Poilievre Calls Record Diesel a Crisis as Carney’s Relief Numbers Don’t Cover the Pump

OTTAWA – September 25, 2026 – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre spent two days in the House calling Canada’s diesel price a “full-scale crisis,” and the gap he put on the record is the part the government has not closed: Canadians are paying about $2.74 to $2.76 a litre, 32 cents more than the United States and 41 cents more than the world average, in a country with the fourth-largest oil supply on earth.

“Why aren’t we having the lowest prices anywhere in the world?” he asked.

A Bruce County farmer, he said, spent $3,000 on fuel in a single day. Harvest budgets that used to run near $50,000 have more than doubled. Conservatives want an emergency plan: take remaining federal diesel taxes off until at least Canada Day, and pre-permit plus tax-relieve new refining and fuel transport so Canada is not waiting on someone else’s diesel.

Prime Minister Mark Carney blamed the wars in Iran and Ukraine. That part of the file is not invented. The International Energy Agency says Gulf diesel and gasoil exports in August were about a quarter of pre-war levels after the Iran conflict squeezed the Strait of Hormuz. Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries have tightened the same market. U.S. retail diesel has also jumped. What that explanation does not cover is the Canadian premium. If the shock were only global, the U.S. pump would not be 32 cents cheaper.

Carney then pointed at the provinces. “There are things in Canada called provinces. The provinces put taxes on diesel.” Ontario does charge 9 cents a litre in provincial fuel tax, plus 13 per cent HST on the sale. That is real. It is also not the whole federal story. The consumer carbon tax is gone. The federal excise tax on diesel — 4 cents a litre — is suspended until Jan. 31, 2027, then returns at 2 cents in February and March and at the full 4 cents on April 1. Finance Canada’s own release is clear: the holiday on diesel is 4 cents, not 40. GST still applies to the inflated litre. The clean-fuel standard, which the Parliamentary Budget Officer and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation have pegged at up to about 6 cents a litre on diesel now and rising, does not appear on the receipt.

Poilievre read department figures this week that put the clean-fuel add-on at 7 cents this year and climbing toward 17 cents a litre later in the decade. Liberals say the long-run cost is lower than those numbers. They have not shown a pump price that looks like the holiday is doing the work they describe.

Carney also told the House the government is “providing $20,000 for a family of four as an affordability measure.” Finance Canada’s published Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit does not say that. The government’s own example is a low- or modest-income family of four receiving up to $1,890 this year, up from about $1,100, then about $1,400 in later years. That is a GST-credit top-up, not a $20,000 diesel cheque, and it does not go to every household that is paying $2.76 at the cardlock.

Bill C-38, tabled this sitting, extends the existing 4-cent diesel holiday. It does not cancel GST on fuel, does not pause the clean-fuel standard, and does not build a refinery. Carney’s other answer is Bill C-39 and a one-year clock on major projects. Poilievre’s line is that a real growth bill would scrap the rules that keep fuel expensive, not rename them.

West of Thunder Bay the argument is already on the invoice. Petro-Canada’s Sept. 22 rack list put Thunder Bay ultra-low-sulphur diesel at 219.3 cents a litre before tax — higher than Toronto, London or Sarnia. Retail is higher again. Groceries into Kenora, pulp and lumber out of Dryden and the Lakehead, mine concentrate, school buses, ambulances and off-grid heating all move on diesel. Highway 11 and 17 do not get cheaper because Ottawa extended a 4-cent holiday.

Poilievre says strip the remaining federal take until Canada Day and permit the plants that turn Canadian crude into Canadian diesel. Carney says the wars and the provinces did this. The 32-cent gap with the United States is still on the pump.