Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, my colleague spoke about the agricultural industry and the measures that we are putting in place to help that industry, like all industries, reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. I am looking at a news release from the Canadian Canola Growers Association commending the government for its clean-fuel regulation that will make it possible to invest $2 billion in Canada's canola farmers …
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Mr. Speaker, we are, in fact, battling climate change, and we have the strongest economic growth of all the G7 countries. We have put in place measures that will create thousands of jobs in Canada, boosting Canada's economy for the coming years and for the coming decades. We are doing that while we reduce climate pollution by 50 million tonnes, the equivalent of removing 11 million vehicles from o…
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Mr. Speaker, with your permission, I would like to read a weather alert on Environment Canada's website. A “special air quality statement” says that “smoke plumes from forest fires in Quebec and northeastern Ontario have resulted in deteriorated air quality.” Moreover, “High levels of air pollution [have developed] due to smog from forest fires”. The air quality in our nation's capital is worse th…
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague has risen in the House on a number of occasions to speak on behalf of farmers. In front of me, I have a press release from the Canola Council of Canada congratulating our government on the clean fuel regulations. It states, “We’re pleased to see the CFR provides options that would minimize regulatory burden and allow canola to be used to reduce GHG emissions through …
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Mr. Speaker, as I was saying earlier, Canadians are battling forest fires right across the country. It is likely going to be the worst year for forest fires in the history of Canada. While this is happening, just last week in this House, the member for Red Deer—Mountain View rose to tell Canadians that climate change is normal. It is not that they do not care about climate change. It is not that t…
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Mr. Speaker, this question highlights that the Conservative Party of Canada has no understanding whatsoever of the science of climate change. It is as if we can flick a switch and climate is going to be all right. It is this magical thinking that by investing money in cryptocurrency, all is going to be good with the economy in Canada. This is the same thing. If the Leader of the Opposition will no…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his advocacy on this issue. Happy World Environment Day. I am happy to announce that in just a few weeks, on June 20, the single-use plastic ban will come into full force. Following that date, harmful plastics such as straws and plastic cutlery will no longer be able to be used in, sold in or imported into Canada. This is news worth celebrating. P…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my hon. colleague that, in his party's election platform during the last campaign, the Conservatives proposed introducing a clean fuel standard. The difference between them and us is that, when they come to power, they do exactly the opposite of what they said they would do. We on this side of the House are doing exactly what we said we would do. We are committe…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my hon. colleague that in their 2021 platform, the Conservatives were proposing to put in place carbon pricing. It was not a plan for the environment, but at least they were talking about it. It was a plan to encourage people to pollute more. That is not the polluter pays principle, but we are getting there. They even refused last week to let us table their own …
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the member for Calgary Nose Hill for her comments earlier in this House. She actually talked about climate change, which her leader has never done and very few of the members of the Conservative Party have done. She begged us to do smarter things like public transport. Well, every time we have proposed public transport, they have voted against it. She said…
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Mr. Speaker, 2016 was the worst year for forest fires in Alberta, and already we are on the verge of surpassing this on June 4. We have just seen the worst forest fires in the history of Nova Scotia, and this is only June 4. Quebec asked the federal government over the weekend, because it said it could not handle all the forest fires it is seeing, and it is only the beginning of June. What is the …
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Mr. Speaker, setting aside the fact that the members opposite all campaigned to put in place carbon pricing in Canada, let us look at what they are saying no to. They are saying no to clean air and clean water. We were evacuating people in New Brunswick and in Quebec. We had to airlift people outside of Fort Chipewyan last night because of climate change. The Conservatives are saying let us make p…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question and for all his work on the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development. In the latest budget, we invested $750 million to protect fresh water across the country. We have delivered on our promise to create an independent water agency, which will be located in Winnipeg. By protecting water, we are protecting the health of Canadian…
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Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, when he went to committee the commissioner of the environment did not benefit from the information in our latest national inventory report, which shows that we have reduced emissions by 53 million tonnes, which is the equivalent of removing 11 million vehicles from our roads, between 2019 and 2021. We are landing deals like Volkswagen. We are landing deals with Tidewa…
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Mr. Speaker, unfortunately the commissioner of the environment did not have the benefit of our latest national inventory report, which shows that we have the best performance of all—
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Mr. Speaker, I am sorry, but the member is plainly wrong. We have not missed our target. The Conservatives missed their target. I was in Copenhagen in 2009 when former Prime Minister Harper committed Canada to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. They did nothing. We have reduced emissions by 50 million tonnes between 2019 and 2021, the best performance of all G7 countries. We did that while cre…
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Mr. Speaker, I would remind my hon. colleague that he campaigned during the last election on putting carbon pricing in place. He is saying no to billions of dollars of investment already happening in Canada, in Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Alberta and southern Ontario, in the new economy. That is what Conservatives are saying no to. We are saying yes to fighting climate change.…
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Mr. Speaker, as the Leader of the Opposition well knows, I approved that project myself just last year. The company announced yesterday that it is putting the project on pause for three years because of market conditions. That is the company's decision. We will take it as it is.
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Mr. Speaker, I have to admit that it is very disappointing to hear my hon. colleague opposite oversimplifying the issue. He knows full well that the carbon pricing system does not apply in Quebec. Let us talk about carbon pricing. In 2021, not only did all members of the Conservative Party campaign in favour of carbon pricing, but 19 members on the other side campaigned in 2021 and 2008 to impleme…
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Mr. Speaker, with regard to part (a), Environment and Climate Change Canada, ECCC, can only report on the number of environmental occurrences that were reported to the National Environmental Emergencies Centre by Alberta. For the calendar years 2020, 2021 and 2022, Alberta notified ECCC of a total of 4175 environmental occurrences. With regard to part (b), for the calendar years 2020, 2021 and 202…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my hon. colleague that Quebec has its own carbon pricing system, a cap-and-trade system. This type of system is completely different than the federal system, which puts a price on pollution. If the member would like a technical briefing from my department on how the Quebec system works, I would be happy to offer him one.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to set the record straight about a question that the Conservatives asked yesterday in the House about a Quebec tax. The member sent us the report on this here tax. The report talks about something called SPEDE, which is actually Quebec's cap and trade system. That is the system operating in Quebec, not the federal system.
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Mr. Speaker, if the Conservatives are going to oppose the clean fuel regulations, which they supported during the last election campaign, they should explain to Canadian farmers, particularly canola growers in western Canada, why they oppose something that will increase domestic canola demand by over five million metric tonnes and support a strong canola price in our country. Canadians do not need…
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Mr. Speaker, I am told that orange is the new black. I would like to further expand on the examples I wanted to give, like the Tidewater $342-million plant in B.C.; Imperial oil, all privately funded, $720-million plant for cleaner fuels in Alberta; Federated Co-op's $2-billion plant in Saskatchewan; the Braya's plant in Newfoundland, which received an added $300 million of private financing in th…
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Mr. Speaker, I am told that orange is the new black. To expand on the benefits to the Canadian economy of the clean fuel standard, let me talk about the Tidewater $342-million plant in British Columbia. This year, Imperial Oil—
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Mr. Speaker, the truth is that the Conservatives have absolutely no plan to do anything to fight climate change and will set our country back on making promises toward a cleaner economy. When it comes time to ask the oil companies to reinvest their record profits in the innovative solution in clean technologies, the Conservatives immediately back down. We are proud to support the clean fuel regula…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to quote from the Parliamentary Budget Officer's analysis, which states, “does not attempt to account for the economic and environmental costs of climate change.” The Parliamentary Budget Officer is looking at one part of the ledger without looking at the other side of the ledger. We know that climate change is already costing Canadians billions of dollars every year. In …
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Mr. Speaker, I will leave it to my hon. colleagues in the Bloc to answer the question of whether they are or are not woke. I do not think that is my call. What I will say, however, is that once again the leader of the opposition is saying things that are simply not true. What we are putting in place is a mechanism to ensure that the refineries that made record profits in the past few years will do…
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Mr. Speaker, I believe that Quebeckers listening to us today know how important it is to fight climate change. They know that, on this point, the Conservatives have nothing to say; they have no plan and they have no measures, despite the promises they made in the last election campaign. In fact, they do not even believe that climate change is real, in spite of the flooding in Quebec and Ontario an…
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Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, the Leader of the Opposition is wrong yet again, because our plan is working. This has led to reducing emissions and climate change pollution by more than 50 million tonnes between 2019 and 2021 beyond COVID. In fact, it was called a pandemic because it was happening all over the world, yet Canada, in 2020 and 2021, had the best performance of all G7 countries.
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Mr. Speaker, as the member knows, we can use the Species at Risk Act once projects are proposed. No such projects have been proposed so far. We have already started an impact assessment review of the impacts of said development on Rouge National Park. We did not wait. We are already acting and we are looking at other areas of Ontario where we could launch similar studies to look at the impacts of …
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Mr. Speaker, I profoundly disagree with the characterization that the Premier of Ontario has made about the Greenbelt. Protecting green spaces, so that our kids and grandkids can have access to green spaces, clean air and clean water, is no scam. Working to ensure that our kids and grandkids continue to have a bright future is no scam. The federal government will use all of its available tools to …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his question. When it comes to climate change, Canadians expect the government to do the right thing and take action. That is exactly what we are doing with pollution pricing that has prompted industry to reduce emissions by over 50 million tonnes in recent years, an emissions reduction plan for all sectors of the economy, an oil and gas emissions cap and…
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Mr. Speaker, the only party playing hot potato with this issue is the Bloc Québécois. I myself acknowledged yesterday in an interview with La Presse that the federal government has a role to play and that it will do just that. Just yesterday, the Minister of Indigenous Services spoke with the community's chief. We are committed to finding a solution. While the Bloc plays hot potato, we on this sid…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question. I have had several conversations with him and with the minister responsible for first nations and Inuit relations in Quebec, as well as my colleague, the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, and the Minister of Indigenous Services. It is a complex problem to which we cannot apply simple or simplistic solutions. Everyone has a role to play. The…
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Mr. Speaker, I could name a long list of independent organizations that have publicly attested that our plan is working and that greenhouse gas emissions have begun to decline. I could mention Climate Action Network, the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Equiterre, Ecojustice and Environmental Defence, all of which have publicly stated that our climate change plan is beginning t…
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Mr. Speaker, first, our plan is working. We have reduced carbon pollution by more than 50 million tonnes. Canada has the best emission reduction profile of all G7 countries in 2020 and 2021. What we are doing for the great people of Newfoundland is helping them land investment of more than $300 million in the last month alone in the new Braya biorefinery.
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Mr. Speaker, when the Conservative Party of Canada, in the 2021 election, campaigned on bringing carbon pricing to $170 a tonne or putting in place clean fuel regulations, were they trying to fool Canadians? Is that what we are to understand?
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Mr. Speaker, I will share some quotes with my colleague. “We welcome the additional investments that were announced [in this plan], which will double the amounts available in the climate solutions fund”, said Alice-Anne Simard, of Nature Québec. “The 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan offers greater detail and transparency than any Canadian climate plan to date”, said Caroline Brouillette of Climate Ac…
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Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, my colleague's statement is false. What we are doing is ensuring that refineries that made record profits in the past few years pay their fair share. That is a 25¢ increase in the refining margins for every litre of gas between 2019 and 2021. We believe that refineries have the means to collaborate on the fight against climate change. Quebeckers watching us expect all s…
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Mr. Speaker, allow me to read from the Conservative platform in the last election. On page 79, in the section called “Low Carbon Fuel Standard”, it states, “We’ll finalize and improve the Clean Fuel Regulations to reduce carbon emissions from every litre of gasoline (and other liquid fuels) we burn, turning them into a true Low Carbon Fuel Standard.” The difference between the Conservative Party a…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind our hon. colleagues on the other side of the room that in their platform in 2021, the Conservative Party of Canada campaigned to put in place carbon pricing that would go up to $170 a tonne. That is exactly what our government is doing while investing in Canadians and building the economy of the future.
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Mr. Speaker, we are in mid-May and already we are seeing record forest fires in northern Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. I have talked to people in Calgary who say that they cannot breathe because of the forest fires in northern Alberta. Our plan to fight climate change is working. We have reduced carbon pollution by 50 million tonnes. What is the answer of the Conservative Party? It i…
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Mr. Speaker, we have cleared up the fact that the Conservative Party of Canada had committed to put in place a low-carbon fuel standard during the last election campaign, but let us talk about what the farmers are saying. The Dairy Farmers of Canada has committed the dairy farms sector to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The Egg Farmers of Canada has announced a commitment to re…
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Mr. Speaker, as I have already pointed out several times in the House, Quebec has a carbon pricing system called cap and trade and it is different than Canada's system. I would be pleased to explain to my colleague opposite how the Quebec system works. My office would gladly arrange a briefing on this issue.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. Canada has demonstrated leadership by being one of the first countries to launch its 2030 national biodiversity strategy and kicking off its consultations. I am proud not only to launch these consultations with Canadians, but also to honour our promise to protect at least 30% of Canada's land and water by 2030. We also launched consultations abou…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question, which gives me a chance to remind the House that no other country on the planet was ready to step up and host COP15. Canada was there for the international community, for science and for the protection of nature. We succeeded where everyone thought we would fail. We managed to secure an international agreement that most people would call historic…
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moved that Bill S-5, An Act to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, to make related amendments to the Food and Drugs Act and to repeal the Perfluorooctane Sulfonate Virtual Elimination Act, as amended, be concurred in at report stage with a further amendment.
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Mr. Speaker, with regard to part (a), subsection 9(2.1) of the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act requires the Government of Canada to include an interim greenhouse gas, GHG, objective for 2026 in its 2030 emissions reduction plan, ERP. Canada’s 2026 interim GHG objective is 20% below 2005 levels. The interim objective is not an official target akin to Canada’s 2030 nationally determin…
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Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition and many members across the way have called me “woke” before, and if “woke” means standing up for the future of my children and grandchildren so that they have access to clean air and clean water, then so be it. If “woke” means standing up to create jobs for generations of Canadians by investing in the clean economy, then so be it. If “woke” means standing…
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