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House Hansard - 234

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 18, 2023 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 234 - Oct/18/23
Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson (Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Lib.)
  • Oct/18/23 3:36:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think Canadians understand that, when the Conservative Party was in power, it gutted the environmental legislation that existed in this country in 2012. It undermined the confidence that Canadians had that the environment was going to be protected and that the rights of indigenous peoples would be respected, such that good projects could go ahead. We have put into place a system of better rules to ensure environmental sustainability and respect for indigenous rights, which will accelerate the work we are doing to ensure that good projects move ahead. With respect to the Supreme Court decision, there are some surgical tweaks that we will make to ensure that we move forward.
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Context: House Hansard - 234 - Oct/18/23
Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson (Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Lib.)
  • Oct/18/23 3:41:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think we can agree that the Conservative Party destroyed environmental legislation in this country and undermined the integrity of those processes such that it was incumbent upon the new government to bring into place better rules that would allow major projects to be built in this country. These would be projects that respect environmental rights and the rights of indigenous peoples. We have delivered on that. We certainly respect the decision of the court, and we will be making amendments to the act. However, the Supreme Court was clear, and I will be very clear about this, that the Parliament of Canada enacted legislation to protect the environment, and we certainly will continue to do that.
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