The Senate resolved into a Committee of the Whole in order to receive the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, P.C., M.P., Minister of Finance and National Revenue, accompanied by at most two officials, to examine the subject matter of Bill C-38, An Act to amend the Excise Tax Act (extension of the federal fuel excise tax relief)

Senator Henkel: Good afternoon, minister. Thank you for joining us today and for coming here regularly to take questions from senators.

You chose to maintain the full suspension of the excise tax until January 31, 2027. As a result, Canadians will see a real difference in the price that they pay. However, business owners and Canadians have been asking me why you chose that specific date. I would like you to tell us why you chose January 31 over any other date and what factors or data you based that decision on.

Mr. Champagne: Thank you, senator. It is always a pleasure and a privilege to appear before the Senate and to talk with senators.

When we first suspended the excise tax, we were thinking about the state of the world and about how quickly things were changing. When we announced the measure in April, some people believed that the tensions in the Middle East would be resolved one way or another and that shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz would get back to normal. However, we now know that this is definitely going to take longer and be more complicated than we thought, particularly because we saw that . . . . I often say that geography doesn’t change very much and neither do people. We are now at the point where we are realizing that there will always be some tension.

Perhaps you heard the executive director of the International Energy Agency say:

[English]

“The global energy architecture is changing, and Canada can be at the centre of it.”

[Translation]

People are starting to realize that . . . . As you know, there are about eight straits in the world that are critically important to shipping and logistics. None of them are in Canada. Canada has access to three oceans, but it has no straits.

As I see it, Canada can and must become that reliable energy security partner because what our discussions today show is that there is a direct link between food security, energy security and national security. That is why countries are turning to Canada. When the global energy architecture changes, as Fatih Birol said in Montreal, people start to wonder who they’ll be doing business with for the next 40 or 50 years. Energy security is national security. Take our Asian partners, for example, like Japan or South Korea. They import a lot of their food, but also a lot of their energy.

As for the choice of date, we thought that a solution would be found by then. That’s why we chose it. However, we realize that we are going to need to postpone it to allow for a longer suspension because of the secondary effects.

The Chair: Thank you, minister.