SoVote

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Jun/20/22 3:11:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the latest IPCC report advanced the clock on “too late”. To have any hope of holding to 1.5°C or even 2°C, global emissions must peak before 2025 and drop rapidly from there to roughly half by 2030. Net zero by 2050 will not make any difference without deep cuts before 2025. We are 30 months from too late. When we get back here in September, we will have 28 months, yet the government continues to approve fossil fuel expansion. Who would care, in this place, to explain this madness?

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Context: House Hansard - 92 - Jun/21/22

Mr. Terry Duguid (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Lib.)

Jun/21/22 12:11:01 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for the question. However, it is not the question I was expecting in these adjournment proceedings. The question I have before me is with regard to the report from the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development, so I am going to reflect on that and I think I will get at the member's question by talking about it. We have made a lot of progress on climate action in this country. A good example of this is carbon pricing. In 2019, because of the pan-Canadian approach to pricing carbon pollution, we succeeded in having a carbon price in place throughout Canada for the first time. This was a critically important step toward reducing economy-wide emissions. We deliberately established the overall approach within a relatively short period of application, from 2018 to 2022, to allow us to learn lessons and improve the approach for the longer term. As the commissioner identified, the initial experience illustrated the need to strengthen some aspects of the minimum national stringency standards, so in 2021 we published a new, strengthened set of criteria alongside a longer-term, more ambitious carbon pricing trajectory, rising by $15 a year to $170 per tonne by 2030. As the commissioner noted, these new criteria significantly improved the rules for carbon pricing, including for industrial emitters, and I am confident that provinces and territories will strengthen their systems for industrial emitters to ensure they do their part. When we published the new criteria, we also committed to an additional review of carbon pricing by 2026. This will allow us to work with provinces and territories to address the remaining issues raised by the commissioner. The lesson here is that ambitious climate action is achievable and requires continuous improvement. The commissioner also discussed the impact of carbon pricing on indigenous communities, and we have taken real action to address these impacts in the provinces where the federal fuel charge applies and where we return revenue directly, those currently being Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. The climate action incentive gives most households more back than they pay in the carbon price, and rural households receive an additional 10%. This addresses the impact on most indigenous households. In 2021, we augmented this approach by tripling the amount of fuel charge proceeds going back to indigenous communities and we are co-developing solutions for returning these funds. Finally, recognizing the need to go further, we have committed to gather more data so that we can make sure any remaining impacts are addressed. In closing, I want to thank the commissioner for his work. Our government is taking ambitious action on climate. I am proud of our record as it is progressing and of the new actions we are undertaking, but there is always more room for improvement, I think the hon. member will agree, and the commissioner's work is vital for identifying where we can do more and do better.

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Context: House Hansard - 92 - Jun/21/22

Mr. Terry Duguid

Jun/21/22 12:15:37 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, just to reiterate, our government is committed to ensuring a just transition, including ensuring that Canada's workers have the skills necessary to take advantage of these opportunities by consulting on just transition legislation and by supporting sustainable jobs in every region of the country. Over the past two years, we have made historic investments in support of economic recovery, climate action, and skills and training that will create sustainable jobs. We are making investments in carbon capture and storage. By way of comments from the IPCC, which the hon. member is fond of quoting, it will be an important part of the mix in getting to our 2030 targets and net zero by 2050 and sharing this technology with the world.

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