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Laurel Collins

Member of Parliament
Deputy whip of the New Democratic Party
NDP

Victoria
British Columbia
Voting Attendance: 61%
Expenses Last Quarter: $127,392.53

Government Page

Context: House Hansard - 314 - May/21/24

May/21/24 10:33:25 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, a national school food program is an essential policy, and the Liberals were pushed into actually delivering on it by the NDP, but I just want to take a moment address what the member started off talking about, which is a grocery store code of conduct. The Liberals are asking grocery store chains nicely to please behave. This is not how we get greedy corporations to actually do the right thing. The government has a responsibility to tackle corporate greed. We need to regulate these industries. Big oil and gas companies are not going to fund climate solutions on their own; we have seen it. They have rolled back their emissions targets while they rake in record profits, and then they come to the government asking for more handouts, and for some reason the government continues to give out billions of dollars to big oil and gas companies and millions to big grocery store chains. How about the government gives that money to Canadians?

166 words

Context: House Hansard - 298 - Apr/11/24

Ms. Laurel Collins (Victoria, NDP)

Apr/11/24 12:25:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in response to my question to the member's colleague, the colleague really said that we need to let industry regulate itself. When it comes to oil and gas CEOs, they are raking in record profits. The CEO of Suncor, Rich Kruger, said that he is no longer going to focus on emissions reduction and that he is just going to focus on profits. Suncor is already making record profits, and these companies are gouging Canadians at the pump while Canadians are struggling with the cost of living. I am curious whether the member agrees with his colleagues that we need to let big polluters pollute for free and not be regulated, or whether he would stand up to say that these rich CEOs need to stop gouging Canadians and bring down their emissions.

136 words

Context: House Hansard - 175 - Mar/29/23

Ms. Laurel Collins (Victoria, NDP)

Mar/29/23 6:59:13 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the climate crisis is more urgent than ever, with deadly heat waves, summers of smoke and wildfires, extreme flooding and hurricanes. These events are happening now, and they are only getting more frequent and more severe. While the Liberals say they believe in climate change, they are unwilling to take the action needed at the scale and with the urgency that matches the crisis we are in. In this week's budget, New Democrats were able to successfully push the government to invest billions into clean energy, sustainable jobs and green infrastructure, but I was very disappointed that there was no concrete action on eliminating fossil fuel subsidies in Canada. We have heard promise after promise, but instead the government is headed in the opposite direction, with more handouts to profitable oil and gas companies, ostensibly to provide them with financial help to reduce their emissions. Why would the government not regulate this? Why not make them reduce their emissions and pay for it themselves? U.S. President Biden's budget eliminates billions of dollars in fossil fuel subsidies, and he has talked about how these companies are making “more money than God”. In contrast, the Liberals think the Canadian taxpayer should be helping out these rich oil and gas CEOs. A report earlier this month by Canada's spy agency, CSIS, warned that the climate crisis poses a profound national security risk. This confirms what scientists have been saying for decades. It also confirms what many indigenous communities have been warning us about: the melting of Arctic ice and permafrost, rising sea levels for coastal communities. These changes will threaten the Inuit, Métis and first nations ways of being and ways of life, many of which have been in place since time immemorial. Droughts, flooding and extreme weather in Canada and around the world will mean decreasing food supplies, which means increasing costs for groceries. CSIS highlights the likely increase in violent extremism because of the climate crisis, as well as migration we have never experienced before, with millions of climate refugees, people who will be displaced due to climate disasters and famine, or simply fleeing areas that are too hot to live in. Our world is changing rapidly and people are scared. They are scared for themselves, for their children and for their grandchildren. The world’s top climate scientists have made it crystal clear that we must reduce our emissions now. Given the urgency, scale and gravity of the crisis we are in, why would the government continue to hand out billions of dollars to the profitable oil and gas industry? These companies are making record profits. They made more money last year than they have ever made before. Why would the government not force these companies, which are fuelling the climate crisis, to pay to clean up their own pollution?

481 words

SoVote

Deputy whip of the New Democratic Party

Laurel Collins