Juno News - In an exclusive interview, Kris Sims and Pierre Poilievre discuss affordability

00:00:00.000 Right. I wanted to get on to meat and potatoes here because there's the circus that happens in

00:00:03.820 Ottawa. And yes, it upsets people. And that's why we're talking to you because it upsets people

00:00:08.260 because they feel like their vote doesn't count. And that's awful. We want people to make sure

00:00:12.500 their vote counts and they want them to have confidence in our system. But I wanted to get

00:00:16.760 into why people are so upset. And that's frankly, because they can't afford stuff. Like at the

00:00:23.440 Taxpayers Federation, we've been pushing hard to get rid of fuel taxes and all forms of carbon

00:00:28.080 taxes. Thank you for staying with this issue through all the noise. And I just saw you at

00:00:34.780 a press conference in Ottawa. I think you were at a gas station near Gladstone and you were pushing

00:00:40.140 for a cancellation, if I'm not wrong, of federal fuel taxes until the end of the calendar year.

00:00:46.020 How much would the save and why? 25 cents a liter, 20 bucks a fill up and about $1,200 for the average

00:00:54.080 family of four by Christmas time. And it's very simple. Right now, the federal government is

00:00:59.760 collecting billions of dollars of extra revenue as a result of the higher oil prices driving up

00:01:07.560 profits for oil companies. And when they get more profit, they pay more tax. So I'm saying,

00:01:13.280 why don't you give that money back to the people who are paying at the pumps by eliminating the

00:01:17.420 25 cents of federal tax that we pay. The gap between gas prices in the United States

00:01:25.140 and Canada is roughly 20%. So, you know, people will rightly point out that the immediate cause

00:01:32.440 of the higher gas price is the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. And in fairness, our government

00:01:37.960 didn't cause that. The tyrannical regime in Iran is causing that. However, that doesn't explain

00:01:45.440 why we're paying 20% more in Canada than in the US. They're affected by global oil prices as well.

00:01:51.840 The difference is the tax gap, liberal taxes on fuel make Canadians pay far more at the pumps.

00:01:59.000 So eliminating that tax would save you a lot of money. And by the way, it's not just at the pumps,

00:02:03.560 it will also save you in groceries and deliveries. You've got surcharges now on

00:02:07.720 food and on Amazon deliveries that are the direct result of fuel prices. You've got

00:02:14.940 surcharges added up on airlines. So by getting rid of the tax on fuel, you bring down flights

00:02:22.280 and groceries and Amazon deliveries and everything else. It's also, I would always say this, people

00:02:29.060 think that this is just like a bumper sticker policy that's popular with consumers. The bottom

00:02:34.700 line is that the lifeblood of a strong, sovereign economy is affordable, abundant energy. When you

00:02:41.160 bring energy prices down, you bring economic activity up. It is the lifeblood of our economy.

00:02:47.260 Cheap, reliable energy powers a strong economy.

Juno News - April 13, 2026