Official Hansard
Mr. Speaker, on that point of order, Conservatives would support, maybe, during that amendment, the government’s changing it for the rest of the year. This is a novel idea. That is why we are here today. While the government is amending the proposal, why does it not just waive the taxes for the rest of the year and support this motion? I have sat here and listened to the debate, and I apologize to all the people who are struggling to stay awake, not only here in the gallery but also at home watching, the 12 or 13 people who are watching on TV. This is so frustrating because the government says, “Surprise. Do not worry; we are here to help.” Then, of course, the real world sets in for those of us who live in rural and remote areas and know that everything the government has done, well, maybe not everything but most things it has tried to do, in the last 11 years has made life more difficult, especially for people who live in rural and remote areas. Today in my riding of Cariboo—Prince George, a family pulls up to a pump to get gas. When they see the numbers ticking away, they start doing the math in their head. They wonder what they are going to forego. They cannot go to the grocery store anymore and buy just 100 dollars’ worth of groceries. How far will that go? A hundred dollars does not buy even one bag of groceries, especially in rural and remote areas. My riding is over 90,000 square kilometres. We do not have the benefit of jumping on an O-Train or other rapid transit to get groceries or go to medical services. In my riding, the one thing my constituents know is distance. We have to drive if we want to get groceries, sometimes for long hours. In my riding, it sometimes takes 12 hours for me to drive to a single meeting. Can members imagine someone trying to get medical services for their pregnant wife or a sick child? They have to make painful and hard decisions as to what they are going to do. I remember when we had this debate in the last Parliament. When I was fighting for forestry and asking what I should tell the forestry worker who is now out of work, there was the audacity of the other side, saying to tell them to move and find another job. We do not have that luxury in rural and remote areas. My riding is resource-based and agriculture-based. Everything we produce in our riding is dependent on fuel and the cost of it. Who pays that price ultimately? It is my constituents. It is the consumer. The government wants to stand up and say that it is giving a rebate and that, guess what, in June there is going to be a little bit more money in Canadians’ pockets. However, while they are giving that money with one hand, they are taking it away with the other hand. The Liberals have made life so unaffordable. The chief government whip said that he did not say this, but everybody heard him say it, or something like it: He will not vote for a motion that benefits the unbelievably rich. Here is the reality of what we are asking for in this motion. Let me remind the people who are in the gallery and others who are listening. The motion says: That, given that, (i) gas prices are 13% higher in Canada than in the United States, equating to 22 cents more on average per litre, (ii) gas now costs 50 cents more per litre today than when global oil prices were at the same level in 2014, (iii) the Minister of Finance and National Revenue told Canadians on May 19, “We have already acted”, (iv) Canadian families are still paying more to live due to a decade of Liberal credit card budgets, waste and mismanagement, the House call on the government to offer Canadians immediate relief by ending all federal taxes on gas and diesel for the rest of the year, including the GST, and permanently scrap the Clean Fuel Standard. If they were really for Canadians, they would just scrap it. It is a common-sense motion. However, they will not. They say that Conservatives are bad and that the government has done a lot for Canadians already. Man, the government is so out of touch. This is my first time back in a number of weeks, due to a surgery, and I cannot say how maddening this is. In my recovery, I sat screaming at the TV because we hear the Liberal gobbledygook every day. They spew it. What is funny is the hypocrisy of it all. When they had Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, they were all for the carbon tax, but now they have seen the error of their ways. Now all the people on the other side have found a new messiah whom they are following. It is just maddening. The Liberals are so out of touch. Many of them, not all, have constituencies they can drive across in literally minutes. They have the benefit of rapid transit, such as the O-Train or SkyTrain or other rapid transit, but this is not true for those of us in rural and remote areas, where the Liberals’ policies are absolutely punishing us. Do not even get me started on their “jail, not bail” and their catch-and-release policies. That is coming a bit later. In rural and remote areas, we are facing the wrath of Liberal policies, and the Liberals just do not get it. It is so frustrating. I believe there are good people on all sides of the House, even though I am getting scorned and mean-mugged right now by somebody on the other side who is staring at me. I do not care. He can laugh all he wants. He is laughing at the hardship of Canadians, and that is disgusting. Canadians should be angry and frustrated at this. Right now, my staff are probably pulling their hair out because they created a beautiful speech for me, but as members can see, I have not opened even one page, because I am so infuriated by what the Liberals are saying and doing. The reality is this: After 11 years, a decade, of Liberal mismanagement, the Liberals say they are going to do one thing, but then they do another thing. They apologize and say they will do better. Today their hon. colleague stood up and said, “Oops, we made a mistake in rushing”, and they probably forced closure on it. In rushing the bill through, they made a mistake and want to amend the bill. Here is a simple amendment: When they are opening the bill back up, just eliminate the tax for the rest of the year. An hon. member: Get ‘er done. Todd Doherty: Get ‘er done. Mr. Speaker, it would benefit so many Canadians. I would stand up, and I think other colleagues would stand up, if the Liberals voted in favour of our motion, and applaud them. In the spirit of good faith and good nature, why does the government not do that? I know what the Liberals are going to say: “We cannot trust the Conservatives, those dirty Conservatives.” This is what they are going to say, but it is not true. There is one side that has been fighting for Canadians, and it is us on this side. It is frustrating that the Liberals stand up time and again and spew these talking points that somebody, short pants in the back room, has come up with. The colleagues across the way stand up and bring forth this stuff, and it is just maddening. It is just untrue. The Liberals’ policies have hurt Canadians, especially people such as those in my riding of Cariboo—Prince George, over 90,000 square kilometres where we do not have the benefit of O-Trains, the SkyTrain or other rapid transit. We actually have to drive for critical services. The Liberals have targeted rural and remote areas. They have actually forced rural and remote against urban in their policies, and that is unfair. They should support our motion, and I hope they will.
