House Hansard - 11

44th Parl. 1st Sess.

December 6, 2021 11:00AM

Dec/6/21 6:59:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the last few weeks have seen devastating flooding in British Columbia. After a summer of extreme heat and climate fires, the climate crisis is here. It is real, and this is just the beginning. Canadians are already feeling the impacts. They want to see concrete action to address this emergency with the urgency required. However, the Liberal government continues to delay. Canada remains the highest emitter per capita and is the country with the 10th-largest share of historical emissions. Since the Liberals formed government in 2015, Canada has become the worst performer of all G7 nations. The environment commissioner has released a series of scathing reports on Canada's inaction, saying, “We can't continue to go from failure to failure; we need action and results, not just more targets and plans.” The Liberal government is not on track to achieve the targets it has committed to. The commissioner looked at the Liberals' emissions reduction fund, and despite its name, he found that this emissions reduction fund is not actually reducing emissions at all. The Liberals are using faulty greenhouse gas emission estimates to fund the oil and gas sector, putting at risk not only our emission reduction targets, but also the health of all Canadians. Two out of three companies stated in their application that the program would allow them to increase production levels, which would lead to increased emissions, and more than half of the total claimed that reductions had already been accounted for under federal methane regulations. Any funding aimed at oil and gas companies should at least, at the bare minimum, be tied to delivering emission reductions. Otherwise, they are undermining efforts to fight climate change and meet our climate targets. They are fuelling the climate crisis. Not only did the government not link this funding to actual emissions reductions, it did not make sure it was getting value for money to help maintain employment or attract investments, which were the other aims of the program. Simply put, the Liberals are not showing the climate leadership that they repeatedly told Canadians they could expect. The Prime Minister likes to talk about how his plan gets an A, and that his promises get top marks, but the sad truth is that the Prime Minister does not follow through on his promises. When one misses every single climate target and delays climate action in the middle of a climate crisis, one gets an F. It is failing. Canadians cannot wait any longer while the Liberals drag their feet. Canada will not meet our climate targets if the government continues to subsidize oil and gas rather than investing in a credible plan for workers in a clean economy. Why is the government continuing to give billions of dollars to big oil and gas? When will the Liberals stop dragging their feet on laying out a credible green jobs plan? When will they stop dragging their feet on investing in climate solutions? When will they take action that matches the scale and urgency of the crisis? When will we finally have a government that not only acknowledges we are in a climate crisis, but also acts like it?

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Context: House Hansard - 11 - Dec/6/21

Ms. Laurel Collins

Dec/6/21 7:05:21 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, when confronted with the failure of the emissions reduction fund to reduce emissions, the Minister of Natural Resources said that the program did not qualify as the kind of fossil fuel subsidy that the government has promised to eliminate by the end of 2023, despite 27 of the first 40 projects funded by the program claiming that they would be increasing production. If handing out taxpayer money to oil and gas companies with no strings attached, and no assurances of reduced emissions, does not count as a subsidy, can the minister explain what does?

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House Hansard - 11