44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 9, 2023 10:00AM
- Nov/9/23 10:23:38 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have two petitions to present today.
The first is with respect to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the repeated warnings of rising temperatures over the next two decades that will continue to bring widespread devastation and extreme weather.
The petitioners bring to our attention that in Canada today we are seeing increased flooding, wildfires and extreme temperatures. They are calling on the Government of Canada to move immediately with bold emissions caps for the oil and gas sector that are comprehensive in scope and realistic in achieving the necessary targets that Canada has set to reduce emissions by 2030.
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- Nov/9/23 2:08:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, we know that this NDP-Liberal government and this Prime Minister are just not worth the cost. They want Canadians to believe that they are the saviours of the environment, but their record says otherwise. In fact, we are the only G7 nation that has failed to reduce its emissions.
This NDP-Liberal government does not have an environmental plan. It has a tax plan, and it is failing miserably. Instead of protecting our environment, it has bankrupted our country, our industries and our citizens.
We brought forward a common-sense motion to remove the carbon tax on all home heating, to help Canadians get through the winter, because we live in a winter country, and it definitely gets cold in Edmonton. However, the member for Edmonton Centre voted against that motion and is punishing the hard-working people of Edmonton for simply heating their homes.
Our Conservative common-sense government will completely axe the tax.
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- Nov/9/23 2:17:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years it has never been more clear that the Prime Minister is not worth the cost. He told Canadians that, if they just paid their costly carbon tax, the NDP-Liberal government would meet their environmental target.
However, in a bombshell report, Canada's environment commissioner revealed that, despite a punishing carbon tax, the Liberals will fail to achieve their own emission targets. In fact, the only time emissions went down under the current government was when the entire economy was shut down. It is all pain and no gain under the NDP-Liberal government.
The truth is finally exposed. The carbon tax was never an environmental plan. It was always just a tax plan. After eight years of environmental failure, the Prime Minister is definitely not worth the cost.
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- Nov/9/23 2:23:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, not only is the Prime Minister not worth the cost, but he also still does not have a climate plan. He said that if Canadians paid his carbon tax, it would save the world, but here are the facts: Canada now ranks 58th out of 63 in climate action; Canada is the only G7 country not to have reduced its emissions below 1990 levels; the Prime Minister has missed seven of eight of his targets over the last decade; and, finally, according to a bombshell report by his own environment commissioner this week, he will not hit his 2030 Paris accord targets.
Why will the Prime Minister not just admit that he does not have a climate plan; he has a tax plan?
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- Nov/9/23 2:24:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what the Leader of the Opposition is saying in the House is factually incorrect.
The facts are as follows: We have had the best performance in greenhouse gas reductions since 2019. We have a plan that has been applauded by environmental organizations, research organizations and municipalities. Even the oil companies have applauded our climate plan.
This morning, at the environment committee, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development said that not only is pollution pricing working, but it is responsible for 30% of the emissions reduced in Canada since 2019.
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- Nov/9/23 2:24:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is funny that the minister keeps focusing on 2019 and the year that followed. That year was the only year in which emissions went down, because the economy was locked down. In every other one of the eight years the Prime Minister has been in power, he has missed his emissions targets.
He now ranks 58th out of 63 nations. He leads the only country in the G7 that has not reduced its emissions below 1990 levels, and his own environment commissioner said that he will not hit his Paris targets.
Will the Liberals finally admit that, after eight years, this carbon tax is all pain and no gain?
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- Nov/9/23 2:35:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I find it quite ironic that the member campaigned for the leadership of his party on a carbon taxing platform. Now, all of a sudden, it does not work and he does not believe in it.
This morning, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development was at the environment committee. He said that pollution pricing not only is working, but it is also responsible for up to 30% of emissions reduced in Canada since 2019.
The Conservatives do not want to talk about climate change, because they do not want to talk about the fact that they are buddying up with their friends in the big oil companies. God forbid that we would do anything to affect their profits.
We want to fight climate change, and we want to help Canadians in the process.
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- Nov/9/23 2:36:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I campaigned on a revenue-negative carbon tax. The Liberal government's environmental plan is revenue-positive, with a mishmash of taxes and regulations that are dragging the Canadian economy down.
Emissions still have not risen to prepandemic highs. That is because the economy still has not recovered. Per capita GDP and productivity are lower this year than in 2017.
After eight years, will the Liberal government admit that its environmental plan is not working and that its economic plan is not working, with productivity and per capita GDP lower today than six years ago?
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- Nov/9/23 2:37:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, they can huff and they can puff, but their carbon tax house is falling down because it was built on two pillars that have completely collapsed. The first is that it is revenue-neutral, but the Prime Minister's own budget watchdog has said that Canadians pay far more in the tax than anything they hope to receive. The second is that it would allow the government to hit its own emissions targets, but the Liberal-appointed Environment Commissioner confirmed this week that the government has no hope of hitting its targets, even with the carbon tax.
After eight years of failure, will the Prime Minister put his ego aside and admit he has a tax plan, not an environment plan?
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- Nov/9/23 2:39:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, his own government has admitted that it is not going to hit those targets. The Liberals are getting there? Does somebody have a participation trophy we could send across the way? Maybe they would get there faster if they stopped saying no to clean energy projects, like when they killed a tidal electricity project in Atlantic Canada that would have created zero-emissions power for Canadians, when they say no to nuclear or when they say no to carbon capture. There were 18 LNG terminals on the books when the Prime Minister took office. Zero have been completed.
Instead of cancelling clean energy projects, why do the Liberals not cancel their carbon tax?
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- Nov/9/23 2:46:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would invite my colleague to actually watch the proceedings from the environment committee this morning where the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development said that not only was carbon pricing working, but it was responsible for 30% of the emissions we have seen in Canada since we took office.
Nothing would have happened under the Conservative Party. It has no plan to fight climate change. It has no plan to develop the economy. It has no plan for renewable energy, for clean electricity, for electrification of transportation. That is why Canada is lagging so far behind other countries. We are playing catch-up, but thanks to all our efforts, we are getting there, no thanks to the Conservative Party.
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- Nov/9/23 2:55:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, the Prime Minister has not hit a single emissions target. In fact, Canada is ranked 58 out of 63 countries when it comes to climate action performance.
It is clear that the only green plan the Prime Minister has is diverting green backs from his carbon tax to his Liberal friends. However, when our most important allies, Germany and Japan, come to Canada for help, for clean Canadian LNG, he turns his back.
Why does the Prime Minister support diverting Canadian tax dollars to a billion dollar green slush fund instead of unleashing the clean Canadian energy the world desperately needs?
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- Nov/9/23 2:56:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the minister is clearly misleading Canadians. The Liberals do not have an environment plan. What they have is a political agenda.
The Prime Minister has two carbon taxes that are punishing Canadian families, which we now know do not reduce emissions. However, when his polls plummet in Atlantic Canada, he can remove the carbon tax from home heating oil, the energy source with the highest emissions. At the same time, the Liberal environment minister, under a wave of red tape, kills a tidal energy project that would have provided clean electricity for the east coast.
Why is the Prime Minister killing clean Canadian energy, while his carbon taxes force Canadians to freeze in the dark?
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- Nov/9/23 2:58:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to correct my colleague. What he said is inaccurate. Carbon pricing works, and the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development confirmed it this morning at the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development. I invite my colleague to take a look at the transcript of that meeting. Not only does carbon pricing work, it is responsible for 30% of emissions reductions. That is the equivalent of taking 11 million vehicles off our roads.
Our plan is working. We are on track to meet our targets. There is still work to be done, but it is certainly not the Conservative Party that will get us there.
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- Nov/9/23 2:59:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in the meantime, a quarter of Canadians are using assistance services to meet their basic needs, such as food and housing. After eight years of this tax plan, this Prime Minister is not worth the environmental cost. The Liberals have literally killed every clean energy project. The Prime Minister killed GNL Québec's natural gas project in Saguenay. We have a Minister of Environment and Climate Change who is against nuclear energy, which does not produce any greenhouse gas emissions. The government is against carbon capture and storage.
When will the government stop killing clean energy projects and cancel its carbon taxes, which only punish Canadians?
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- Nov/9/23 3:16:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I mentioned when I got a chance to speak to the House on another occasion that I wanted to run around and hug everyone. I have not reached all of my colleagues yet, but I am very happy to be back.
My question for the hon. Minister of Environment, who may not be so happy to see me back, is based on the report from the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development. The report says clearly, “The 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan is insufficient to meet the 2030 emission reduction target”, to which I add that the 2030 emissions reduction target is too weak to meet our global share of responsibility for the Paris Agreement goals of holding to 1.5°C and as far below 2°C as possible. However, the commissioner did say there is barely enough time to do more to meet the weak target.
Will the government cancel the TMX pipeline, ban fracking and put in place an excess profits tax on the oil and gas industry?
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- Nov/9/23 3:17:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is good to see my colleague in the House.
I agree with the findings of the commissioner. We need to do more. Our plan shows that we are at 34%, towards a 40% emissions reduction target. Since the environment commissioner did the study, we have put up a number of new measures to help fight climate change and accelerate the reduction of climate pollution, including a zero-emission vehicle mandate and new methane regulations. By the end of the year, as the Prime Minister announced in New York, we will also have a framework to cap the emissions of the oil and gas sector.
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague and I both have a passion for addressing hunger. There are eight billion people in the world. Four million of them are dependent on synthetic nitrogen fertilizers made through the Haber-Bosch process from natural gas.
If we had the pipeline that I referenced in my speech to eastern Canada, in the short term, we could have addressed the needs of our allies Germany and Japan, which have come calling for LNG. There will continue to be a need for infrastructure dealing particularly with natural gas.
We could also do far better in addressing the world's expanding use of coal with LNG. That would do more than any carbon tax ever will, as the record of it is showing, in reducing world greenhouse gas emissions. It was predicted 10 years ago that we would reach peak coal. We set a record in coal consumption in the world last year. We are predicted to smash that record this year. Why are we not putting Canadian LNG on the world market? It is because we do not have the infrastructure to deliver it to our allies and to some of the countries still putting coal-fired plants online.
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- Nov/9/23 5:45:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to follow up on a question I raised in the House on November 1 in response to the government’s announcement that excludes 97% from the three-year suspension of the carbon tax. Constituents from my riding of Yorkton—Melville are appalled by this blatant division of Canadians into two classes, and rightly so.
The province of Saskatchewan is a leading force in the advancement of clean energy and technology. Time and time again, the NDP-Liberal government seems to forget this. Therefore, let me take a moment to clearly outline how Saskatchewan is leading on this file and why we do not need a carbon tax to change our behaviours. We are and have been proactive and progressive on continuing to steward our environment. We love it; we depend on it.
Nearly 10 years ago, the Boundary Dam power station became the first power station in the world to successfully use carbon capture and storage technology. To match the 4.6 million tonnes of CO2 captured by this unit, we would need to plant more than 69 million trees and let them grow for 10 years to get the same results.
More recently, in 2022, Saskatchewan farmers exceeded all provinces in sequestering 12.8 million tonnes of carbon, which is the equivalent of taking 2.78 million cars off the road for a year.
We can also consider that Saskatchewan’s nuclear energy potential could fulfill 170% of Canada’s total annual electricity demands. As if this were not enough, the same province is the world’s leading supplier of uranium, with 90% of uranium being exported. It is estimated that one in 20 homes in the U.S. is powered by Saskatchewan uranium.
Let us not forget the fact that Saskatchewan is the world’s largest and greenest potash producer. Potash mines in the province produce only half the emissions per tonne of potash as competing jurisdictions and still manage to achieve 30% of global production.
These are only a few examples of Saskatchewan’s sustainable initiatives, and there are many more. Beyond what has already been accomplished, experts estimate that 131,000 clean energy jobs will be added between 2025 and 2050 in Saskatchewan as the province continues to move toward a net-zero economy.
Given all this, one would expect to see strong support for my province from the Liberal government. Sadly, this has not been and will not be the case. From the NDP-Liberal government, and now a new carbon tax coalition with the separatist Bloc, we only see inflationary taxes that are hurting our families.
The Minister of Rural Economic Development has confirmed what we knew all along: The carbon tax was never about climate change. It has always been about politics. Canadians have been told that reducing emissions will not exempt them from the tax, whereas voting Liberal will.
Instead of helping struggling families, the Prime Minister is dividing Canadians into two classes: those who get relief from his punitive taxes and those who do not. The Prime Minister is only concerned about his party’s plummeting poll numbers, not about doing what is right for all Canadians.
The people of my province and riding are resilient. Cold winters with temperatures dropping down to -40°C do not stop us. Driving long distances in the freezing cold weather is something we have to do, because we are rural communities.
Ninety per cent of Saskatchewan households are heated with natural gas; because they do not vote Liberal, they are given no relief from this punitive tax that is making life unaffordable. In terms of the 10% increase to the rural payment, a whole total of $11.33 will not even buy a Big Mac meal. Canadians can now see more than ever that the Prime Minister is not worth the cost. Even he knows this, but he is only willing to relieve the burden off the backs of 3% of Canadians.
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