44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 22, 2022 10:00AM
- Mar/22/22 11:26:26 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Ukraine certainly is a sensitive issue now.
It is likely that one of the reasons for the Russian government's invasion was not to gain access to oil, but to take control of Ukraine's critical and strategic mineral deposits. The energy transition is going on worldwide. We need critical and strategic minerals to build tomorrow's electric vehicles. As we know, China controls a huge part of the market. Russia wants its share of the pie, but Canada can take action to forestall it.
We are talking about economic sanctions on Russia. The best way to reduce our dependence is to make sure we no longer need oil because the industry has changed. We want all modes of transportation and energy sectors to be electrified.
There are mines in my riding that want to become 100% electric. I think that is part of the solution, because some of these mines can consume up to 100,000 litres of diesel a day. That makes us more and more dependent on Russia and the financial problems that lead to war.
Let us shift the paradigm and make a genuine energy transition. I think that will also be a solution for peace.
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- Mar/22/22 11:50:44 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think that one of the advantages of my suggestion was that it could apply to all home heating methods, including electricity. The goal was to not presume that oil and gas are the only heating methods.
We agree that it is important that the world undergo an energy transition, and we acknowledge that this will take more than a couple of days. Right now, people are really struggling with costs, and we see this measure as a way of helping them out in these trying times.
We obviously have to make the transition, but not only with respect to oil and gas. I thought my amendment would achieve that result.
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- Mar/22/22 12:16:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there are two responses I would have to that. One is that energy grounds all of us and it affects all of us, so when we reduce the cost of energy in gasoline and diesel, it reduces the costs throughout. One of the greatest achievements of mankind is bringing people out of poverty. One of the keys to bringing people out of poverty, and this is just economics, is cheap energy. When we reduce the cost of energy, we give everyone a better chance.
However, if the NDP wants to sit down and talk about tax relief, my office is open any time and any place. I am more than willing to have that conversation. We can reduce income tax, sales tax or whatever they want. We are in the business of reducing taxes and the burden on Canadians.
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- Mar/22/22 1:50:29 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member opposite hails from the same province I do. I find it fascinating that we are talking about electric buses, energy from thin air and the like. When I speak to the rural residents of Cumberland—Colchester, they wonder how they are going to get to the doctor's office, the hospital or the grocery store because, surprise, surprise, they all do it by car. How do they heat their homes? Most of them use home heating fuel, which is also known as diesel. This proposal would change things for Canadians overnight and cost the government nothing in a timely and proportioned response. How is the member opposite going to help with that?
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- Mar/22/22 1:51:17 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague from Nova Scotia raises important concerns. It is important that we get off this kind of monoculture of fuel we have been on for a long time. The importance is going to have to be in the diversification of transportation options, be that public transit, electric vehicles or the active transportation we have heard many people discuss. It is going to be very important to support rural transit as well as we go through this. The point is that we would like to create conditions in which Canadian families do not have the decision to own multiple vehicles forced upon them when there are alternative options to that.
Likewise, with respect to home heating, there is the solar city program I mentioned and energy retrofits for which we are providing zero-interest loans. The objective here is to diversify our sources of energy so that we never again have to live through a spike like we are right now.
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- Mar/22/22 1:54:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, through the discourse today and even through the first question and answer, I cannot help but be reminded of how, whenever the Conservatives talk about energy, they talk about energy as if there were only ever going to be one source of energy and it comes from fossil fuels.
The reality of the situation, as we know, is that different types of energy, renewable energies, energies that are created in a much more sustainable fashion than extracting fossil fuels from the ground, are just gaining more and more popularity. As a matter of fact, in Alberta itself—
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- Mar/22/22 1:55:17 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I was going to say that, in Alberta itself, the renewable energy industry has been employing more people for the last number of years than the fossil fuel industry. It is a signal that we are moving forward, and they are heckling that.
I am wondering if the parliamentary secretary could provide his comments as to where he sees the future as it relates to energy—
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- Mar/22/22 2:40:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, energy self-sufficiency is national security, but the Liberals have killed four pipelines, more than 300,000 oil and gas jobs and more than $150 billion in energy and indigenous projects, and they have lost 18 LNG export proposals. There is now a scheme with the NDP to end oil and gas in Canada and hike the carbon tax. Canada has the most responsible oil and gas and among the largest reserves in the world, but it still has to import.
Does the Liberal-NDP cabal really want to keep Canada having to rely on oil and gas from corrupt regimes and hostile despots?
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- Mar/22/22 4:35:52 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member opposite has raised a number of points. First of all, we are not talking about the community development fund and 10% a litre on gasoline. We are talking about the GST. There is crude oil. There are refinery costs. There are taxes: the provincial gas tax and the federal community development fund tax. That is all under the umbrella of the GST.
This is about giving a break to people who are having an incredibly hard time. We are not talking about lowering interest rates or paying for someone's rent. People on the Canada pension plan are going to pay higher amounts on their mortgages. We are talking about giving people a break. The International Energy Agency would disagree with the member when he says that the world is going off different types of oil and gas. As populations go up, they are going to continue to use more of it for the next 10 to 20 years at least.
Will the member say that the very least we can do here is give Canadians a true break and put a little more money in their jeans so they can cope with the cost of living that is increasing in this country?
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