Environment Committee on March 24th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Perhaps you could answer that in response to someone else. This is how we work in this—

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

I'm finding that I'm having very little success in doing that, Mr. Chair. The quality of questions—

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

You just have to go for it when the time is—

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Chair, with your permission, I have been passing the begging bowl around, hoping members could give me a little bit of their time here and there. Maybe we'll get another chance.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Yes. I'll keep that in mind.

We'll go now to Ms. Collins.

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

The Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act, except for section 23, came into force right away.

I'm curious about why the date for the financial reporting requirement to come into force hasn't been set. What's the delay?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

That's a good question. I don't have the answer—

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Could you provide that in writing to our committee?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Of course, yes.

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Thank you.

Next, maybe we'll go back to the initial question.

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

That was a good question. Both the IPCC and the IEA do talk about the need for carbon removals, not as the beginning of a strategy, but as a last resort.

I agree with that, which is why we've invested $30 billion in transit. We're investing in electrification. We're—

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Could we stick to CCUS?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

I am saying that we have put in place a hundred measures and $100 billion of investment. After we did all that, we started looking at removal technologies. Our climate change strategy didn't start with removals, but it—

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Oil and gas companies are currently making record profits. If CCUS is critical for them to reduce their emissions, then there is no reason they shouldn't pay for these investments themselves.

When Canadians are struggling with the cost of living, why is the government continuing to give handouts to the fossil fuel industry?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

I would disagree with the characterization of your question.

We've made the commitment that our transition would be a just transition, that we would work with every sector of the economy and that we would work with every region of the country. We're helping steel decarbonize. We're helping—

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Suncor is giving hundreds of millions out to their shareholders.

When we're talking about fossil fuel subsidies, and following up on some of the comments, I recently asked an Order Paper question and got a response back from the department that we still haven't defined what is an efficient or inefficient fossil fuel subsidy.

What is the definition of an efficient fossil fuel subsidy for you? Why has it not been set after six years?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

As I was telling Member Pauzé, we've made two commitments in our platform. One is regarding G20-type subsidies and another one is regarding just about everything else.

Frankly, I think we're beyond this debate of inefficient or efficient subsidies. We've made a commitment to stop subsidizing—

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Is there a commitment to align our definition with internationally agreed-upon definitions for robust criteria for “efficiency”?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you.

Mr. Mazier, go ahead.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning, Minister.

I'm going to be focusing on the first line under budgetary voted appropriations, with regard to electric vehicles. Your government will be mandating the sale of electric vehicles. I represent rural Canadians. My riding of Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa is geographically just slightly larger than the province of Nova Scotia. Do you know how many public charging stations there are in my riding?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

I don't.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

I didn't expect you to know.

There are five, Minister.

Rural Canadians are really concerned that this policy you're implementing of mandating buying vehicles is out of touch with the reality of what's happening in rural Canada. Why hasn't your government introduced an electric vehicle plan specifically designed for rural Canada?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

We're allowing for the reality of rural Canada to be taken into account. First, we're not going for zero-emission vehicles tomorrow morning. We're going for zero-emission vehicles in 2035.

We're in the process of deploying 25,000 charging stations across the country. We will do more after that.

Our program also includes plug-in hybrids, which can work very well for people in remote communities. I actually happen to know a number of people who aren't close to urban centres and who have plug-in hybrids. It works wonders for them.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Specifically, though, for rural Canada, there are two national highways that actually go through my riding—Yellowhead and Trans-Canada—with five public charging stations.

There is no plan for rural Canada.