44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 19, 2024 10:00AM
- Mar/19/24 3:08:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be part of a government that understands climate change is real and understands the impact it is having on farmers from coast to coast to coast. I have seen first-hand as I have travelled the impact of hurricanes and the impact of drought. All that has a cost on our farmers. I am proud to be part of a government that is fighting climate change so my little granddaughter can say, “Nanny, you tried to make a difference”, because climate change is real and it is impacting everyone.
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- Mar/19/24 3:08:46 p.m.
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The hon. member for Kings—Hants—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
The Speaker: Order. There seems to be great enthusiasm to hear from the hon. member.
The hon. member for Kings—Hants.
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Mr. Speaker, I am glad the Tories stood up. They might not like the question, though.
The member for Carleton talks about farmers in Kings—Hants, but he actually stands in their way. He will not allow Bill C-234 to come to the House to be voted on, so I call on the member for Carleton to do that to support farmers.
However, my question is for the minister from Nova Scotia. Can he tell the House, and indeed Nova Scotians, of the work we have done to adjust the federal backstop to support rural Canadians, including the programs we have put in place on affordability around home heating and heat pumps, contrary to those guys across the way?
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- Mar/19/24 3:10:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, over the past year and a half in our home province of Nova Scotia, we have felt the impacts of climate change more than any other part of the country, with wildfires, hurricane Fiona and floods in the hon. member's riding. He has been a staunch advocate for rural communities and for the agricultural sector every step of the way.
Because of his advocacy, we have doubled the rural rebate that households in Nova Scotia receive. Because of his advocacy, we are offering to cover the cost of heat pumps to save people between $1,500 and $4,700 a year, and because of his advocacy, the provincial government is retreating on a policy that would impact the wine growers in his region. I am proud to stand alongside him today and will be for years—
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- Mar/19/24 3:10:55 p.m.
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The hon. member for Edmonton Mill Woods.
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- Mar/19/24 3:11:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government's soft-on-crime policies, more and more Canadians are becoming victims of violent crime right across the country. The Toronto Star reports that carjackings have more than doubled so far in 2024, and break and enters for the purpose of car theft have already exceeded the total number for all of last year. Canadians are not only concerned about their private property, but also the safety of their families.
I met some of these families in Brampton this week, and they want to know when the Prime Minister will drop his soft-on-crime policies and protect Canadians from real violent crime.
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- Mar/19/24 3:11:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government is always focused on protecting Canadians from crime. That is why we are working with police forces, municipal authorities and provincial governments to do exactly everything we need to do to crack down on this increasingly violent criminal activity. I have had conversations with the Premier of Ontario and with police chiefs across the country. The RCMP are working in collaboration with their partners in these jurisdictions. The Canada Border Services Agency seized 68 vehicles at the port of Montreal this week alone.
We will continue to do everything we need to do to keep Canadians safe.
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- Mar/19/24 3:12:24 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-5
Mr. Speaker, what the Liberals did was bring in Bill C-5 and Bill C-75, which allow these same criminals to quickly get bail and be out on the streets, sometimes on the same day. As a result, small businesses across the country are not only dealing with higher taxes, like the carbon tax that the Liberals brought forward, but are now having to pay for extra security to protect their businesses and their families from property theft, organized crime, extortion, shootings and arson.
This is the new reality for businesses and families in Canada after eight years of the Prime Minister. He is not worth the cost, the corruption or the crime. When will it end?
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- Mar/19/24 3:13:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I respect the member opposite, but what I respect most of all is that he actually was not here when we were voting on Bill C-75. That piece of legislation actually enhanced the penalties on summary conviction for auto theft, something that most of his colleagues voted against. He was not here, so I will excuse him on that one.
On the issue of mandatory minimum penalties, there is a guy named Ben Perrin. He might remember that individual. He used to be the lead adviser to a guy named Stephen Harper. Ben Perrin has been on the record as saying that mandatory minimum penalties were a gross error, a miscarriage of justice, and perpetuate systemic racism. That is why we reversed them. I wish these guys would get on board.
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- Mar/19/24 3:13:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, auto theft in Toronto has nearly doubled over last year, and 2024 has only just begun. Where do the stolen vehicles go? They go to the port of Montreal.
I would like to commend the efforts of Sûreté du Québec police in February. That said, the federal government must do more to help them. That is why our leader has proposed amendments to the Criminal Code to bring back tougher sentences for car thieves and to give the ports the resources they need to stop the crime.
Does the Liberal government realize that its strategy to combat auto theft is not working?
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- Mar/19/24 3:14:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when it comes to crime in our communities and auto theft, we have made these issues a priority with our investments in the port of Montreal. A few weeks ago, we announced $28 million for auto theft. In addition, there was $121 million to help police officers. There was also about $15 million to help the Canada Border Services Agency at the border itself.
Our investments are what we need to do to address this extremely important issue and promote safety in our communities.
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- Mar/19/24 3:15:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I believe that no one in this country should ever spend their days in pain because they cannot afford to see a dentist. Oral health is health.
I heard from seniors in Dartmouth—Cole Harbour that the new Canadian dental care plan is going to make a real difference in their quality of life, yet the Conservatives just do not care. The Conservatives voted against dental care for Canadians, and we know that Conservatives always choose cuts over care.
Can the Minister of Citizens’ Services please let Canadians know how many people have applied for the program, and how many seniors will lose their dental coverage if the Conservatives get their way?
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- Mar/19/24 3:15:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to advise my colleague that, thanks to his efforts, more than 1.5 million Canadians have successfully enrolled in our dental care program. Today those 70 and older can apply, and children and people with disabilities can apply starting in June. In total, we expect nine million Canadians to benefit.
I do not understand why Conservatives want to take dental care away from more than one in five Canadians. If we all work together, Canadians can make sure that Conservatives never have that opportunity.
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- Mar/19/24 3:16:22 p.m.
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Before I pass the floor to the hon. member for Victoria, I am going to ask the hon. member for Wellington—Halton Hills, who is an experienced member, to not shout out his comments and to allow members who have the floor to respond.
The hon. member for Victoria now has the floor.
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- Mar/19/24 3:16:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, “It's like an elephant sitting on my chest.”
That is how a child in Edmonton describes the air quality right now. Canada currently has the worst air quality in North America. Our kids are breathing in harmful toxins and it is only going to get worse with this year's wildfire season. However, the Liberals are acting like it is business as usual, breaking climate promises while handing out billions to Canada's biggest polluters. The Conservatives cannot even agree on whether climate change is real.
Will the Liberals stop putting the interests of oil and gas CEOs over the health and safety of our children?
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- Mar/19/24 3:17:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in fact, we are doing exactly that. We are the first country, the only country, in the G20 to have phased out fossil fuel subsidies, two years ahead of everyone else. We are the only country that has committed to eliminating public financing for fossil fuel subsidies. We have the best performance of all G7 countries in terms of greenhouse gas reduction between 2019 and 2021. We are working to fight climate change. We are working to improve air quality all across the country.
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- Mar/19/24 3:18:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this past weekend, Flair cancelled one of its flights back to Canada and left over 100 passengers stranded in another country: no communication with them, no food provided and no re-booking on other airlines. They had to find their own way back to this country.
If this sounds like deja vu, it is because the exact same thing happened two years ago and the Liberals promised to stand up to the big airline CEOs.
To the minister, will he tell these passengers why his supposedly new and improved air passenger rights let them down so badly?
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- Mar/19/24 3:18:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we will always stand up for Canadians and always stand up for passengers' rights. There was nothing before we came in. We are in touch with Flair and with other airline companies to see what we can do.
We will always side with our air passengers.
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the very hon. member for Kings—Hants.
It is my absolute pleasure, as always, to be speaking on behalf of the residents in my riding of Davenport. I will be speaking to today's opposition day motion that was put forward by the Conservatives on affordability and pollution pricing. I will start with a few of my own comments and then I will go into a bit of prepared text.
As members know, climate change is real. Carbon emissions are impacting our climate and causing the climate to change. If Canada does not continue to rapidly move toward reducing emissions now, the cost of waiting will be more expensive for Canadians later. As a result, it will be a world that will be more difficult and more unpredictable to live in.
Last week, I happened to have been blessed to have the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources in my riding, and the question of the carbon tax came up by a Davenport resident, who said that given the fact that Canadians were suffering an affordability crisis and as of April 1 the price on pollution would go up, should people believe the Leader of the Opposition who was trying to convince a lot of Canadians that the price on pollution was a tax that would hurt Canadians?
The minister responded by saying that there were the facts and then there was perception, that putting a price on pollution would be the most economically efficient way to reduce carbon emissions and that if people asked 100 economists, 99 and a half of them would tell them that it was true. He went on to say that the way in which we had structured it was to do it in a way that would make it affordable for Canadians. Therefore, eight out of 10 Canadian families would get more money back than they paid, and it worked directly disproportionate to income. Those who lived on the most modest means would get much more money back than they actually paid. The people who received less money back than they paid were people who lived in 6,000 square foot houses, had a Hummer in their driveway and a boat in the backyard. At the end of the day, the fact that they paid more was because they were polluting more.
It was also noted that the Premier of Saskatchewan had decided that he would stop remitting the price on pollution for home heating. As a direct result of that, the rebate would go down for people in Saskatchewan, and the people who would suffer most would be the those people who were living on modest incomes. The premier was making poor people poorer because of the choices that he was making.
The motion before us is also proposing to do that for Canadians.
In 2023, we saw a record fire season in Canada in which the area burned was more than double that of the historic record, with hundreds of thousands of Canadians evacuated from their homes as a result. The total area burned exceeded 18 million hectares, which is two and a half times the previous record set in 1995 and more than six times the average over the past 10 years.
In its 2020 report on climate risks and their implications for the insurance industry in Canada, the Insurance Bureau of Canada also concluded that “The average annual severe weather claims paid by insurers in Canada could more than double over the next 10 years, increasing from $2.1-billion a year to $5-billion a year, and must be accompanied by an increase in premium income.” It is clear that there are very real costs associated with having one's house burn down or having to flee one's home and job due to an evacuation order.
We also know from experts and research that the most effective and efficient way to address climate change is to put a price on carbon pollution emissions, which are the chief cause of man-made climate change. Putting a price on carbon pollution reduces emissions and encourages reductions across the economy, while giving households and businesses the flexibility to decide when and how to make changes. It creates incentives for Canadian business to develop and adopt new low-carbon products, processes and services, and when it is done right, and we are doing that in Canada, it is both effective and affordable for Canadians.
On the Canada carbon rebate, the bulk of the proceeds from the federal pollution pricing system goes straight back into the pockets of Canadians in provinces where the fuel charge applies, with eight out of 10 households in these provinces continuing to get more money back through their quarterly Canada carbon rebate payments than they pay as a result of the federal pollution pricing system.
The federal government understands that we need to maintain the price signal that, over the long term, is necessary for carbon pricing to work and bring emissions down, but at the same time we have also shown that we are willing to be flexible and innovative in supporting options that will go even further to cut down on climate pollution in the long run.
We took temporary and targeted action to pause the fuel charge on heating oil with the goal of getting consumers off home heating oil and onto a cleaner and far more affordable alternative solution that will save them thousands of dollars and lower carbon emissions over the long run.
Measures such as this will make life more affordable in the right way, while supporting the goal of achieving a prosperous, low-carbon future for all Canadians.
We know that there are better ways to make life more affordable for Canadians, ways that do not involve destroying the environment and incurring more devastating costs further down the road. We are delivering this support where it is most effective, including with the oil to heat pump affordability program, which will increase the amount of federal funding that eligible homeowners can receive for installing a heat pump from $10,000 to $15,000. It includes proposing, under Bill C-59, a doubling of the Canada carbon rebate rural top-up rate, increasing it from 10% to 20% of the base rebate amount starting in April 2024. People who live in rural communities face unique realities, and this measure will help put even more money back in the pockets of families that are dealing with higher energy costs because they live outside a large city. We have been very clear that we will continue to implement our pollution pricing system while ensuring that we continue to put more money into the pockets of Canadian households and families.
More recently, through Bill C-59, the fall economic statement implementation act of 2023, we introduced measures to advance the government’s fiscally responsible plan to build a cleaner, stronger economy. It introduces measures to create well-paying jobs, generate growth and build a cleaner economy that works for everyone by advancing Canada’s competitiveness through the implementation of investment tax credits. Investment tax credits are a key part of the government’s broader plan to work with industry towards the goal of decarbonization. This includes the carbon capture, utilization and storage investment tax credit, which is also known as CCUS.
CCUS is a suite of technologies that capture carbon dioxide emissions, whether from fuel combustion, from industrial processes or directly from the air, either to store CO2, typically deep underground, or to use it in other industrial processes, such as mineralization in concrete. These technologies are an important tool for reducing emissions in high-emitting sectors, where other pathways to reduce emissions may be limited or unavailable. In fact, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency each include CCUS deployment as an important element of scenarios in which the world achieves net-zero emissions. For its part, the CCUS investment tax credit will not only help Canadian companies adopt clean technologies but will also create jobs, ensure Canadian businesses remain globally competitive and reduce Canada’s emissions at the same time.
In conclusion, making life more affordable for Canadians while protecting the environment has always been a priority for the federal Liberal government, and it remains a priority today. I have outlined over the last 10 minutes just a few examples of how we are making targeted and responsible investments to help Canadians find an affordable place to call home. We want to ensure that Canada remains the best place in the world to live, work, go to school and raise a family. Making life more affordable is a key part of that.
It is a pleasure to speak on behalf of the residents of my riding of Davenport on this opposition day motion about affordability and pollution pricing.
I am now very happy to take any questions.
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- Mar/19/24 3:30:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, two years ago this week, the member for Davenport stated that the carbon tax was 100% revenue neutral for the government, yet Finance Canada in the public accounts stated that $670 million from last year alone was kept by the government and not redistributed. In fact, the public accounts actually said a couple of years ago that $100 million was kept for government programming.
I wonder if the member would like to correct her statement from two years ago and come forward with the real facts on what the carbon tax is, which is not revenue neutral.
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