44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 18, 2023 10:00AM
- May/18/23 2:20:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I believe that Quebeckers listening to us today know how important it is to fight climate change. They know that, on this point, the Conservatives have nothing to say; they have no plan and they have no measures, despite the promises they made in the last election campaign. In fact, they do not even believe that climate change is real, in spite of the flooding in Quebec and Ontario and the record forest fires in Alberta.
I believe that Canadians want a government that has a responsible plan to address climate change. Unfortunately, they will not get that with the Conservatives.
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- May/18/23 2:21:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will leave it to my hon. colleagues in the Bloc to answer the question of whether they are or are not woke. I do not think that is my call.
What I will say, however, is that once again the leader of the opposition is saying things that are simply not true. What we are putting in place is a mechanism to ensure that the refineries that made record profits in the past few years will do their part to fight climate change. I think that everyone expects every sector of the economy in the country to do its part to fight climate change.
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- May/18/23 2:23:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to quote from the Parliamentary Budget Officer's analysis, which states, “does not attempt to account for the economic and environmental costs of climate change.” The Parliamentary Budget Officer is looking at one part of the ledger without looking at the other side of the ledger.
We know that climate change is already costing Canadians billions of dollars every year. In fact, it is tens of billions of dollars every year. Of course, members of the Conservative Party of Canada do not believe in climate change and they do not care about those costs to Canadians. Unfortunately, facts are facts, and those costs are real to all Canadians.
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- May/18/23 2:24:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, the Leader of the Opposition is wrong yet again, because our plan is working. This has led to reducing emissions and climate change pollution by more than 50 million tonnes between 2019 and 2021 beyond COVID. In fact, it was called a pandemic because it was happening all over the world, yet Canada, in 2020 and 2021, had the best performance of all G7 countries.
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- May/18/23 2:32:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the truth is that the Conservatives have absolutely no plan to do anything to fight climate change and will set our country back on making promises toward a cleaner economy.
When it comes time to ask the oil companies to reinvest their record profits in the innovative solution in clean technologies, the Conservatives immediately back down. We are proud to support the clean fuel regulation, which has already contributed more than $2 billion in the last year alone to the Canadian economy.
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- May/18/23 2:33:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am told that orange is the new black. To expand on the benefits to the Canadian economy of the clean fuel standard, let me talk about the Tidewater $342-million plant in British columbia. This year, Imperial Oil—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- May/18/23 2:33:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am told that orange is the new black. I would like to further expand on the examples I wanted to give, like the Tidewater $342-million plant in B.C.; Imperial oil, all privately funded, $720-million plant for cleaner fuels in Alberta; Federated Co-op's $2-billion plant in Saskatchewan; the Braya's plant in Newfoundland, which received an added $300 million of private financing in the last month alone.
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- May/18/23 2:34:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if the Conservatives are going to oppose the clean fuel regulations, which they supported during the last election campaign, they should explain to Canadian farmers, particularly canola growers in western Canada, why they oppose something that will increase domestic canola demand by over five million metric tonnes and support a strong canola price in our country.
Canadians do not need short-term scare tactics. What they are looking for is long-term affordable solutions to the climate crisis, and that is exactly what we are doing on this side of the House.
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- May/18/23 2:37:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to set the record straight about a question that the Conservatives asked yesterday in the House about a Quebec tax.
The member sent us the report on this here tax. The report talks about something called SPEDE, which is actually Quebec's cap and trade system. That is the system operating in Quebec, not the federal system.
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- May/18/23 2:38:21 p.m.
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Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, my colleague's statement is false.
What we are doing is ensuring that refineries that made record profits in the past few years pay their fair share. That is a 25¢ increase in the refining margins for every litre of gas between 2019 and 2021. We believe that refineries have the means to collaborate on the fight against climate change.
Quebeckers watching us expect all sectors of society, all political parties and all parliamentarians in the House to work to fight climate change.
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- May/18/23 2:45:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my hon. colleague that Quebec has its own carbon pricing system, a cap-and-trade system. This type of system is completely different than the federal system, which puts a price on pollution. If the member would like a technical briefing from my department on how the Quebec system works, I would be happy to offer him one.
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- May/18/23 2:50:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when the Conservative Party of Canada, in the 2021 election, campaigned on bringing carbon pricing to $170 a tonne or putting in place clean fuel regulations, were they trying to fool Canadians? Is that what we are to understand?
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- May/18/23 2:51:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, first, our plan is working. We have reduced carbon pollution by more than 50 million tonnes. Canada has the best emission reduction profile of all G7 countries in 2020 and 2021. What we are doing for the great people of Newfoundland is helping them land investment of more than $300 million in the last month alone in the new Braya biorefinery.
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- May/18/23 2:53:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I could name a long list of independent organizations that have publicly attested that our plan is working and that greenhouse gas emissions have begun to decline.
I could mention Climate Action Network, the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Equiterre, Ecojustice and Environmental Defence, all of which have publicly stated that our climate change plan is beginning to work.
I will be the first to admit that we still have a lot of work to do. However, it is working.
The last thing we need is the Conservatives taking us back 20 years in the fight against climate change or when it comes to investments in clean technology.
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- May/18/23 2:55:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will share some quotes with my colleague.
“We welcome the additional investments that were announced [in this plan], which will double the amounts available in the climate solutions fund”, said Alice-Anne Simard, of Nature Québec.
“The 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan offers greater detail and transparency than any Canadian climate plan to date”, said Caroline Brouillette of Climate Action Network Canada.
Bruno Marchand, the mayor of Quebec City said, “The City of Quebec welcomes this major announcement. The fight against climate change is key to the future of our cities and the well-being of future generations. Municipal governments also have a hand in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
These are all allies of the federal government. Unfortunately, they are not allies of the Conservative Party.
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- May/18/23 2:56:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question. I have had several conversations with him and with the minister responsible for first nations and Inuit relations in Quebec, as well as my colleague, the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, and the Minister of Indigenous Services.
It is a complex problem to which we cannot apply simple or simplistic solutions. Everyone has a role to play. The band council has a role to play. The Government of Quebec, through the Sûreté du Québec, has a role to play. The federal government certainly also has a role to play. We are in talks with the band council and the Government of Quebec to find a lasting solution to this problem.
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- May/18/23 2:57:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the only party playing hot potato with this issue is the Bloc Québécois.
I myself acknowledged yesterday in an interview with La Presse that the federal government has a role to play and that it will do just that. Just yesterday, the Minister of Indigenous Services spoke with the community's chief. We are committed to finding a solution.
While the Bloc plays hot potato, we on this side of the House will be working to find a solution.
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- May/18/23 3:02:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his question.
When it comes to climate change, Canadians expect the government to do the right thing and take action. That is exactly what we are doing with pollution pricing that has prompted industry to reduce emissions by over 50 million tonnes in recent years, an emissions reduction plan for all sectors of the economy, an oil and gas emissions cap and a national climate change adaptation strategy.
Meanwhile, the Leader of the Opposition, the Conservative Party leader, has still no plan to fight climate change and even continues to deny the crisis.
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- May/18/23 3:06:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I profoundly disagree with the characterization that the Premier of Ontario has made about the Greenbelt. Protecting green spaces, so that our kids and grandkids can have access to green spaces, clean air and clean water, is no scam. Working to ensure that our kids and grandkids continue to have a bright future is no scam.
The federal government will use all of its available tools to ensure that we can continue protecting the lands in the Greenbelt, as well as jewels like Rouge National Urban Park.
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- May/18/23 3:09:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as the member knows, we can use the Species at Risk Act once projects are proposed. No such projects have been proposed so far. We have already started an impact assessment review of the impacts of said development on Rouge National Park. We did not wait. We are already acting and we are looking at other areas of Ontario where we could launch similar studies to look at the impacts of de-zoning the Green Belt plans on federally protected lands.
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