Poilievre Pledges ‘Relentless Focus’ on Axing Carbon Tax for Farmers as Parliament Resumes

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks at the Conservative Party Convention in Quebec City, on Sept. 8, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Jacques Boissinot)

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has his sights set on four key issues as Parliament resumes today: dealing with the housing crisis, balancing the budget, and stopping crime, but it’s axing the carbon tax for farmers that is at the top of his priority list.

Mr. Poilievre, in a 40-minute speech to his caucus Jan. 28, said the party will start the session with a “relentless focus” on passing the farm heating bill, which will be on the agenda in the House of Commons this week after being amended by the Senate just prior to the Christmas break.

Bill C-234 originally would have expanded carbon tax exemptions to include the natural gas and propane used by farmers to dry grain or heat and cool barns. The amendment removed all but grain drying from the exemption in a Dec. 5 vote that pitted Liberal-appointed senators against their Conservative-leaning counterparts.

Tory MP Ben Lobb, who tabled the bill, has rejected the Senate amendments so the legislation will arrive back in the House of Commons in its original form.

The original legislation was passed in the House last year with support from the Conservatives, the NDP, the Bloc Québécois, the Green Party, and a smattering of Liberal MPs.

Mr. Poilievre has argued for months that removing the carbon tax on farmers will help to lower food prices.

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“We know that lowering the carbon tax not only saves us money when we gas up and heat our homes but we take that tax off the farmers and truckers who bring our food, and we can afford to eat again,” he said during his speech, adding that the Tories would scrap the tax entirely if elected in 2025.

Budget

If his party forms government in the next election, Mr. Poilievre has promised to “cap government spending and cut government waste” in a bid to balance the budget as well as bring down inflation and interest rates.

The pledge follows a statement made by Bank of Canada (BoC) Governor Tiff Macklem last fall that governments at every level needed to curb spending.

Attempts by the BoC to tame inflation by raising interest rates have been unsuccessful, Mr. Macklem said, adding that it would be easier to get inflation down if the government’s monetary and fiscal policy were “rowing in the same direction.”

Mr. Poilievre was quick to lay the blame at the prime minister’s door.

“After eight years of Justin Trudeau, everything costs more with the worst inflation in 40 years,” he said. “After eight years of Justin Trudeau promising debt was consequence-free because interest rates were low, they’ve shot up in the fastest relative terms in Canadian history and they are a direct result of his deficit spending.”

He pledged he would get rid of the ArriveCan app, and the Canada Infrastructure Bank, as well as cut back on billions of dollars in external consultant bills.

He also promised to cut funding to the Beijing-controlled Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and UNRWA, the United Nations relief and works agency, which he called a “terrorist” organization whose “members helped carry out the genocidal” Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Canada has temporarily paused funding to UNRWA in response to claims that a dozen of the agency’s employees took part in the Hamas-initiated attack on Israel, which resulted in the loss of about 1,200 lives and escalated into a significant conflict in the region.

Housing

Mr. Poilievre promised to pass his Building Homes Not Bureaucracy Act, which he said would reward cities that meet their housing targets and punish those that do not.

He accused Mr. Trudeau of creating the current housing crisis with inflationary spending and an increased level of red tape to obtain a building permit.

“The housing inflation in Canada is the worst, or very close to the worst, of any developed nation,” he said. “Housing costs have risen 40 percent faster than incomes under Trudeau which is by far the worst in the G7.”

Rent rates have also become an issue, he said, adding that rent has gone up 200 percent in cities like Montreal.

“Housing costs have doubled,” he added. “The needed rent? Doubled. The needed down payment for a home? Doubled. The average mortgage payment for a new home? Doubled.”

Crime

The past eight years have brought “crime and chaos” to Canada’s largest cities with violent crime up 40 percent, Mr. Poilievre said.

He blamed what he called the “catch and release” justice system, referring to changes to the Criminal Code in 2019 when the Liberal government updated bail provisions with Bill C-75. Mr. Poilievre has said the legislation makes it harder to keep repeat violent criminals in jail.

“The root cause of crime is criminals. Put the criminals in jail, you have less crime,” Mr. Poilievre told his caucus. “It will be jail, not bail ... for repeat violent offenders.”

Mr. Poilievre also took aim at the government’s response to the rising level of car thefts.

Ottawa announced last week it would hold a summit in February, bringing together representatives from municipal and provincial police forces, the RCMP, the Canada Border Services Agency, and auto companies as well as federal and provincial politicians.

Mr. Poilievre’s speech comes just days after Mr. Trudeau took aim at the Conservative leader during a two-day caucus retreat in Ottawa.

In a speech to his party last week, the prime minister said Mr. Poilievre’s promises to Canadians lack detail and are full of “slogans” rather than “thoughtful solutions.”

“They don’t talk about the solutions that they’re proposing because they have none,” Mr. Trudeau said. “They don’t talk about how they are going to solve the challenges Canadians are facing.”