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Gord Johns

Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
NDP

Courtenay—Alberni
British Columbia
Voting Attendance: 66%
Expenses Last Quarter: $148,159.67

Government Page

Context: House Hansard - 321 - May/31/24

May/31/24 12:35:53 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am sad that I did not get an answer. I do not want to be dragging my colleague, my friend, in here at 12:35 a.m. to try to get an answer and still not get an answer. I will probably have to do this again, I hate to tell him and inform the House. We know polystyrene and plastic is literally choking our ocean. There was a movie just put out by Rick Smith called Plastic People. I recommend everybody watch it. It is affecting human health. There is a solution. We could create an ecosystem service fee, a small fee on trans cargo shipment units and on the industrial use of plastics in the aquaculture industry, and use that like the government does with marine response. We have West Coast oil response in my community. That could be replicated when it comes to plastic pollution, something that my good colleague from Nanaimo—Ladysmith, is working on. I am working with her on that as well. Maybe the member could speak about a solution that does not end this program and kill all that important infrastructure, and then come back to the House.

199 words

Context: House Hansard - 305 - Apr/30/24

Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)

Apr/30/24 11:12:36 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, just yesterday Canada hosted the fourth round of the INC discussions on plastic pollution to try to get traction. We know that Conservatives put forward a bill to bring back the plastic straw, because they said it is good for the environment and it is healthy for us. I cannot make this stuff up. I did not read it on The Beaverton. It is actually a bill here in Parliament. We know two garbage trucks of plastic are getting deposited into our oceans every day. We are choking on plastic, yet in the budget, the Liberals would get rid of the ghost and derelict fishing gear fund, a $10-million fund that was actually getting traction on our coast, especially in British Columbia. It was supporting the restoration economy and employing indigenous people from coast to coast to coast. It was a world-class program. Maybe my friend from British Columbia can explain why the government would cut this really important program, which was also critical to protecting the blue economy.

173 words

Context: House Hansard - 116 - Oct/24/22

Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)

Oct/24/22 6:37:38 p.m.
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Re: Bill S-5

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his speech. He is a good friend. I really appreciated working with him on OGGO when he was our previous chair. I am really grateful that my colleague voted for my Motion No. 51 back in 2018 to tackle plastic pollution and reduce plastics in our environment. He supported the banning of straws and different plastics. Does he not agree that we have a duty to ensure that, when there are chemical ingredients that are known or suspected to cause cancer or harm the reproductive or endocrine systems, it should be mandatory to require the labelling of hazardous substances in consumer products, which is what we are calling for in this bill? Would he support an amendment to support that?

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Context: House Hansard - 113 - Oct/19/22

Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)

Oct/19/22 6:06:40 p.m.
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Re: Bill S-5

Madam Speaker, my colleague from Peace River—Westlock talked about ways and the history of our working together, whether it be tackling acid rain; or working with Megan Leslie, the former member for Halifax, who put forward a motion banning microbeads, which has now been implemented; or my own motion, M-151, back in 2018, which my colleague supported and voted for, about reducing single-use plastics, including plastic bags, plastic cutlery, cigarette butts, and many different things that are lowering the impact. We are glad to see the government dedicate funding to address ghost and derelict fishing gear. That is actually being implemented on the coast right now. Is it enough? No, it is not. We need to go much further. We know there are over 10,000 unique chemical ingredients used in various different products that are known to cause cancer, harm the reproductive system and disrupt the endocrine system. These are simple, low-hanging fruit that we can all agree on. Does my colleague agree that there should be mandatory labelling of hazardous substances in all consumer products?

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Member of Parliament

Gord Johns