Colin Carrie

[The Environment, October 2nd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I will take that question under advisement and get back to the member.

[Rouge National Urban Park Act, October 2nd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister for his excellent speech and also for his passion in defending farmers.

The member gave us a bit of a history lesson that is important to reiterate. It was under the Trudeau Liberals in the 1970s that farmers were evicted from their lands and given these short-term one-year leases for this important class 1 farmland.

Now we see that the provincial Liberals, and it appears the federal Liberals, are endorsing a plan for the Rouge Valley that would completely evict farmers from class 1 farmland. As the member said, this is land that has been farmed for hundreds of years. Our first nations farmed this land. Now, under threat from the Liberals, they want to evict these farmers, these hard-working Canadians who have been there for years.

I wonder if the parliamentary secretary could take some time to explain a little more to our colleagues who obviously do not understand the bill and have not read it. How does the bill support our hard-working farmers?

[The Environment, September 24th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, we are implementing a comprehensive approach to monitoring ambient environmental effects from the oil sands development, and we are working with the Government of Alberta to ensure this is complementary to monitoring for regulatory purposes.

For example, regulation requires the industry to monitor and report emissions for individual facilities. Our joint oil sands monitoring effort complements this monitoring of oil sands industrial emission sources by monitoring air, water, wildlife and habitat disturbance in the surrounding region.

[The Environment, September 24th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada is committed to responsible oil sands resource development and is working with the Government of Alberta to implement a scientifically rigorous, comprehensive, integrated, and transparent environmental monitoring plan. Having a clear understanding of the environmental impacts of developing this valuable resource helps ensure its responsible development.

Since the launch of the joint Canada-Alberta implementation plan for oil sands monitoring in 2012, environmental monitoring of the effects of oil sands resource development has been enhanced. We are now monitoring more areas with more monitoring sites. We are doing so more frequently and for more substances.

All environmental components—air, water, habitat, and wildlife—are being monitored. We have significantly improved our ability to detect environmental change and any cumulative environmental effects.

We are able to trace polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and the accumulation of mercury in snow in the oil sands as a result of our efforts to continuously improve monitoring.

As expected, the results so far of the environmental monitoring of oil sands development show low levels of substances associated with the oil sands in the air, snow, water and wildlife. With a few exceptions, these substances are below the established environmental standards, and the levels get lower as you get away from the oil sands development.

Mercury and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are comparatively low in the entire oil sands area. We know that the impact is highest close to the oil sands development and that it declines rapidly the further away you go.

The concentrations in water and sediment are below the established standards, with the exception of the levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in a lake near a site under development.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs, arise from a variety of sources and can be formed by high temperature and incomplete burning of organic materials. Examples include forest fires, burning of waste and fossil fuels, coal, crude oil, combustion.

The exact PAH formed depends on the organic material being burned, thus it is not appropriate to compare PAHs produced from different sources.

With this monitoring plan, we are committed to scientifically rigorous, comprehensive, integrated and transparent environmental monitoring to deliver the most scientifically credible picture of the water, land, air and biodiversity issues in the region.

We see this as a long-term monitoring commitment, so that this work will continue.

[The Environment, September 23rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, our government gets it. We realize that we can both grow the economy and protect the environment at the same time.

Our government has taken important steps to help Canadians adapt to the changing climate. We have made significant investments to help Canadians understand and plan for climate impact, including Canada's north.

This helps our government to produce credible, science-based information to support planning and decision-making. This is something that New Democrats are against. All they want is a $20-billion carbon tax that will increase the price of everything.

[The Environment, September 23rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, our party is the only party that is committed to protecting the environment and keeping the Canadian economy strong. We believe we can do both at the same time.

This is why we have made significant investments to begin Canada's transition to a clean energy economy and advance our climate change objectives.

Canada already has one of the cleanest electricity systems in the world, and it is the world's third-largest producer of hydroelectricity. Over three-quarters of Canada's power comes from emission-free sources, and that is something Canadians need to know.

[The Environment, September 23rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the NDP has been telling people for years that it has to be one or the other; in other words, it will have to shut down the economy in order to help the environment. The reason New Democrats are so mad is that we have proven their whole ideology wrong.

We, under the leadership of our Prime Minister and our environment minister, have seen the Canadian economy grow 10%, while greenhouse gases have actually decreased 5%. That is why we on this side are correct in our approach, and they on that side are stuck in an ideology that has been proven wrong.

[The Environment, September 23rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, that is ridiculous. We are taking a leadership role. The Minister of the Environment is in New York City this week representing Canada at a number of climate change meetings.

Canada has and is taking significant efforts to curb climate change through a number of avenues, both domestic and international. Through our investments in clean energy and our sector-by-sector regulatory approach, we have seen our economy grow while emissions have gone down, unlike the Liberals and the NDP who want a job-killing carbon tax.

[The Environment, September 23rd, 2014]

As I said, Mr. Speaker, we are taking a leadership role. We are taking solid action. All the Liberals did was talk about it. They signed on to Kyoto with absolutely no plan to get to where we need to be. Thanks to our actions, we have seen reductions in greenhouse gases since 2005, without imposing a job-killing carbon tax, which the Liberals support.

Our government's record is clear: per-capita carbon emissions have fallen to their lowest level since tracking began. That is a fact. In 2012, greenhouse gases were more than 5% lower than at 2005 levels, while the economy grew by more than 10% in the same period, and that—

[The Environment, September 23rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, when we are talking about being missing on climate change, I think the Liberal leader should know I am in a difficult position right now. I agree with the Liberal leader's statement on the Liberal leadership, but not this leader's. Remember Mr. Ignatieff, who said we did not get it done? Under the Liberals' watch, greenhouse gases actually went up 130 megatonnes.

What we are doing is taking a sector-by-sector regulatory approach that is working, and that is leadership. We are the first major coal user to ban construction of traditional coal-fired electrical generating units. That is leadership. Yesterday, the Minister of the Environment announced three new regulatory initiatives that will lower air pollutants—