Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that the hon. member shared his views on so many topics, but specifically to Bill S-5, a number of members of Parliament have suggested that the reference to plastics under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act is tantamount to a ban on plastics. I just want to make sure that, in reading the bill, the hon. member will agree with me that Bill S-5 would not ban any plas…
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Madam Speaker, given that the entire day today will be occupied by a discussion of the ArriveCAN app, I want to put to the minister that there are deep divisions in this country that will persist for some time related to other issues in terms of how the COVID pandemic was handled. For example, we now see the Premier of Alberta deciding to block public health officers from allowing children to be m…
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Madam Speaker, I am very sorry to interrupt my hon. friend from Provencher, but I am looking forward to hearing anything about Bill S-5.
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Madam Speaker, number one, Bill S-5 does not deal with climate, and I recognize a big part of the debate we are having here is on sections of environmental and climate policy that are not in Bill S-5. It is true the government has never met any target, but neither did the previous government under Stephen Harper, which picked a target in Copenhagen and said it would meet that target. It picked a t…
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Madam Speaker, I happen to have worked in the administration under former prime minister Brian Mulroney. I worked on acid rain and worked on the treaty that protected the ozone layer. I can contrast, from first-hand experience, why the current Liberal government is not hitting targets and Brian Mulroney's government did. At no time did we in that government decide to fight acid rain while subsidiz…
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Madam Speaker, I am certainly very concerned that this bill not be rushed through. I agree with him insofar as that comment. This is a very complex bill. The Canadian Environmental Protection Act is a very long act in six parts. The government has chosen not to review or update part 6 at all, which deals with marine dumping and genetically modified organisms. That section needs attention but will …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I am honoured to rise on behalf of constituents from Saanich—Gulf Islands who are very concerned about the status of old-growth forests. This petition focuses on the different aspects of the importance of old growth in terms of climate, indigenous rights, biodiversity and the dwindling number of old-growth forests, particularly on Vancouver Island and along areas of Fairy Creek, whi…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, who is truly an hon. colleague and parliamentary secretary, but I am very disturbed that we did not even send observers to the Vienna conference for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. I think we need to look much more closely at how much more precarious our situation is now and how much less we were able to assist Ukraine because we could not say w…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to pursue a question I initially asked in the month of May relating to the upcoming June session, the first session, of the conference of the parties within the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. I asked the question as to whether Canada was going to attend. I was following up on a question from the hon. member for Edmonton Strathcona, who had just asked…
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Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, I am sorry but Bill S-5 is not a sign of irrelevance for all climate policy. It happens to be the bill we are debating now.
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Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, and I am profoundly sorry to interrupt the hon. member for Calgary Nose Hill, because it is an important speech, but it has absolutely nothing to do with Bill S-5. Bill S-5 deals with toxic chemicals, and with six different parts, none touch on carbon pricing; none are about Russia, Ukraine or climate. Bill S-5 is a different bill altogether. This is an important …
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Madam Speaker, this gives me an opportunity to clarify some constitutional elements that have been misunderstood in the debate so far today. I have heard a number of Conservative MPs say that somehow this involves the Criminal Code. I want to clarify this really forcefully: I have a lot of problems with this bill, but it does not involve the Criminal Code. It involves the head of powers, the crimi…
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Madam Speaker, I noted that the hon. member did address an important point with which I agree, which is that the right to a healthy environment must be a real right, an enforceable right, which would mean that the government has to open up section 22 of the existing Canadian Environmental Protection Act. However, I noted her reference to blood oil. The Green Party agrees that we should cancel all …
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Madam Speaker, I think we have a problem. There is a flaw in the Environment Canada framework because the purpose of the bill is unclear. In the beginning, 30 years ago, it was important to maintain the list of toxic substances set out in the act. The Supreme Court of Canada rendered a famous ruling in that regard in R. v. Hydro-Québec. It is clear from that Supreme Court ruling that we need to co…
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Mr. Speaker, I applauded, with great gusto, when the hon. member completed his first two minutes. What is to be encouraged is that sharing of a moment of a speech given before, where he had a two-week gap before resuming the speech. I do not disagree with a single thing that the hon. member said. I like the fact that I am able to thank a Conservative member, because I quite often find myself diffe…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition from constituents that relates to the climate crisis. The petitioners point out that Canada signed on to the Paris Agreement, which in its text includes a commitment to a just transition for fossil fuel sector workers. This is consistent with Liberal Party platform commitments that have yet to be realized. Oil and gas workers and coal sector workers …
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Mr. Speaker, for the hon. member for Cariboo—Prince George, I very much support Bill C-31. I have heard over and over again that people get dental care if they need it in this country. I have not shared any personal stories up until now, but I have enough respect for the member for Cariboo—Prince George to say that when I was a single mom and earning under $30,000 per year, I put the priority on g…
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Madam Speaker, I know my hon. colleague from Regina—Qu'Appelle well, and I was in this place and certainly a close watcher of the Harper administration for years. I would like to put to the member that if Stephen Harper had been prime minister at the beginning of the COVID outbreak, there is no doubt in my mind that he would have done exactly the same things the Liberal government did. That is bec…
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Mr. Speaker, I am restricting my comments right now to the issue of time allocation. I will oppose time allocation in every instance, unless the circumstances are truly exigent. I first served in this place when Stephen Harper's government had a majority and, for the first time in parliamentary history, closure motions such as this became routine. We lamented it at the time. At the time, we, inclu…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a rare opportunity for me to speak to this kind of motion and follow up on something the minister said. I think we all agree that we would like to see the smoother operation of this place. I have had the honour of working in and around Parliament Hill for a number of decades. We used to have more co-operation among the House leaders. We used to have better scheduling of debates …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise today to present a petition. It is rather long, so I will try to summarize it, as required by our Standing Orders. It relates to the really high value and importance of old-growth forests for Canada, particularly in the context of indigenous values, indigenous exercise of rights under treaties and the indigenous role in fighting the climate crisis. Petitioners …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Canadians care about human rights. We stand up for human rights, whether it is for the Uighur Muslims in the People's Republic of China and whether it is the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and around the world. We must also stand up for Palestinian human rights. We must make it very clear that as a staunch friend of Israel we also call for human rights to be respected for the people of P…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Beloeil—Chambly for proposing this topic for debate in the House today. However, what he is suggesting is just half a proposal, merely seeking to abolish our constitutional monarchy. Does he have any alternatives to propose? We currently have a head of state, who is the monarch. We have a head of government, who is the Prime Minister. Does the Bloc Québécois b…
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour to participate in this debate. My question for my colleague from Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot is almost the same as the one the parliamentary secretary asked. Early in the debate, this morning, I asked the leader of the Bloc Québécois the same question: What alternative is the Bloc proposing? I did not get an answer. I guess the Bloc did not have an alternative in mind when…
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Madam Speaker, it really is a pleasure to put a question to the hon. member for Perth—Wellington, who is, as ever, knowledgeable and thoughtful in putting forward his views. I am very grateful to him for stressing that when we take our oath as members of Parliament to His Majesty, we are taking an oath to Canada, not to any one person. In the past, I took my oath to Her Majesty the Queen. I was no…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to take the floor this morning as we begin proceedings. The petition I am presenting today deals with the ongoing problem of single-use plastics. The petitioners point out that the current regulations that have been put forward are full of loopholes and would allow such things as individual single-use items like plastic forks to be considered durable if they can be use…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Lest my friend from Cypress Hills—Grasslands thinks I am biased in the matter on which I raised a question of relevance, while I have not disagreed with a single word from my friend from Timmins—James Bay, I have not heard much about Bill S-5.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciated that the member worked into his speech on this motion this evening the importance of the United Nations in multilateral work. It is the definition of multilateral work that we have a United Nations and that we are able to work within it even in times when the world is in graver crises than we have seen, I think, in my whole lifetime. We are closer to nuclear war, and w…
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Madam Speaker, I love the hon. member for Kitchener Centre. We are each half of our caucus. The Senate did improve this by removing the balancing. It said it can be limited by factors that would normally be used to limit any extended right, but the bill has improved in that area. The right to a healthy environment is no right at all if it cannot be enforced. We have to take the barriers out of sec…
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Madam Speaker, it was one of the greatest privileges of my life as a non-party member. I was never a Conservative, but that government did great work. I have to say that I am not sure any of the parties are as good on the environment now as they were in the eighties. I do not want to make this comment partisan, but there is no question in my mind that the Liberals in the 1980s, whether it was the …
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Madam Speaker, I have worked on the Canadian Environment Protection Act since before its first reading in the late 1980s. I was in the office of the minister of environment, so I know the bill quite well. It is with the greatest and most profound sense of sadness that I see what we have before us, because so many opportunities to modernize and do what needs to be done are lost. I fervently hope th…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to reassure the hon. member for Oshawa that there is no way in this world that we could accuse the Liberal government of being too strong with its actions on single-use plastics. We have an appallingly weak set of regulations. Nothing in any government announcement or in this act will reduce the use of lightweight plastics in the manufacturing of durable goods. Nothing.…
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Madam Speaker, for my hon. colleague from Cariboo—Prince George, it is such a joy to hear such a thoughtful speech that really looked at Bill S-5 and what is wrong with it. I totally agree with the member that it is not adequate for the government to promise us a right to a healthy environment and then tell us it will take two years to figure out what that is. Let us hope we fix that. With respect…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I totally agree with the points my hon. colleague from Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan has made that we cannot turn away or pretend we do not know about the genocidal treatment of Uighur Muslims in the People's Republic of China. I wonder if he thinks that at any point his party would be open to a thorough review of how this country became beholden to the People's Republic of China …
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Mr. Speaker, obviously I would disagree with the hon. member for Dufferin—Caledon, and so would some members of his caucus, who favour carbon pricing. I want to correct the record, because, I am sure unintentionally, he has misstated the progress Germany has made in reducing greenhouse gases. He used the claim that 70% of Germany's electricity was still coming from fossil fuels. It is too high, bu…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the member for Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, who always works hard for the environment. She is an absolutely wonderful member of Parliament. My question is about the right to a healthy environment. During today's debate, I noticed that some members found it odd to have a right to a healthy environment. At present, 150 countries have enshrined the protection …
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Mr. Speaker, as tempting as it is to engage in a discussion of a thousand-year record drought, I want to stick to Bill S-5 and its impacts. I have a close history and connection to the bill, and I want to ask the hon. member for Cypress Hills—Grasslands if he is aware of how deeply this bill is embedded in his own party. I hope that the Conservatives will support amendments to Bill S-5 and help st…
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Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, the hon. member for Cypress Hills—Grasslands has not yet touched on Bill S-5, which is certainly the subject of debate today, and I would ask you if there is a need to ask for relevance.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, “Establish and fully fund a Canada Water Agency in 2022” and “Modernize the 50-year-old Canada Water Act” are quotes from the Liberal platform. A fully independent and integrated Canada water agency is urgently needed. We lack the scientific capacity to monitor water quality and quantity, to predict impacts and to protect safe water. The climate crisis is a water crisis. No more annou…
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Madam Speaker, it is my first opportunity to rise today to speak on the opposition motion. I want to make it clear that I am agreeing with the official opposition that Canadians are facing some serious energy pricing problems this winter, but I am making clear I will have to vote against the motion because I do not believe it addresses the real problems, nor is it as effective as the amendment jus…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in the House to present a petition that deals with the ongoing and all-too-slow effort to implement the recommendations and calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The report, of course, was from an in-depth inquiry, and the petitioners reference that in 2013, the Hon. Frank Iacobucci issued his report on first nations representation on On…
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Mr. Speaker, I hope I can get through this. All of the tributes from all parties have been heartfelt. I first met Bill Blaikie in 1987. I have been honoured for 35 years to call him a friend and to love him as a colleague and as a fellow Christian warrior for the things we believe in. I knew Bill since 1987. Obviously I was not elected when Bill was here. In 1987, Bill was the environment critic f…
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Madam Speaker, the petitioners are asking that the Government of Canada and the Parliament of Canada consider moving in the direction the European Parliament voted to pursue back in September of 2021, and that is to phase out the use of animals in research. The petitioners note that animal models do not closely resemble human biological systems and are not necessarily as accurate for medical resea…
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise to address a question to my colleague and friend and chair of the environment committee. We did have in mind discussing the Canadian Environmental Protection Act amendments today, but I am drawn to his very thoughtful speech, as he is a very thoughtful member, and the question of how we defeat authoritarianism. I think that democracy is at risk. Democracies a…
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Madam Speaker, we have worked together on the issue of nuclear disarmament a lot. The Canadian government has appallingly ignored the development. We did not participate in the negotiation of the treaty for the prohibition of nuclear weapons, which actually has entered into force, yet no nuclear state has signed on to it. It is critical that Canada do so. I do want to pay tribute to the leadership…
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I really do enjoy this member's presentation of petitions, and he is diligent in presenting them, but I do think some of the last rhetoric may not have been found in the petition and was actually the talking points of the Conservative caucus we hear every day. I would ask the Speaker to rule on whether saying “triple, triple, triple the carbon tax” is par…
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Madam Speaker, I do support this bill. I would like to share with the hon. member what I hear when I ask constituents what their top-of-mind issues are. Health care is right up there. I have never heard them say dental. If this bill were calling for every family to get access to a family doctor and every community to have ambulances and emergency care, I would not care how many closure motions wer…
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Madam Speaker, I very much support this bill and I value the opportunity to ask the member a question and, in the process, explain why I voted against the motion to have closure on debate. I want this bill passed, but I find closure is used all too frequently. In the first Parliament in which Stephen Harper had a majority, I was sitting as an opposition member and almost every bill had closure. Al…
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Madam Speaker, we are all human. That is not a problem. I want to ask my friend a question. What does she think of the Senate's amendments that eliminate the issue of balance, balancing with other factors? In Bill S-5, with the Senate amendments, there is not a real right to protect the environment. What is her response?
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my dear colleague from Repentigny, especially for her remarks about my efforts in this place. We agree that Bill S-5 needs a lot of improvement. I want to ask a question about—
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