44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 21, 2024 10:00AM
- Mar/21/24 11:16:24 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Edmonton Strathcona for putting the notion of Groundhog Day in my mind. It really is Groundhog Day when the Conservative Party's slogan is lifted word for word, rhyme for rhyme, from the British Columbia New Democratic Party's slogan in the 2008 provincial campaign, when the B.C. New Democrats, under Carole James, ran against the carbon tax.
In fact, former premier Gordon Campbell, back in 2008, owed his re-election to the revenue-neutral, well-designed carbon tax brought into British Columbia by the relatively right-wing British Columbia Liberal Party.
Could we ever have a serious discussion in this place about the actual climate crisis, its galloping threat to our country and how the Liberal government might still, at this late date, put together a real plan?
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- Mar/21/24 11:49:14 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I completely agree with my colleague from Victoria.
The Trans Mountain pipeline is a huge scam that flies in the face of climate action. It comes at an unbelievable cost of over $34 billion, for a pipeline that makes no sense, which is what the private sector, in the shape of Kinder Morgan, had decided.
I would like to hear my Bloc Québécois colleague's thoughts on that.
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- Mar/21/24 12:03:03 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I think my hon. friend from Victoria and I agree on many things. Will she agree with me that it is never too late, even after $34 billion has been wasted on building the Trans Mountain pipeline, to refuse to open it?
The use of the Trans Mountain pipeline will have the effect of increasing greenhouse gases from the oil sands and will massively increase the risk of a dilbit spill in the Salish Sea, which cannot be cleaned up.
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- Mar/21/24 12:51:14 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Kingston and the Islands for that commitment.
I would like to shift the conversation in this place. I will have a question at the end of question period, and there is no real spoiler alert, most people will be gone by the time I ask it, but I want the hon. member for Kingston and the Islands to know about it and to help me sell this idea in his caucus.
We need a serious conversation that is science-based. In question period, I am going to ask about convening, when we get back after Easter, a committee of the whole in this place, where we bring in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientific experts, and raise a conversation that does not involve rhyming slogans competing with each other, but is actually based on facing the facts of the perilous situation we face and discussing real solutions.
Would the hon. member support that?
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- Mar/21/24 1:22:32 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I reflect on the member's comments about the overspending and printing of money. I want to remind him, and everyone here, that in the early months of COVID we were unified as a House, because we had to be. We were facing an emergency created by a pandemic and, because we could not physically gather in this place and vote because of the health rules of the City of Ottawa, $80 billion of spending was approved by unanimous consent. I was so proud of all of us for putting partisanship to the side.
I would ask the hon. member if he now regrets not showing up and saying no, because one Conservative could have stopped $80 billion of spending.
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- Mar/21/24 1:50:12 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to set aside the comments on what has dominated in this place, which are carbon pricing and proper solutions to the climate crisis. I wonder if my hon. friend does not agree that the well-being of every single Canadian, as she exhorted in her speech, includes that we face the fact that there is a very worrying fuel load across the country in our forests. The forest fires of summer 2023 continue to burn underground and under the snow and are called zombie fires. The oceans have hit temperature increases we have never seen before.
I ask her this: Is she also committed to finding climate solutions that work?
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- Mar/21/24 3:11:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the so-called climate debate taking place in this place is the worst of all worlds.
It is unserious and profoundly unfunny. It is a grotesque display of ignorance of the science and a rejection of the solutions that are desperately needed. Our children and grandchildren will not forgive us for this display, but we still have a chance.
Will the Liberal government commit that, when we come back after Easter, we can convene as a committee of the whole to bring scientific experts to this place to educate all members, take questions and focus on facts?
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- Mar/21/24 3:36:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I do not know about the rest of the members, but I am just not going to get over missing this member for a very long time, probably never. One reason, and he knows this, is that I loved his dad so very much. His dad, Bill Blaikie, was a grand friend and a voice for this planet. I remember his dad talking about climate change in this place in 1986. He was brave and courageous and a man of great heart.
The member for Elmwood—Transcona is a chip off the old block. He is someone who speaks with knowledge and speaks with profound understanding of the Westminster parliamentary tradition. There is probably nobody else in this place who gets as passionate about confidence conventions as the member for Elmwood—Transcona does.
I had a great privilege over the last little while. I really disapprove of heckling, and I have never heckled not once. I would not have liked it if the member had heckled, except at the very end there; that was primo. I just have to say that I did benefit from his sotto voce comments, a running commentary on the theatre of the absurd. I was privileged to be one of the few people who could hear it. It did not violate the rules, and it did not travel all the way up to the Speaker's chair.
All I can say is that I have been very impressed so far with Premier Wab Kinew. I am going to some day forgive him for drawing this fine member out of this place. There will be a hole left by the absence of his voice, not to mention the Address to a Haggis. He will have to come back. There is no doubt. We cannot do Robbie Burns night dinner around here without a Blaikie in place. I will look forward to that somehow in some way, but godspeed.
I love him. I am going to miss him something fierce, and I thank him for his service to this country.
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