44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 20, 2022 11:00AM
- Jun/20/22 2:06:10 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, Canadian farmers have been feeding us for generations. They deserve our thanks, but instead they keep getting attacked by the Liberal government. The carbon tax was the first blow, punishing farmers and lining government pockets while doing nothing to reduce carbon emissions.
Then came the 35% tariff on Russian fertilizer applied to products purchased well before the war in Ukraine began. Now the government wants to force misleading warning labels on all Canadian ground beef and pork. There is a perfect storm brewing of record high costs, supply chain disruptions, labour shortages and poor planting conditions.
The government needs to wake up, cancel the taxes and secure our food supply before we plunge into a national food shortage crisis. Time is running out.
125 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/20/22 3:11:15 p.m.
- Watch
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?
98 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/20/22 3:11:58 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, we tabled an emissions reductions plan that is ambitious and achievable. It goes sector by sector to create a path for Canadians to reach our 2030 climate projections. It is a detailed plan that goes through each economic sector, and it has been supported by environmental groups right across our country. We are working very hard and take this issue very seriously. We will continue to do what is needed to reach our emissions projections.
77 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/20/22 3:55:16 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the fifth report of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources, entitled “A Study of Methane Reduction Plans: Emissions Reduction Fund Onshore Program Review”.
Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.
55 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/20/22 4:05:06 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition where the signatories call upon the Prime Minister and the Government of Canada to enact just transition legislation.
They want this legislation to produce a plan that reduces emissions by at least 60% below 2005 levels by 2030. They want it to create new public economic institutions that expand public ownership of services and utilities across the economy to implement the transition. They want it to create good, green jobs and drive inclusive workforce development. They want it to protect and strengthen human rights and worker rights, and respect indigenous rights, sovereignty and knowledge. Finally, they want it to pay for the transition by increasing taxes on the wealthiest and corporations, and financing through a public national bank.
127 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/20/22 4:10:24 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, my second petition calls on the government to take immediate and concrete action to address the climate emergency in Canada.
Since the Liberal government declared a climate emergency in 2019, we have endured heat domes and record heat waves in B.C., drought across the Prairies, flooding throughout the country, and massive storms in Ontario and Quebec that have left thousands of people without power for days on end.
It is clear that we must act immediately to address the effects of catastrophic climate change.
This petition calls for a broad spectrum of action, including reducing emissions levels by at least 60% of 2005 levels.
107 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/20/22 4:15:02 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise this afternoon to present a petition on behalf of petitioners joining others across the country who are recognizing that we are in the midst of a climate emergency. The petitioners call on the government to enact just transition legislation that includes a number of items, such as the following: ensuring that we have reduced emissions to 60% below 2005 levels by 2030; ending subsidies to fossil fuels; creating good, green jobs; expanding the social safety net with new income supports; decarbonizing public housing; providing accessible and affordable public transit across the country; and ensuring we can pay for this important transition by increasing taxes on the wealthiest corporations across the country.
119 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/20/22 11:52:16 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend and colleague for Saanich—Gulf Islands for her remarks.
I agree with her that the recent IPCC report is a stark reminder of the impacts of climate change and the urgency for action. As climate impacts intensify, it is only becoming more obvious that moving to a clean, net-zero economy is critical to protecting the well-being of Canadians and communities, and securing Canada's economic prosperity.
At COP26, Canada announced it would take additional action to significantly reduce GHG emissions from the oil and gas sector by setting emissions caps. At COP26, Canada also joined over 100 countries in signing the global methane pledge to reduce global anthropogenic methane emissions by 30% by 2030.
Canada will lead the way on oil and gas methane by going beyond our current target of 40% to 45% by 2025 to reduce emissions by 75% by 2030. As countries and businesses around the world move rapidly toward net-zero emissions, more ambition is needed today to ensure that Canada is not left behind and can secure a foothold in a low-carbon future.
In 2021, the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act became law. The act enshrines Canada's commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, establishes Canada's 2030 target as the first key milestone for this path, and ensures a transparent and accountable process in meeting our climate objectives.
The 2030 emissions reduction plan, or the ERP, was established on March 29 and is the first of many to come under the act. The ERP is about more than achieving incremental GHG emissions reductions to reach Canada's 2030 target. It is also about putting in place foundational measures to ensure that Canada's future is not only carbon neutral, but that it also makes energy alternatives more affordable and creates new, sustainable job opportunities for workers.
The ERP includes a suite of new mitigation measures and strategies. It builds on the foundation set by the pan-Canadian framework and the 2020 strengthened climate plan, and considers the best available science, indigenous knowledge and the advice of the net-zero advisory body. Achieving Canada's climate objectives will be a whole-of-economy and whole-of-society effort. Every economic sector has a role and responsibility to reduce emissions, but the pathway to achieving emissions reduction will look different for each.
The 2030 ERP takes into account this reality. It sets out guideposts for each sector to further reduce emissions, and highlights the measures and strategies towards an emissions reduction of 40% below 2005 levels. We are taking action in the electricity sector and will work with provinces and utilities to establish a pan-Canadian grid council to promote clean electricity infrastructure investments.
I see I am running short on time, but we are doing many more things, including investing in nature and natural climate solutions to deliver additional emissions reductions, and making significant new investments to support a sustainable future for Canadian farmers. As the hon. member knows, we will be instituting an emissions cap and taking further measures to reduce our emissions.
524 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/21/22 12:11:01 a.m.
- Watch
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.
499 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/21/22 12:14:38 a.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for his answers, for being available to answer questions at this late hour, past midnight, and for his reflections on this scathing report from the environment commissioner.
I also want to bring up what the environment commissioner is pointing to, which is that this government has been going from failure to failure. His own department called carbon capture “high risk” and said that with their plan, it was not feasible to meet emissions reduction targets in the oil and gas sector.
Experts have learned not to rely on carbon capture to meet our climate targets, yet when big oil asks for yet another subsidy, billions of dollars of more public money, the government gave them the carbon capture tax credit. The government also bought a pipeline, approved Bay du Nord and plans to increase oil and gas production.
That is not a climate plan. Why are the Liberals listening to big oil instead of climate experts?
166 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
