Evidence of meeting #48 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was money.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
What has been the total reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in Canada due to that spending?
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
John Baird Conservative Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
The year hasn't ended, and it normally takes a year or two after that for that information to be compiled. That's the system everywhere in the world, and it's no different here in Canada.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Do you have any estimations as to how much your department was hoping to cut in greenhouse gas emissions for Canada? Did you set yourselves a goal in total tonnes of carbon dioxide?
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
John Baird Conservative Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
We'll be coming forward with our regulatory initiative; it will speak to that question.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Just to be clear, though, your government has been in office for more than 13 months. When you initiated these programs, did Environment Canada or the Conservative Party in office set a goal for the number of tonnes you hope to reduce?
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
John Baird Conservative Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
Well, if you want to speak to the Minister of Natural Resources with respect to the programs that fall under his responsibility, or the Minister of Transport—As I said, we'll be coming forward with the industrial strategy, and it will speak to reductions.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Your government did not set a goal in terms of total emissions to be reduced in this past year since taking office.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
John Baird Conservative Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
We'll be coming forward with our initiative, which will speak to targets.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Setting a goal after the fact is a strange way to go about things. But in not having—
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
John Baird Conservative Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
Well, I think we operate from the assumption that it's common sense that if we get more people out of the cars and onto public transit and if that's assisted with financial dollars from the federal government to help make the expansion of public transit, that is good news. If we can encourage transit users themselves to do that, that can be seen as good news. We listened to the Green Budget Coalition on vehicle scrappage programs, on vehicle rebates for energy-efficient vehicles, so—
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Thank you very much, Minister.
Mr. Chair, I can recall not so fondly that when Mr. Dion was in your place and I asked for effectiveness of dollars spent per tonne, the government of the day was never able to produce that result. Canadians were never made aware of how much it was costing or how effective one dollar was versus another.
Your government issued a transit pass as one of your main initiatives in the previous year. The estimations were that it was costing $2,000 per tonne. I don't even know if the government is capturing the estimates on how many riders actually picked up on that program.
In terms of industrial regulations, in terms of limiting the amount that the largest polluters in this country are allowed to emit, does your government believe in a hard cap on the biggest polluters in this country?
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
John Baird Conservative Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
We'll be coming forward with our industrial regulation in short order. I can tell you that it's my goal to see a reduction in greenhouse gases.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
No, no, I don't need to know the date of when you're going to come forward, but when is your government estimating an absolute reduction in total pollution?
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
John Baird Conservative Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
We'll be coming forward with our plan on industrial regulation and we'll announce it at that time.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
From what I'm understanding in your testimony today, you will be moving away from intensity targets to a hard absolute cap.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
John Baird Conservative Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
No, what I'm saying is that my goal is to see an absolute reduction in greenhouse gases.