Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, let me remind my colleague that, when we took office in 2015, Canada was expected to miss its 2030 target by at least 30%. We flattened that curve. In 2022, we were at 7% below 2005 levels. In terms of pollution, the difference between the two is equivalent to putting an extra 69 million vehicles on Canada's roads. It is all thanks to our plan. Our plan is working, but more needs to b…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague knows how much I respect him, but he still belongs to a party that wants to team up with the Conservative Party to bring down the government and prevent us from putting a cap on greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas sector and from passing a bill on accountability for the protection of nature. I would also like to remind him that, when we took office in 2015, Canada…
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Mr. Speaker, what the member opposite is saying is simply not true. It is a cap on pollution. In fact, production is going to go up 16% by 2030, and companies in Alberta in the oil sands sectors are making a billion-dollar investment to make sure workers in Alberta have a future and the energy sector has a future. We can fight climate change at the same time.
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Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleague from Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie to read the report from the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development, which indicates that our measures are working in Canada. We have the best performance of all G7 countries from 2019 to 2021. It is true that not much progress was made in the fight against climate change under the Conservatives. Since we took of…
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Mr. Speaker, one of the key measures of our climate change plan is putting a price on pollution. On May 8, the member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie said, “This is why, as New Democrats, as progressives, as environmentalists, we are in favour of putting a price on pollution.” I guess that, under the pressure from the Conservative Party of Canada, the New Democrats are no longer progressives and are…
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party of Canada is talking about climate change. We should note this somewhere in a book because it does not happen very often. If only the Conservatives would talk about the fact that for 10 years, they did nothing, which is why we had to pick up the slack. When we came to power, emissions were going to overshoot by more than 30% by 2030. Emissions are down by 8% bec…
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Mr. Speaker, it is rather unbelievable that the Conservative Party still has its head in the sand when it comes to climate change. For July and August alone, the insurable cost of the impact of climate change for Canadians was $7 billion. That is a record. It is unprecedented. What is the Conservative Party saying? It is saying that it will let the planet burn. The Conservatives do not have a plan…
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Mr. Speaker, we will have to mark our calendars. The Conservative Party is talking about the issue of climate change. If only it was to remind us that they did nothing for 10 years: no measures on energy efficiency, no measures for the electrification of transportation and no measures for renewable energy. We know that Canada's record under the Conservatives was far from stellar. From 2019 to 2021…
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Mr. Speaker, maybe the member opposite should take the time to actually read the information about the pollution cap. Production is forecast to increase 16% by 2030. The idea that we are somehow cutting production is simply not true.
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Mr. Speaker, I do not know what to say. The Bloc Québécois is encouraging us to encroach on areas of provincial jurisdiction. What is this world coming to? As the Bloc Québécois knows full well, the use of natural resources falls under provincial jurisdiction. What we can do is take action on pollution, and that is exactly what we are doing. The sector will have to limit its greenhouse gas emissio…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a great deal of respect for my hon. colleague, but I would sincerely encourage him to read the documentation on the project to cap emissions in the oil and gas industry, which indicates that this regulatory framework will take effect on January 1, 2026, not in 2030 as he said. We tabled that document last year. It was not two years ago, just one. The Bloc Québécois seems bent o…
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Mr. Speaker, first, the federal government is investing historic amounts in public transit, at $30 billion. There are more than 400 kilometres of subway lines being built in Canada right now because of federal investment. Second, we are the only country in the G20 that has phased out subsidies to fossil fuels. We are the only ones who have done that, despite a commitment made under the previous go…
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Mr. Speaker, I have heard a number of Conservative MPs talk about Jasper. Let us talk about Jasper. Do members know much money—
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Mr. Speaker, what the member is saying would be tragic if it were only true, which it is not. The Parliamentary Budget Officer said in his report that Canadians get more money back from carbon pricing than what they pay. He did not factor in the impacts of climate change. July and August in 2024 were the costliest months ever, the costliest year ever for climate impacts in Canada, $7 billion in cl…
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Mr. Speaker, let us talk about Jasper. Do members know how much the Conservatives invested in 2011 in prescribed burns and mechanical removals around Jasper? Zero dollars. They cut funding by $30 million in 2010, 2011, all the way to 2015. Do we know who the director to the minister of the environment was in those days? It was the member for Thornhill—
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Mr. Speaker, for four consecutive years, the Conservative Party of Canada slashed funding for Jasper fire prevention by $30 million every year. In the last six years alone, we have invested $800 million. If the Conservatives want to blame someone, they can go and talk to their colleague from Thornhill, who was the director to the minister of the environment in those days.
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Mr. Speaker, the good news is that Canada is the only G20 country to have eliminated fossil fuel subsidies, thanks to the NDP. I would be happy to provide her office with a briefing on this.
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Mr. Speaker, as part of its effort to fulfill Canada’s G20 commitment to phase out or rationalize inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, on July 24, 2023, the Government of Canada released the Inefficient Fossil Fuel Subsidies (IFFS) Government of Canada Self-Review Assessment Framework and the Inefficient Fossil Fuel Subsidies Government of Canada Guidelines. The Framework provides a definition of a …
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Mr. Speaker, in response to part (a) of the question, the pilot heatwave attribution system is based directly on a published event attribution analysis of a heatwave which occurred in May 2023 in Alberta. Since the pilot system began running in March 2024, it has been applied to a range of moderate heatwaves in regions across Canada over the period March – June 2024. These have been used to evalua…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Sudbury for her question. Our government recognizes the importance of protecting our country and our democratic institutions from the threat of foreign interference. That is why we offered every party leader the opportunity to get their top secret security clearance. The Conservative leader is the only one running away from his obligations. Why? If he ha…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. While my colleague was answering a question, the member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, in reference to his former Conservative Party colleague, the member for Richmond—Arthabaska, used language that was not only unparliamentary, but also disgraceful. I would ask him to withdraw his comments and apologize to the member.
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Madam Speaker, as my colleagues are perhaps aware, I have done interviews with CBC/Radio-Canada from one end of the country to the other. What we see pretty much throughout the country is that the English-language and French-language services of this corporation are connected. If the CBC is abolished, as proposed by the Conservative Party of Canada, what will that mean for the French-language serv…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Richmond—Arthabaska for his question, as well as for his courage in speaking out against the Conservative Party of Canada and its position on a woman's right to choose. I would also like to remind him that CBC/Radio-Canada is an arm's-length corporation that decides for itself how to manage its own budget. That is why we created a Crown corporation in which t…
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Mr. Speaker, as opposed to the Conservative leader, I can assure the member opposite that no oil lobbyists have organized fundraisers for me. I would like to quote a colleague from her own party, the member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, who said, “as New Democrats, as progressives, as environmentalists, we are in favour of putting a price on pollution.” Well, it looks like, under pressure from th…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my colleague that we are working in close collaboration with all forestry stakeholders, including workers, businesses, communities, environmental groups and first nations. We are also working with the Quebec government to find long-term solutions for sustainable forestry in Quebec.
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Mr. Speaker, the member talks about the agricultural sector. Let us talk about the climate impacts on the agricultural sector. Droughts in 2021 resulted in a 27% decline in Canada's grain production. Over the last decade, over 200 Canadian farmers have experienced cost increases and revenue loss from climate impacts. The member and his party never talk about the impacts of climate change on farmer…
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Mr. Speaker, the member points to indirect costs, so let us talk about indirect costs: loss of revenue of $150 million in 2023 due to flooding in farmlands across this country. Dairy farmers, the Egg Farmers of Canada, grain growers and the Canola Council all support our plan to fight climate change. It is time for the Conservative Party of Canada to come on board.
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Mr. Speaker, I think everyone in this House and Canadians watching should take everything the finance critic says about the economy with a big grain of salt. It was the finance critic who told us that if we paused federal taxes, people in his province could save $1,000. This is without telling them that they would have to drive from the North Pole to the South Pole to benefit from those wonderful …
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Let me read again, Mr. Speaker, from the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report: “The general consensus among economists is that explicit carbon pricing is the most cost-effective approach to reducing [greenhouse gas] emissions”. The Conservative Party of Canada has no plan to fight climate change. It has no plan to adapt to the massive impacts of climate change, which are costing Canadians tens of…
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Mr. Speaker, let me read from the first paragraph of the PBO's report: “Considering only the fiscal impact of the federal fuel charge, PBO estimates that the average household in each of the backstop provinces...in 2030-31 will see a net gain, receiving more from the Canada Carbon Rebate than the total amount they pay in the federal fuel charge...and related Goods and Services Tax.” The Leader of …
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Mr. Speaker, let me read from another paragraph from the report: “Moreover, in 2030-31, for all backstop provinces, we estimate that the average household in each income quintile will see a net gain—except for the average household in the highest income quintile”. The Leader of the Opposition wants to take money away from the middle class and poorer Canadians to protect his rich CEO friends. That …
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Mr. Speaker, the member opposite knows that the discussion between those Parks Canada employees was to determine whether they would do prescribed burns or mechanical removals. He knows that; Conservatives know that. To try to insinuate that because they did not want to do prescribed burns we did nothing is simply false. In fact, we invested 40 times more in forest fighting capacities around Jasper…
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Mr. Speaker, instead of spreading disinformation and misinformation in the House, I actually went to Jasper, and the sprinkler system has been installed by Parks Canada in collaboration with the work we have been doing with the City of Jasper. I would be happy to show him where it is in the city.
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Mr. Speaker, the energy transition means an additional 400,000 jobs in Canada by 2030. The offshore wind energy sector will be worth $1 trillion. Hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs will be created, but these jobs are not guaranteed. To get them, we need an ambitious climate plan. That is why we passed Bill C‑49, which will enable us to develop offshore wind energy in Canada. Unfortunately,…
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Mr. Speaker, I will quote my colleague from Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie. He said, “This is why, as New Democrats, as progressives, as environmentalists, we are in favour of putting a price on pollution. We support taxing carbon, which already happens in the majority of Canadian provinces.” On this side of the House, we are not caving to pressure and the disinformation campaign by the Conservative Pa…
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Madam Speaker, what the member opposite just said is simply not true, and if I was not in this House, I would probably be using another word. There have been 15 prescribed burns in the last 10 years, and the email he is referring to is Parks Canada employees discussing whether to use mechanical removals or prescribed burns. What he is saying is absolutely false, and he should be ashamed.
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Madam Speaker, let us talk about what we are doing on this side and what they did when they were in power. The last year that party was in power, there was $2 million to fight forest fires with Parks Canada. What we have done in the last few years is $85 million to help fight forest fires and to give the means to our forest firefighting force at Parks Canada to work with the Alberta government, to…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question and all his work on environmental issues. Yesterday, our government announced additional measures to protect the public from the harmful effects of pollution, particularly forever chemicals. We know that the Conservative Party of Canada's environmental priority is giving big polluters a free pass. They want to give the oil and gas companies the gr…
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Mr. Speaker, experts, environmentalists, forestry workers and first nations all agree that the future of forestry in Quebec and elsewhere in the country depends on the health of the forest and on the health of the caribou. We cannot have one without the other. The only people who do not understand that here are the members of the Conservative Party of Canada.
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Mr. Speaker, let me remind my colleague, once again, that at the end of 2022, the federal government and the Government of Quebec signed a joint letter stating that Quebec would submit a caribou recovery plan by June 2023. Here it is October 1, 2024, and we are still waiting for that plan. All we are asking is for Quebec live up to its commitments. We are ready to work with Quebec on finding solut…
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Mr. Speaker, I will give the Conservatives a number: 69 million cars in avoided pollution. That is our number on this side of the House. If we listened to the Conservatives, we would do nothing to fight climate change, pollution would be even worse and emissions would be 41% higher than with what we have been doing. We are working to fight climate change. We are working to support Canadians to cre…
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Mr. Speaker, it seems Conservatives are now starting to listen to economists, and they quoted Trevor Tombe. Let us hear what Trevor Tombe has to say about carbon pricing and the price of food: “While concern around affordability is clearly warranted, climate policies are not a significant driver of the rising cost of living. Nor will removing policies such as carbon pricing materially improve the …
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Mr. Speaker, perhaps the member opposite can remind some of the members of his own bench that they asked Premier Higgs to go with the federal system because people get more money back, and that is exactly what the premier did. The Premier of New Brunswick decided to go with the federal system because more people in New Brunswick get more money back than what they pay in carbon pricing.
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Mr. Speaker, perhaps the member opposite does not remember that he himself asked Premier Higgs to go with the federal system so more people in New Brunswick would get more money back than they pay in carbon pricing. Perhaps he forgot he made that request to his premier.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my colleague that we have come to the table with half a billion dollars in potential investments in Quebec, in the regions, in the forestry sector, for forestry workers and for indigenous communities. We are just waiting for the Quebec government to come to the table with us to talk. We want to find a solution. The Conservatives have nothing to offer, whether fo…
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Mr. Speaker, the member should be ashamed of himself. Conservatives have deliberately taken out of context emails between Parks Canada officials who were debating which measures to use to fight fires, as opposed to not fighting fires at all. One of those Parks Canada employees has received death threats since the Conservatives put this online. They should be ashamed of themselves.
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Mr. Speaker, as an MP for the amazing Montreal area, I am proud of the people I represent. Perhaps the member opposite does not feel the same way. I would like to suggest that he talk to forestry workers in Quebec. As they told me and several public commissions, the future of the forest and the future of their jobs depends on the health of the forest. The Conservative Party of Canada does not seem…
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Mr. Speaker, I know that the Conservatives are not huge fans of science, researchers or knowledge, but I would still like to quote Martin-Hugues St-Laurent, a professor at the Université du Québec à Rimouski, who recently said, “The emergency order is amply justified. The federal government is simply implementing the legislation given the absence of a provincial strategy deemed effective enough to…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to read an extract from a report that came out today from the Insurance Bureau of Canada. It states, “Summer of 2024...ranks as the most-destructive season in Canadian history for insured losses due to severe weather. In only two months, July and August, this summer eclipsed the worst year on record and has pushed the 2024 year-to-date tally to over $7.7 billion” in sever…
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Mr. Speaker, the reality is that the Conservative Party and its leader are not there to protect Canadians. They are there to protect the interests of their friends, like oil executives who attended a special event for the Leader of the Opposition. I can assure everyone that oil executives do not come to my fundraiser. However, what the Conservatives want to do is take away something. In his riding…
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