Environment Committee on Oct. 30th, 2024

[Branden Leslie, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

What about financial institutions? Would you support legislation that would make it illegal for financial institutions to provide any more capital to oil and gas companies in Canada?

[Karine Péloffy]

I think I would go the way that Ms. Taylor Roy.... I think funding to resolve their environmental liabilities is something that has to be done. We cannot leave tailings ponds around.

[Branden Leslie, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

You would support banning financial institutions from lending capital to a company for any new projects in the oil and gas space. Is that a fair assessment?

[Karine Péloffy]

Any new projects for fossil fuel combustion, yes, I would be against that, as is the International Energy Agency.

[Branden Leslie, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Obviously, we're aware that the current government is on track to raise, on a yearly basis, the current consumer carbon tax up to $170 per tonne by 2030. Do you believe that the government should be more aggressive in its track over the next six or seven years?

[Karine Péloffy]

I think where the government should focus its attention—apart from climate-aligned finance, which is the topic that I came to discuss—would be on actually increasing the industrial price on carbon. Under the output-based pricing system, or OBPS, actually, the biggest polluting firms in this country pay a very small fraction of the carbon tax because they say that they are trade-exposed, whereas what we're actually going to see is that Europe is going to go forward with carbon adjustment mechanisms that will actually be detrimental to our industry if we do not increase our industrial carbon tax.

[Branden Leslie, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Has Ecojustice suggested that to the government, and what was their response at that time?

[Karine Péloffy]

I'm pretty sure my organization has suggested it. If they haven't done it, I'm guessing they are against it.

We have to understand that the fossil fuel industry, over the last 15 years, on average, has had six meetings per working day with the government, so it holds a tremendous amount of influence.

[Branden Leslie, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

A colleague of ours, Charlie Angus, introduced a piece of legislation that would make it criminal to use certain “terms, expressions, logos, symbols or illustrations” when talking about the oil and gas sector.

In your view, are there any terms or logos that you think the government should be criminalizing? You talked about greenwashing earlier. Are there any particular logos that—

[Sophie Chatel, Liberal, Pontiac, QC]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

Is this a five-minute round?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Dan Mazier]

Yes. We have a minute and 30 seconds left. It's still green, so we're good.

[Sophie Chatel, Liberal, Pontiac, QC]

Mr. Chair, I would just like to remind my colleague that we are discussing green and transition finance, sustainable finance, so it's not logos. I'm sorry.

[Branden Leslie, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

I'm here to find solutions to the problems we're all trying to address.

[Sophie Chatel, Liberal, Pontiac, QC]

To logos? Okay.

[Branden Leslie, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Do you have any specific thing we should be putting people in prison for?

[Sophie Chatel, Liberal, Pontiac, QC]

That's not on green finance.

[Karine Péloffy]

I do have an answer. I would support an advertising ban for the fossil fuel industry, just as we've put in place advertising bans on tobacco. The fossil fuel industry is polluting the lungs of the planet, just like the tobacco industry was polluting our lungs.

[Branden Leslie, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

What about the agricultural industry? Would you expand that? They have emissions. Should the ag industry be allowed to talk about its record in any way?

Maybe I'll frame it this way. How many other sectors should not be allowed to tell their stories of the quality of work that their sectors are doing in terms of whatever environmental outcomes they are trying to improve? What other sectors should be banned?

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

Can you just give us an update on the clock?

Other committee members seem to have different numbers.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Dan Mazier]

Five minutes.... There are 42 seconds left.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

It was a minute and 30 seconds two minutes ago. Is your clock okay?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Dan Mazier]

Continue on.

[Branden Leslie, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

I don't have a clock—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Dan Mazier]

No, we're good.