44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 20, 2022 10:00AM
- Oct/20/22 10:29:19 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, indeed, 40% of people in Canada are living in energy poverty, yet the oil and gas sector made $147 billion last year. This second quarter alone, profits for the national resources went up by $3.5 billion. Suncor Energy shows the same trend, with another $3.9 billion in the second quarter.
Does the leader of the official opposition have the courage to actually tackle the real root causes of this impending recession and the high cost of living?
It is impossible for me to speak with those guys continuing to chirp, Madam Speaker.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Oct/20/22 11:32:29 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, as I said in my speech, that does not affect Quebec. Our heating costs are not going to increase, because we have a carbon exchange.
There is something else or another element that could be relevant, and that is energy efficiency. In Quebec, we have Hydro‑Québec's innovative projects program to develop high-performance energy-efficient real estate projects. That is another way to move away from oil.
We also have the energy transition master plan, which will make $12.7 billion in investments by 2026 to help people transition away from oil. Those are some solutions we could think about when looking to the future.
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- Oct/20/22 11:45:40 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am concerned because the member seems to be really out of touch with reality.
It is estimated that the oil and gas industry in Canada has invested $48 billion in public services in Canada. The members seems to not want to talk about one fact related to inflation. The two main causes of inflation are labour and energy. In my opinion, the member seems to agree that the cost of living is rising because of this government's desire to increase the tax on energy.
Does he support the government's decision to increase the cost of living for Canadians?
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- Oct/20/22 12:21:28 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is my first opportunity to rise today to speak on the opposition motion. I want to make it clear that I am agreeing with the official opposition that Canadians are facing some serious energy pricing problems this winter, but I am making clear I will have to vote against the motion because I do not believe it addresses the real problems, nor is it as effective as the amendment just put forward by the hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby.
I want to ask the hon. member if he would agree with me that we really need to focus on energy poverty as a specific issue and resolve it, not with a one-time only band-aid solution but by getting at the problem. In preparing for this debate today I found an excellent report on energy poverty from the local energy access project, which is within the Canadian urban sustainability program of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. The focus should be on those particular homes that have not been properly insulated, not just a one-time band-aid but something that would work for the lifetime of that property, moving more quickly—
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- Oct/20/22 12:22:43 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the Conservatives had a program when they were in government called ecoENERGY and thousands of Canadians wanted to join it and deal with that energy poverty. What did they do in the dismal Harper decade? They had just one program that worked and they cut it. They slashed it. They eliminated it. They put thousands of Canadians out of work. There were hundreds of thousands of Canadians in the waiting line who were unable to deal with that energy poverty and efficiency—
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- Oct/20/22 1:04:57 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, doing the right thing for the environment, and what we are talking about today, is about lowering household energy costs. We know the market is volatile; it goes up and down. The government pays attention to that and offers supports to Canadians when they need it, and sometimes it is targeted.
For example, recently the government put up $250 million to help Atlantic Canadians and others make the switch from home oil to clean energy or renewable alternatives.
We will be strategic and careful. We are looking at the bottom line with respect to the pocketbooks of Canadians, their dollars and their households.
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- Oct/20/22 1:33:24 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is an absolute pleasure to answer this question, because while Vladimir Putin threatens to turn the energy supply off to our western allies and while he funds his war machine on Ukraine, the government here does not think we should develop our oil and gas, when we might distribute that oil and gas to our allies so they would not have to rely on Putin. I am going to take that question and say that I think the Government of Canada has turned its back on western Europe completely when it comes to energy.
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- Oct/20/22 2:55:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what is not compatible with fighting climate change? The energy policy that the Deputy Prime Minister recently announced in Washington. She announced that Canada will fast-track oil and gas development to sell as much as possible to Europe.
The government has even said that it could not care less about spending political capital. It clearly could not care less about public opinion, because what matters is selling gas to Europe.
Could anything be less compatible with fighting climate change than producing more oil and gas to make money?
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- Oct/20/22 3:15:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I listened to many of the speeches today given by especially Liberal members, I found it very interesting that they seem to be incredibly dismissive of the challenges facing Canadians. They are tying themselves into knots trying to figure out a creative way to somehow spin that this motion is not about providing real practical relief to a part of the country that does not benefit from their so-called federal backstop. However, I will leave the many criticisms I have about that and the fact that so many Canadians, in a country so rich in natural resources, are facing energy poverty.
My question for the member is very simple. Can he look past his partisanship, acknowledge the fact that many Canadians are simply asking for that bit of relief, come to the table and at least have a discussion about how we can get that relief to Atlantic Canadians who are facing unprecedented energy poverty?
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- Oct/20/22 4:03:38 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot for his question. Of course we are in favour of that. The entire world agrees that climate change is real and that we need an energy transition. We have been saying that for years too. However, we need to find the right approach.
As a Canadian, I will never understand why we are sending hundreds of millions of dollars to other countries when we have that traditional energy here at home. In Quebec, where I am proud to live and pay my taxes, we see that, year after year, 35%, 40% or 45% of the oil we use comes from Texas. I am uncomfortable with that as a Canadian.
Perhaps it does not bother some people to send hundreds of millions of dollars to Texas, and that is their call. I, for one, would rather keep that money here in Quebec. I do not support the Bloc Québécois, but I certainly do not support Texas.
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