Government Orders
Madam Speaker, again, one of the first things we did when we formed government was putting the age of retirement back to 65 so seniors would not be left in poverty. Indeed, in our last budget, we increased the OAS by 10% because our seniors are more vulnerable as they age, with more needs for health care and medicine. The hon. member mentioned workers. Since the topic is climate today, we are work…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I enjoy working with the hon. member on the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development. The hon. member mentioned the UN, and he will recall the UN Kyoto climate accord, which the Conservatives cancelled. They not only did not meet their targets; they cancelled their targets. They cut $350 million from the environment and climate change budget. There was not an en…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, we do have a plan. We are working with that plan. Since 2015, we have been getting results. Canada has increased its conserved terrestrial areas by more than 2%, an area roughly the size of Italy. Canada has conserved or protected just over 13% of our lands and inland waters. On the marine side, Canada has conserved 14% of our marine and coastal areas, up from less than 1% in 2015. …
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for his passion and commitment to conservation. The world is facing an unprecedented biodiversity crisis. Canadians have a deep connection with nature and understand that protecting the environment is all about protecting our shared future. The Government of Canada is committed to continue leading efforts and strengthening partnerships to halt biodive…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, thank you for giving that good talking to to my hon. colleague from the ENVI committee, who I enjoy working with. I would just in closing say that the impacts from the CFR on the cost of fuel for transportation will be gradual and will not occur for several years. In 2030, Canadians who drive gasoline-powered vehicles may see between six cents to 13¢ per litre in an increase to the …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I will be presenting a starkly different view from that of the hon. member. The clean fuel regulations, CFR, are critical to meeting Canada's 2030 climate targets and laying the foundation for a net-zero economy in 2050. The CFR will deliver up to 26 megatonnes of GHG emission reductions in 2030. This is a significant contribution to Canada's climate change goals, equal to removing …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the hon. member's question and I appreciated as well the question she put to the minister on October 20 and I appreciated his response. I think the hon. member will agree that a clean and safe freshwater supply in Canada and freshwater systems from coast to coast to coast are essential to the well-being of Canadians and to the health and sustainability of the environment …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I would agree with many of the hon. member's points. The hon. member and I go back a long way, as she has alluded to. Again, I take many of her points and ultimately we will see much of that reflected when the Canada water agency is established. Just in closing, creating the Canada water agency presents a unique opportunity for Canada to work with provinces, territories, indigenous pe…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to table “2020-2021 Reports by Federal Authorities with Obligations under Section 71 of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012”. The report is to be forwarded to the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development pursuant to Standing Order 32(5).
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I rise today to pay tribute to the Hon. Jim Carr, my long-time friend and a respected colleague on all sides of the House. Jim was truly a Renaissance man. He had an extraordinary career as a professional musician, a journalist, a leader in the business community and a politician who served in the Manitoba legislature and here in the House as the MP for W…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, as usual, the Conservatives are spreading misinformation. We are on track to meet our targets, which are in 2030. What did Conservatives do when they were in power? They did absolutely nothing for 10 years. They blew up our emissions quotas in the Kyoto accord. They cut $350 million from the environment and climate change budget. They gutted our environmental laws. Now the Conservativ…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, in listening to the Conservatives on the other side, the words “climate change” just never pass their lips. That is not surprising, because for 10 long years they did absolutely nothing on climate change. We are building the new economy. While Conservatives want to make pollution free again, we are looking to the future. They are stuck in the past. We are doing something about clima…
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Madam Speaker, I think the member would agree that thousands of species are at risk here at home. One in five species, according to the wild species report, are in danger of extinction. There are millions around the world. That is why we are gathered in Montreal to face the biodiversity crisis head on at the UN Biodiversity Conference. We are stepping up to preserve and conserve 30% of our land an…
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Madam Speaker, the hon. member mentioned the Prairies, where I am from. I wonder if she knows that in Manitoba we had two one-in-300 year floods that cost a billion dollars each. There was the Calgary flood at $5 billion, and 7,000 people were forced from their homes in my home province. The costs are rising. The Conservatives are in denial. When are they going to get serious about climate change?
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Madam Speaker, yesterday, the Conservatives had the opportunity to vote for affordability and they failed. The other thing they failed on is fighting climate change. However, there is good news coming to Ontario: The price on pollution is increasing, yes, but the climate action rebate is also increasing. For our citizens from Ontario, the average family of four will get $244 a quarter. That is $1,…
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Madam Speaker, we are focused like a laser beam on affordability. We had rental supports, dental supports and other affordability measures that the Conservatives just voted against, and that is unfortunate. The hon. member is from the Prairies, like me, and there is good news coming to the Prairies. In her province of Alberta and in Saskatchewan, there is $1,500 in the climate action rebate. Those…
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Mr. Speaker, like the hon. member, we are committed to concerted climate action, and that is why we have the most ambitious climate plan in Canada's history: $100 billion have been invested since 2015; we have a $9.1-billion emissions reduction plan, and we are working to cap emissions from the oil and gas sector. We are going to be eliminating fossil fuel subsidies. We are introducing a clean ele…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would like to split my time with my friend and colleague, the member for Hull—Aylmer, who will be up next. I appreciate the opportunity to participate in a debate on the higher cost of living that Canadians and the world are experiencing. Let me reassure the hon. member that the government is well aware of these challenges, and that our priorities remain helping the most vulnerable …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I invite the hon. member to Manitoba to see those beautiful landscapes. I toured that area this spring. It was under water. About a third of southern Manitoba was out of water. There was a late spring, so farmers could not plant their crops in a timely way. However, in 2021, many of those farmers had to plow their canola fields under because we had the worst drought in 60 years. We ha…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would agree with the hon. member that oil profits are at record levels. They need to put their shoulder to the wheel and help us reduce emissions. We are working hard with them to cap oil and gas emissions. We will be introducing a clean fuel standard, and we will be removing inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. We have already removed eight. We are on our way to completely eliminatin…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I find myself agreeing with the spirit of the questions my opposition colleagues are asking me. Oil profits are up. Emissions must come down. The oil and gas sector and the energy sector must put their shoulder to the wheel. They must work with us. Come hell or high water, we must meet those emissions targets of 40% to 45% reductions in emissions below 2005 levels. We have emissions t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague and friend from the Green Party and I talk often about the importance of action on climate change. He is indeed a devoted advocate. Again, I would agree with the spirit of his comments, if not the actual content. We are going to be working hard to get those emissions down, and we are not going to be giving the energy sector a free pass, as has been implied by opposit…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House, we are focused like a laser beam on affordability. I hope that in just a few short minutes, members opposite will vote for Bill C-32, which helps affordability. Do members know what else helps affordability? It is the climate action rebate. It puts more money in people's pockets, and eight out of 10 families will benefit. Do members know what they will not b…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, all of us, on all sides of the House, are concerned about the affordability challenges of Canadian families, except on this side of the House we are doing something about it. The Conservatives can redeem themselves in just a few short minutes by voting for Bill C-32. As the hon. member will know, as the price on pollution increases, so does the climate rebate. Unfortunately, the hon. …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I want to thank my long-time friend and hon. colleague, the member for Winnipeg South Centre, for his hard work in bringing forward this proposed legislation and his years of service to his community, to his constituents, to Manitobans and, indeed, to all Canadians. I know this is a topic about which he is very passionate, and it is one I fully support. I followed the debate on Bill…
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Mr. Speaker, as usual, the Conservatives are spreading misinformation. We are on target to make our targets, and we will get there, come hell or high water. What is the Conservatives' record? They cut $350 million from the environment and climate change budget. They blew up Kyoto—
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, instead of fighting inflation and making life more affordable for Canadians, what do the Conservatives want to do? They want to make it harder for Canadians to save for their retirement. They want to make it harder for Canadians who lose their jobs, and instead of flighting climate change, they want to make pollution free again. On just about every measure that Canadians care about, t…
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Mr. Speaker, as I said before, emissions are going down. We are on track to make our targets, but the Conservative record is abysmal. The first thing the Conservatives did when they came to power was to cancel the national child care program, but the second thing they did was blow up the Kyoto climate accord. Now they are blaming us for their lack of action. For their troubles, they won the Fossil…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for his environmental advocacy. We know that oil spills are a very serious thing in ocean environments. We have the oceans protection plan, over a billion dollars, as the hon. member will know. I would like to take this issue up with him off-line and see what we can do about his particular situation.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, let me thank the hon. member for his years of service serving in parks across the country and his passion for this topic. I know there are beautiful national parks from coast to coast to coast, and I wonder if the hon. member could comment on whether those sites could be used for reconciliation education to educate the general population about that important issue, the path we are o…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, the hon. member from B.C. never talks about the costs of climate change and never talks about the rebate. I would remind her that 600 people died under the heat dome in British Columbia. They were subjected to the atmospheric river, which cost the B.C. economy $9 billion. We have sent $5 billion to help that good province rebuild. The hon. member should get serious about climate cha…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, as the hon. member knows, as the price on pollution increases, so does the climate action rebate. It makes eight out of 10 families better off, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer. What does not make families better off is investing in cryptocurrency. I do not know if the hon. member has been reading headlines lately, but many Canadians have lost their shirts, and the hon.…
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Madam Speaker, I hate to break it to the hon. member, but emissions are going down and we are on track to meet our carbon emissions targets, but let us talk about the Conservative record for just a little bit. For 10 long years, they did absolutely nothing about climate change. They blew up the Kyoto accord and blew up our emissions target. They cut $350 million from the climate change budget. The…
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Madam Speaker, we are working very hard with industry to get those emissions down. As the hon. member knows, we are capping emissions from the oil and gas sector, we are eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and we are inviting the world to COP15 in Montréal next week. We also have very aggressive targets for biodiversity preservation because we know species are becoming extinct at a rapid rate global…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, I am not sure the hon. member heard the good news, but this spring, as of April 1, a family of four will get up to about $1,500 in Saskatchewan and $1,000 in my home province of Manitoba. They are going to receive these cheques every three months. This is going to help with cash flow. It is going to help with affordability. The other side has no plan for affordability, no plan for t…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for his advocacy on this front. He is absolutely right. We tabled the wild species report the other day and we are losing some of our species at a very rapid rate. That is why we are gathering in Montreal at the UN biodiversity convention. We have stepped up to make aggressive targets: 25% of our land and waters by 2025 and 30% by 2030. We are focused…
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Mr. Speaker, as usual, the Conservatives are spreading misinformation. Emissions are going down. We are on track to meeting our targets. Eight out of 10 families will be better off under our price on pollution. What is the Conservatives' record? They cut $350 million from the climate change budget. They blew up Kyoto and blew up our emissions targets at the same time. Now they are blaming us for t…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, as my hon. colleague said, the federal pricing on pollution does not apply in Quebec, but it does apply on the Prairies, where I come from. There was good news for Atlantic Canada last week, and good news for the Prairies coming up this spring. As of April 1, a family of four will get up to $1,500 in Alberta and Saskatchewan, and $1,000 in Manitoba. Those cheques are going to be comin…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we know two things. We know that energy profits are at record levels and we know that emissions have to come down. We are investing $9.1 billion in an emissions reduction plan. We have put our money on the table. Oil and gas companies have to come to the plate. They have to put their shoulder to the wheel. They have to work with us to get those emissions down and to realize the ambiti…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, just to repeat, the 2030 emissions reduction plan provides a credible pathway to the lower range of our target of 40% below 2005 levels. Enhanced climate ambition from provinces, territories, municipalities, industry and the financial sector, as well as the acceleration of clean technology and innovation, and the deployment of that technology, will drive further reductions. These coll…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, last week we heard really good news for Atlantic Canadians. Three Atlantic provinces are going to get access to the climate action rebate that is going to put more money in their pockets. Even more good news is that hundreds of millions of dollars are going to flow into Atlantic Canada to transition from dirty, expensive fuel oil to cleaner forms of energy. Heat pumps rule. We are mak…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives never met an environmental program that they did not want to cut. I mentioned on the last day that they gutted our environmental laws, and they cut $350 million from the climate action budget. For 10 long years, the Conservatives did absolutely nothing on climate change. We are on track to meet our emissions target. We are doing something about climate change. We are…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. friend and colleague for the question. I cannot speak for the Secretary-General nor speculate about which leader he is referring to. However, what appears to be underlying his statement is a deep concern with the state of global emissions despite several decades of international co-operation and political commitments. I share this deep concern and so does our governmen…
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Mr. Speaker, like the hon. member, I am from the Prairies, and no region of the country has been hit harder than the Prairies. There was not just one, but two $1-billion floods. There were one-in-300-year weather events and the worst drought in over 50 years, which devastated farmers. The costs of climate change are rising. The Conservatives are in denial. They need to get serious about climate ch…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, as usual, the Conservatives are peddling misinformation. Emissions are going down. We are on track to making our targets by 2030. Let us listen again to the Conservatives' record. They cut $350 million from the environment and climate change budget. They withdrew from the Kyoto climate accord, which blew up our emissions targets. They did nothing for 10 long years and now they are bla…
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Mr. Speaker, there is good news, particularly for Atlantic Canadians. On July 1, the price on pollution and the climate action rebate will be coming to three Atlantic provinces. A family of four will receive up to $248 in Nova Scotia, the Speaker's home province, $240 in P.E.I. and $328 in Newfoundland and Labrador, and that comes quarterly. Eight out of 10 families will benefit. The Conservatives…
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Mr. Speaker, there is more good news for Atlantic Canadians. In three provinces, they are going to have access to the climate action rebate, and it is going to put more money in their pockets. There is even more good news: Hundreds of millions of dollars will be flowing into four Atlantic provinces to help them move away from polluting and expensive heating oil to greener forms of energy. We are f…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Fredericton for her long and strong environmental advocacy. Our government has launched Canada's first-ever national adaptation strategy to help protect communities from coast to coast to coast with $1.6 billion in new investments and 84 focused actions. Taking measures to adapt can save lives, avoid damage to communities and spur innovative technologies and job…
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Mr. Speaker, as usual, the Conservatives are spreading misinformation. Let us look at the Conservatives' record for a moment. They cut $350 million from the environment and climate change budget. They withdrew from the Kyoto accord. For 10 long years, they did absolutely nothing on climate change. For that, at all the international meetings they went to, they won the Fossil of the Day Award, the F…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I beg to differ with the hon. member. We received praise coming out of COP27 for our climate finance measures; for setting up a fund to help developing nations adapt to climate change; for committing to eliminating coal, eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and capping oil and gas emissions; and very importantly, for investing in the clean economy, with $9.1 billion in our emissions redu…
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