Trudeau using “Independent” Senators to attack farmers
In yet another move showing their utter contempt for western Canadians, the Liberals are sticking it to farmers—and by extension families struggling with the inflated cost of living—by holding up the passage of Bill C-234 in the Senate.
Bill C-234 is a commonsense piece of legislation that would exempt farmers from the Liberal Carbon Tax for farm fuels used for heating and cooling livestock barns and drying grain.
The Carbon Tax costs farmers tens of thousands of dollars every year. Those increased costs are then passed on the consumers in higher food prices.
According to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Bill C-234 (in its original form) would save farmers—and by extension consumers—nearly $1 billion between now and 2030.
All four opposition parties voted in favour of this commonsense legislation.
Only the Liberals voted against it.
The Bill was having its final reading before being sent for Royal Ascent to become law when members of the Independent Senators Group (i.e., the Liberals) shut down the debate.
This was after the Liberals tried to add an amendment that would have gutted the bill by excluding livestock producers.
Conservative Senate Leader (and Provencher native) Don Plett stated how absurd it is for the Senate to be holding up this commonsense legislation.
“After all-party support was given to this in the House, and here we have some self-righteous Senators from Montreal and Toronto who have never been on a farm in their life, and they are ruining this bill and convincing others to support them.”
Plett and other senators accused the Prime Minister of interfering in Senate Committees and whipping votes to try to kill the bill.
Justin Trudeau may have changed their name from “Liberal” to “Independent”, but it is clear these senators are still firmly under the thumb of this Prime Minister.
As Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre put it:
“The panicking Liberals are now resorting to every trick in the book, trying desperately to prevent farmers from getting a carbon tax carveout for grain drying, barn heating and other farm operations. Trudeau’s Senators are playing unprecedented political games with the livelihoods of Canadian farmers to prop up the Prime Minister’s failed tax and save face for Liberal ministers like Steven Guilbeault who declared that there would be no more carveouts while he was Environment Minister.”
Plett sums up the situation even more succinctly.
“The Prime Minister and the entire Liberal Party is trying to take away the livelihood from Canadian farmers, it’s as simple as that.”
The Liberal Carbon Tax is a failed policy. It increases the cost of everything (gas, groceries, home heating etc.) while doing nothing to demonstrably help the environment.
Everything the Liberals have said about the Carbon Tax—that it helps the environment, that it is revenue neutral, that families get back more in rebates than they pay in the tax—has proven to be false.
Despite these failures and falsehoods, Justin Trudeau and the Liberals—supported by their costly Carbon Tax coalition partners in the NDP and the Bloc—want to quadruple their tax to a whopping 61 cents per liter of fuel.
Common Sense Conservatives introduced bill C-234 because a tax on farmers means an increase in the cost of food for Canadians at a time when families are already struggling. This bill would provide relief for our farmers who want to make food more affordable for Canadians in the face of Justin Trudeau’s inflationary taxes and deficits. When the Senate returns next week, Senators will need to make a choice between supporting Trudeau and Guilbeault’s radical climate agenda and supporting farmers and ordinary Canadians.
Likewise, in the next election, Canadians will be able to make a choice between Justin Trudeau’s plan to quadruple his Carbon Tax and Pierre Poilievre’s plan to axe the tax for everyone, on everything.
As MP for Provencher, I will continue to oppose Justin Trudeau’s endless tax increases and stand up for common-sense policies for farmers and for all Canadian families.