MP makes his case supporting carbon tax

MP 'facts the tax'

Photo: Parliament of Canada

South Okanagan-West Kootenay MP Richard Cannings

In recent weeks, the Conservative Party’s rhetoric about the federal carbon tax has reached epic proportions.

So, I thought it was time to take another look at all the misinformation being thrown around. In other words, let’s “facts the tax.”

First, we don’t pay the federal carbon tax in B.C. as we’ve had our own carbon tax since 2008—so eliminating or reducing the federal tax would have no impact here at all. As well, studies over the past 15 years have shown the B.C. carbon tax has been effective in reducing vehicle emissions without negatively impacting the economy. So, the tax works in achieving its goal.

Over the past couple of years, Canadians have faced rising food and housing costs as inflation eats into our ability to pay for essentials. The Conservatives have claimed the federal carbon tax is the cause of rising food prices and increased use of food banks. But the Bank of Canada and experts from the University of Calgary have shown it only adds 0.15% to inflation.

So, if your grocery bill has gone up by $100, the carbon tax is only responsible for 15 cents of that increase. Grocery bills have gone up because of international inflationary pressures combined with corporate greed here at home.

Yes, the cost of transporting food has gone up, but the vast majority of that rise is due to external factors such as the world price of oil, which has, in turn, been influenced by global instability including the Russian invasion of Ukraine and troubles in the Middle East.

Indeed, the price of gas at the pumps in our region went up 10 cents on its own the week before the annual (B.C.) carbon tax increase of three cents per litre of gasoline in B.C.

The increase due to the rising price of oil goes directly into the pockets of the big oil companies that continue to post billions and billions of dollars in record profits. The five big oil companies in Canada made more than $38 billion in profits last year alone, and those excess profits account for about 10 times the amount of gas price inflation compared to that caused by rising taxes.

So yes, it costs more to drive your car or truck. But you can blame the oil companies for that, not the carbon tax.

When gas prices go up, it affects the price of everything. In fact, those oil company windfall profits account for about 25% of Canadian inflation costs.

So why not direct our anger and efforts towards the excessive profits and opportunistic corporate greed that are truly hurting Canadians? Why do the Conservatives point the finger at the carbon tax instead?

First, any tax is an easy target and a way to score political points. Second, the Conservatives know this is a good wedge issue, as (I feel) they are the only politicians who don’t believe in climate change and the need to bring down carbon emissions.

I got into politics to work across political lines and bring a voice of integrity and science to our governance. I have made a concerted effort to avoid negative politics, but on this issue, I cannot be silent.

The NDP has proposed several measures to help Canadians struggling with rising costs of everything and at the same time maintain pressure to lower emissions. NDP MPs have suggested Canada follow the lead of the United Kingdom, Spain and other countries in imposing a windfall tax on oil companies that would bring in billions of dollars to help Canadians who truly need that support.

We have also asked the government to take the GST off home heating fuels as a concrete way to help people through this affordability crisis. But again, the Conservatives and Liberals alike showed they weren’t interested in real solutions and voted against those proposals.

Climate change isn’t going away, in fact, we’re headed towards what could be our most devastating summer for drought and wildfire.

It would be irresponsible to abandon one of our best and cheapest tools for reducing emissions.

Richard Cannings is the NDP MP for South Okanagan-West Kootenay.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.

NDP pushing on issues that directly affect Canadians, say MP

Using political leverage

Photo: Parliament of Canada

South Okanagan-West Kootenay MP Richard Cannings

“Fighting for you.” It’s an expression that has made its way into some of my columns and not one I particularly like, given one of my key motivations for entering politics was to bring people together, to work together across party lines to make real changes to make lives better.

Still, the sentiment of “fighting for you” rings true in much that the NDP has accomplished. In truth, it looks more like pushing the (governing) Liberals to keep their promises, to put the interests of those who need help most before that of investors and donors.

It also looks like hours upon hours of committee meetings, negotiations, late-night debates, public pressure and often compromise too. It’s hard work. (The federal NDP) holds the balance of power in (the current) minority government situation, but instead of unproductive insults and accusations, my party has used that position to push a large body of policy specifically designed for one purpose—to help people.

Just days ago, the New Democrats used an Opposition Day motion to call on the government to take action on the devastation happening in Gaza and Israel. With help across party lines, we were able to find common ground and pass a motion for Canada to work toward a two-state solution, stop selling arms to the Israeli government, place sanctions on extremist settlers, and call on Hamas to lay down its arms and release Israeli hostages. No Conservative MPs voted in favour of the motion.

The list of what we’ve achieved through our position in parliament is long—a plan for pharmacare that includes coverage for contraceptives and diabetes medication and devices this year, a national dental care Plan, anti-“scab” (replacement worker) legislation to protect workers (during a strike or lock-out), laws that strengthen the Competition Act to boost competition and oversight of the grocery sector, a doubling of the GST credit, the Canada Disability Benefit, and major funding announcements for the Housing Accelerator Fund, which is a key part of our supply-and-confidence agreement with government.

New Democrats are not done. We’re fighting for real action on climate change, including a national firefighting force and a Youth Climate Corps, to create good, green jobs for youth across the country.

We need a national school lunch program and a fund to protect renters. We need to ensure proper investments in childcare continue until all families can enjoy $10 per day childcare. We need real investments in our health care system to ensure Canadians are getting the care they need.

In this sense, we’re still fighting, but we’re fighting for the things Canadians need, not against other Canadians. These days, I’m seeing far too many political messages that pit Canadians against each other. It’s similar to the politics we see to our south (in the U.S.) It’s dismissing credible media and attacking experts and evidence. Far too often it is deliberate misrepresentation in the name of garnering popularity.

We are facing considerable challenges on so many fronts and too many people are struggling to get by. These are the fights we need to take on, not against one another. There is much work to do and we can succeed if we continue to propose real solutions and identify the real sources of the challenges we face.

This is why I’m a New Democrat and why we’ve accomplished so much in these past months.

Richard Cannings is the NDP MP for South Okanagan-West Kootenay.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.

MP touts new Pharmacare Act as a health game changer in Canada

Pharmacare Act is needed

Photo: Parliament of Canada

South Okanagan-West Kootenay MP Richard Cannings.

Last week Canada took another major step forward truly universal healthcare with the tabling of the (NDP-prompted) Pharmacare Act.

When fully implemented this legislation will allow all Canadians to use their health card to obtain their prescription drugs, just as they use it to see a doctor or use hospital facilities. It will also save Canada as much as $10 billion or more every year through the power of a single payer for prescription drugs and reduced health care costs because Canadians will simply be healthier.

Our present pharmacare system is a patchwork of coverage, paid for by federal and provincial governments, businesses and individual Canadians. There are more than 100 public, and tens of thousands of private, insurance plans. That means we have no bargaining power at all with big pharmaceutical companies and, not surprisingly, end up paying the second highest drug costs in the world.

Countries that have single-payer models pay much less. New Zealand pays one-tenth of what we pay for some common prescription drugs.

Why is that important? Well, for one thing, about 20% of Canadians simply can’t afford to buy medicines prescribed to them by their doctor because of high costs. That not only impacts their health directly, but it also clogs up our health care system as more people end up in emergency rooms and hospital wards. So it adds billions of dollars in health care costs that could have been avoided if people had access to free prescription medications.

The new Pharmacare Act also adds coverage for contraceptives and diabetes medications and devices. The contraceptive coverage copies what was brought in by the B.C. NDP government a month ago. The diabetes coverage is critically important to the 20% of Canadians who suffer from the disease, a number that has doubled in the last 20 years.

Diabetes causes 30% of strokes in Canada, 40% of heart attacks, 50% of kidney failure. It is also the leading cause of blindness. Most critically, about 7,000 Canadians, many of them young people, die every year as a direct result of diabetes. Many of these diabetic complications are caused by poor management of the disease because many Canadians cannot afford the devices and tests that are necessary, or even afford the insulin.

The new Pharmacare Act is a necessary step to implement a universal, public, single-payer pharmacare system in Canada. Like the universal health care coverage we’ve all enjoyed since Tommy Douglas’ (Saskatchewan government) first brought it into effect in Canada more than 60 years ago, it will require negotiations with the provinces, because they share responsibility for health care in our country.

This act is a framework for those negotiations. It sets out the ground rules for a national pharmacare plan in which the federal government will be the single buyer of prescription drugs. There will obviously be some spirited discussions with provincial governments, as there was with our original health care system. But pharmacare is such an obvious benefit for all Canadians and all provinces and territories, I’m sure we will see clear progress on that front.

We should see the plan in place with coverage for diabetes and contraceptives by the end of this year.

The big pharmaceutical companies, that have been gouging us for too long, may not approve, but for the rest of us, a universal, public pharmacare program will keep us all healthier and save us billions in the bargain.

Richard Cannings is the NDP MP for South Okanagan-West Kootenay.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.

Climate change has devastating effect on fruit and wine industries in B.C.

Grape harvest lost

Photo: Parliament of Canada

South Okanagan-West Kootenay MP Richard Cannings

I’ve written several times recently about the costs of climate change.

Some of those costs are obvious, including the loss of homes, property, and infrastructure due to the increased severity of climate-related events such as wildfires, floods, hurricanes and tornados. Home insurance costs are going up for everybody because of those events.

One sector that is at a very high risk of impact from climate change often goes under the radar, and that is agriculture—the sector that feeds all of us.

The Canadian Prairies have been dealing with drought conditions for the past few years, and last summer saw southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and parts of Manitoba report significantly reduced harvests of wheat and other crops. In addition, a lack of feed for cattle impacted the beef sector.

One of the biggest impacts of extreme weather hit the fruit and wine industries in the Okanagan and other nearby valleys in mid-January. A long, mild fall and early winter had orchard trees and vines with rising sap, ready for spring, and then suddenly the temperature fell more than 20 C overnight. In one orchard, the temperature went from 2 C to -23 C in 12 hours.

The rapid change, from warm, almost spring-like temperatures to record low temperatures overnight, resulted directly from a warming climate. The polar vortex and mid-latitude jet stream are driven by the difference in temperature between the Arctic and temperate air masses. When the Arctic warms more rapidly than temperate zones, as is happening with climate change, the linear jet stream weakens and begins to wander in big loops like a stream traversing a prairie. One loop will bring unusually warm air north, while the neighbouring loop brings frigid polar air southward.

So, while climate change is often described as global warming, it can produce extreme temperatures at both ends of the spectrum.

Soft fruits and grape vines can’t easily tolerate temperatures below -20 C, especially when they occur so rapidly the plants cannot adequately adapt to the freeze. A recent sampling study throughout the Okanagan found essentially no live buds on grape vines, indicating a complete loss of the 2024 harvest. The direct financial impact of this loss is estimated at $440 million. Fruit growers face similar losses, especially cherry and peach growers.

This loss comes on the heels of a similar event in December 2022 that cut the 2023 grape harvest in half. Many wineries were reeling from that event when this freeze came along, and many have no insurance for this type of event.

The wine and orchard sector is a huge part of the economy of the Okanagan and Similkameen valleys. These crop losses will have knock-on effects throughout the region.

There are federal-provincial government assistance programs that can partially compensate for loss of income in farming operations and extraordinary costs that are necessary after a natural disaster.

I asked the federal agriculture minister in Question Period last week to take action to help save this industry. I’ve also talked to the provincial agriculture minister to make sure she knows the seriousness of the situation.

Over the next two days, I’ll meet with both fruit growers and wine makers to discuss ways to get through the immediate financial crisis of a total crop loss, and what can be done in the long-term to make the sector more resilient to these catastrophic events.

One thing is becoming clearer with every passing season, we are living the effects of climate change and must quickly adapt to them or face serious and often unexpected consequences.

Richard Cannings is the NDP MP for South Okanagan–West Kootenay.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.