“The government keeps running temporary trial runs for railway grain shipping instead of making the rules permanent. We have had three of these trials since 2014. Grain shippers cannot invest in the tracks they need when the rules keep changing. I want the government to make these shipping rules permanent.”

“Mr. Speaker, I appreciate all the work of my colleague. The Liberals talk about consistency and predictability. What about the next version of the bill? The building Canada really strong act is, I am sure, what the next one will be. We have had three different iterations of a pilot project on interswitching for grain movement in Canada. We had one in 2014, one in 2018 and one in 2023. Continuing these pilot projects makes it impossible for grain haulers and shippers to make investments in sidings to make sure that interswitching is actually successful. If predictability is important in the bill, why are the Liberals doing yet another pilot project on interswitching and not making that element permanent?”

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“High diesel prices are making groceries far too expensive, especially in the north where food has to travel long distances. The Prime Minister promised to lower grocery prices, but they keep going up. I want the government to vote for our plan to cut diesel taxes and produce more fuel in Canada.”

“Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to speak today about diesel prices. It all relates to food costs and high food costs, especially in northern Canada. I will go back to a promise made by the Prime Minister during the last election. It is funny how people expect us to just forget all those promises the Prime Minister made. That was why he was elected. It was based on those promises. The promise I am going to talk about is the one he made to northern Canadians, that he would be measured by prices at the grocery store. Why is food so expensive in the north? I think we all know. The reason is two words: transportation costs. Those already high transportation costs just went higher with higher diesel prices, as we all know. It is a reason our leader brought forward the emergency fuel relief plan. The plan would provide for emergency prepermitting and tax relief for the construction of diesel infrastructure such as refineries, pipelines, rail and storage. It would eliminate all taxes on diesel consumption until at least Canada Day. It would permanently eliminate taxes on diesel production and would call on the government to set the goal of boosting Canadian diesel production to one million barrels per day, allowing every Canadian business and consumer access to Canadian diesel. Again, the Prime Minister promised that he would be measured by prices at the grocery store. I see this every day. I was just responding to a social media post. Prices have always been high in the north. That is true. They have been high but they are even higher, when the Prime Minister promised, just 18 months ago, that he was going to bring those prices down. The promise he made to Canadians did not stop at the northern borders, as far as I am concerned and as far as northerners are concerned. What are Canadians experiencing at the grocery store because of increased fuel costs? I have an article from Bloomberg. It is from September 29 of this year. It reads, “Diesel prices surge to historic highs, hitting consumers harder than ever.... Experts say elevated fuel costs mean higher price tags on items ranging from food and clothing to construction materials for months to come, with diesel demand poised to go up further as winter approaches.” The article continues, “The price of a round-trip haul by a semi truck between Montreal and Toronto would have cost roughly $850 on Jan. 1. Now the total would amount to $1,400, said Mike Millian, president of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada.... ‘It’s really dramatic. It’s tough to absorb.’” Imagine that trip, which is only around 1,000 kilometres. Edmonton is the base from which most of the food in the north comes; it heads north from that point. Imagine the cost increase for food when the round trip is from Edmonton to Tuktoyaktuk, and that trip is 7,000 kilometres. We can only imagine what the math is, seven times as much as that trip from Montreal to Toronto. I will go back to the article. It reads, “Diesel powers industries ranging from agriculture to mining and manufacturing, and the bigger expenses they face are likely to show up as higher sticker prices on consumer items.” It continues, “‘It hurts everybody. There’s not anybody this doesn’t affect,’ said Millian.” I will go on: “The shippers and retailers who face those transport surcharges often find they have little choice but to raise prices for shoppers. ‘If you’re an independent grocer and you’re on an overall margin of 2% and you’re getting fuel surcharges from your suppliers, you’re in a tough spot,’ said Gary Sands, a senior vice-president at the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, which represents about 6,900 stores. ‘It becomes very difficult to not pass on those fuel surcharges.’” That is the reality we are facing. That is why, again, our leader came forward with the emergency plan that we are putting forward, which would reduce the cost of diesel to at least attempt to bring those costs down or keep those costs lower than what they are right now. I have another article. This one is from CBC: “The price of diesel is skyrocketing. Here’s why Canadians may soon feel it at the grocery store”. This is the other thing that we have not really talked about. We have talked about the increase in prices, but why? There is not enough supply. “The problem is that diesel is in extraordinarily short supply, experts say”. The article continues, “‘This is going to be somewhat of a secret killer of the North American economy, if this is not addressed in the next few months,’ Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis firm Gas Buddy, told CBC News.” “Diesel prices historically rise even more in the winter, according to energy analyst Dan McTeague, meaning ‘we could be looking at a very, very expensive winter ahead, not just for truck, for transport industry, airlines, trains and whatnot, but also for consumers.’” “It’s a concern for Canadians as any time the price of diesel goes up, it impacts every part of the food supply chain: shipping, storing and producing, according to Evan Fraser at the University of Guelph’s Arrell Food Institute.” Some would say this whole situation in Iran is out of the Prime Minister ‘s control, but he has things he can do in Canada right now to limit those impacts to consumers and to transporters that transport our food to these remote areas that eventually impact consumers. He can effect that change. Even though he cannot affect what is going on in Iran, per se, he can still help lower those diesel prices in Canada today by having the simple ability to vote for our plan to lower taxes on diesel and to increase the supply of diesel in Canada. Again, I would just call on the Prime Minister to do the right thing. I did not get the chance to ask Liberals across the way if they are going to support our plan and our emergency fuel relief plan, but they have a choice: They can support it and dramatically lower the impacts of those higher diesel prices on food costs in Canada. I read about the prices and the food costs in northern Canada. I have made the trip there for several years now and watched those food prices sort of grow over the last three years. The Prime Minister promised those northerners when he looked at the camera and said they would be measured by prices at the grocery store and also by energy prices of home heating. That is how he was going to be measured. He made that promise that it would be okay if he was elected as the Prime Minister. Right now we are not seeing that. We are not seeing lower prices. We are not seeing lower prices even in my hometown of Fort St. John. Just a dozen eggs is about eight dollars and a loaf of bread is about seven dollars, depending on the type of bread a person buys. Milk is getting a lot more expensive. An example I talked about yesterday was that a jug of milk in Inuvik this summer was $18. Imagine a family living in Inuvik and having to buy a jug of milk for their family. With two kids at home a family would go through about two jugs of milk a week. That is about what we used to go through. Even the cost of milk is exorbitant, all because of those higher transportation costs. I started by asking why food is so expensive in the north. I have a two-word answer: transportation costs. The Prime Minister, though, has a choice today. He can vote for our motion to lower diesel prices. In effect, lower heating costs, transportation costs and food costs all the way down the line would benefit Canadian consumers. He can vote for our motion or he can vote against it and cause northern food prices to go even higher. It is his choice.”

“The Liberals have not done enough about high diesel prices. The Conservative plan is better. We would cut taxes on using and producing diesel, speed up permits, and build up a bigger fuel reserve.”

“Mr. Speaker, I think that is a little bit vague. We have already seen sort of a muted response to these high diesel prices from the Liberals. Our plan is just a lot more thorough and a lot more effective: emergency prepermitting and tax relief would eliminate all taxes on diesel consumption until at least Canada Day, permanently eliminate taxes on diesel production and then even boost what we have as a reserve to one million barrels per day. Our plan would be a much more effective response to not only this diesel crisis, but similar crises in the future.”

“Cutting the fuel tax does not just help oil companies. It lowers shipping costs, which lowers grocery prices for everyday people, especially in the North.”

“Mr. Speaker, that question was a bit out of touch if he is saying that what we are suggesting is just going to put more money in oil and gas companies’ pockets. This would land directly in consumers’ pockets when they pay less at the grocery store. I would challenge that member to come with me to the Arctic any time of the year and look at food prices and the associated transportation costs. Our efforts are to bring down those transportation costs to bring down the cost of food for northerners. That is what we are about. I am not sure what he is about.”

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“I support this bill. Diesel costs three dollars a litre where I live, which hurts our logging industry and raises shipping costs. This bill offers a real plan to lower fuel costs long-term instead of just a quick fix.”

“Mr. Speaker, it really gets complicated. Where I live, which is in the southern part of B.C., the price of diesel per litre is three dollars. Our logging industry is suffering and our transportation costs are huge because we are small. What I really like about the bill being proposed is the fact that it is more complete. It would not just to lower the price of diesel right now, but also follow up with production, which is so important. We need something more than just a quick fix.”

“The government only reacts to problems instead of planning ahead. Conservatives have a plan to lower fuel costs long-term for truckers, loggers, and all Canadians. I want the Liberals to vote for it today.”

“Mr. Speaker, this shows we have a government that just seems to put out fires as it goes, versus our Conservative potential and future government, what our leader has said and the potential for us to govern. We have a really good plan that would change things not just for the short term, but for the future for Canadians, which would bring down costs and bring more security for loggers and transporters of food to the north, and really for everybody. We have a plan and I trust that the Liberals will support it today.”

“High diesel prices are making it too expensive to farm and fish. That makes food cost more for everyone. Liberal policies caused these high fuel costs. I want the House to pass our motion to lower fuel taxes for farmers and help Canada produce more of its own energy.”

“Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise to speak to our opposition day motion, which would give some solutions and save Canadians money right across this country. I am honoured to be splitting my time with the hon. member for Battle River—Crowfoot today as well. I have often said in this House, “No farms, no food.” It is very important that we add to that: “No affordable farms, no affordable food.” It is critical that Canadians understand the connection between what happens on the farm in food production and the impact of those input costs on the farm on the cost of groceries on the grocery store shelves. I will get to that later today. I want to start my speech by thanking all of the farmers in my riding of Foothills who are finishing up the harvest. Many of them have worked 24 hours a day, religiously, to get that crop in the bin. Many of them have just finished up, and it looks like a good harvest throughout southern Alberta. We are very happy and proud of all the work they have done over this seeding, through the summer and the harvest. Because we know the pride that farmers take in their work, we know the anxiety they have felt as they watched their input prices increase exponentially from last year to this year. I want to highlight some of the stories I have heard from farmers not only in my riding but certainly right across Canada. I spoke to one of them as I was driving to the airport on Sunday. Roy was telling me they were finishing up the harvest on Monday and now he has to have a very difficult conversation with his family. Normally, he budgets about $50,000 for his fuel bill for harvest. This year, his bill was over $130,000. He is having to have that discussion with his family about where they are going to find the money to pay that fuel bill. He is being honest with his family. He does not know know how they are going to pay that bill, and that is a story that I have heard from farmers right across this country. Unfortunately, it is a story that has become all too common. Another farmer in my riding has a small farm. He has about a 2,000-acre farm, and the fuel bill is another $20,000 this year above what he is used to, and it was almost 18,000 litres of fuel. On Kate’s family farm in Saskatchewan, they will pay an additional $90,000 on their fuel bill for harvest this year. A potato farmer in P.E.I., Aike, said that when fuel gets more expensive, everything in P.E.I. gets more expensive. To put things in perspective, he said, he is looking at a 70% jump in the fuel costs this year from the same time last year. That is from one farmer. Another P.E.I. farmer, Nathan, said the high diesel prices are “putting a squeeze on our bottom line”. Last year, his total diesel cost for the entire harvest was about $7,000. This year, he is only halfway through the harvest, and it has already gone over $14,000. He said, “Every year I’m saying this is the most expensive crop we’re putting in, [and] I’m getting kinda tired of saying that”. A grain farmer in southern Alberta said diesel is costing him another $5,000 a day just through harvest. That is costing him another $100,000 on his fuel bill, and that is just one farm. Now, we are talking about farmers, but our fishers are facing much the same costs. In fact, I saw some comments from Carl, who is out in B.C. He said some are wondering if they will even be able to survive, and some question if the boats will even leave the harbour. Bob says this is taking the profit right out of fishing. He said, “Some of us aren’t even going to take our boats out.” Again, that correlation between the costs of producing the food and the costs at the grocery store shelves is very real. The Liberals like to say every day that the impact of their policies, like an industrial carbon tax and the Liberal fuel standard, do not impact the cost of groceries. One of Canada’s pre-eminent experts, Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, said the other day, “The correlation between diesel prices and food prices that you see at the grocery store [shelves] is one of the highest of all factors”. One of the pre-eminent experts on food prices in the country has said there is a direct correlation between the costs of fuel prices and the costs on the grocery store shelves. These costs that our farmers and our fishers are facing are not abstract. These are very real costs that are being carried by our farm families right across this country and by our small business owners, our fishers and the workers who are trying to manufacture and process those foods to get them to our grocery store shelves. These are costs being borne by the shippers, the truckers and the manufacturers. Every time we add those costs, at every link in that supply chain, that cost just grows exponentially until we get to the case where we are, at the grocery store shelves, where more than a third of Canadians now say that the cost of food is their biggest budget anxiety, where we have record numbers of Canadians lined up at food banks and where we among the countries with the highest food inflation in the G7. There are very real consequences of the bad policies and bad decisions of the Liberal government. How do we absorb these costs? How do we ask our fishermen and our farmers to absorb these costs? Many of them are asking themselves right now, as the harvest has just been completed, and they do not know. They cannot pass all of those costs on to their customers. In many cases, they have to absorb those costs, and that is the difference between them being economically viable and us losing, once again, more of those family farms, which our rural communities so desperately rely on. Our farmers are tough. We know they are resilient. They will find a way to make it through and get that crop off this year. However, I would say to my Liberal colleagues that we cannot keep asking our farmers to be tough and resilient. Tough and resilient does not pay the bills. Tough and resilient does not get that crop off into the bin, get it trucked to the terminal, get it trucked to the processor or get it trucked to the grocery store. Being tough and resilient does not pay the bills, and it does not put affordable food on the table. Ultimately, this is about what impacts each and every one of us, and that is Canada’s food security. The farmer is not the end of the story; he is just the beginning. He is a very integral part of that story, but he is not all of it. We know that energy, and diesel especially, drives our country. The anti-energy Liberals have put this at their feet. For this diesel crisis, this cost crisis we are facing, they like to blame global factors, but this crisis lies in the decisions they have made, and it lies squarely within their responsibility. I found it interesting yesterday during question period, when our leader was asking some questions about the buy Canadian policy the Liberals keep talking about when in fact they are investing in American companies, that the Prime Minister got up and said the government is committed to building the Pacific link pipeline, and the Liberal members were cheering. I could not help but kind of laugh at that because for the past 11 years, those same members, that same Liberal cabinet, were doing everything they possibly could to crush Canada’s energy sector. They scared investors away from energy east. As a result, eastern Canada is importing 130,000 barrels of oil and gas every single day to power eastern Canada when we could be doing that from western Canadian resources through the energy east pipeline. The northern gateway pipeline was approved by the Harper government, but the Liberal government came in and cancelled the northern gateway pipeline. Northern gateway would have been built at this time, moving Canadian energy and ensuring that we were more self-sufficient. As a result of that, last year, diesel was about $1.53 a litre. As of September 21, it is $2.74 a litre. According to Grain Growers of Canada, that is adding another $1,100 worth of diesel per day per combine per farm, which is another $5,000 a day. This is what it is costing Canadian farmers every single day. This is why I am encouraging the Liberals to support our Conservative motion, which not only provides a break on diesel prices and tax relief for Canadian farmers but ensures that we put the mechanisms in place to increase production and refining capacity here in Canada, which is critical and would not only solve this problem today but solve it for the future. I would encourage my Liberal colleagues to support our Conservative motion today to ensure that we save Canadians money today and tomorrow and, most importantly, that we show our Canadian farmers we are standing with them and we understand the anxiety they are facing. We want to make sure they can afford to put affordable food on Canadian tables every single day.”

“The government makes promises it does not keep. Conservatives helped pass a bill to build projects faster, but nothing happened. Now the government needs another bill because the first one failed.”

“Mr. Speaker, what I do recognize are commitments to do something at some point. I will go back to Bill C-5, which Conservatives helped the Liberals pass, the Building Canada Act, because we wanted to be there to support building Canadian projects, nation-building projects, at speeds not seen in generations. Nothing happened. We now have the building Canada strong act because the first one was not enough. I am expecting that about a year from now, we will have another bill from the Liberal government. It will be called the building Canada really, really strong act, because we could not get it right the first two times. That is what I am expecting from the Liberal government.”

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“Farmers cannot set their own prices, but the government does control the costs of doing business. I want my colleague to explain why beef prices have gone up so much over the last 20 years.”

“Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his great speech. A lot of his speech was about farmers. Farmers are generally bound by the price they can sell their products for, because of the market. The cost of doing business is something that we, as the Canadian government, can control. Can my colleague explain a bit about what has happened over the last 20 years in the beef industry that now causes beef prices to be so high?”

“The number of cattle in Canada is down, which makes beef prices go up. On top of that, taxes add costs to every step of the supply chain, from growing food to shipping it to selling it in stores. Taxing all of these steps makes groceries cost more for Canadians.”

“Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from northern Alberta for the question. He has been such a great champion for the honey and bee industry. I always appreciate working with him. My colleague is exactly right. We have seen cattle numbers in Canada continue to decline, which is driving up cattle prices, but there are also those input costs with having to truck these products from one end of the country to the other. The Liberals like to think this does not impact the cost of doing business. We are adding costs to every link in the supply chain: growing the food, processing the food, transporting the food and putting it on grocery store shelves. What happens when we tax every single part of a supply chain? Of course, the cost of that product on the grocery store shelf is going to go up. That is what Canadian consumers are having to face right now.”

“I want my colleague to support our motion. It cuts taxes on diesel fuel. It also speeds up permits so we can refine more fuel across Canada, especially in the east.”

“Mr. Speaker, my colleague is exactly right, which is why I think it is so important that one of the elements of our opposition day motion is not only to take the tax off diesel today but also to put in elements to fast-track permitting to increase that refining capacity not only in western Canada but also in eastern Canada. In western Canada, we export diesel. We have more than we can supply because we do not have a pipeline to eastern Canada. However, if we were able to put policies in place to fast-track that permitting, to increase refining in eastern Canada so it could be self-sufficient, I think that would be a great step forward. That is why I am hoping my colleague will support our opposition day motion.”

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