Environment Committee on June 5th, 2018

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Madam Chair, I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Okay, sorry. Let's hear the point of order.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Madam Chair, we are in committee, and we are asking questions. So I invite the minister to answer our questions and not spread her message.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I might repeat that in English. You asked me about partisanship, so I'm going to respond about partisanship. What I don't appreciate is when Conservatives—

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

That's what you did with the 10 minutes you had for your opening remarks.

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

—take out attack ads involving my public servants who are non-partisan and who testify before committee. I take huge objection to that. That is partisanship. I'm here to talk about what we are doing on the environment, and unfortunately, the previous government didn't do anything. It is great to have a target but not without a plan.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

It is demagoguery.

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

We have a target and we have a plan, and I'm happy to talk about our plan.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Minister, please. Sorry, the point of order is to get back to the question.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Madam Chair, I have a point of order. We have the minister before us. I have never, in my 12 years here on Parliament Hill, seen such a partisan presentation from a minister. This should be an embarrassment to her. We have never attacked her officials. We've asked tough questions, but never attacked her officials.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

So the point...?

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

For her to do the partisan presentation without any class.... Would she please focus on the questions that are being asked of her?

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Thank you very much. I'll see if the minister can bring that around to.... I think she was addressing one of the points in the comment.

Go ahead.

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I am happy to address questions. I would just ask that anything my capable public servants say not be used in a Conservative attack ad, as happened in another committee when we were talking about an environmental issue. I'd just like that reflected on the record.

I am very happy to answer questions. We do have a climate plan. A climate plan isn't just about targets. It's about having a plan to achieve targets. We spent a year going coast to coast to coast, working with premiers, indigenous leaders, and industry to come up with a plan that was made in Canada and that made sense.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

I have a point of order.

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

What did it include? It included putting a price on pollution—

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Minister, I'm sorry to interrupt again.

The last two points were not points of order. They were your opinions. I accept your opinion. However, the minister is allowed to answer the questions in whatever way she feels is fit.

Is there a point of order this time?

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Madam Chair, I want the minister to be reminded that I asked a question and that I would like her to answer it as succinctly as possible because my time is running out and I have many other questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Okay, the minister has the floor.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

I have a point of order, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Another point of order...? What's the point of order?

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Once again, the member asked the minister a question. Could we please allow the minister to answer the question and stop interrupting her? Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Minister, you have the floor. Thank you.

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

We do have a climate plan, and we intend to meet the target.

How are we going to do that? As I said, we worked with provinces and territories, indigenous leaders, industry, and all Canadians. We have a plan that includes putting a price on pollution, phasing out coal, having a strategy with respect to vehicles and with respect to—