- Member of Parliament
- Minister of Environment and Climate Change
- Liberal
- Laurier—Sainte-Marie
- Quebec
- Voting Attendance: 59%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $99,511.83
- Government Page
- Oct/3/23 4:12:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for her question, but also for her active commitment, both to reconciliation with indigenous peoples and to the conservation of our environment and nature.
The guardians program is an international model. Requests have come in from all over the world seeking to know how this program could be replicated elsewhere. Thanks to the investment she and I announced last week, there are now indigenous guardians in 25% of communities across the country. Our goal is to get to 100%. We also announced that, from now on, the guardians program will be self-managed.
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- Jun/14/23 3:11:13 p.m.
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- Re: Bill S-5
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for all his work as chair of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development, as well as all the members of the committee.
I would also like to thank the Senate, since Bill S‑5 was passed last night. For the first time ever in Canadian law, we have enshrined in law the right to a healthy environment for all Canadians. This is a first for our country.
We will be working hard over the coming months to determine how this right will be implemented in Canadian law.
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- Jun/1/23 3:10:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question and for all his work on the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development.
In the latest budget, we invested $750 million to protect fresh water across the country. We have delivered on our promise to create an independent water agency, which will be located in Winnipeg. By protecting water, we are protecting the health of Canadians, our economy and our country's future.
There is more to do, but we have already done a lot.
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- May/3/23 3:21:01 p.m.
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- Re: Bill S-5
Mr. Speaker, the last time CEPA was reformed was more than 20 years ago. What our government did was introduce strong amendments to CEPA, which were applauded by environmental organizations, scientists and industry alike.
The parliamentary process was a clear success. Both Senate and House committees worked on this bill, and they have spent 50 hours studying it. They heard testimony from over 80 witnesses representing civil society, academia, industry and indigenous organizations. We received more than a hundred written briefs. It is now time to pass the bill as reported by the environment committee and send it back to the Senate.
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- May/2/23 3:10:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is quite the opposite. The last budget from my friend and colleague, the Minister of Finance, made provisions for record-level investment in the Great Lakes in the history of Canada.
We are working with our partners across the Great Lakes on this side of the border as well as on the other side of the border. We are in the process of creating, for the first time ever in Canada, an independent Canada water agency that will help us address freshwater issues all across the country.
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- Feb/7/23 3:06:05 p.m.
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- Re: Bill S-5
Mr. Speaker, I thank parliamentarians for their hard work on this bill. Ensuring we have the right tools to protect human and environmental health is a key element of our government's plan.
For the first time ever in Canadian law, Bill S‑5 recognizes the right to a healthy environment for all Canadians across the country. This is a big step forward for both health and the environment.
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- Feb/7/23 10:37:43 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Winnipeg South.
I am pleased to take part in today's debate. I would like to say that the Conservatives introduced an opposition day motion to talk about the importance of fighting climate change, but they are not quite there yet.
The Conservative Party has had a new leader for 150 days already and yet it still does not have a plan to tackle climate change. It is anybody's guess as to when its plan will be ready. Last time, it took the Conservative Party nearly a year after choosing its previous leader to come up with a plan to fight climate change.
As many members know already, Canada has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% to 45% below 2005 levels by 2030 and to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
Our 2030 emissions reduction plan tabled last March lays out how we will get there. Pollution pricing is the backbone of our climate strategy. It is foundational, because it has been proven to work all over the world, not only to drive down carbon emissions but also to raise innovation and energy efficiency, and to create jobs in the emerging green economy. It also supports and amplifies every other climate measure, and creates an incentive to invest in low-carbon solutions across the economy.
Conservatives used to know this. In fact, carbon pricing is the kind of market-based mechanism that earlier generations of fiscal Conservative thinkers used to embrace. Many in the Conservative Party, including the Leader of the Opposition's own communication director, used to support carbon pricing, or at least he did until he started working for the Conservative Party. Today's Conservatives are penny-wise and pound foolish.
They have been fighting climate action for years in Canada. Today we face literally billions of dollars in cleanup and adaptation costs from extreme weather events that are stronger and more frequent because of climate change. The fact is that carbon pricing is central to our climate plan, because it is the most efficient and lowest-cost policy to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, and the cost of doing nothing is staggering.
When we introduced carbon pricing in 2019, we were not only putting a price on pollution, but we were also putting in place the building blocks for the future we know we need for ourselves, for our kids and for our grandkids.
Our approach has always been based on a set of ambitious but realistic standards for carbon pricing, the federal reference that gives the provinces and territories the flexibility to implement their own carbon pricing system.
Setting the trajectory until 2030 provides certainty for Canadians and the investor community and will be transformative by creating incentives for the new technologies we need, for both our industry and society.
We have just come to an agreement with all the provinces and territories on increasing carbon pricing. I will reiterate that we negotiated a more ambitious price on pollution with each province and all the territories for the coming years.
I want to impress on the House just how foundational this price trajectory is to the success of Canadians' low-carbon economy and the jobs that will come with it.
Last fall, at COP27 in Egypt, I spoke with Brian Vaasjo of Capital Power, one of Canada's largest private sector electricity producers. Brian told me that pricing pollution and providing certainty and long-term predictability in pricing are key to unlocking investment on some very good projects, including a $2-billion carbon capture electricity project that would not go ahead without it. Susannah Pierce, president and country chair at Shell Canada, noted that Shell's big investment will not make sense without carbon pricing in Canada, and that regulatory certainty is the key to good business decisions.
The Conservatives have now abandoned the energy investors and energy companies, but they are pretending to be on the side of those facing energy poverty. Canadians have been riding the roller coaster of volatile global oil and gas prices for years, and Conservatives said nothing about skyrocketing profit margins from oil and gas producers. Instead, they make up a lot of misleading claims about the price on pollution.
Here are the facts. About two-thirds of the increase in what Canadians are paying at the pump is due to crude oil prices going up, largely because of Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine. Another 25% of the price is the result of everything from provincial taxes to refining margins, which have increased by more than 110% in the last two years. That means, all told, 95% of the price of gas has nothing to do with the price on pollution. In fact, the price on pollution puts more money back in the pockets of Canadians, and it remains one of the best ways to fight climate change and keep our air clean.
Stakeholders across the country have told us that consistency and predictability are essential to promote investment in a low-carbon economy. We also know that businesses and industries are developing innovative technologies and approaches to reduce this pollution. They need incentives and clear support to commercialize and implement these technologies. Carbon pricing creates incentives without dictating a particular approach. It lets businesses decide on the best way to reduce their pollution.
What is most galling are the lies of omission and the things left unsaid, like those quarterly climate action incentive payments that go directly to Canadian households in backstop provinces every three months. For the first time, households in three Atlantic provinces will receive quarterly climate action incentive payments totalling hundreds of dollars a year. The first rebate payment will come in July, which is the same month that the fuel charge will take effect for the first time. The vast majority of households will never be out of pocket, with lower- and middle-income families benefiting the most.
Starting next July, a family of four in Nova Scotia will receive a climate action incentive payment of $248 every three months. In Prince Edward Island, it will be $240 per quarter. In Newfoundland and Labrador, it will be $328 every quarter. For an Ontario family of four, the quarterly payment will be $244 starting in April. In Manitoba, next year's quarterly payment will be $264 every quarter. In Saskatchewan, it will be $340. In Alberta, a family of four will receive $386 four times a year.
In total, 90% of the proceeds from the fuel charges are returned directly to Canadian households through the climate action incentive payments. The rest will be returned to businesses, farmers and indigenous peoples through various federal and provincial programs.
I want to say two things about affordability. First, I know how concerned Canadians are about household budgets in these inflationary times. I understand, and I share each and every concern that Canadians have.
That is why we are making sure that rebate payments go directly to households every three months, and eight out of 10 get more than they paid.
Equally important is the hard fact that if nothing is done about climate change, it will cost us far more. The parliamentary budget office recently estimated the cost to the Canadian economy of $25 billion per year by 2025 if we go about business as usual.
The status quo is not an option. Some may argue that we can simply go back in time and pretend that climate change does not exist. They would probably have better luck buying cryptocurrency.
Our goal is to keep life affordable while developing a clean economy, good jobs and safe communities. A stable, affordable and predictable price on pollution is a key component of that.
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- Jun/22/22 3:16:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Davenport for her advocacy and her work on these important issues.
Selena is right. We need to do better when it comes to protecting our environment, which is why this week we announced that we are banning six single-use plastics that are polluting our rivers and our environment. They are ending up on our streets and everywhere. Between now and 2030, there will be 22,000 tonnes of plastic waste that we will take out of our environment and 1.3 million tonnes that we will take out of the Canadian economy.
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- May/17/22 3:08:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government is in the process of putting in the first-ever Canadian strategy to reduce plastic pollution, move Canada toward a circular economy, ban single-use plastics and force plastic companies to use more recycled content in the plastic they produce.
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- May/16/22 2:49:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as my hon. colleague might know, today we launched the consultations on the first-ever national adaptation strategy. It will clearly focus on the most-impacted Canadians, which include, obviously, indigenous communities across the country and certainly racialized communities and the poorest among us. We are at the very beginning of the consultation, but I can assure the member and this chamber that the consideration of indigenous people and the people of the north, Inuit, will be taken into great consideration as we elaborate this national strategy.
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- Apr/28/22 3:02:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the short answer is no.
The long answer is the commissioner says that carbon pricing is one of the most important measures to fight greenhouse gas emissions. That is exactly what we are doing.
The commissioner says that eight out of 10 Canadians are getting more money through carbon pricing than without it. The commissioner said that the federal government would reach its 25% emissions-reduction target this year, not in 2025. Our plan is working, but I will agree that there is way more we need to do.
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- Apr/26/22 3:05:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Sudbury.
Protecting and conserving nature is one of the most important measures we can take to slow biodiversity loss while fighting climate change and advancing the reconciliation process with indigenous peoples. Nature is what ties all these important causes together.
This project will protect 15,000 square kilometres of critical habitat for species at risk such as caribou. Last week on Earth Day, we celebrated the Boreal Wildlands as the largest single private conservation project in Canada's history.
This is another important step as our government works toward conserving 25% of our land by 2025.
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- Apr/26/22 2:48:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, we welcome the commissioner's latest report and thank him for his findings. I do not know what is so controversial about that.
Over the last six years, we have made major progress on everything from putting a price on pollution to protecting historic amounts of our lands and water. As we have planned in budget 2022 and the emissions reduction plan, we are transitioning to a clean economy. We are putting a cap on emissions from Canada's oil and gas sector, and we are putting a price on pollution through to 2030.
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- Apr/25/22 2:48:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his question.
Just last week, we made a joint announcement with the Nature Conservancy of Canada about the largest private land conservation project in this country's history, which will protect an area twice the size of the island of Montreal.
We are working with our international partners to make our goal of protecting 30% of our lands and oceans by 2030 an international goal in addition to working on reducing and reversing biodiversity loss.
We will keep working on this with all interested members, parties and Canadians.
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- Feb/28/22 2:48:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would remind my hon. colleague that through carbon pricing we went all the way to the Supreme Court against four provinces, including his province and my own, to fight to ensure we could use one of the best tools to fight climate change, which is carbon pricing. We are still unfortunately fighting in the courts against some provinces to continue to be able to fight for Canadians and for the health of our children and grandchildren when it comes to climate change.
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- Feb/28/22 2:47:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the IPCC report shows what people around the world already know: that countries need to take bold action to tackle climate change and adapt actions to fight climate change. We must cut our emissions and build resiliency through our society. Canadians cannot afford another term of Conservative inaction on this file. Since we took office in 2015, our government has committed more than $100 billion to climate action, and we are now developing Canada's first-ever national adaptation strategy.
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- Feb/17/22 2:50:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, one of the highest carbon prices in the world is here in Canada. There are regulations on methane pollution, and a 40% reduction by 2025. There is a cap on oil and gas emissions. These are all things our government has done to fight climate change and ensure we create good jobs and a prosperous future for all Canadians.
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- Feb/17/22 2:49:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in fact, G20 countries have committed to eliminating fossil fuel subsidies by 2025. We in Canada have committed to doing that by 2023, which is two years earlier than our G20 colleagues. On top of that, EDC has reduced its fossil fuel subsidies by more than $3 billion per year since 2018.
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