Carbon Tax Grab Must be Stopped by Cheryl Gallant, MP, Renfrew – Nipissing – Pembroke

What a beautiful site!

Amid all the scandal, resignations and lies of a federal government that should be on its death bed, came a glimmer of sunshine to brighten up our hopes that maybe it is not too late for Canada. The United We Roll convoy rolled into Eastern Ontario!

The group was warmly greeted by local, cheering residents as it stopped at the only Conservative Riding it would pass through in Ontario on its way to Parliament Hill.

As residents in my Riding of Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, including many members of our local landowner’s association, hugged members of the convoy who had traveled all the way from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to share their love of Canada, one could not help but feel the warmth from people who cared about their country.

Waiting in Ottawa were extreme left-wing agitators, who, without provocation violently attacked a reporter. They were no doubt encouraged by fake media reports and by a Prime Minister who has promised this coming election will be the dirtiest on record.

I am immensely proud the United We Roll Convoy returned to my Riding to overnight, a decision, convoy organizers say was made because they simply felt safer here than in the city of Ottawa.

They came to fight the carbon tax.

Liberal policy to load today’s economy with future tax increases will burden your children. The debt burden for your children will first be your burden as the federal carbon tax kicks in.

Every person who understands anything about running an economy knows that good times do not last.  Your parents saved during the good times because they lived through the bad times. So why does the federal government insist on huge deficits, spending dollars we do not have by borrowing billions of dollars? The answer is “carb-a-geddon.”

Revelations

Carb-a-geddon, the meltdown of the Canadian economy through carbon taxation, will reveal itself as the federal government begins to collect these new taxes. These taxes are set to automatically increase every year. The Finance Minister has already admitted the budget would never be balanced as long as his party held power. Secret documents prepared by the Finance Department confirm the truth about carbon taxes. The Liberal refusal to release these documents to the Canadian public confirms they have something to hide. Carb-a-geddon is real.

The Carbon Tax Increases Emissions

The worse part about carbon taxes is that taxing carbon dioxide in Canada does not help the environment. The environment is the cloak this government wears for every bad policy. Adopting carbon taxes in Canada actually raises global carbon emissions by offshoring economic activity from relatively environmentally friendly places like Canada to places with lax environmental laws, like China.

Data from the World Bank reveals that China and other developing countries produce far more carbon dioxide than do western nations. China is currently building hundreds of new coal-fired plants, which will ensure its CO2 emissions continue to rise for decades to come. Every factory pushed out of Canada because of the Liberal Carbon Tax will actually increase global emissions dramatically, and this will continue to be the case for decades to come. One of the reasons the Canadian budget deficit is so huge is because Trudeau has sent billions of borrowed dollars to the Asian Development Bank run by the Chinese. China uses Canada dollars to lend to other third-world countries to build coal-fired power plants. Go figure.

More Interest Income for the Super Rich

As a result of reckless borrowing, last year alone Liberals spent $23 billion on interest payments to wealthy bond holders.  By 2023, that amount will rise to $37 billion – a 60% increase. The Liberals will be spending more on debt interest than we currently spend on health transfers! The average Canadian middle-class family is paying $800 more income tax today than when Trudeau took office. That is before the Liberals’ carbon tax and their new payroll taxes take effect in 2019.  In other words, it is only going to get worse. More debt today means higher taxes tomorrow. Last year, Canada’s net debt reached an all-time high of $670 billion or $47,612 per Canadian family.

Carbon taxes are wrong for the Canadian experience. We live in a cold country, which by its very nature is energy intensive. Carbon taxes are not revenue neutral. No money will be returned to taxpayers they have not already paid in taxes.

Carbon taxes are not going to save the planet

Massive deficit spending is a form of taxation on both income and savings. Science is not a religion. It is a method. Carbon pricing will not lower pollution emissions. Carbon taxes will increase government revenues. A tax is a tax is a tax.

There are many things we can do to improve the environment. A made-in-Canada environmental policy, by Canadians and for Canadians, would be an honest start for the Federal government.

Energy policies take a very long time and great effort. It takes just as long to undo mistakes, as Ontario residents are now discovering with the Hydro One/wind turbine scandal. Energy poverty is real.

Despite what the Prime Minister and the member for Ottawa Centre, who is also the Minister of Environment, tell Canadians carbon taxes amount to useless virtue-signaling. Canadians are coming to the conclusion that carbon taxes are nothing more than a green hustle. Carbon taxes are just that: taxes.

Since the Finance Minister/member for downtown Toronto and the member for Ottawa are so evasive when it comes to the massive Liberal carbon tax scheme, I am obliged to share with Canadians some of the things we do know about the massive carbon tax scheme. The carbon sales tax will be hidden from Canadians. It is buried in the price of what Canadians purchase, in an effort to shift the blame for rising prices to things like the weather. The Liberals voted to keep the carbon sales tax hidden rather than allowing the carbon sales tax, or CST, to appear on a separate line on Canadians’ energy bills. The next thing Canadians should know about the carbon sales tax is that one pays HST on the CST.
Since the carbon tax is hidden in the price of everyday purchases and services, we will be paying a tax on a tax on a tax. The GST, the HST, and now the CST all have one thing in common, apart from being a tax: they are all consumption taxes.

As the Member of Parliament for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, I am proud to have listened to my constituents’ pleas to cut taxes and I voted to cut the GST. More than any other of the many tax cuts brought in when our Conservative government was expertly managing our economy, the tax cut that benefited average Canadians was our cutting the GST. It is a fact that when the Liberal Party brings in a tax increase using a consumption tax like the carbon tax, the poor in Canada pay more as a percentage of their income. The member for Toronto who is the Finance Minister and his rich Bay Street buddies pay less in carbon taxes as a percentage of their income.

The CST, the GST, the HST: a tax is a tax is a tax.

Our Conservative government of the day was bitterly opposed by the Liberal Party when we cut the GST, and the Liberal Party has been looking for a way to increase consumption taxes in Canada ever since. The wealthiest of Canadians have been steadily increasing their share of the national wealth—think Toronto’s single-family housing prices—and now control much more than ever before.

As a past president of the Liberal Party became vastly richer on the backs of Ontario electricity consumers using a carbon tax scheme, what Canadians heard was liberals talking about their “entitlements.” After all, was this not what former Liberal cabinet minister David Dingwall was referring to when he clearly stated on behalf of his party, in a moment of unusual candour for a Liberal, that he was “entitled to his entitlements” when he expensed to taxpayers a packet of gum while on the public payroll?

It is not ironic the liberal party continues to use the same language of “entitlements” Dingwall used? When the former executive director of the liberal party, who is now a Quebec Liberal MP, states that SNC-Lavalin is “entitled” to a special deal to avoid criminal prosecution for wrong doing, that tells Canadians the liberal party learned nothing from the sponsorship scandal.

This is no accident. The fortunate few prosper by influencing public policy to their advantage. That is why working-class people pay most whenever a new tax, like the carbon tax, is dreamt up by the technocrats in Ottawa. Working folks are told to content themselves with the vague hope that a subsidy or a handout will lessen the sting of the latest tax increase. It never turns out that way.

The Prime Minister has repeatedly said that he wants to phase out Canada’s current energy sector. Carbon taxes are the stick to beat taxpayers. Canadians I speak to only want to be able to afford to heat and light and own a piece of private property they can call home. Now the good news. 2019 is an election year.

For more information, contact Cheryl Gallant, M.P. – 613-732-4404