby across there, used the term 67 times in the last Parliament. They spent 11 years telling anyone who wanted to build an energy project that they were on the wrong side of history. It was not about economic viability or the merits of each project. It was all ideological. While the Liberals were dishing out insults and lecturing Canadians about a net-zero future, they also brought in devastating antidevelopment laws for our country. Conservatives warned that these laws would stop projects from being built, but the Liberals pushed them through anyway. As a result, critical energy investments sorely needed in the country died: 16 major projects worth over $176 billion. Canadians are paying for those failures at the pumps today. Two years ago, the Liberals said that oil was peaking, that the market was headed for decline and that Conservatives who wanted to produce more were ridiculous. Well, let us look at the market today. The G7 is releasing 100 million barrels from emergency stocks. Diesel is at an all-time record high. The market is not in a decline. This is a market the world actually needed Canada to supply, and the government spent a decade telling us not to build. Now the Liberals will tell Canadians that the price of diesel is out of their hands and that it is all due to global factors. There is no doubt that the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine have contributed, but why is it that a trucker in America faces those same factors and headlines, yet pays 32¢ a litre less than a trucker in Canada? A big part of that is the projects the Liberals blocked and the taxes they impose on Canadian fuel. They were wrong about the market then, and they are wrong to absolve themselves of responsibility now. They need to reflect on their failures and their ideological vendetta against Canadian energy production, which have led to this situation today. This is felt across Canada, including in the communities I represent. Just yesterday, I spoke to Garret, a local farmer. He told me that fuel surcharges are showing up everywhere now: on his custom work bills, on harvesting and on every single incoming shipment that he has. Every time costs go up, it comes out of the farmer’s pocket, money that would otherwise go to equipment payments and barn repairs. He warned me that this is not just a problem for this season. Next year, it will show up in cropping, in the grain market and in what it costs to move milk and cattle. We know that when farmers’ costs rise, the price of food rises with them. Garret paid $1.10 this same time last year, and just yesterday, he paid $2.28. That is why Conservatives are proposing the emergency relief fuel plan today, not just for our farmers, but for all Canadians. Canadians need relief now when filling up, and they need the infrastructure that brings costs down for good. We need to eliminate all taxes on diesel sales until at least Canada Day by extending the full excise tax cut until July 1, 2027, and removing the GST from fuel. We would permanently scrap the federal industrial carbon tax and the clean fuel standard, which increases the cost of producing diesel today and discourages the creation of new refineries for tomorrow, and we would close the price gap with the United States within five years by raising Canadian diesel and refined fuel production to one million barrels a day and supplying every region with Canadian refined diesel. Canadian workers should be turning Canadian oil into Canadian fuel. Under our plan, shovel-ready zones would prepermit areas for refineries, storage and transportation, so firms could build without even applying, as long as they follow all safety and environmental rules. That is cutting red tape and getting things done. They would also get a 100% one-year deduction, which would back new refineries, expansion, storage and pipelines. The Liberals were elected promising that they would move at speeds Canadians have never seen before. The problem is that Canadians are going broke at speeds Canadians have never seen before. No one has a monopoly on a good idea. We know the Liberals failed on energy production for over a decade, but today, they have an opportunity to do the right thing and support the Conservative emergency fuel relief plan today. I urge every member in the House to do the same.”

“Canadians need lower taxes because taxes are their biggest expense. The government should vote for our plan to cut diesel taxes right now.”

“Madam Speaker, any tax relief right now is welcomed by Canadians. The number one expense of every Canadian across this great country is taxes. This is one lever the government can pull right now to give people more relief. Government members should vote for our emergency diesel relief plan.”

“Canada missed its chance to sell natural gas, oil, and clean energy to the world. The government has talked for months but done nothing.”

“Madam Speaker, the last decade was Canada’s time to step up to supply the world with LNG and supply the world with clean oil and gas. The government missed the ball. Nothing is happening. After 18 months, it is still all talk and no action from the government.”

“I work for the people in my riding, not oil companies. My party fought to end the carbon tax, even when the government called us climate deniers. The rule forcing companies to sell electric cars hurt the Honda plant in my area.”

“Madam Speaker, what I will say is that I am a lobbyist for my constituents. That is what I am. This party, my colleagues here, fought to remove the carbon tax. We were shamed by the Liberals for 10 years, as I said, for being climate deniers. I represent Honda, which has been in my riding for 40 years. The EV mandate maimed that company, but I am an advocate for—”

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“The government promised in 2024 that grocery prices would go down by Thanksgiving. They did not. I want the member to tell us if grocery prices have actually dropped since then.”

“Madam Speaker, I think my hon. colleague from Whitby got confused; I think he read a 2024 speech that he read a couple of years ago. I remember in this House when the now finance minister promised that grocery prices would be down by Thanksgiving and that was in 2024. Members will remember he called all the grocery CEOs together and said, “That is it. We are going to have lower grocery prices by Thanksgiving.” I am wondering if there are any updates to the member’s speech on whether grocery prices have lowered since 2024.”

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