Happy Wednesday everyone!
Another slower week last week, we’ve got a Motion on the budget (or lack of one) as well as one about Quebec wanting a refund on the money they put into the last Carbon Rebate.
Motions
Food Inflation and Budgetary Policy – Jasraj Hallan (Conservative, Alberta, Calgary East)
Our first Motion for the week comes from Jasraj and involves the lack of a federal budget:
Given that:
- the Prime Minister said he will be held to account by prices Canadians pay at the grocery store,
- under the Liberal government, food inflation continues to rise, forcing families to eat less nutritious foods,
- Canadian families will pay $16,834 for food this year, an $800 increase from last year,
the House call on the government to present a fiscally responsible budget before the House adjourns for the summer, that reverses Liberal inflationary policies so Canadians can afford to put food on the table.
Only real thing I’ve got to say here is that the government releasing a budget isn’t going to do anything about grocery prices. We also have the main estimates so we already know what the spending is going to look like.
The motion went up for a vote and failed with 162 voting in favour and 174 against.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 0 | 166 | 2 |
| Conservative | 141 | 0 | 2 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 21 | 0 | 0 |
| NDP | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| Green | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Canada Carbon Rebate and Payment to Quebec – Christine Normandin (Bloc Québécois, Quebec, Saint-Jean)
Christine has the following motion:
Given that:
- as of April 1, 2025, the government eliminated carbon pricing for Canadian consumers and that this pricing did not apply to Quebec,
- despite its elimination, the government spent $3.7 billion to continue Canada Carbon Rebate payments that Quebeckers do not receive,
- individuals in the listed provinces received the rebate cheque on April 22, 2025, during the federal general election,
- the rebate was paid for with government funds, and therefore by all taxpayers, including those from Quebec,
the House call on the government to pay Quebec, without conditions, an amount equivalent to its contribution to the $3.7 billion in spending, estimated at $814 million;
So it turns out the rebate we’ve been getting was actually being given out in advance of the money actually being collected. The idea is supposed to be that you’ll have the money now to help you deal with the upcoming price increases from the Carbon Tax. That means the last rebate that was handed out came out of money that the government hadn’t collected yet, and wouldn’t be collecting because the consumer tax had been cancelled. Because Quebec has their own program they weren’t subject to the Carbon Tax, which means their tax dollars just went into paying for everyone else’s rebate. The Bloc doesn’t like that, so they’re asking that the province get back the money they would have put in to this rebate.
Amendment – Rhéal Éloi Fortin (Bloc Québécois, Quebec, Rivière-du-Nord)
Rhéal noticed a small problem with Christine’s Motion: Quebec isn’t the only province that didn’t pay into this. He wants to amend the motion to include giving $513 million to British Columbia as well.
This amendment failed with 30 voting in favour and 310 voting against.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 0 | 167 | 1 |
| Conservative | 0 | 143 | 1 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 22 | 0 | 0 |
| NDP | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Green | 1 | 0 | 0 |
A vote was then held on the main motion and it also failed with the same vote split.
Closing Fun
And that’s all for the week! It looks like they were working on forcing through Bill C-5 before the end of the month. They actually seem to want it passed this week. I obviously haven’t had a chance to get into C-5 yet, but we’ll see how things go next week. See you all then!
Not going with a quote this week because I noticed something else I found somewhat amusing, it looks like the Liberals really like the Auditor General’s work. On Tuesday they thanked her 13 times for her work. Her #1 fan was Joël Lightbound (Liberal Minister of Government Tranfsormation, Public Works and Procurement, Quebec, Louis-Hébert) who spoke 17 times that day and thanked her 8 times.
Discover more from Commons Sense
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.