44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 7, 2022 10:00AM
- Jun/7/22 10:09:33 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise this morning in our virtual setting.
I am presenting a petition on behalf of many constituents who are very concerned about the nature of our voting system in this country. The petitioners point out that the first-past-the-post system results in a Parliament that does not reflect the popular vote. They ask very specifically that this Parliament establish a national citizens assembly on electoral reform. They point out that many other countries have used the vehicle of a national citizens assembly in order to develop voting systems that promote democracy and provide results that reflect the way citizens have actually voted.
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- Jun/7/22 11:21:20 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, happy birthday to Eliana, the hon. member for Vaughan—Woodbridge's daughter.
I feel that my question really is about all of our children's future, particularly someone at 11 years old. Despite the many programs that the Liberals have put forward on climate, they cumulatively are completely inadequate to ensure that we will avoid an unlivable world for our own children. The warnings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are clear that we must ensure that emissions begin to drop globally before 2025.
I ask the hon. member for Vaughan—Woodbridge if he would accept that approving Baie du Nord and continuing to build the Trans Mountain pipeline shows that there is an inadequate understanding that we are in a climate emergency.
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- Jun/7/22 7:01:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague from Winnipeg North mentioned the Infrastructure Bank, and I have to say that some of the early spending by the Infrastructure Bank was very encouraging, but I am devastated that budget 2022 does not promote the continued building of interties to connect our electricity grid so that we can have a functional, robust electricity grid working east-west and north-south to move renewable energy from one province to another. As the member will know, I am very disappointed in his government's climate plans, but I do not understand why it is ignoring the urgent need to build a strong electricity grid to meet our needs to decarbonize energy.
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- Jun/7/22 7:15:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think my hon. colleague and I may agree on one thing, and I want to reassure Canadians. In his speech, the member referenced that criminals doing the most heinous of crimes will be eligible for parole. It is important to emphasize that eligibility for parole does not mean they get parole. There is a lot of literature on this and we have the statistics to know that certainly the most dangerous of criminals are not going to be getting parole.
I am concerned, and I think he can agree with me on this point, that we have not adequately dealt with the rights of victims of crime. He mentioned Sue O'Sullivan, our former ombudsman for victims of crime. She was not satisfied with the legislation we got in 2014.
I wonder if my hon. colleague would agree that we need to do much more for victims of crime.
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- Jun/7/22 7:31:59 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, to pursue the point the hon. member for Elgin—Middlesex—London put forward, I was very troubled by the Supreme Court of Canada's decision when it came down. The more I read the decision, the more I see that the court carefully differentiated mere drunkenness from this very specific extreme intoxication defence. That does not mean I am satisfied to leave the law as it is. We obviously cannot appeal this decision. It is a Supreme Court of Canada decision, but I agree with the member for Victoria and the member for Elgin—Middlesex—London.
I would suggest that we all work together across party lines, recognizing that the Supreme Court of Canada itself has invited Parliament to legislate in this area in ways that would not offend the charter, to make sure that even in cases of extreme intoxication there is no loophole for violent crimes.
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- Jun/7/22 7:46:02 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Repentigny. I am happy she has returned safely from the major conference in Stockholm.
I want to ask a question about our government's target, its major objective of achieving net zero by 2050. The IPCC says that achieving net zero by 2050 would be too late to protect our future. We must act immediately to reduce greenhouse gases before 2025.
What does she think about the idea of achieving net zero by 2050?
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- Jun/7/22 8:03:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères for his speech. We sat beside one another in the previous Parliament.
I would like to hear his comments on the fact that budget 2022 completely overlooks the importance of having an intercity transportation service. For example, here in British Columbia, we lost the bus system and the same is true in the Maritimes. I do not think it is as big of a problem in Quebec.
What does he think of the fact that the federal government has ignored the needs of citizens in more remote regions?
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- Jun/7/22 9:30:08 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I really want to ask the hon. member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo a question that relates to events today in British Columbia regarding events that happened in his riding. That, of course, is the finding of the coroner that the over 600 people who died from the heat dome last summer were in fact preventable deaths.
I know that the hon. member is thoughtful, and I know this is not the topic of his speech, but I wonder if he has any thoughts on those findings. Certainly, for me, it rings a bell with negligence in allowing so many British Columbians to die without proper warning and without proper aid.
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- Jun/7/22 11:31:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today in Adjournment Proceedings. I have to say the hour is awfully appropriate. I am going to be following up on a question I asked in question period on May 2 related to what are called small modular reactors and their connection to nuclear proliferation, so it certainly is appropriate that the clock is approaching midnight. It reminds me very much that there is something called a doomsday clock, which is kept up to date by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. I just checked it and it shows that we are “100 seconds to midnight”, given the combined factors of the increased threats of nuclear war brought on by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the significant risk to the whole planet brought on by the climate crisis.
These issues are related, and I related them in my question in the House on May 2. The answer from the Minister of Natural Resources was not sufficient and that is why I have brought it forward this evening.
The so-called small modular reactors are not part of any solution to the climate crisis. Moreover, they are untested and essentially experimental. Lastly, I again draw the attention of this place to the risk of nuclear proliferation.
Just to walk through those three points, the Minister of Natural Resources has said frequently in this place that there is no pathway to climate solutions that does not include small modular reactors. That is simply not true. Reducing greenhouse gases involves phasing out fossil fuels, cancelling the TMX pipeline and not pursuing Bay du Nord. These are tangible things that have nothing to do with nuclear. Nuclear is actually in the way. It is highly expensive. Per tonne of carbon reduced, it is about the most expensive way we can go. There is also a long timeline before we see any results from a decision to go with nuclear.
The fact that these reactors are untested and essentially experimental has not had enough attention in this country. I turn to an expert in the area, Professor Allison M. Macfarlane, as a source. She is actually the former chairperson of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and is currently at the University of British Columbia. She told this to the CBC: “Nobody knows what the numbers are, and anybody who gives you numbers is selling you a bridge to nowhere because they don't know. Nobody has ever set up a molten salt reactor and used it to produce electricity.”
A molten salt reactor is exactly what the Government of Canada and the Government of New Brunswick are throwing tens of millions of dollars at. A private sector operator has proposed this and wants approval to go ahead and build it. It is being reviewed at this moment, but the money is flowing toward a molten salt reactor that will use plutonium from the spent fuel at Point Lepreau in order to create this unproven technology and allegedly produce electricity.
It is all very much in question, except for one thing. There is a huge risk in taking plutonium from spent fuel. It is the kind of risk that existing nuclear non-proliferation treaties are very careful to prevent us from taking. If we are promoting a global plutonium economy, even a tiny, infinitesimal amount of plutonium in the hands of terrorists could create a dirty bomb. If it is in the hands of other countries around the world, there is the very large risk that they will produce a nuclear weapon.
We had this experience in 1974 when Canada gave India one of its CANDU reactors. It turns out that these new SMRs, which was just recently noted in The Globe and Mail this week, produce far more nuclear waste than conventional reactors, that is, two times to 30 times more.
I ask the government to think twice. This is a mistake. This is radioactive snake oil.
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- Jun/7/22 11:39:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very sorry the hon. parliamentary secretary continues to spout the sorts of things that Liberals alone could possibly believe, such as that Canada has a climate plan that is admired in the rest of the world.
When I go to international conferences, Canada is known as a laggard country. We have the worst record in the G7, and by hitching our wagon to net zero by 2050, we are threatening our very own children with an unlivable world, because the targets that must be met occur in the next 30 months, and not in the next three decades.
I will never close my mind to any solution to the climate crisis, but SMRs are not a solution. They are in the way, with the opportunity cost of putting millions of dollars into an unproven technology with existing risks of exacerbating our nuclear waste problem. It is an absolutely bogus notion that we are going to recycle nuclear waste and it is going to be good for all of us. It creates more waste, and it threatens our safety in terms of proliferation.
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