’I haven’t mentioned I might be resigning’ over carbon tax: Guilbeault

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OTTAWA — Surroundings Minister Steven Guilbeault informed the Senate on Wednesday that he has not promised to step down if there are any additional carve-outs from the carbon worth, and he’s placing no stress on any senators to kill off a invoice that will do this.

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Guilbeault’s look within the Senate’s query interval got here amid a furor within the higher chamber over Invoice C-234, which might lengthen carbon worth exemptions for at the very least eight years to propane and pure fuel farmers use to warmth buildings and dry grain.

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The invoice was launched by Conservative MP Ben Lobb in 2022 and handed the Home of Commons earlier this 12 months with help from all events besides the Liberals.

Debate over the invoice within the Senate has turn into so heated that Sen. Bernadette Clement mentioned she was pressured to go away her residence in Cornwall, Ont., for a number of days within the final week after receiving a menace by telephone from an “offended man” who mentioned he would come to her home.

That got here after Conservative Home chief Andrew Scheer posted her photograph and get in touch with info, together with the main points of one other senator, on X, the platform previously often called Twitter. The put up urged folks to name them to ask why they had been shutting down debate.

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Clement had moved to adjourn debate on the invoice on Nov. 9 as a result of she mentioned there have been senators absent who needed to have the ability to converse to it.

Clement and Sen. Raymonde Saint-Germain additionally accused Conservative Sen. Don Plett and a few of his colleagues of bodily intimidation and verbal harassment on the Senate flooring after the adjournment movement.

Plett is predicted to additional reply to the allegations afterward Thursday within the Senate, however mentioned earlier this week that whereas he obtained offended, he didn’t suppose he had “carried out myself unprofessionally.”

The Tories additionally accuse the federal authorities of conspiring with some senators to get the invoice killed, which the Liberals and several other senators deny.

If the invoice is amended within the Senate, that will require one other spherical of debate and voting within the Home of Commons, the place the Liberals would have extra management over when, or even when, that ever occurs.

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It was with all that hanging over the Senate that Guilbeault arrived on Wednesday to take senators’ questions, which cupboard ministers do frequently.

Plett, who’s the chief of the Conservatives within the Senate, pushed Guilbeault on the invoice and demanded to know what number of senators he has “pressured to vote in opposition to or intestine this invoice and deny our farmers the desperately wanted tax aid.”

“Zero,” Guilbeault replied.

Guilbeault has beforehand acknowledged calling about half a dozen senators to discuss the invoice, however he insisted he’s simply giving them the federal government’s place, not pressuring them to vote in opposition to it.

“With all due respect, senator, there’s a world of distinction between speaking to somebody and pressuring or whipping them into doing one thing or voting in a sure approach,” Guilbeault mentioned.

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“You requested me what number of I pressured or whipped, and the reply is zero.”

Conservatives, he accused, are the one ones whipping their caucus to vote a sure approach on the invoice.

“I imagine that the Senate is an important a part of our parliamentary system, and senators ought to have the ability to make the selections that they need with out being pressured by the Home of Commons,” he mentioned.

“I’m not pressuring anybody, versus the Conservative Social gathering of Canada, who has launched a marketing campaign in opposition to senators who don’t agree with them. I discover that very troubling.”

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Plett additionally pushed Guilbeault over a remark the minister made earlier this month promising that “so long as I’m the setting minister, there can be no extra exemptions to carbon pricing,.”

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That got here after the Liberals launched a three-year carve-out from carbon pricing for heating oil, which they mentioned was designed to provide folks extra money and time to interchange oil furnaces with electrical warmth pumps.

“Minister, will you retain your promise and resign if Invoice C-234 is handed in its authentic type?” Plett requested.

“Isn’t that, minister, why you’re calling senators to speak in opposition to this invoice — since you’ve threatened to stop if it passes? Is your job extra vital to you, minister, than the livelihood of Canadian farmers and reasonably priced meals for Canadian households?”

Guilbeault denied any of that to be true.

“I haven’t mentioned I might be resigning,” he mentioned. “The prime minister of Canada has additionally mentioned that there can be no exemption to carbon pricing on this nation.”

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