44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 13, 2024 10:00AM
- Jun/13/24 4:01:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, despite what the Liberals say, they actually do not have a plan for dealing with climate change. Just ask the people from Abbotsford, Princeton and Merritt in my home province of British Columbia, who got zero dollars from the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund. The Liberals' plan is to tax people, but not to actually help communities with climate-resilient infrastructure.
Where is the money for the province of British Columbia?
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- Jun/13/24 4:19:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, realistically, we need to focus on all this talk about the need for an affordable change to protect the climate. When Canadians cannot afford to eat, heat or keep a roof over their heads, the plan is not affordable for Canadians.
As I said during my speech, before I was so rudely interrupted, we know, clearly, that Canadians are no longer able to do those things. When one is not able to eat, house oneself or keep the heat on in the winter, it becomes an unbearable prospect. Should I look at saving the climate, or should I feed my family? I know from the Canadians I hear from every day that they need to choose to eat first.
What we will do on this side of the House is to have a technological plan to fight climate change. That will be significantly better. It will support Canadian businesses, which will employ more people and bring in more tax revenue. This will give us the ability to look forward into the future to say this is how we need to do things. It is not about continuing to take money out of the pocket of Canadians and give it to the green slush fund so that the Liberals can give it to their friends and waste millions more dollars. It is an easy prospect, and an easy choice for Canadians to make, to get the minister of the environment to resign.
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- Jun/13/24 4:33:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member opposite spoke about transparency, so I am wondering whether he will be transparent with the House and Canadians on how Conservatives will address climate change.
The Conservatives' slogan about technology does not provide any details. How are they going to actually support Canadians in dealing with climate change? How are they going to invest in communities to make them more resilient? Can they be specific?
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- Jun/13/24 4:49:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member for Vaughan—Woodbridge says that he is concerned about the economic effect of climate change. Well, I can say that so are the one million people who live in the Fraser Valley, who just received news last week that they will be getting zero dollars out of the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund. We are getting just empty words from the Liberal Party about worrying about the economy and climate change. Why is there no money coming to British Columbia to defend, protect and support the port of Vancouver, the biggest port in all of Canada, which was cut off for nine days due to severe flooding in 2021? Where is the money?
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- Jun/13/24 4:52:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. Climate change is a very important issue.
Climate change is obviously very real, and I know that in the province of Quebec they are leaders in fighting climate change, much like they were leaders in adopting an early child care plan in the province of Quebec.
I agree with my colleague about transparency, which is very important to me. I am an elected member of Parliament.
I analyze all information so I can make the best decisions when it comes to putting a price on carbon. As an economist, I support market-based measures, and it is one measure.
Putting a price on carbon is very important in the fight against climate change.
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- Jun/13/24 4:54:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is my honour to rise in the House today to discuss some of the government's key actions to combat climate change, cut pollution and drive clean technologies.
In recent years, climate change has had unprecedented effects on Canadians. Impacts from climate change are wide-ranging, affecting our homes, our cost of living, infrastructure, health and safety, and economic activity in communities across Canada.
The latest science warns that to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced significantly, and urgently, to hold the global average temperature increase at 1.5°C.
The government is taking this seriously. We have a plan to reduce Canada's emissions by 40% to 50% below 2005 levels by 2030 and to reach net zero emissions by 2050. Carbon pricing is the cornerstone of our plan. Since 2019, every province and territory has had a price on carbon pollution. Some provinces, like B.C. and Quebec, have had carbon pricing in place for much longer than that. The question is why. It is because it works.
It creates powerful financial incentives for industries and individuals to take concrete steps to reduce their emissions and invest in clean options. Carbon pricing has proven to be effective around the world and here in Canada. We remain focused on ensuring that it is designed to keep life affordable for Canadians. Over 90% of the federal fuel charge proceeds go back to households via quarterly Canada carbon rebate payments delivered to families by cheque or direct deposit. The majority of households, particularly lower- and middle-income households, get back more through these rebates than the cost of the fuel charge.
We are also working with provinces and territories, as well as other stakeholders, on ensuring that carbon pricing and our credit markets remain effective across the country and drive the big investments needed to decarbonize industry. Most provinces in Canada maintain their own carbon pricing systems for industry, which have broad support across businesses and experts in Canada.
Our federal and provincial systems for pricing carbon pollution from industry are designed to send a strong carbon price signal that creates a powerful incentive for all polluters to reduce their emissions.
For every tonne of pollution reduced by an industrial polluter, either they avoid paying the carbon price or they can earn a credit that they can sell to other emitters. These trading systems are key to protecting industry's competitiveness while still driving emissions reductions, and all proceeds collected under Canada's pricing system for industry are used to further support industrial decarbonization and clean electricity incentives.
We also recognize that many Canadian industries are trade-exposed, competing in the global market. That means that too heavy a hand will just shut down production and lead to carbon leakage, more production by competitors outside of Canada who may face a lower carbon price. That is not going to accomplish anything, not emissions reductions and not economic growth.
Our system, however, as well as provincial and territorial systems for industry, is carefully designed to achieve both. The clean fuel regulations in place since 2022 are another market-based instrument that will accelerate the use of clean technologies and fuels and support good jobs in a diversified economy. In fact, they are expected to deliver up to 26.6 million tonnes of emissions reductions annually by 2030, which is a significant contribution to our emissions reduction target.
We have already seen significant investments in the energy sector as a result of the incentives from the clean fuel regulations. Since the announcement of the regulations, over $53 billion in investments have been announced across Canada in low-carbon industry fuels such as green hydrogen, renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel.
For example, Imperial's renewable diesel complex at its Strathcona refinery near Edmonton is under construction. Once completed, it will produce more than one billion litres per year of renewable diesel from locally-sourced feedstocks. Covenant Energy will start construction of a renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel production facility in Saskatchewan this year, with production expected to start in 2026. Another example, Braya Renewable Fuels, has finalized the retrofit of the refinery at Come By Chance, Newfoundland, right in my riding of Bonavista—Burin—Trinity. I was delighted to attend the opening and the celebration of the first renewable diesel being produced in Come By Chance. It has saved the refinery and salvaged it from closure, and now people in the region are seeing long-term, sustainable jobs for decades ahead.
These companies, and others like them, will be able to create and sell valuable credits for supplying low-carbon fuel to Canada. These are the types of economic investments that the clean fuel regulations are supporting in Canada.
The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that Canada's transition to a low-carbon economy is achieved in a way that is fair and predictable for businesses. It supports Canadian jobs, as I just alluded to in Come By Chance, Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as Canada's international competitiveness.
Climate change is arguably the defining issue of our time. Canadians want to be a part of the solution. The government is taking concrete action to cut emissions and to create incentives and opportunities for new investments and technologies.
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- Jun/13/24 5:04:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, again, the narrative from the Bloc and what we are debating in the House on a regular basis are always very different.
We use the commentary from the PBO and other sources. As the minister alluded to today, we have over 300 economists across the country who support what we are doing with the climate change initiatives and carbon pricing.
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- Jun/13/24 5:05:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have to say that I agree with my colleague from the Bloc, that the government has shown itself to be very untransparent and very difficult to get information from, on a number of different fronts.
In the House, we are discussing a lot of things around climate change and climate issues. We have heard the Liberal government claim that it is doing things on climate change, and then it provides loopholes, time and time again, that undermine its own policies and that make its own policies not work.
I have a very simple question. In Alberta, the fire season started extraordinarily early this year. Climate change is real. It is having incredible impacts on communities in my province and across the country. My colleague, the member for South Okanagan—West Kootenay, has asked the government to finally put in place a national wildfire task force to help us deal with these wildfires.
Does the member agree that this is something that is urgently needed and that is long overdue?
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- Jun/13/24 5:06:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, actually, I do agree. It would make an immense contribution to preparing for wildfires, every season.
We saw the disasters that happened, last year in Western Canada and three summers back in my province of Newfoundland and Labrador. We see fires now that have started in Labrador West, in Newfoundland and Labrador. We have seen the effects, particularly on the island of Newfoundland and Labrador, and in Atlantic Canada, from major hurricanes and from what is happening.
I firmly believe in climate change. I want to protect the world that I live in, going forward, for my two children, for my four grandchildren and for all my family and friends. I think the member's suggestion is certainly a good one, and I thank the hon. member for that suggestion.
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- Jun/13/24 5:07:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise to ask my hon. colleague a question about the Conservatives' approach to dealing with climate change.
The Conservatives say that they are going to use technology, yet in his home province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Conservatives stood in the way of creating sustainable jobs. When there are opportunities for Atlantic Canada, Conservatives are opposed to technology and creating new jobs of the future.
What does the member think about that, and how would this have negative impacts on his community?
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- Jun/13/24 5:08:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the one thing I can say is that Newfoundland and Labrador is poised to be a major wind energy production province, along with Nova Scotia and others.
We see immense possibilities and a bright future for Newfoundland and Labrador, with other clean energies that we are going to build and implement as we do green hydrogen projects and so on. It is a great example of how we can invest in technology that will benefit not only the economy but also the climate.
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- Jun/13/24 5:17:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I regularly see in the House and at the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food that my colleague is very interested in the cost of the carbon tax and its secondary impact.
Is he also interested in the cost of climate change and its secondary impact? We, of course, have to take into account the effects of any policy that we put in place. Does he, in good conscience, believe that we also need to calculate and compare what the cost would be if we did not have a policy? For example, if we did not have a climate policy, what would the secondary impact be on international trade and a host of other factors? I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on that.
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- Jun/13/24 5:18:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thought the member's intervention was interesting. The area that I represent is a rainforest, and we have seen a drought like we have never seen before, to the point that even during the very rainy winter season when we gather up a lot of that wetness, we just did not see that. We continued to be in a drought into the winter season, which was quite concerning to me.
I hear from the Conservatives this vague idea of having a technological solution to climate change, but I am wondering if there is any particular example of what that actually means, because it is very vague, and it would be great for us to have a better understanding of what their plan is.
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- Jun/13/24 6:19:16 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am totally interested. I farmed up until 2019. I am a lifelong farmer. I lived every day with climate change. I called it “weather” at the time.
The problem is that I do not have this long timeline and bottomless taxpayer pocket to make a living like the government does. It keeps on insulting Canadians and taxing them until they cannot make a living. What is going on, and how this government is continuing to drive farmers out of business because of its carbon tax and make everything unaffordable to even make a living in this country, is ridiculous, and this member should be more aware of that.
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- Jun/13/24 6:20:04 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague talks about the costs to the Canadian economy, but surely he knows that research has shown that there could be up to a $38-trillion cost to the global economy from climate change. The cost of climate change is wildly larger, and the impact on farmers, families and individuals in our country is going to be very severe.
What is the Conservative plan on dealing with the extraordinary cost of climate change? What will it cost our economy, our farmers and our families?
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