When you're in a hole, you stop digging. Giving out fossil fuel subsidies is the exact opposite. It is literally pouring fuel on the fire.
This is the trend that has been going on. This is the most subsidized sector of the Canadian economy. It has received enormous amounts of public funding over the years. It needs to stop, and Canadians clearly expect the government to follow through on the commitment to end fossil fuel subsidies.
This was a commitment that was made, for the first time, in 2009. It's not a new commitment. We are years behind schedule. We are expecting a peer review with Argentina to come out this year. That's three years behind schedule.
However, the real issue is that the government is trying to get away with a bait and switch, if you will, whereby it's trying to dress fossil fuel subsidies up as something new, as emissions reduction, whether it be through the emissions reduction fund or whether it be through funding for carbon capture and storage, when we really need to be talking about the best way to address the climate crisis, which is to tackle the production of oil and gas. That includes ensuring we're not locking ourselves into hydrogen strategies that are based on fossil fuels, which will make the problem of methane much worse going forward.