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Hon. Sean Fraser (Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities, Lib.)

Oct/6/23 10:01:29 a.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-49

Mr. Speaker, before I begin, I would like to inform the House that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Sydney—Victoria. It is a pleasure to rise to speak in the debate on Bill C-49. This is an important issue for my region. It is an important issue for me. Two of the main reasons that I decided to seek public office in the first instance was that I care deeply about creating jobs in Atlantic Canada and want to do more to protect our environment as we build a clean economy. These elements are key to the purpose of Bill C-49 and form a major part of the reason I am so strongly in support of this important piece of legislation. Let me begin by stating what I hope will be taken as obvious: Climate change is real and its impacts are serious. We need to do more to combat climate change and make sure that our communities adapt to mitigate the consequences of severe weather events, which are arriving with a greater sense of frequency. In Nova Scotia, our shared home province, we know the importance of doing more to combat climate change. In particular, over the past 12 months or so, we have seen severe weather events that I could not possibly have imagined just a few years ago. The devastating impacts of hurricane Fiona are now well understood by members of this House. We have seen forest fires spread through our province like we have never experienced before. We have seen dangerous floods claim the lives of family members of the province we both call home. Though we may face hurricanes, storm surges and other severe events, Atlantic Canada is not the only region of the country that has been impacted by the changing climate impacting our communities. We see heat waves in Quebec and Ontario. We see atmospheric rivers in British Colombia. We see wildfires that have displaced families and endangered critical infrastructure in nearly every region of this country. It is important that I make these points and put them on the record to ensure that the perspective of government is well understood. Climate change is real, the impacts are serious and we need to do more to combat it. In addition to making sure we address climate change fully with the different ideas we can come up with, we need to understand that not only is it the right thing to do from an environmental perspective, but it is in our self-interest because the cost of inaction is simply too great to ignore. Members will have seen, as I have, the physical damage that can result from severe weather events. Over the course of the first 20 years or so of my life, it was typical to see insured losses in the range of $250 million to $450 million a year across this country. Within a few short years, that number could potentially reach $5 billion. The reality is that it is expensive not to take action on climate change, and we all pay the consequences. It is not merely an issue of insured losses. Look at the contributions that governments need to make to deal with the fallout of severe weather events. Look at the hundreds of millions of dollars, perhaps in excess of $1 billion, just in Nova Scotia as a result of the fallout of hurricane Fiona last year. Look at the consequences to the health and well-being of families of letting climate change run its course without intervention. Look at the impact we see when businesses are forced to shut down, as we sometimes lose power for weeks. Crops have been lost in this country that have cost local farmers hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of these severe weather events. As I mentioned, they can endanger our critical infrastructure, upon which our communities rely for their well-being. The good news, despite the very serious impacts of climate events, is that we can do something about them. Bill C-49 presents an opportunity. In fact, in my opinion, Nova Scotia has the opportunity to be a leader when it comes to creating job opportunities for people in the green economy. Members will have seen increasing global demand for clean energy products when it comes to powering our economies, when it comes to transportation globally and when it comes to construction and manufacturing. The entire world is hungry for climate-friendly solutions to solve problems for businesses. I can point to a number of examples in our home provinces that are creating good-paying jobs for my neighbours today and for the residents of Nova Scotia. I can point to the carbon sequestration technology from a company like CarbonCure in Nova Scotia, which has been celebrated as one of the leading global companies when it comes to sequestration. I can look at Graphite Innovation and Technologies, which has invented a technology supported by research funding through Transport Canada. It has a more efficient hull paint for vessels that can make them 20% more efficient, not only reducing their fuel consumption but reducing the cost for people who use vessels to transport goods. There are companies, such as the Trinity Group of Companies in my own community, that have embraced energy efficiency as a growth model for their community. When we shared news of a policy that allows homeowners to transition to heat pumps from home heating oil, it happened to be hosted at that particular location, and they were celebrating the fact that that day they had added their 100th employee. These are good-paying jobs in communities like mine. There is no shortage of other examples. I look at Sheet Harbour, again in my constituency, and the work that RJ MacIsaac is doing to decommission and recycle the components of ships that would otherwise be run aground in some foreign country and left to rot, posing serious environmental consequences. Instead, RJ MacIsaac is creating good jobs in a small community like Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia. I would like to draw members' attention as well to a billion-dollar opportunity for our province in a new industry. The industry is green hydrogen and the company is EverWind Fuels. It plans to create a green hydrogen option that will create export opportunities to develop clean energy in my home province. It could be powered by offshore wind, allowing it to offer one of the cleanest fuel sources, which is in extraordinarily high demand. It is important that we look at the pathway to success for opportunities like this and not merely ascribe our strategy to being one of hope. It also has to involve a thoughtful approach to policy development. That is where Bill C-49 comes in. This bill is important because it would amend the accord acts, which gave life to the Atlantic accords, political arrangements reached a number of decades ago, to expand the scope of the regulatory framework to include offshore renewable energy and not simply offshore oil and gas. Members will have seen the significant economic production of the offshore oil and gas industry in Atlantic Canada over the course of our lifetimes, but we have not seen the same return when it comes to offshore renewable opportunities. With the introduction of Bill C-49, we would be creating a regulatory framework that would give certainty to investors that says we welcome their business here in Atlantic Canada and want them to create opportunities for our community members to work in our economy in a way that is sustainable and renewable and will help us power the next generation of the economy in Atlantic Canada by providing clean electricity. As the cost of pollution continues to rise and continues to have an impact on our communities, we need to do more to generate energy from renewable sources, including offshore wind, for example. There are very real proposals to build companies and advance projects that create good-paying jobs for Nova Scotians in the offshore renewable sector. However, without a regulatory framework, investors will not know whether projects will have a clear pathway to approval, and they will potentially flee our jurisdiction in search of a more friendly country or province where they can make an investment. Over the next 15 or perhaps 20 years, we expect to see investments approaching $1 trillion globally in the offshore renewable sector. We need to put our hands up and say that we want the investments that are going to create good-paying jobs for our neighbours in provinces like Nova Scotia. It is rare that we have the opportunity to debate legislation that has a specific impact on just a few provinces, including my home province of Nova Scotia, that may not be national in scale. However, by working with provincial governments such as those in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, both of which support this bill, we are going to advance opportunities to create good-paying jobs for people in our communities. I should point out that although there is some anxiety among workers who traditionally take part in the energy sector about the potential to transition to a clean economy, I want to communicate that this bill would create opportunity for those same people to continue to work in good-paying jobs. I look at opportunities for friends of mine whom I have known since I was seven years old. They are heavy equipment operators, who traditionally are involved in road building or projects for replacing municipal water and sewers. When I speak to them now, they are increasingly working on projects that deal with the prevention of coastal erosion or projects that will make our communities more sustainable, such as, as I mentioned, decommissioning ships that could otherwise be left to rot somewhere, posing great environmental concerns. With the introduction of Bill C-49, we have an opportunity to say we are going to create regulatory certainty for the businesses that want to make investments. We have found out that we can monetize wind in Atlantic Canada. Mr. Speaker, you and I know that wind is in plentiful supply in our part of the country. If we embrace the opportunity to tap into a new natural resource to create renewable energy for our economies, we can power the economy in a way that is good for our environment and good for the people who call your region and my region home. We have only one planet. It is our duty to protect it, but by doing so we can create economic opportunities for a generation of workers who would otherwise not be able to have good-paying jobs so they can provide for their families. I am in support of this bill. I understand there is some division between the different parties in the House, but I would encourage all members, if they care about creating good-paying jobs in Nova Scotia and care about protecting our environment, to support this bill. It is the right thing to do and it is the smart thing to do.

1865 words

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