Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, once again, I will go back to the fact that, last week, we had a moment of incredible unity with the premiers and the Prime Minister together, sitting down and talking about how we build national interest projects. That is what we will be supporting, because that is what Canadians want to see from us.
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Mr. Speaker, what consensus are they referring to? They are literally speaking in the way of hypotheticals. I am not sure what they were referring to, so they might be celebrating—
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Mr. Speaker, what we are talking about is how we can become an energy superpower. It will take access to low-cost, lower-risk energy that is either zero- or low-carbon.
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Mr. Speaker, what we have put forward in the building Canada act is a process by which national interest projects can be chosen, because we are in an extreme moment, facing the threat from the United States to our sovereignty and to our economy. We are meeting that moment through this act, and we will keep working to build.
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Mr. Speaker, will the Conservatives support building projects of national interest, or will they not?
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Mr. Speaker, as a country, we have committed to getting to net zero by 2050. In fact, the provinces are all in that direction as well. This is something that we need to do to remain competitive as a country, as we are facing countries that are looking for clean technologies. Absolutely, I will not shy away from saying that we need—
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Mr. Speaker, there are certain single-use plastics that have been listed in a regulation, and that is something that we absolutely stand by as we look to the world moving in that direction.
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Mr. Speaker, there are factors set out in the legislation, which I would be happy to read if the member would like. My question is, will they support the legislation?
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Mr. Speaker, I talked about the factors we need to think about when making decisions about national interest projects and the bill. I hope the member will support it. This includes taking the interests of indigenous peoples into account. That is where—
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Mr. Speaker, there are several factors in this bill, and I think it is important to take a look at them. While several factors relate to other areas, if we focus solely on the environmental aspect, it is clear that projects must "contribute to clean growth and to meeting Canada’s objectives with respect to climate change". That is in the bill.
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Mr. Speaker, what I am saying is that certain factors in the bill must be taken into consideration, for example, consultations with indigenous groups and environmental issues. Personally speaking, I am wondering whether the member opposite will lend his support—
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Mr. Speaker, I will go back to my initial point: It is not my job to choose the project. My job is to make sure that when that decision is made, the environment is taken into account.
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Mr. Speaker, last time I checked, there is one minister of environment and climate change, and that is me.
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Mr. Speaker, what we as a government respect are the two things that Canadians asked us to do. Canadians want us to build a strong Canada with a strong economy while protecting the environment. This is not just about working together; it is also about getting it right.
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Mr. Speaker, there are national interest projects that our entire country needs to see built. My question is, will the Conservatives be supporting the premiers from across the country?
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians want to see us working together, and I am going to say that this applies to the members across the way. They want to see us meet this moment when we are facing the challenges from President Trump. I hope they are willing to help us.
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Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, I think that Canadians want us to work together. When it comes to national interest projects, Canadians want us to work together, not sow division. That is what our government will continue to do. As for the legislation related to such projects, I hope that the member—
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, to be clear, what I said was I did not understand the consensus to which they were referring. As far as speaking about our being united, last week, when the premiers and the Prime Minister were leaving that meeting and saying that we were at a moment to build Canada together, yes, there was that agreement.
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Mr. Speaker, this gives me a chance to flag that we are in global treaty negotiations around the world, looking to how we move away from plastic waste. That—
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Mr. Speaker, I do not think it is for me to speak to any feelings anyone has, particularly the feelings I am hearing from across the way. The most important part is that we work in unity in this moment.
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Mr. Speaker, with regard to national interest projects, I would ask the member opposite to direct his questions to the Minister responsible for Intergovernmental Affairs. What I can say is that our government is committed to working as one with all the provinces and territories—
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Mr. Speaker, of all the actions we are taking, people need to pay attention to how we are capping emissions across all industrial sectors. That is very important if we want to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
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Mr. Speaker, fellow colleagues, I am happy to appear before you this evening as Minister of Environment and Climate Change to discuss the 2025-26 main estimates for Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada and the Canada Water Agency. Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people,…
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Mr. Speaker, my opinion on that is this: As we are moving towards a net-zero economy, we must always work to make sure that we are working towards national interest projects that take into account many different issues—
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Mr. Speaker, I am not sure why the members opposite are moving away from wanting to celebrate what Canadians wanted to see, which is the unity between premiers and the Prime Minister that we saw last week.
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Mr. Speaker, again, what I support and what our government supports is making sure that we have a competitive economy that meets the global moment we are in.
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Mr. Speaker, I will give the same answer to the same question. My job is to ensure that Canada achieves net-zero emissions by 2050 and that we always consider the environment when completing projects. That is what I am doing, and I am committed to doing so every day.
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Mr. Speaker, it is not about choosing one project or another, and it is not up to me to do that. For all decisions to be made in the context of this bill to build Canada, the government will have to determine whether projects will help us meet our climate change objectives.
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Mr. Speaker, as I said, it is important. The government announced a cap on greenhouse gas emissions for the oil and gas sector last December. It held consultations, as it always does for this kind of regulation. It is one of the tools that we have in our tool box. We remain committed to achieving net zero by 2050.
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Mr. Speaker, is the member opposite trying to say that they would rather sow division in this moment when we are facing President Trump's threat to our sovereignty and to our economy, or are they willing to join us in building a strong economy together?
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Mr. Speaker, as I said, in December the government proposed regulations to cap greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas sector. It then held consultations and conversations with the industry and Canadians. It continues to do that work. So—
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Mr. Speaker, the affordability crisis is in this moment that we have actually been working towards. I have a question for the member opposite. Does he support a national school food program?
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Mr. Speaker, after we complete the consultations, we will have to study what we have heard and then determine what we need to do, using all the tools that we have, to get us to net zero by 2050.
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Mr. Speaker, as I said before, choosing projects is not part of what I do, but I always have to make sure that we consider the environment. That is my job as Minister of Environment and Climate Change, and I am committed to doing that.
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Mr. Speaker, last week, we witnessed a truly momentous occasion, something that Canadians want to see: the premiers of all the provinces and territories sat down with the Prime Minister of Canada to see how they can work together. We must be united. We need to work together. That is something we are committed to every day.
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Mr. Speaker, we have been very clear as a government. Canadians want to see us build things. They want to see us build properly, taking into account the environment and making sure that we are consulting with indigenous peoples. It is not for me, as the Minister of Environment, to choose which projects are there. That is something that is happening through conversations between the provinces and t…
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Mr. Speaker, again, it is not my job to pick which projects will be built. My job is to make sure that the environment is considered as we make those decisions, and the legislation allows for that specifically.
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Mr. Speaker, we are not going to take the Conservatives' advice. When they were in power, they were unable to get projects built because they did not have environmental assessments or consultations with indigenous peoples. We have nothing to learn from them. We are going to get it right. We are going to build Canada strong, a Canada that takes care of the environment and consults with indigenous p…
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Mr. Chair, is the member opposite questioning the quality of work that comes from our public service? I believe we have a very strong public service that I am proud to work with.
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Mr. Chair, absolutely, economic reconciliation is important, which is, in fact, why we have an indigenous loan guarantee.
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Mr. Chair, that is such a strange question. Obviously, I work with the public service, and we should all be very proud of the work that it does.
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Mr. Speaker, I am choosing my words to go with the fact that we have national interest projects that need to be built. It is not for me to choose which ones they are, but I will be making sure we build in the national interest.
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Mr. Speaker, once again, it is not up to me to decide what projects will go ahead for our country and to build Canada. That is something we will do together, as a country. My role is to always think about how we can achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
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Mr. Chair, what I said is that I work with the strong public service we have, which provides strong advice on which we base policy, absolutely, as we—
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Mr. Speaker, it is the same question and same answer: It is not my job to pick. My job is to make sure we take into account the environment in every decision we make.
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Mr. Chair, I have worked on the regulation specifically. I was actually the one who made the announcement.
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Mr. Speaker, it is important that indigenous peoples participate in all we do to build a united Canada and a strong economy for our country. We certainly do need to consult indigenous peoples while protecting the environment.
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Mr. Speaker, I think that the member and I could work well together on the environment. Capping greenhouse gas emissions is very important. In Canada, 30% of our emissions come from the oil and gas sector. It it very important that all sectors, all industries in our country work to help us cap and even reduce our emissions. We are continuing our work by using all the tools we have so that—
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Mr. Chair, I worked on that regulation directly, spoke with industry and understand the impacts in the RIAS as well.
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Mr. Speaker, the answer remains the same: My job is to make sure we take into account the environment when we are making decisions. My job as the minister of environment is not to choose specific projects.
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