44th Parl. 1st Sess.
September 26, 2022 11:00AM
Madam Speaker, that is the best question I have received all day. I did not live during the tenure of the previous Trudeau government, but I can say that my grandfather made sure that I knew about what happened. My grandfather was working as an engineer in Alberta during the national energy program, which was the last time we had a prime minister named Trudeau, and the last time we saw those kinds of really aggressive attacks on our regional economy.
We have seen a repeat of that dismissive attitude towards Alberta and the energy sector. We are seeing a repeat of those kinds of economic policies when it comes to inflation and making life less affordable for Canadians. The idea could come from various sources, but the bottom line is that these are failing policies. Canadians realize these policies are not working and are asking the government to change its course. The government is now trying to change some of the rhetoric. It is saying it is prepared to talk about these issues, but it is not delivering the results Canadians want.
I will repeat the simple appeal that, if the government really cared about these issues, it would cancel scheduled tax hikes for next year. Will it cancel those tax hikes?
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- Sep/26/22 7:53:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my heart goes out to the farmers who are going through such an agonizing time. Let us not forget that these farmers represent 3% of the population, but they feed our entire people. This shows just how much climate change and the consequences of that change will impact our food. That is why it is important to ensure a swift energy transition.
I would like my colleague to share some responsible, viable and sustainable solutions for the energy transition.
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- Sep/26/22 7:54:04 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is important to understand that the Conservative Party is very much interested in technology, and not taxes. As we reflect upon the ability of the Liberal government to make changes that are impactful for the climate, we know that is just not happening.
We also understand that those of us who live in Atlantic Canada often live in more rural settings, often in single-family dwellings, and of course we often heat our homes with oil. That makes it much more difficult to make those transitions.
We do know about greener energy here from our great friends from the great province of Alberta. It is important to understand that it is the greenest energy that we can produce in the world, and we need to be more reliant upon that. We need to also look at things like carbon capture and storage and understand how we may be able to better use that technology to improve the state of affairs that we have at the current time.
As we look at those things as a comprehensive package, then we can understand that we can help Canadians move from exactly where they are into an important spot that is attainable, and not into fantasyland.
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- Sep/26/22 8:18:08 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member talked about the vital telecommunications and other infrastructure losses, as well as the need to proactively move on the energy transition, so my question is about the energy transition. What does the Bloc feel is the barrier for the government to start moving on the energy transition and stop investing in fossil fuel expansion projects?
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- Sep/26/22 8:20:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I absolutely agree with everything my colleague just said. Obviously, the Bloc Québécois agrees, since it has been saying for such a long time that we need to move away from fossil fuels. Other solutions exist and it is not as though we are empty-handed. No, there are other ways.
We promise to work with stakeholders; we promise a fair transition. At least, that is what the industry is asking for, that is what workers are calling for. They also know that they will have to make sacrifices, but they are prepared to do that. It still takes leadership from the top, however. If the federal government does not want to move forward with the transition, the communities, the cities and provinces cannot do it alone. The government really needs to make a serious commitment and one commitment that could be done quickly, immediately, would be to end fossil fuel subsidies.
Canada not only favours these energy sources, but it continues to take money from taxpayers and hand it over to these companies that are already making billions of dollars on the backs of consumers. I think that this type of measure would send a strong message from the Liberal government, who claims to be a partner in the fight against climate change.
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- Sep/26/22 10:05:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate that the member and I can agree on the initial part of her question.
I think that, on this side of the floor, we understand the importance of the Bay du Nord project. We also understand that those living in New Brunswick had an Energy East pipeline, which was going to bring oil from Alberta to New Brunswick. We did not do that. We also had a natural gas supply. Right now, our allies in western Europe are getting supplied with their energy source from Russia, and Putin is fuelling the war machine with the proceeds of selling that product to England, France and Germany, countries that we are allies with.
I think the climate agenda of the left and the extreme far left has contributed to the power dynamic in the world right now. I think we had a huge missed opportunity with the Energy East pipeline. We should absolutely support it again, along with the Bay du Nord project. Now is the time we should be thinking about energy sovereignty, energy security, building pipelines and infrastructure, powering our country and helping our allies so that they do not have to purchase from the people who want to wage war against other countries from this planet.
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- Sep/26/22 10:07:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the member for Miramichi—Grand Lake this. He has been asked a lot about climate change and its effects. We also know that a great deal of what we see happening with climate change is driven by the energy needs of China and India, but I would like to bring it back to why we are having this debate tonight. It is about the response we have to do today to help our communities that are in dire straits right now. They lack the ability to even have power to cook a meal, let alone go on the ocean or on their farms to earn a living.
I wonder if the member could speak to what he expects from the government on delivering on those issues today.
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- Sep/26/22 10:23:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague and friend from across the way for her comments, and I appreciate her thoughts.
I would like to assure my hon. colleague that I think all of us in this House want to be responsible and good stewards of the land, the earth and the planet that we have been entrusted with. I also believe there will be two different ways in which we approach this. Right now, what we are seeing from the current federal government is that it feels it can tackle climate change through taxation.
We understand, on this side of the House, that taxation will do absolutely nothing to tackle climate change. Rather, technology and investment in technology and investing in good, clean Canadian energy is the way forward. I believe Canada has some of the best alternatives, but also some of the best and cleanest energy in the world. It will help the rest of the world get off much dirtier sources of energy. That would help the planet and help us all become better stewards of the planet we have been entrusted with.
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- Sep/26/22 11:54:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with my friend from South Okanagan—West Kootenay, but I would add that we need to make sure that we have distributed energy systems, such as solar panels to run generators to make sure that people who are relying on a heat pump do not have it conk out because their power grid has gone down at the same time.
When we are looking at Fiona, right now people are running generators to keep themselves going. The ice storm event was another climate event that affected an urban area. Those people who had generators were able to help their neighbours that did not have generators.
There is a lot the government could do, but I think the number one thing is to make sure our electricity grid works east, west, north and south, and continually recharges itself with renewable energy so that the grid itself is the big battery we need.
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