Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to stand in the House today to talk about all of the measures with respect to banking regulations and fees that various organizations and companies charge consumers, and how the government is taking actions to reduce those fees and help Canadians through this challenging affordability crisis that so many people are experiencing.

I would like to congratulate the small businesses in Milton that I visited over the last couple of weeks to talk about the reductions in their credit card fees.

Indeed, budget 2024 reduced credit card transaction fees for small businesses, which took effect on October 19. This has an impact on 90% of small businesses that accept credit cards, and we are lowering their fees by 27%. That is going to save the average small business, like BarBurrito in Milton, up to $3,000 or $4,000 a year. That is money that business owners can reinvest in their business, use to sponsor a local soccer team or use to hire a new employee or two. This is making a huge impact on small businesses and it is only because of the leadership of the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister, who stood up to some of the largest companies in the world, Visa and Mastercard, and said they were charging too much for those transactions.

Everybody uses credit cards to pay for meals and goods every single day. On a small transaction, like $20 for lunch, it really does add up over the course of a year. Congratulations to all the small business owners across the country who will be seeing a 27% reduction in that very onerous cost from large credit card companies.

This builds on the action we took with the tax cut for small businesses that we brought forward in budget 2022, which is also saving businesses across Canada $660 million. It is phenomenal.

Small businesses in Canada are the heart and the backbone of our economy. They employ local people and purchase local goods. I always encourage people to shop local. In fact, this year I was wondering if I could manage to buy all of my Christmas presents on Main Street in Milton. We have some amazing shops, opportunities to buy gift cards, a lot of great perishable items, but also great things for the shelf, just really nice items, and not just seasonal items either. I am thinking of The Barn Door Studio in Milton, which is a gift shop but also a coffee shop and craft studio. We also have a brand-new chocolate store in Milton that I am really excited to shop at over the holidays. Chudleigh’s Blossom Cafe is a great place to go for a hot chocolate or hot cider or coffee over the winter.

Milton is just chockablock with great local small businesses, and all of them are saving money with the government's new transaction fee reduction of 27%. It is good news for small businesses and it is great news for our economy. It is also good news for consumers, as when we lower those costs for small businesses, they can choose to pass on those savings to their customers. We are very hopeful.

Our economy is rebounding from the COVID downturn in remarkable fashion; it is doing quite well. We added over 50,000 jobs in the last couple of months, and 183,000 jobs just in Ontario over the last four months. We know global inflation is a challenge for families in Canada, but we are meeting the moment and we are fighting every single day on affordability with real solutions that are having a very significant impact for families.

I was here in adjournment debate last night talking about the impact that one of those, the Canada carbon rebate, is having for lower-income families. As we continue to fight the climate crisis and do our part in a global carbon market to reduce our footprint, we have to acknowledge that as an oil-producing nation, Canada is very wealthy and we have one of the largest, if not the largest, carbon footprints per capita in the world.

The Conservatives like to talk about accountability and responsibility. I want to be accountable to future generations in terms of the impact I have on the environment. As Canadians, we deal with a lot of extreme weather, even outside of the extreme weather that has been in the news lately. The summers can be very hot and the winters can be very cold in any given year. I heard on the radio this morning that there is absolutely no shadow of a doubt that 2024 will be the hottest year on record for Planet Earth. It will be the first year ever that we will have experienced more than 1.5°C of warming.

If I sound a bit emotional, it is because I love Planet Earth and because we are up against people who seem to ignore that we as Canadians have an obligation to protect it and to reduce, wherever possible, our impact on Planet Earth.

We know burning fossil fuels is the main human cause for climate change. There is no denying that; the science is very clear. Canada is proudly an oil-producing nation, and oil exports are at an all-time high from Canada. Oil and gas profits are at an all-time high in Canada. I congratulate those companies. Just 10 years ago, their profits were around $6.5 billion to $6.6 billion. Now they are in excess of $60 billion. That is great for Canada's economy, but those dollars need to be reinvested into innovation because, unfortunately, the intensity of a barrel of oil coming from the oil sands in Alberta has only gotten worse since the 1990s.

Every single sector in Canada is reducing its carbon footprint and reducing the impact it is having on the environment. All sectors are finding ways to use less fossil fuel and to burn less fuel in their production and operations. The fossil fuel industry, in particular the oil sands in Alberta and Saskatchewan, is having a negative impact—

Adam van Koeverden

$531,774.00