Hon. Rosa Galvez: Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Senator Gold, despite promising this past February that no more public funds will be risked on the Trans Mountain pipeline, the cabinet has approved another $10-billion loan guarantee for this project. At the same time, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a letter in April 2022 urging Canada to stop construction of the TMX and the Coastal GasLink pipeline over concerns about Indigenous people’s rights.

Senator Gold, please justify continuing to back this project in light of being misaligned with our climate commitments and contradictory to the government’s commitments to reconciliation?

Senator Galvez: This is now the third letter from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Canada is late submitting its twenty-first to twenty-third combined periodic report to the committee, which was due last year. Does the government plan to respond to these letters and fulfil its reporting commitments?