This bill is from the 39th Parliament, 1st session, which ended in October 2007.
John Baird Conservative
Not active, as of March 30, 2007
(This bill did not become law.)
This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament has also written a full legislative summary of the bill.
Part 1 of this enactment amends the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 to promote the reduction of air pollution and the quality of outdoor and indoor air. It enables the Government of Canada to regulate air pollutants and greenhouse gases, including establishing emission-trading programs, and expands its authority to collect information about substances that contribute or are capable of contributing to air pollution. Part 1 also enacts requirements that the Ministers of the Environment and Health establish air quality objectives and publicly report on the attainment of those objectives and on the effectiveness of the measures taken to achieve them.
Part 2 of this enactment amends the Energy Efficiency Act to
(a) clarify that classes of energy-using products may be established based on their common energy-consuming characteristics, the intended use of the products or the conditions under which the products are normally used;
(b) require that all interprovincial shipments of energy-using products meet the requirements of that Act;
(c) require dealers to provide prescribed information respecting the shipment or importation of energy-using products to the Minister responsible for that Act;
(d) provide for the authority to prescribe as energy-using products manufactured products, or classes of manufactured products, that affect or control energy consumption; and
(e) broaden the scope of the labelling provisions.
Part 3 of this enactment amends the Motor Vehicle Fuel Consumption Standards Act to clarify its regulation-making powers with respect to the establishment of standards for the fuel consumption of new motor vehicles sold in Canada and to modernize certain aspects of that Act.
All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.
Bill numbers are reused for different bills each new session. Perhaps you were looking for one of these other C-30s:
Canada's Clean Air ActGovernment Orders
The Deputy Speaker Bill Blaikie
Resuming debate, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment.
Mark Warawa ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment
Mr. Speaker, it is clear that Canada's environmental performance on air quality has lagged and there is a need for the Government of Canada to take stronger action to protect human health and the environment. The impacts of poor air quality continue to be a concern for Canadians. Smog can worsen existing heart and lung problems and contribute to thousands of premature deaths yearly. Acid rain remains a serious threat to biodiversity, the forests and fresh water ecosystems.
The levels of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in Canada are simply not acceptable. Our new government has introduced Canada's clean air act, Bill C-30, to strengthen the Government of Canada's ability to take coordinated action to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases.
Mandatory regulations will replace the voluntary approaches that have failed in the past. We will ensure the regulations are enforced and their objectives are achieved. We will focus on improving the health of Canadians and their environment. Compliance options are one of four components of our proposed regulatory approach. Emission targets and timelines, monitoring and reporting and equivalency agreements are the others.
Our government is meeting almost every day with industry and the provinces and territories to develop the regulatory framework. By spring 2007, our objective is to have finalized initial discussions on a number of important issues, including short term reduction targets, compliance and reporting options and timelines.
Regulations will set realistic emission targets that will reduce air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions across the country for the benefit of the health of Canadians and our planet.
To minimize the cost to industry of complying with regulatory requirements, the Government of Canada is considering a number of compliance options. The objective is to provide industry with the flexibility to choose the most cost effective way to meet its emission targets. These include emissions trading, offsets, opt ins and a technology investment fund.
Emissions trading would allow facilities the flexibility to meet their emission reduction target in three ways: by reducing their emissions to the level of their target; by reducing their emissions below their target then sell or bank the surplus emission reductions; or emit more than their target and buy emission reduction credits from the other entities. Emission trading does not replace regulation. It gives facilities more flexibility in how they can meet their regulatory obligations. As a result, emissions trading can reduce the cost of achieving a given target.
In an emission trading system the environmental objective is set by regulators, not by the market. The government is consulting on options surrounding an emissions trading regime. That is why the government is proposing, through sections 27, 29 and 30 of Canada's clean air act, to ensure that we can make regulations that are flexible enough to allow trading and that align our compliance regime to support the implementation of trading systems.
However, any trading system should be self-supporting and not reliant on taxpayer dollars. Our government will not purchase credits or otherwise participate in the emissions trading market.
Offsets are emission reductions that take place outside the regulated sectors or activities. They are usually verifiable projects that result in emission reductions beyond a baseline and are additional to any other regulatory requirement.
To ensure real emission reductions have taken place, Canada's new government will ensure that the requirements for monitoring and reporting emission reductions are rigorous and verifiable.
Opt ins are entities that are not covered by the regulations, but that choose to voluntarily adopt targets. Entities that exceed targets could earn and sell allowances, but would not be penalized for failing to meet the targets. Opt ins could be a vehicle for municipalities and other non-regulated entities to be a part of our clean air regulatory agenda.
Offsets and opt ins will work well within an emissions trading system. Offset emission reductions generate tradeable credits that can be sold by the offset owner to the regulated facilities, which the use of credits can then be used against their regulatory obligations.
Both offsets and opt ins broaden the scope of emissions trading to otherwise non-covered facilities. By broadening the pool of emission reduction sources, compliance cost can be further lowered. More participants also help to develop a more robust emissions trading market.
We are also considering a mechanism to credit early actions taken before targets enter into effect. One key mechanism to be considered is a means to facilitate industry compliance with the regulatory system that will be the establishment of a technology investment fund.
A technology investment fund is a compliance mechanism where a facility can pay a contribution rate per tonne of emissions to achieve compliance. The emission credits from these payments would not be tradeable or bankable. The funds generated would be used to accelerate technological development within the regulated sectors to promote long term emission reductions, particularly in the development and deployment of technologies that have the potential to achieve the greatest emission reductions.
We are committed to consultations, negotiations and collaboration to ensure that the most effective regulatory system is developed and implemented. We have and will continue to involve stakeholders throughout the development process to ensure that regulations achieve real results for Canadians, but do so in a way that minimize the cost to Canadian industry.
We will continue to work with the provinces and territories toward a single harmonized system for mandatory reporting of all emissions and related information. This system will underpin the proposed regulations. It will also respond to industrial concerns that multiple measurement methodologies and multiple reporting regimes would cause an unnecessary and costly administrative burden.
At the end of the day, our regulatory framework will be guided by what is needed to protect the health of Canadians and our environment.
Bill C-30 is a good bill. I encourage all members of the House to support it. When it goes to the legislative committee, I encourage healthy debate.
We have heard from the environment commissioner how important the environment is. To this point we have had obstruction from the Liberals. I hope that ends. I hope we now move past that. The leadership race is over for the Liberals. They have a leader, who is the former environment minister under whom emissions rose 35%. We heard a week ago that a 47% increase was their ultimate plan, then buying down those emission increases by sending billions of dollars out of Canada. The number have heard is $20 billion.
That is not what Canadians want. They want a government that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and cleans up the air that we breathe. Bill C-30does that. It gives Canadians what they want.
I encourage every member in the House to support Bill C-30, and I am open to questions.
Robert Carrier Bloc Alfred-Pellan, QC
Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment. I would like to remind him that our government, the Government of Canada, has signed the Kyoto protocol. Despite everything that this current government has said about that protocol—that it cannot be achieved easily—and after being in office for 10 months, it comes to us with a bill that postpones any regulation to 2010. That is the main reason why we are reluctant to proceed with a bill like this, which does not reflect the urgent need for action.
In Quebec, on the other hand, we have a government that is in fact federalist, and with which the Conservative government, in theory, wants to cooperate. The Government of Quebec already has a plan for complying with the Kyoto accord. However, it therefore needs federal government funding to be able to implement it. Why, then, is the government stubbornly refusing to provide the budget that is necessary so that Quebec, at least, can comply with the Kyoto accord?
Mark Warawa Conservative Langley, BC
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's first question was on the Kyoto protocol.
Right now in the environment committee we have been debating Bill C-288, which is the Liberal re-enactment of their Kyoto plan.
For 13 years the Liberals did absolutely nothing on the environment. They received a scolding by the Commissioner of the Environment. We have now heard that they are not going to be able to meet those Kyoto targets. This is what our environment minister has said very clearly. We would like to but unfortunately, the situation left by the previous Liberal government has left the environment in a real mess here in Canada.
This government is taking action. We are not going to continue on with the Liberal plan of inaction. We want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That is part of Bill C-30 that we are debating today.
The experts who have come to the committee have said that we cannot meet those Kyoto targets. We need to set new targets. Those new targets will be set in spring 2007, which is just a few months away.
I encourage the hon. member to work with us to set those targets. Let us have realistic targets that will reduce greenhouse emissions and reduce pollution for the health of all Canadians.
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary talked a lot about regulatory changes and regulatory instruments, but why not put those regulations into absolute legislation? Why not put some teeth in those regulations, in those standards, and do a legislative change and make them the requirements of legislation? Why not put those Kyoto standards into legislation? Why not put fuel efficiency standards into legislation, rather than merely into regulations? Why not give this legislation some teeth and something that Canadians could be proud of?
Canadians want us to take action. Why not take that kind of definitive step rather than the lesser step of regulatory changes?
Mark Warawa Conservative Langley, BC
Mr. Speaker, I have been attending town hall meetings and answering questions. Canadians want this government to take action. The fastest way for us to take action in reducing greenhouse emissions and the pollution levels is through the clean air act, by regulation. That is why we are acting on the clean air act right now.
I encourage the member to support the clean air act. If he truly believes in dealing with it as soon as we can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollution levels, it is through the clean air act by regulation, moving from voluntary to regulatory.
Roy Cullen Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Mr. Speaker, what puzzles me in the clear air act is that we are mixing up clean air with CO2 and greenhouse gases. There is some linkage, but I am sure this is a deliberate attempt by the Conservatives to fuzzy the air, or the water, if I can say that.
What I feel very disappointed about is, for example, when we moved to intensity based reductions, if we look at the oil sands, for example, with the quadrupling of production to 2015, that will still mean there will be an absolute increase, in fact a huge increase, in the production of CO2 out of the oil sands.
We hear a lot about ethanol. It might be good agricultural policy and it might help with cleaner air, but it certainly does not do anything for CO2 because it takes a high level of energy to convert the corn or the switchgrass to ethanol.
Does the parliamentary secretary have any insights as to why the Conservative government switched from CO2 to clean air? The two are not the same thing.
Mark Warawa Conservative Langley, BC
Mr. Speaker, the member is quite right, there are two issues: greenhouse gas emissions affecting climate change and pollution affecting the health of Canadians. We are dealing with both.
The previous government just dealt with greenhouse gas emissions through Kyoto. The hon. member said very clearly in this House that his government would never be able to reach those targets. He did not support signing on to Kyoto.
This government is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pollution levels.
He asked the question about intensity. It depends if it is low intensity or high intensity. The former Liberal government had no plan. It did not know the difference between low intensity and high intensity obviously because the emissions were going up.
We are going to have realistic targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollution levels. We will do what the Liberals could not even dream of doing.
Denise Savoie NDP Victoria, BC
Mr. Speaker, tonight we have the rare opportunity to do something that really matters for our children. I believe there is no other issue that will have as great an impact on their lives as taking action on climate change, as the motion proposes to do, by sending the bill to an all party committee that would allow every party to bring forward their best ideas for action.
Today I heard a Conservative in a casual conversation say that where he spent the weekend it was 31° below and they did not really much believe in climate change out there. It surprised me. It was obviously said in jest, but it did reflect somewhat the lackadaisical approach the Conservative government has taken in the last nine months, as if climate change was a sidebar issue that required yet more consultation than has occurred since 1989. The Conservatives believe it is something that we should get serious about by 2050 it seems.
I recognize that for the first time the government did propose some regulatory action. That is encouraging. It gives us something to begin working with in committee.
Climate change is an issue that requires immediate action. On the west coast in British Columbia the department head of the Pacific biological station in Nanaimo was saying that global change and unpredictable fish behaviour could prompt the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to shorten openings and further restrict the number of boats on the fishing grounds. Global warming is prompting salmon to appear in areas where they have not been seen in recent history and to disappear from other areas. It is not only the Mackenzie River that is warming; the Fraser River is also warming. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans uses models based on historical information to predict fish returns and to set restrictions, but the global warming trend is throwing them completely out of whack.
The information we are receiving suggests that it is time to show Canadians that Parliament can act in the public interest and to stop the cynicism. Tonight we have the opportunity to roll up our sleeves and get to work on climate change in Canada.
The NDP proposed that Parliament rewrite the clean air act. All parties have an opportunity to put forward good ideas and do that work in a special committee expeditiously, urgently. The NDP took this bill out of the impasse that it was in and it now lies within our power to take action, not in a business as usual mode, but urgently, as if our children's lives depended on it.
The NDP has tabled a number of amendments. We are certainly open to other parties' amendments as well. Our amendments would certainly force decisive action, not only on air pollution, which millions of Canadians want to see, but on a clear reduction of greenhouse gas.
Our amendments propose a series of changes to ensure that Canada meets its Kyoto protocol commitments in the short term, plus a workable plan to meet internationally recognized medium and long term goals. Our amendments include legislated targets and timelines for greenhouse gas reductions. They represent a chance to transform an inadequate piece of legislation into a real action plan which ordinary Canadians want to see.
We have laid out clear science based targets and mandates for immediate action. These would obligate governments to set targets to reduce greenhouse gases within one year. They would obligate government to set out interim targets at five year intervals so that we could see if we were on target. It would legislate a 25% absolute reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 below 1990 levels and would legislate 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 below 1990 levels.
The time has come to take decisive action, even at the risk of offending the industry insiders that both the Conservatives and the Liberals in the past have tried to protect. It is important to continue to develop our oil and gas, but in a responsible way.
In looking through Oilsands Review, there are hundreds of projects that are being developed at breakneck speed. Hundreds of projects have been approved. Regulatory applications are being finalized. Work is being done on final cost estimates. They are happening in the Cold Lake region, Athabasca region, Lloydminster region, Peace River region and involve Imperial Oil, Husky Energy, Oilsands Quest. There is a race to develop the oil sands. If energy security is to be achieved for all of us, we must plan in the context of long term demand of these scarce fossil fuel resources.
We must ask for more measured development of oil and gas. There must be aggressive promotion of conservation and renewable energy. There is a project involving a number of entrepreneurs in Victoria who were propose to develop new, large buildings and to equip them with geothermals, but there are few opportunities to get this kind of project off the ground. It would be so simple and it would reduce by orders of magnitude the amount of greenhouse gas the buildings would use over their lifetime. Yet there are no programs that exist either provincially or federally to support this kind of innovation. The same thing applies to solar or wind. We must begin by ending the subsidies to oil and gas.
The NDP has proposed a five point green agenda for Canada. It focuses on greener homes by cutting emissions and cutting home energy bills. It focuses on greener communities in the way I suggested by giving municipalities the tools to support innovative projects and expand local renewable energies and retrofit infrastructure for greater efficiency. It focuses on greener transportation by cutting dirty emissions through mandatory fuel efficiency standards, not just by adding a percentage of biodiesel, but mandatory fuel efficiency standards, a green car strategy, and an investment in sustainable public transportation, which Canada is still not doing. It is amazing.
In my riding of Victoria, the ridership on public transportation has increased enormously in the past few years, but with little funding to match that with the capacity. Numbers of buses continue to pass by customers; there are not enough buses. An innovative program at the federal level would be able to offer this kind of funding.
Finally, for a greener Canada, the federal government could take a leadership role in retrofitting federal buildings. It could ensure that when federal public properties are sold, that they are sold with a triple bottom line criteria to ensure that these properties and buildings are redeveloped in a way that is sustainable.
I will end by saying that there has been enough consultation with industry and with the public. The Canadian public is way ahead of us on this subject. Canadians are ready for us to act. If we are not to disappoint them or to create more cynicism, I would ask my colleagues from all sides of the House to take this opportunity very seriously and take action.
Gary Goodyear Conservative Cambridge, ON
Mr. Speaker, I listened intently to the hon. member's speech. I have one simple question for the member. We hear a lot in the House about how this act does nothing. Frankly I think it is partially on purpose and partially from people who do not know, but I believe that this is what the member said. I would like to give the member an opportunity to clarify her statement that this act does nothing until 2050. I am appalled by that statement. It is completely inaccurate. I would like the opportunity to retract that to be offered to the member.
Obviously, let us look at meeting these targets, whether it is by 2010 or 2020. From here if we look at the chart, we can see that greenhouse gases have been going up under Liberal governments and they were not going to go down.
Under our government's bill, the chart goes down from today to 2015. We are acting today. Greenhouse gases will begin to be reduced. Everyone in the House knows that and I think the member deserves the right and the opportunity to stand up and apologize for misleading the House in that way.
The second issue I want to comment on is the 25% reduction of greenhouse gases based on the 1990 levels by the year 2020. It is wonderful for those members to promise anything when they do not ever have an opportunity to produce.
Denise Savoie NDP Victoria, BC
Mr. Speaker, 2050 is identified by the government as the first date by which there will be absolute reductions. Unless I misread this bill, that is the date by which absolute reductions are committed. I am wondering if the Conservative government had promised absolute tax cuts to oil and gas or other large corporations by 2050, absolute tax cuts, how seriously this would have been taken.
What we are proposing is that we need short term and medium term mandatory targets that determine whether we are going in the right direction, because by 2050 I do not know where the member will be, but I know where I will be, and I do not think many of us will be in a position to say, “Oops, we should have done this”. It is important to establish for ourselves short term goals to ensure that we are on the right track. This is what I was trying to say.
Christian Ouellet Bloc Brome—Missisquoi, QC
Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague for Victoria on her excellent presentation, especially because she began her remarks by explaining that this bill shows us how our children will live. That is a very key point and I congratulate her for that.
I would like to say to her that we, the members of the Bloc Québécois, agree completely with the idea of improving Canada’s Clean Air Act. However, just like her, we would like to see some really significant objectives relating to the reduction of greenhouse gases. She asked other members to support the five point agenda that they have proposed.
However, in my opinion, a weakness in those five points was that the member talked about greener homes and not about greener buildings. I believe that we have reached a point where we have to consider all buildings, whether schools, offices, workplaces, garages and so forth, and not just houses as was the case a number of years ago.
Can my colleague tell us whether she considered all buildings?
Denise Savoie NDP Victoria, BC
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. Indeed, what seems to me to be very important at this stage is that we should no longer be talking about slowing down greenhouse gas emissions. We should be talking about reductions and real reductions.
My colleague is perfectly correct in referring to greener homes. I also spoke of the need to develop greener communities and buildings. The technology certainly exists here in Canada. For example, the Canada Green Building Council has been established. It has put forward a number of suggestions for building and development that respect the principles of different forms of energy; solar energy, for example. I believe that I also mentioned geothermy, an energy source that originates in the depths of the earth and that would make it possible to greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also reducing costs.
My colleague is perfectly correct. If I did not mention it directly enough, it was certainly due to lack of time, because I believe that both are completely possible and desirable as well.
Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to rise today to discuss Bill C-30. When this bill was first introduced, it was roundly condemned by all the environmental groups and all the parties in the House. That is why it has gone back to the drawing board after first reading. Even the Prime Minister has sent it there, basically so that a new bill can be built.
We Liberals will be supporting this effort to try to bring back some of the many advances that were made in this area by our previous government and to bring back some protection for Canadians.
I am not going to go through all the problems. They were very eloquently listed by the critic for the Liberals and I am sure others did so in their speeches today. There are problems with the lists in the new bill, the double lists that we do not need, and with the lack of equivalency in the new bill and the lack of reference in the bill to Kyoto. In the notice of intent to regulate, the fact is that there are no targets.
As the health minister said this morning, there are millions of people who are in trouble with bronchitis, respiratory diseases and heart disease, but this bill is leaving the problems alone for five years, and it will not be until 2012 that there even are targets. There is the three or four years of duplicate consultation that excellent government employees working in those departments have already done. There is the removing of greenhouse gases and pollutants from the list of toxins, needlessly calling into question the authority of the federal government to regulate, et cetera.
I am not going to talk about that. I am going to talk about some of the successes of the past, successes that we have to try to get back to in order to limit greenhouse gases in the way they were being cut back in the past. Canada's greenhouse gas intensity is already 13% below 1990 levels. The Liberal government was able to reduce greenhouse gas intensity in 9 of the last 10 years. The environment minister mentioned these past programs in the opening speech on this topic, so I am going to follow up in the rest of my speech by giving more details in that area.
I do not think it is any secret, and all scientists agree, that under the Liberal government Canada has cut thousands and thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gases. During those years, as we know, Canada also had, under many parameters, the best economy in the world. This of course paid great dividends to Canadians and allowed us huge increases for students, for the biggest environmental budget in Canadian history and for seniors, health care, equalization and transfer payments, foreign aid increases, research and development increases, and increases in funds for the disabled.
Of course when the economy is so good, it also leads to huge increases in greenhouse gases if there is no action, and of course there were huge developments like the oil sands going on in that period. I am not sure what the exact figure was. It was perhaps 150% or 200% in greenhouse gases being produced by the country, but having this successful and expanding economy also gave us the largest challenge of any nation in the world in trying to reach our Kyoto targets.
That was why we developed a very aggressive plan. Today I am going to break down the plan into a series of plans. In spite of this increase of 150% or 200% or whatever it was in greenhouse gases at the time of the economy going so well, we still kept it down to roughly 135% of the previous amount. So far, the major and very complex programs that took so long to carefully put in place and negotiate are on the verge of reducing greenhouse gases more substantially toward our targets if they are kept in place, but we see that has not been the modus operandi of the present government. I will outline these plans quickly because if I do not I will be not be able to get them all in.
These plans are basically two-pronged. First, we have been dramatically cutting emissions in reducing the use of energy. There are a number of programs for that. Second, there is support for renewable technologies. The new technologies do not emit any or as much of the greenhouse gases.
Much of this was achieved by our new Liberal leader when he was environment minister. He got great credit from environmental groups and across the nation for being able to achieve this and overcoming the difficulty of working with finance ministers, which we know is always difficult to achieve. The member for Saint-Laurent—Cartierville was able to achieve the largest environmental budget in the history of Canada. It was hailed by environmental groups in Canada as the greenest budget.
The environmental budget was composed of initiatives that I will break down into about 20 plans. The first one was a $1 billion green fund that would support green projects to reduce greenhouse gases. It was a catalyst for new technologies. We cannot compare that $1 billion to any other programs of that magnitude that have been announced today. Once again, under the member for Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, it was a huge increase.
The second plan was up to $2 billion for partnerships, which would lever up to $4 billion. These numbers are huge in cutting greenhouse gases and reducing pollution. That involved partnerships with other levels of government. This problem is so big it cannot be done by just the federal government. Once again, there is nothing from the new government to match what the member for Saint-Laurent—Cartierville achieved in this area.
Plan three provided $200 million for quadrupling the wind power incentive Canada. That was enough for a million programs, which is another under the great stewardship of the member for Saint-Laurent—Cartierville.
Plan four involved $97 million for renewable power production. Some examples are support for small hydro, for biomass and landfill gases. What is happening in this area now? Nothing new.
Plan five was incentives for biomass. In that area there were a number of incentives. As members know, we have supported a number of new ethanol plants. Not only do they cut greenhouse gases but they offer big support for our farmers. This gives them another area in which to sell their products, again under the great stewardship of the member for Saint-Laurent—Cartierville.
Plan six was the quadrupling of the EnerGuide. Another $225 million were provided to improve the energy efficiency of houses. It allowed Canadians to participate. The government itself cannot deal with this huge challenge. Why would it have been recommended that the program be quadrupled if it was not working? There were 500,000 homes in Canada in the program. Some parliamentarians spoke about not hearing of Canadians cutting greenhouse gases, but 500,000 Canadians, half a million of them, were aware of it. In fact, the government has now cut that program, which is incomprehensible to all members in the House.
The Conservatives are saying that there is too much greenhouse gas emissions or too much pollution and then they cut the programs that are cutting them. That is like saying that we found starving children with not enough food and we will solve the problem by taking some of their food away.
Plan seven under the previous minister of the environment, the member for Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, provided $200 million for sustainable energy, science and technology. When research and development are slashed for things such as this in this country, like the last budget did, it will be very critical to the future of our children.
Plan eight was the green municipal fund. It is a great success story, as everyone in the House knows from their own communities. For over a decade the leader of the NDP was very complimentary of this program. The former prime minister, the member for LaSalle—Émard, was a real champion in funding this program for municipalities across the country, as was the member for Saint-Laurent—Cartierville. Again, thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gases were cut.
What I am most proud of, in the tough times when a number of areas had to be cut to put this country back in order, when there were huge deficits, the Liberal government did not cut the green municipal fund. In fact ,it doubled it.
Plan number nine had funds for brownfields. What has the new government planned to clean up the brownfields and to match the vision of the member for Saint-Laurent—Cartierville.
Plan 10, made in Canada, was to cut greenhouse gases with clean power generation. This has been inspired through tax cuts. Again, we put the capital cost allowance for clean power generation up from 30% to 50% under the inspired leadership of the member for Saint-Laurent—Cartierville.
I have seven more plans but I see that I will not have time to finish them so I will just mention what they are. Plan 11 was clean coal, plan 12 was biomass, plan 13 was carbon sequestration initiatives, plan 15 was landfill waste projects, plan 16 was east-west grid, plan 17 was EnerGuide for low income Canadians, plan 18 was for large final emitters supporting 5 megatonne cuts, plan 19 was auto emission reduction, plan 20 was the one tonne challenge, plan 21 was Biocap and plan 22 was solar.
Those are the reasons that we had the greenest plan in history. The environmental budget was the inspired leadership of the member for Saint-Laurent—Cartierville when he was the environment minister. We are nowhere near that but we will do everything we can to work, hopefully, with all parties in the House on this new act to achieve some reductions in pollution and emissions, which is what all Canadians have demonstrated they really want.
Luc Harvey Conservative Louis-Hébert, QC
Mr. Speaker, I listened to the speech by my colleague and, quite honestly, I thought I was watching a science fiction show. I do not know what he was talking about. He seems to have forgotten that, in the past eight years, his party's efforts have led to a deterioration in the situation and that despite the exceptional leadership and skill of the former Minister of the Environment, things have never been in such bad shape as they are today.
Because the Kyoto targets were not properly evaluated, the member for Saint-Laurent—Cartierville told the industry that it would never have to pay more than $15 per tonne. Thus, if there were a carbon exchange, the maximum penalty that could be imposed on the industry would never be more than $15 per tonne. That means that the Canadian government would have to pay the difference. Given that the European carbon exchange has reached 47 euros per tonne, or about $70, our government would have to pay $55 per tonne for the industry while the industry itself would pay $15.
I have two questions. How much would such a promise by the leader of his party, the member for Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, have cost the government? Second, if we think about setting targets but we limit the penalty to only $15, what was the final objective if not to realize that a mistake was made with regard to the evaluation of the Kyoto targets?