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Results: 106 - 120 of 330
View Elizabeth May Profile
GP (BC)
View Elizabeth May Profile
2021-04-22 14:00 [p.6032]
Madam Speaker, on April 22, 1970, I was in high school and organized for the first Earth Day. For 50 years, every April 22nd, I have said “Happy Earth Day”. I have to say this year that the words stick in my throat somewhat. If I say “Happy Earth Day” to the earth, which is battered, abused and gasping for breath, what does the earth say?
Brilliant indigenous writer Robin Wall Kimmerer wrote, in Braiding Sweetgrass, that we in our society suffer from “species loneliness, estrangement from the rest of Creation.” However, she gives me hope. She wrote this:
Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.
With that, let us all say “Happy Earth Day”.
View Majid Jowhari Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Majid Jowhari Profile
2021-04-22 14:01 [p.6032]
Madam Speaker, today, Canadians across our beautiful country will be celebrating Earth Day, a nationwide movement to address climate change, engage in environmental conservation and initiate a green recovery.
Our government believes that climate change is real. That is why in this budget we will invest $1 billion in the clean technology sector. This will fuel the growth of innovative companies in my riding like Greenbrain Inc. and LumeSmart that are committed to bettering our planet and preserving our resources.
I am proud to represent the beautiful riding of Richmond Hill, which has been recognized for planting nearly 10,000 trees in 2020.
I would also like to recognize members of my environmental community council who are passionate environmentalists and have advocated for green initiatives.
I am proud to be a part of a government that will act on climate change. We must all do our part to preserve our magnificent planet, earth. Happy Earth Day.
View Yves Perron Profile
BQ (QC)
View Yves Perron Profile
2021-04-22 14:04 [p.6032]
Madam Speaker, today being Earth Day, I would like to salute those who care for the earth, who sow, who reap and who earn their living off the land. Farmers play a crucial role in occupying and protecting our territory and in ensuring the ecological future of our regions.
Our land has green potential, and the federal government has to help realize that potential. Quebec's food sovereignty must be supported. The pandemic revealed how important that is, but maintaining a local farming sector with low food mileage is also a green choice.
We need to capitalize on Quebec's trademark clean energy to promote alternatives to propane and gas. Ottawa has to make massive investments in researching alternatives to neonicotinoid pesticides because that is important. We also have to promote labelling so Quebeckers know exactly what they are putting on their plates and can buy local.
On this Earth Day, let us salute our farmers and let us all work together to support green agriculture.
View Brad Redekopp Profile
CPC (SK)
View Brad Redekopp Profile
2021-04-22 14:14 [p.6034]
Mr. Speaker, today we are celebrating Earth Day. All Conservatives know how important the health of our planet is. The leader of our Conservative Party recently announced our plan to secure the environment. This comprehensive plan would achieve about the same emissions reductions by 2030 as the government's current plan. However, our plan would create jobs and grow the economy, as compared to the Liberal plan, which would destroy entire industries.
Our plan would lower industrial emissions, backed up by border carbon adjustments to level the playing field with countries that have lower emission standards, like China. Our plan would focus on technology like carbon capture and storage, a technology where we in Saskatchewan lead the world. We would also encourage small modular reactors to deploy zero-emissions electricity across the country. Our plan would also recognize and build on the world-leading sustainable practices of Canada's agriculture and forestry sectors, and ensure producers have access to carbon credits.
This is a Conservative plan to secure our environment, secure our jobs, and secure our future.
View Jenny Kwan Profile
NDP (BC)
View Jenny Kwan Profile
2021-04-22 14:15 [p.6034]
Mr. Speaker, since the Liberals were elected, Canada's greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 1%, and we are the only G7 nation that failed to meet the Paris target.
On the first day of Biden's presidency, his first act was to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline. In Canada, the Prime Minister went and bought a pipeline.
Today, on Earth Day, his Holiness the Dalai Lama and 100 other Nobel laureates are calling for an end to the new expansion of oil, for a phase-out of existing production, and for leaders across the globe to invest in a transformational plan to clean energy.
Canada needs to play its part. We need a total economic mobilization to bring about a green new deal just recovery to make Canada greener, more sustainable, more resilient and ultimately more just. We need a just transition act. We need a jobs guarantee. We need a climate accountability act. The government must uphold indigenous rights. If we do not take action now, every generation that comes after us will pay the ultimate price.
View Dan Albas Profile
CPC (BC)
Mr. Speaker, on this Earth Day, I want to share the story of a prime minister who visited each province to work with them on setting bold climate targets that worked for everyone.
Sadly, it was not our current Prime Minister but our former one.
On this Earth Day, the current Prime Minister has announced targets without working with provinces and instead dictating to them by fiat. That is not leadership. That will not get us to where we need to be. Our bold plan to secure the environment will reach our national commitments by working with provinces, all the while ensuring better economic growth.
The spirit of Earth Day is about coming together to protect those things we all care about: our soil, air, water and everything that depends on them. Sadly, the Prime Minister has forgotten about the spirit of coming together when it comes to the provinces.
I wish everyone a happy Earth Day, and we on our side look forward to securing our environment together.
View Han Dong Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Han Dong Profile
2021-04-22 14:18 [p.6035]
Mr. Speaker, as we celebrate Earth Day today I want to bring attention to the Bayview Village Association in my riding of Don Valley North and the work it does to help the beautiful ravines in our neighbourhood.
When we think of environmental protection, we often think of more rural areas and the vast, scenic woodlands and lakes that Canada is famous for, but Don Valley North, located in the heart of Toronto, is also home to scenic ravines, trails and creeks. These outdoor spaces are made even more precious because of COVID-19.
I want to thank Bayview Village Association president Jane Robertson, environment committee co-chairs Sharon Johnson and Monty McDonald, and all BVA members and volunteers for their tireless work in protecting the ravines and trails in Don Valley North.
I wish all my hon. colleagues a happy Earth Day.
View Maninder Sidhu Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Maninder Sidhu Profile
2021-04-22 15:46 [p.6050]
Mr. Speaker, I would like to start by thanking the hon. member for Surrey—Newton for his kind words. I am thankful for the chance to address the House and all Canadians during this time of extreme difficulty for our country, particularly for my province of Ontario.
As we encourage residents to stay at home and practise extra vigilance, our federal government will always have Canadians' backs. We exceeded our original quarter one commitments for the total of 9.5 million doses received. With over 13 million now delivered to provinces and territories, we are currently third among G20 countries for people receiving their vaccines and we are well on track to provide a vaccine to every adult who would like one by September.
As we look to our new budget, I want to reflect on how our government has continued to support and invest in Canadians throughout this pandemic. The Canada recovery benefit has now helped more than 1.8 million Canadians put food on the table and pay their bills, including $14.5 billion in direct support.
Last month, we increased the number of weeks for the program availability to families and workers. The wage subsidy has provided $73 billion to workers with over three million approved applications to date. There have been 669,000 approved applications for the rent subsidy, totalling over $2 billion in support. These are crucial supports that support Canadian families, workers and businesses.
On Monday, my two proud daughters watched our first female Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance table a historic budget. As she put it herself, this budget is about completing our fight against COVID-19, alleviating the damage left by the recession it created, and building up to create more opportunities for Canadians to thrive in years to come.
We have not seen such a steep and fast economic contraction in recent times. As many members know first-hand, those disproportionately affected include low-wage workers, young people, women and racialized Canadians. Some businesses have found innovative ways to prosper and even grow and others, due to circumstances outside their control, have had to fight just to survive.
I am thrilled to be able to speak on a budget that is delivering on our government's commitment to creating jobs, growing the middle class, helping businesses get on track for long-term growth, and ensuring that Canadians' future will be healthier, more equitable, greener and more prosperous. Our top priority remains protecting Canadians' health and safety, particularly during this third aggressive wave.
Budget 2021 invests in Canada's biomanufacturing and life sciences sector to rebuild domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity. Our government is proposing a $3-billion investment to support provinces and territories and ensuring standards for long-term care are applied and permanent changes are established.
We will also provide $90 million to launch an “age well at home” initiative. This would assist community-based organizations to provide practical support to help low-income and otherwise vulnerable seniors to age in place, such as matching seniors with volunteers who can help with meal preparation, home maintenance, daily errands, yard work and transportation.
Our government is also proposing to increase the old age security for seniors age 75 and over beginning in 2022, including a one-time top-up payment of $500 this August, as we want to make sure we are there for our seniors who have built our country.
Ontario will see an investment of $466 million to support health care system capacity in responding to surges in COVID-19 cases, as well as heightened demand for those experiencing challenges related to mental health, substance abuse and homelessness.
The pandemic has created new barriers for those needing access to mental health services and the stresses associated with the pandemic, whether job, health or isolation related. Budget 2021 represents a $1.2-billion investment nationwide to help mitigate this challenge.
For our economy to reach its full potential, we must ensure we have the highest participation rate possible in our workforce. To do so, our government is proposing a transformative investment to build a Canada-wide early learning and child care system. This unprecedented plan will drive economic growth, increase women's participation in the workforce and ensure each child has the best start in life. We will aim to reduce fees for regulated child care by 50% on average by 2022, with the goal of reaching $10 per day on average by 2026. We will provide almost $30 billion over the next five years and provide permanent, ongoing funding.
We are committed to supporting women entrepreneurs as we aim to build back stronger and more inclusively. Our budget proposes allocating $146 million to strengthen the women entrepreneurship strategy. Women entrepreneurs will have greater access to financing, mentorship and training. We will work with financial institutions to develop a voluntary code to support the inclusion of women and other under-represented entrepreneurs as clients in the financial sector.
To support low-wage workers, our budget proposes to expand the Canada workers benefit to support about one million additional Canadians, helping them return to work and increasing benefits for those most vulnerable. The government will raise the income level at which the benefit starts being reduced to $22,944 for single individuals without children and to $26,177 for families.
Investing in youth has never been more important than at this moment. Many young people, recent graduates and students are struggling to find valuable job experience and growth opportunities due to the barriers caused by the pandemic.
Our budget is proposing to waive interest accrual on Canada student loans and Canada apprenticeship loans until March 31, 2023. We are proposing to double student grants for an additional two years, effectively covering 90% of the average undergraduate tuition in Canada for low-income students during the pandemic.
Further supports for youth include $118 million in after-school programming and $239 million in student work placement programs to support 50,000 work integrative learning opportunities for post-secondary students, up 20,000 from last year.
We will invest $80 million to help kids learn to code, and $109 million to create 7,000 more jobs through the youth employment and skills strategy to better meet the needs of vulnerable youth facing various and often multiple barriers to employment. An additional 94,000 job placements will be made available through Canada summer jobs funding.
To further our progress in prioritizing job creation in small business, our budget will extend business and income support measures through to the fall. We will support almost 500,000 new training and work opportunities, including 215,000 opportunities for youth.
Budget 2021 is a plan that puts the government on track to meet its commitment to create one million jobs. Our budget proposes $700 million over three years for the regional development agencies to support business financing. This would position local economies for long-term growth by transitioning to a green economy and enhancing competitiveness.
We also propose to launch the Canada digital adoption program to assist over 160,000 businesses with the cost of new technology. This will provide businesses with the advice they need to get the most out of new technology, while employing 28,000 young Canadians who will be trained to work with them. In addition, we also propose to allow small businesses to fully expense up to $1.5 million in capital investments and assets, including digital technology and intellectual property. This constitutes an additional $2.2 billion investment in the growth of entrepreneurial companies.
Fighting climate change has been and will always be one of our government's biggest priorities. Budget 2021 includes a plan to allow 200,000 Canadians to make their homes greener. Our investments are aimed at reducing the pollution from fuels used in the transportation and production of goods by increasing Canada's production of low carbon fuels, including biofuels. They are aimed at encouraging the developing of innovative new technologies to reduce pollution in heavy industry, and conserving up to one million square kilometres more land and inland waters to help achieve our 25% protected area by 2025 targets.
This plan puts Canada on track to exceed its Paris targets and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 36% by 2030. This also puts us on a path to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
As part of our green recovery plan, we are proposing $5 billion to the net zero accelerator. This would allow the government to provide up to $8 billion in support for projects that will help reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions across the economy.
We are proposing to reduce general, corporate and small business income tax for businesses that manufacture zero emission technologies. More investments in this plan include $56 million to develop and implement a set of codes and standards for retail ZEV charging and fuelling stations. We will provide $98 million to support our commitment to power federal buildings with 100% clean energy by 2022, and $104 million to strengthen greenhouse gas emission regulations for light and heavy-duty vehicles and off-road residential equipment.
Canada entered the pandemic in a strong fiscal position. This allowed our government to take quick actions, supporting people and businesses, and to make historic investments in the recovery. To respond to the pandemic, $8 out of $10 spent in Canada has come from the federal government. I am incredibly proud that our government stepped up to support Canadians through an unprecedented year.
I would like to end today by talking about a conversation I had with a constituent who was filled with emotion just talking about the historic child care announcement and what it meant for her. It meant she would no longer have to choose between staying home to care for her child or going to work only to see a majority of her paycheque go toward paying for costly child care. It would mean giving her child the opportunity to learn and grow in a professional setting, providing this constituent the opportunity to focus on her career and feeling proud that she would be able to contribute to the Canadian economy.
This is why we are here, to make real, positive impacts in the lives of so many. I am proud to stand behind such a historic budget that will support all Canadians from coast to coast to coast.
View Patrick Weiler Profile
Lib. (BC)
Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Scarborough—Rouge Park.
I am proud to join the debate today to speak in support of this historic budget, the first ever tabled by a female Minister of Finance and the most important budget in my lifetime. Budget 2021 will help Canadians recover from COVID-19, and it lays the foundation for a stronger, more resilient and more equitable future.
As the MP for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, I can say that this budget responds directly to the priorities my constituents shared with me in pre-budget consultations. We are providing support for affordable housing through expansions of the national housing strategy. We are making life more affordable for seniors through the increase in OAS for seniors over age 74. We are making historic investments in improving the lives of indigenous peoples. We are extending relief for businesses, extending stimulus and much more.
As the chair of the Liberal caucus in B.C., I can also attest that this budget addresses many of the most pressing issues in my province, and includes measures to seize the incredible opportunities that are here for the taking. In my limited time, I will focus on a selection of measures that are particularly important locally.
The first is child care. We cannot discuss this budget without reference to its historic investment of up to $30 billion over five years, with an ongoing $8 billion per year, to ensure high-quality, affordable and accessible early learning and child care across Canada. Now more than ever, the pandemic has highlighted the burden that child care scarcity places on our labour force. It is also a gender issue, as 12 times as many mothers as fathers had to leave their jobs to take care of children during the pandemic, driving women’s participation in the labour force to its lowest level in over two decades.
For years, many in my riding have been under strain from a lack of affordable and accessible child care. For example, there are over 5,100 children in the Sea to Sky region under 12 years old who are in need of child care and only 1,100 childcare spaces. Wait-lists for these child care spaces are running over two years in length, while the cost of child care ranges between $85 and $100 a day. As a result, many families in my riding are forced to pay $1,800 a month for child care or have to balance dual workdays caring for their children while trying to earn a living, a burden that negatively impacts not only the economy and parents, but children as well.
That is why our government has committed to ensuring that families in Canada are no longer burdened by high child care costs. Budget 2021 will allow for a 50% reduction in average fees for regulated early learning and child care by the end of 2022, with the ultimate goal of bringing fees for regulated child care down to $10 a day on average within the next five years. We will continue our efforts to grow quality affordable child care spaces across the country, building on the approximately 40,000 new spaces already created through previous federal investments since 2015. We will work with the provinces and territories to support primarily not-for-profit sector child care providers to grow quality spaces across the country, while ensuring that families in all licensed spaces benefit from more affordable child care.
In addition to improving the quality of life for families, our modelling has shown that this will help the economy grow by as much as 1.2%. Just about all leading economists agree that there is no measure that would increase our GDP more than this. This is a fitting flagship program for the first federal budget by Canada’s first female Minister of Finance.
Women are not the only hard-hit segment of our country. Given that we are navigating the third wave and that public health restrictions have ravaged small business, we need to first ensure the viability of our existing industry to lay the foundation for a robust recovery. Budget 2021 responds by extending the wage subsidy, rent subsidy and lockdown supports for businesses and non-profits until September 25. The wage subsidy alone has supported over 621,000 jobs in B.C. and has represented a lifeline for business.
I know how important this is because tourism is the biggest sector in my riding. It has been throttled by public health orders, and many places have been forced to close. Extending relief programs has therefore been the number one request of businesses in my riding. They look forward to again welcoming Canadians and the world.
These measures and the new Canada recovery hiring program, which will provide $595 million to make it easier for businesses to hire or rehire workers, were all announced in budget 2021, with enough time to start planning for a better summer and a better future. The measures, as well as new investments totalling $1 billion for tourism, arts and culture, will help businesses get through to the other side. Working toward reducing credit card fees will only help to further stimulate growth in the future.
This budget contains other historic measures that will make a massive impact in B.C. To date, B.C. has been lumped together with the prairie provinces and served by Western Economic Diversification. Given the distinct and diverse economy in B.C., it has been a long-standing priority to establish a separate regional development agency for our province.
Budget 2021 delivers on this by following through on the vision expressed in the fall economic statement and funding a new B.C. RDA to the tune of $553 million over the next five years. This will allow the RDA to expand from a singular office in our province to serve all regional and local priorities in the province, and to enable enterprises to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves in rural and urban areas.
Some of the biggest opportunities in Canada and B.C.’s future lie in the digital, bio and clean tech sectors. Part of our challenge in Canada is that while we have leading research being done at our educational institutions, and promising start-ups spinning off from them, we struggle to commercialize and scale. Promising businesses are getting gobbled up by bigger foreign counterparts and moving abroad, resulting in a brain drain.
This budget addresses these challenges with targeted investments. Over $2.2 billion is going towards growing the life sciences sector, which will also help ensure we are more resilient to future health crises. As part of this $2.2 billion, $92 million will go to B.C.-based adMare to ensure that we are not only discovering the delivery mechanisms for world-leading vaccines, as we did for the Pfizer vaccine, but also that Canadian companies can scale, manufacture and create more value-adding jobs.
Budget 2021 will also provide $360 million to launch a national quantum strategy to amplify Canada’s significant strength in quantum research and leading companies already in existence, such as D-Wave. One of the four main quantum hubs will be located in B.C., where we already have significant expertise.
An investment of $35 million, which will be matched by the Province of B.C., will help establish a B.C. centre for innovation and clean energy to advance the scale-up and commercialization of clean technologies in B.C. and across Canada.
We are going to need cleaner technologies not only to grow the economy, but also to reduce emissions. The $8 billion net zero accelerator fund, from investments in both this budget and the fall economic statement, will be able to fund promising measures to mitigate emissions from our large point sources and help wide-scale adoption of cleaner technologies across the country.
Our government’s past support helped Squamish-based Carbon Engineering to become the top clean-tech company in North America just last year. On top of this, we are going to add an additional $1 billion in funding to ensure companies can leverage additional private sector funding to become future leaders like Carbon Engineering.
Budget 2021’s commitment to lowering corporate taxes by half on companies that manufacture net zero technologies will allow these companies to not only start, but also grow and stay in Canada, continuing to provide the good jobs of the future.
Today at the Earth Summit, Canada announced a new 2030 GHG target that is 40% to 45% below 2005 levels. Decarbonizing our economy through these measures, the newly announced $40,000 no-interest loan for home energy retrofits, and other measures in budget 2021 will be key to realizing these lofty targets and meeting the aims of the Paris climate accord.
Given that today is Earth Day, it also bears mentioning that budget 2021 will invest over $4 billion towards ensuring we can protect 25% of our lands and waters by 2025. This process will create thousands of jobs in conservation, which can particularly help groups that are currently underrepresented in our economy, including first nations and youth.
This investment is so important to arrest the biodiversity crisis in Canada. This crisis has manifested in the most notable way in B.C. through the plight of wild Pacific salmon. Since the early 1990s, Pacific salmon stocks have declined by up to 93%. There is no issue that brings British Columbians of all walks of life together like this iconic species, which is critical to our blue economy.
To help prevent their potential extinction and the cascading impact that would have throughout our marine ecosystem, including on the similarly endangered killer whales that rely on them as a food source, budget 2021 provides a generational investment of $647 million over five years to stabilize and conserve wild salmon populations.
This historic investment will go towards new hatchery facilities, habitat restoration and research, as well as the creation of a Pacific salmon secretariat and restoration centre of expertise that will improve management of commercial and recreational fisheries.
As I see my time is running short, I would just like to say that this budget makes critical investments to ensure we have the backs of Canadians to get through this crisis, while making targeted investments in sectors that will drive job growth in the future. It does this by reducing inequities in our society while ensuring that we have both a green and a blue recovery. These measures are being taken in a manner that ensures our debt-to-GDP ratio will decline over time as we reap the rewards of these important investments in our economy and in the well-being of our communities.
View Ziad Aboultaif Profile
CPC (AB)
View Ziad Aboultaif Profile
2021-04-20 17:34 [p.5893]
moved:
That:
(a) in the opinion of the House, the government should recognize that,
(i) replacing oil and gas with more environmentally sustainable options is not technologically or economically feasible,
(ii) Canada’s energy needs require the use of oil and gas to heat Canadian homes, schools and hospitals, to propel vehicles, to bring food to Canadian tables, and to produce electricity,
(iii) Canadian oil and natural gas are produced with the highest environmental standards in the world, and domestic producers are global environmental leaders and responsible corporate citizens,
(iv) using Canadian resources creates Canadian jobs,
(v) First Nations involved in Canada’s oil and gas industry experience significant and profound positive economic effects, including higher rates of employment, higher incomes, and improved health and educational attainments,
(vi) tax revenue from the fossil fuel industry is an important contributor to the national treasury, facilitating transfer payments benefitting all Canadians and allowing Canada to afford the social programs all Canadians depend on; and
(b) the House recognize that,
(i) Canada’s oil and gas industry from Western to Atlantic Canada is essential to the well-being of the nation and should be celebrated,
(ii) tax and regulatory barriers limiting the responsible growth of Canada’s oil and gas industry should be removed.
He said: Madam Speaker, I am honoured to rise today and present my private member's motion, Motion No. 61, in support of the oil and gas sector.
As the title simply states, this motion would call on both the government and this House to recognize the importance of Canada's energy sector. While the title of this motion is simple, the reasons we need to pass this motion are not.
Right now, Canada is facing a serious and unprecedented crisis. COVID-19 is running wild across our provinces, putting hundreds of thousands of Canadians out of work. With the pandemic have come massive budget deficits that need to be paid off so we do not doom future generations in order to help this one. Lastly, there is the crucial role this industry has played in developing green technologies.
These are issues that cannot be solved by any one industry, government body or person, but if we, as legislators, work to support our industries, we can certainly help to address these issues. One of those industries that can do the most to help is our energy industry.
As of January 2021, our national unemployment rate was 9.4%. The January 2021 unemployment rate in the United States was 6.3%. In the United Kingdom, it was 5%. Obviously they are doing a better job getting vaccines than us, but we clearly have a way to go in getting Canadians back to work.
Our energy industry can certainly help with that. I am going to speak a bit about Alberta, which is my province and the province I am most familiar with, but what I am going to say applies to every province and territory in Canada. The energy industry in Alberta is one of my home province's largest industries and equal to 10.6% of Canada's GDP. It creates billions of dollars in revenue, and more importantly, it creates hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs for Canadians and indigenous peoples, directly and indirectly related to the actual process of extracting and refining oil and gas products. These are good jobs. They pay well, put food on the table and kids through school. These jobs guarantee Canadians get ahead in life and that they can help their kids, parents, partners and people important to them get ahead in life.
The jobs created by our energy industry are not just in drilling and refining either. Sure, we need people up on the rigs, but we also need chemists and engineers to refine the oil and gas into a final product. We need environmental specialists to help preserve the area around the projects and to help restore them afterward. We need lawyers to help comply with regulations and accountants to pay the taxes that go to the federal and provincial governments. The list goes on.
These are blue-collar jobs and white-collar jobs. These are student jobs and professional jobs, jobs for every Canadian. These are jobs that are sorely needed, especially as we will hopefully soon be seeing the end of this pandemic. I mentioned the unemployment rate earlier, but another statistic I would like my colleagues to keep in mind is one I used in a previous speech in this House. Over 200,000 Canadians lost their jobs in January of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We should be supporting industries once we finally can reopen our economy. Our oil and gas industry can play a crucial role in creating jobs for the thousands of Canadians who will be returning to work soon.
These jobs are not just limited to Alberta. As I said earlier, these are jobs that are created in every single province and territory from coast to coast to coast. Newfoundland and Labrador has offshore drilling projects. British Columbia has natural gas. Saskatchewan has potash and oil. Some of Canada's first energy projects have originated in Ontario.
Across the country, this industry is creating long-term jobs for Canadians, and, as our Alberta premier said, whether they are a Canadian by choice or by chance, our energy industry will welcome their hard work.
I mentioned the issue of budget deficits. Last year we saw a $354-billion deficit, the largest in Canada's history. The deficit this year is looking to be just shy of $155 billion, assuming there are no unexpected expenditures and that COVID does not continue to add onto that. I know the hon. Minister of Finance's budget from yesterday has a fiscal anchor of unwinding COVID-related deficits and reducing the federal debt as a share of the economy. This is good news, and Canada's energy industry is here to help.
I am sure all my colleagues here are familiar with how important energy royalties are to Alberta's budget. Our former premier Ralph Klein paid off all of Alberta's provincial debt, in part thanks to resource royalties from our energy industry. I am not saying that the government should follow the example of the Klein government, but we can certainly learn from it. The revenues generated by Alberta's oil and gas industry help to fund programs and services for Albertans across the province from Fort McKay to Peace River, Taber to Medicine Hat and everywhere else in the province.
Right now, with the massive budget we are looking at in response to this pandemic, we should not dismiss the opportunity to support this industry, which is crucial to our economy, not just because of the jobs that it creates, but also because of the revenues it brings us. A well-supported oil and gas sector will help raise government revenues to help pay for services needed by Canadians, shrink the deficit and pay off our debts.
We should be supporting our oil and gas sector because of its massive contributions to developing green energy technology. I do not know how many of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle know this, but Canada's oil and gas sector has been one of the biggest sources of world-renowned developments in green technology over the past several decades. Canadian energy companies are world leaders in this field. They are making sure that our oil and gas products are among the cleanest in the world in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.
A little over two weeks ago, I had the pleasure to visit Enhance Energy in Clive, Alberta. Clive is a very small town in rural Alberta in the constituency of my good friend, the hon. member for Red Deer—Lacombe. Honestly, the company blew me away with its facility and its technical operations. I was shown how it is working to develop new technologies to help with the green development of oil and gas, especially with carbon capture technologies.
When I visited, I saw some numbers on how much carbon the company was able to capture, and I think it is representative of just how cutting-edge this industry is in Canada. The amount of carbon it has the ability of capturing is equal to taking over 300,000 vehicles off the road. I am not talking about electric cars or hybrids. I am talking about classic combustion motor vehicles, fuelled by gasoline. This is all thanks to the technological developments made by a Canadian oil and gas company. If that does not deserve our support, I do not know what does.
As members know, this is just one example of a Canadian energy company developing cutting-edge new technology to help our carbon production. There are hundreds of other examples. As I said, Canada's oil and gas industry is on the cutting edge of developing green technology. I am talking about carbon capture, about the new, more efficient ways to extract and refine energy products and more. Given the focus that yesterday's budget had on environmental spending, on green technologies and on cutting carbon emissions, I am sure the Minister of Finance will be happy to hear about all of the ways that our energy industry is helping to fight climate change.
Canada's oil and gas sector is one of our country's greatest economic drivers. It is responsible for creating hundreds of thousands of jobs from coast to coast to coast. It helps put food on the table for families, just as it helps create and sustain revenue streams for the provincial and federal governments. This revenue pays for education and health care for all Canadians. Last, but especially not least, it is a major driver of world-renowned innovation and technological development to help protect our environment.
Simply put, the importance of Canada's oil and gas sector cannot be overstated. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians from across our country depend on this vital industry and its well-paying jobs. Companies within this sector deserve our support. This is an industry that has done so much over the years to support Canadians and support Canada, so I think it is time that Canada moves to support it.
Here are some key facts about the oil industry.
In 2019, Canada's energy sector directly employed more than 282,000 people and indirectly supported over 550,000 jobs. Canada's energy sector accounts for over 10% of the nominal GDP. Energy is the largest subsector of Canada's economy, accounting for $221 billion, in 2018 figures. Government revenues from energies were about $17.9 billion in 2018. More than $1.1 billion was spent on energy research, development and deployment by governments in 2018-19. Canada is the sixth-largest energy producer, the fourth-largest net exporter and the eighth-largest consumer.
From the year 2000 onward, Alberta's share in the total economy averaged about 5% of Canada's GDP and 20% of Alberta's GDP. Its share of jobs was 0.4% in Canada and 2.9% in Alberta. The oil and gas industry's major suppliers of its inputs include manufacturing, at 18.7%; finance, insurance and real estate services, at 18.8%; professional services, at 2.8%; other mining industries, at 12.8%; administration services, at 7.9%; and the oil and gas industry itself, at 7.4%. By the way, on global energy demand, the energy supply and demand projection to 2040 shows that while domestic fossil fuel consumption growth slowed, crude oil and natural gas production continues to increase.
I thank my colleagues for listening today. I hope that Motion No. 61 in support of the gas and oil industry will get their support.
View Mario Simard Profile
BQ (QC)
View Mario Simard Profile
2021-04-20 18:05 [p.5897]
Madam Speaker, as in every debate, when I am faced with a motion, I try to figure out the intent and what the motion hopes to achieve.
As I read my colleague's motion, looking for the intent, I was reminded of a comedian that I like, Yvon Deschamps. Deschamps is a master of irony, and his method is simply to take a social issue to its logical extreme to show how absurd it is. That is truly what it reminded me of.
In reading the motion, I thought about my first days in the House of Commons and the rallying cry of my Conservative colleagues, “Build a pipeline!”, which I found to be a bit ludicrous. It reminded me of what we saw in the United States a few years ago with Sarah Palin and her famous line, “Drill, baby, drill”. It seemed like those people had no understanding of the climate crisis we are facing and the harmful effects that fossil fuels can have.
Let us leave that aside for now. I might come back to the motion's intent later, unless it comes up along the way. I suggest we do the most useful thing we can do when faced with any proposal, namely analyze the text.
Motion No. 61 calls on the government to recognize that it is impossible to replace fossil fuels. Another way to say that is that fossil fuels are “irreplaceable”. This implies that they are without equivalent, that nothing is equivalent to fossil fuels.
Personally, when I talk about something that is irreplaceable and without equivalent, what immediately comes to mind is water, which is indeed irreplaceable and has no equivalent. It could also be the air we breathe. My relationship with my girlfriend is certainly irreplaceable, and so is my son. However, I do not think oil is irreplaceable. In fact, let us go a step further and say that red wine and cheese may be irreplaceable, but I do not think oil is.
I seem to be missing something about what my colleague is trying to say by claiming that oil is irreplaceable. This strikes me more as something Yvon Deschamps would say in his act than as something a politician might say, but whatever.
The first paragraph of the motion reads as follows:
(i) replacing oil and gas with more environmentally sustainable options is not technologically or economically feasible,
I do not know where my colleague lives, but there are already many technologically and economically feasible proposals for replacing oil. These proposals and these new technologies would have benefits for our economy. The first thing I think of is the battery supply chain, which we are currently studying at the Standing Committee on Natural Resources.
We should remember that it is now possible to store energy and that battery efficiency is increasing exponentially, which is quite promising. We can do this in Canada because we have everything we need here, including critical metals and, in Quebec, the rare earth elements needed to produce permanent magnets for electric vehicle batteries. There are potential options with a very low carbon footprint. I do not know if my colleague knows about them.
There is also green hydrogen, as opposed to grey hydrogen, that can be produced from biomass and can be used for heavy-duty transportation. I am thinking about the forestry industry, which is an excellent candidate to replace the fossil fuel industry. Thanks to the bioeconomy, we now have replacements for many petrochemical products.
This may interest my colleague, who said earlier that the oil industry accounts for many jobs, such as chemists and engineers. The Standing Committee on Natural Resources heard from experts in the forestry industry who said that all of these chemists and engineers could play a part in the transition to forest biomass-based bioindustries, which would significantly reduce our carbon footprint.
Therefore, I think that to claim that it is impossible to replace oil and gas products is an irony worthy of Yvon Deschamps, the absurdist comedian I mentioned earlier.
The second paragraph of the motion states:
(ii) Canada's energy needs require the use of oil and gas to heat Canadian homes, schools and hospitals, to propel vehicles, to bring food to Canadian tables, and to produce electricity,
I live in Quebec, where most homes, including my own and those of my parents and friends, are heated using hydroelectricity. The same is true for many schools. Today, some schools are even heated using forestry waste, or biomass.
The same is true for hospitals. Electricity is also used to propel vehicles. Countries around the world are making the transition to electric vehicles. I do not know whether my colleague has ever heard of them, but we have been talking about them for 20 years. We have kicked into high gear when it comes to the electrification of transportation. It is one of the best ways to reduce our carbon footprint, bring food to Canadian tables and produce electricity. Of course, there are places that produce electricity using oil, but Quebec is certainly not one of them. This motion is clearly not directed at Quebec.
The third paragraph of the motion says, “Canadian oil and natural gas are produced with the highest environmental standards in the world, and domestic producers are global environmental leaders and responsible corporate citizens”.
Right away, that reminded me of big tobacco. It was like listening to big tobacco in the 1990s. Members may remember that, back in the 1990s, cigarette makers were pushing smooth, velvety flavours, smooth cigarettes. At one point, there was even an ad about the athlete's cigarette. Talking about oil and natural gas that comply with environmental standards is like talking about a healthy cigarette. It is a devious way to avoid addressing the real situation we are facing, which is climate change. Once again, any attempt to divine my colleague's intent brings me right back to irony.
The fourth paragraph of the motion states that “using Canadian resources creates Canadian jobs”. Sure, that may be true. At one time, Canadian natural resources, be they oil or gas, did create jobs for Canadians, but we know that is increasingly less true. Albertans need to know the truth. I encourage my colleague to tell Albertans the truth.
Let us look at the oil sands projects that have been abandoned. We know that big investment funds no longer want to get involved in the oil sands. As for Keystone XL, the last one in the running, our American neighbours have decided to make the shift towards a low-carbon economy. They dropped Keystone XL. When we came to the House, no investors wanted to commit to the Teck Frontier project. They dropped that too.
I can name one promising natural resource sector that creates jobs, and that is forestry. Our party commissioned a vast study on the entire forestry potential of Quebec, a study that is very conservative, not in the Conservative Party sense, but small “c” conservative, meaning there was no exaggeration. We know that in the long term, over 10 years, if we make the shift towards the bioeconomy, we can create 16,000 jobs in Quebec alone. This natural resource sector could create jobs, and the bioeconomy could easily be incorporated as part of a transition plan for the Alberta economy, since the skills are already there in terms of chemists and engineers working on these kinds of processes.
The fifth paragraph deals with first nations. I will go over it quickly. I need not remind my colleague of the whole kerfuffle with the Wet'suwet'en. Let us just say that there are many indigenous communities that do not look favourably on oil and gas projects.
The sixth paragraph is on the tax revenue from the fossil fuel industry. I would just like to say that, at the end of the 1970s until the early 1990s, we know that the government had to invest $70 billion to make oil sands technologies profitable. We know that. Quebec's share in that investment is 22%. Fourteen billion dollars to support the oil and gas industry. We know that, from 2017 to 2020, an extra $24 billion was invested in oil and gas. I am still waiting for the economic spinoffs from the oil industry.
My time is up, but I had so many other things to say.
View Greg McLean Profile
CPC (AB)
View Greg McLean Profile
2021-04-20 18:24 [p.5900]
Madam Speaker, I will start today by thanking my colleague from Edmonton—Manning. He is a great advocate for the Canadian oil and gas industry. He does great work here and has proven on the floor of the House of Commons again today virtually that he represents his riding very well.
Alberta's industrial heartland lies just outside Edmonton. I am certain a lot of his constituents work in that gem of an industrial infrastructure in Canada, which provides so much industrial benefit to this country. We can talk about Canadian champions. We can talk about the way the industry built up in that whole area, where we produce and add value to our resources. We are not just hewers of wood and drawers of water. We add significant value along the way.
I joined my colleague at the Enhance Energy and Wolf Midstream facility in Clive, Alberta to look at the actual end of the pipe where the CO2 is collected, up in the industrial heartland, and brought down for storage 150 kilometres away in central Alberta. It is magnificent world-leading technology, a highway to sequester the carbon that is produced in industrial facilities in Alberta. So many firms are going to come to Canada because of the forward thinking that this industry has provided in Canada. I again thank the member for Edmonton—Manning for everything he has brought to the debate on this.
As everybody knows, I have been a member of Parliament for a year and a half. I have learned a lot from my colleagues every day, including the member for Edmonton Manning. When I came here, it was under the premise that people in this place did not really understand the Canadian energy industry, including the Canadian oil and gas industry. I will say here today, after the remarks from every member of the other parties, that premise is resounding in spades.
I remember when I first got here, over a year and a half ago, I would go to committee meetings where certain people would say that the solution to our problem in Alberta is to get a big fund to transition everybody out of oil and gas jobs. I would sit there slack-jawed at the ignorance on display from some of my colleagues from across Canada about what this industry represents to Canada and how much it contributes to our national life every day.
We are world champions in the environmental production of our petroleum resource. We have reporting standards that are far greater than anywhere else in the world. I contrast investments in the Canadian oil and gas industry with those in the United States and those overseas. I can attest that the only country that comes close to Canada's environmental standards is Norway. It has a declining base and is drilling further and further into the North Sea in order to access more resources because its $1.1-trillion wealth fund is built and entirely dependent on hydrocarbon resources.
We talk about a European business model, and I have heard a number of times in this debate about how the world is moving on. We should take a look at where the world is moving on to. The world is moving out of Canada because we are easy pickings to move away from, but in so doing, it is funding investments in the Middle East, which has a far worse environmental standards and human rights standards. They also have no transparency at all on how it is producing its oil.
We are comparing apples to oranges. Canada is the bar. Everybody else is below that bar. As Canadians, should be supporting that bar and looking at this industry as the champion we have built over the last decades here in Canada. As Canadian, we should accept it because it adds so much, not just from the employment perspective of 450,000 direct and indirect jobs, but also from a taxation perspective.
I will go through those numbers because we are talking about $130 billion in exports from our oil and gas industry per year. That is over 22% of our Canadian exports, which are contributing to the value of life here in Canada. Imagine our Canadian dollar if we did not have Canadian oil and gas exports. All kinds of taxation comes from here, provincially, federally and municipally, and it is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. It is an average of about $24 billion per year going back for the last 18 years.
Even the numbers going forward are great, quite frankly, for what we will contribute to Canadian taxes. It represents about $240 billion over the next 10 years, which is another $24 billion a year that will be going to Canadian taxpayers so they can have nice hospitals, pandemic responses, good schools, good universities and good seniors care. These are all funded by an industry that is a net contributor to Canada through and through. It has been for my whole lifetime and that of most members in this House.
We actually advanced with the free trade agreement in the United States. The core of that free trade agreement was our energy agreement, and trade with the United States has been fundamentally important to our lifestyle rising up in Canada. We can actually afford the things the rest of the world took for granted, and we have learned to take them for granted in Canada. One thing I am seeing quite clearly here is the division, between producing provinces and non-producing provinces, of knowledge about what this industry brings to Canada. I can assure members that revenue has been shared equitably across this country, and we have added so much value—
View Richard Cannings Profile
NDP (BC)
Mr. Speaker, the people of Grassy Narrows First Nation have spent the last 50 years fighting for justice after industrial pollution poisoned their waters with mercury. Ninety per cent the residents still suffer from mercury poisoning. Three years ago, Grassy Narrows made a land declaration banning industrial activities on its traditional lands, but the Ontario Conservative government is now accelerating mining development on those lands.
Why is the Liberal government not living up to its responsibility to defend the rights and title of the people of Grassy Narrows?
View Marc Miller Profile
Lib. (QC)
Mr. Speaker, the member would well know that this government has invested historical funding into the mercury treatment centre that was announced early last year to right a historical wrong that should never have occurred in the first place.
When it comes to advocating for the rights of Grassy Narrows', chief and council, and the people of Grassy Narrows are fully capable of doing it, but we will also be their voice at the federal level for whatever they advocate to premiers across the country and to territorial premiers as well. We are glad to do it and speak up on their behalf at any time, but they are fully capable of doing it as well.
View Alexandre Boulerice Profile
NDP (QC)
Mr. Speaker, the St. Lawrence River is one of our most precious assets. It represents hundreds of kilometres of rich biodiversity.
The NDP supports the proposal of the International Observatory on the Rights of Nature and is calling for the St. Lawrence River to be granted legal personhood to protect it, because it is at risk. Unchecked industrialization is jeopardizing many species. The port of Montreal expansion project in Contrecoeur, the Laurentia project at the port of Quebec and the threat of the GNL Québec project are just a few examples.
Will the overhaul of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act include recognition of the rights of nature before it is too late?
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