44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 15, 2022 02:00PM
- Jun/15/22 2:03:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour to rise in the House today to pay tribute to three retiring firefighters from my riding. Chief Paul Lijdsman from the Oyen Fire Department, Chief Glen Durand from the Special Areas Board and Captain Randy Haugen from the city of Camrose have dedicated much of their lives to keeping the residents of Battle River—Crowfoot safe.
These rural Alberta professionals have served east central Alberta for decades. Their actions include running into burning buildings, responding to MVAs during inclement weather, caring for the sick and injured when needed and helping during times of disaster. These community leaders were there day and night when duty called.
The residents of Battle River—Crowfoot owe Chief Lijdsman, Chief Durand and Captain Haugen a huge debt of gratitude. The courage they have displayed daily serves as an inspiration to the young and old alike.
From the House of Commons, I share my thanks for these gentlemen's tireless dedication to our communities. May God bless them as they enter a much-deserved retirement.
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- Jun/15/22 2:48:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, during the blockades, police forces and provincial authorities, including an Alberta minister, told us that they no longer had the tools to deal with these challenges. They needed more resources and tools. We gave them more resources and more police officers, but ultimately, we chose to invoke the Emergencies Act because it gave us specific and proportionate tools to be able to put an end to the crisis. That is exactly what happened.
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- Jun/15/22 7:59:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as always, it is a pleasure and privilege to rise in this place.
Today, I want to talk about Alberta and our economic recovery. For decades, Alberta has played an oversized role in Canada's economy, largely in part due to the oil and gas sector. During boom times, Alberta's GDP was the largest in Canada, the largest in North America and among the largest in the world. Even during the busts, Alberta workers were contributing more per capita to the building of Canada than any other province. For over 50 years, Alberta workers have helped make Canada a prosperous country. Now, Alberta workers need help and this government needs to be there for them.
Albertans know that climate change is real, and we know that our future cannot depend on oil and gas. Even now, when postpandemic demand is rising and Russia's illegal war in Ukraine is driving up the price of oil and natural gas, even now when fossil fuel corporations are making record profits while gouging Canadians at the pumps, even now we know that our future is not in oil and gas, because the jobs are simply not there.
When Alberta Conservatives were handing billions in corporate tax cuts to the sector over the past three years, oil and gas companies were laying off workers. When this government gave billions for oil well cleanup, it did nothing to create jobs or to mitigate pollution. Every day the evidence becomes clearer and clearer: Handing out public money to these massive corporations does not create jobs and it does not help workers. All it does is line the pockets of foreign investors.
Instead, this government needs to help Alberta. It needs to invest in Alberta to diversify our economy. For Canada to meet its climate obligations, for Canada to have a sustainable economy, for Canada to build an equitable and prosperous future for all, Canada needs to invest right now to help diversify Alberta's economy before it is too late.
This government has made multiple promises to workers for a just transition. We heard promises in 2019, and we heard promises in 2021, but we just have not seen it yet. I stand in this place and say that it is not unusual for us to hear the right words from this government and not see the work follow through to make the actions happen.
There have been massive investments in Quebec's and Ontario's economies, but when it comes to Alberta, this government is missing. If it needs help determining what to do, I am here to help. There is a lot of opportunity in Alberta to develop a greener and more diversified economy. There is opportunity to create jobs right now and to bridge to the jobs of the future.
Right now, oil and gas workers need financial support through the transition and targeted education and retraining. Rachel Notley did it with coal by listening to workers and their communities. The formula is there.
Many of the impacted communities are indigenous where investment in post-secondary education and indigenous-run programs would have the greatest impact, programs like the Peace Athabasca Delta Institute, which needs federal investment to build an environmental monitoring and research facility. Instead of throwing money at oil companies for site cleanup, those funds should be directed to the Indian Resource Council's first nations site rehabilitation program to create jobs and economic opportunity where it matters the most. The Building Trades of Alberta's path forward program needs to retrain indigenous workers as well.
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- Jun/15/22 8:03:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member opposite for raising the issue of the importance of protecting the environment, lowering emissions and creating good-paying, sustainable jobs for workers in Alberta.
Our government is committed to a just, equitable and prosperous transition that supports all regions, all communities and all workers. It is about creating good-paying, sustainable jobs for workers.
Since 2015, the Government of Canada has invested $100 billion in clean growth, to ensure that Canada can seize the economic opportunity of tomorrow, that we collectively reduce our emissions and that workers from coast to coast to coast have the tools they need to thrive in the economy of the future.
We have also made numerous investments for clean energy futures in the member's province of Alberta. For instance, we have invested in the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line and the Suffield Solar Project, and we have funded the support of the operation of long-range fuel cell electric trucks between Calgary and Edmonton. These are a few of the many examples of our support for the energy workers in the beautiful province of Alberta. It is our support for sustainable jobs. These steps reflect our belief that hard-working and innovative Albertans will continue to play a pivotal role in building our great country and getting us to our ambitious climate targets to reduce emissions.
As the Minister of Natural Resources has told this chamber, budget 2022 included significant funding in the budget to work with Alberta, Saskatchewan and other provinces to diversify their economies. He mentioned that the $4 billion for critical minerals, which will be particularly important for Alberta, is a part of that transition. The budget also included a tax credit to support investment in carbon capture technology. This will play a vital role in driving emissions down, particularly in hard to abate sectors such as steel and cement, while also creating or securing thousands of sustainable jobs for Albertans in the energy industry, including in the emerging biofuel and hydrogen sectors. That is on top of budget 2021's $1.5-billion pledge to expand clean fuels, including biofuels and hydrogen.
Our government is also helping workers transition toward new opportunities. Budget 2021, for instance, included skills training measures to support close to 500,000 new opportunities for sustainable jobs for workers. Our government has committed to investing $2 billion through the new futures fund to support local and regional economic diversification in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as to ensure that workers and communities are equipped to prosper as our country and the world moves to net zero.
I will point to the $185 million we have invested to help coal workers and communities in provinces such as Alberta develop new skills and create new opportunities. We plan to build partnerships with every province, including Alberta, in the coming months, to identify and accelerate the highest growth opportunities in areas of strength for the province, such as carbon capture, hydrogen, biofuels and critical minerals. We will continue to work collaboratively with the Province of Alberta, with industry, with labour and workers to ensure that we move forward in a manner that will create a clean, low emission, prosperous economy for Albertans and all Canadians.
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- Jun/15/22 8:07:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am asking the government to invest in Alberta's future by helping to diversify our economy. The Canadian critical drug initiative is the perfect example of a project that should be funded by the government. This initiative comes out of the University of Alberta in my riding of Edmonton Strathcona and it is led, in part, by a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, Dr. Michael Houghton.
This initiative would address the critical gap in Canadian capacity for development and manufacturing of the majority of medication used in Canada. This would allow the government to address Canada's vulnerability when it comes to global pharmaceutical supply chains, at the same time that it creates jobs and economic opportunities for Albertans. The government has invested in life science capacity in Montreal and elsewhere in Canada, but it has not addressed the critical vulnerability. This is an opportunity to invest in Alberta.
Will the government provide this funding?
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- Jun/15/22 8:08:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to draw the member opposite's attention to another aspect of our government's just transition agenda for good-paying, sustainable jobs for Canadians. I am sure she knows that some companies are concerned about a skilled labour shortage during this transition. That is why we are so focused on skills training.
However, we also want to encourage more Canadians of diverse backgrounds to consider careers in the natural resources sector, and that includes getting more women to consider this option. This is one of the reasons why we are supporting affordable child care in every province and territory. Our government's work has already resulted in child care fees being cut in half for Alberta parents.
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