Evidence of meeting #7 for Natural Resources in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cap.
A video is available from Parliament.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John Aldag
Do we have the audio back, Yvonne?
Mr. Angus, can you do a quick one, two, three and we'll see if that's going through?
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
It was down by Christ Church where I first met my Annie,
a sweet little lassie and not a bit shy....
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Yvonne Jones Liberal Labrador, NL
Thank you, Charlie.
I can hear, but it's very low and it's breaking up. It was fine until now.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Yvonne Jones Liberal Labrador, NL
I have that done.
Okay, I can hear a little, so it's fine. I'll manage.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
Thank you so much, Chair.
Mr. Klein, I wanted to follow up on my good friend and Liberal colleague because he's telling us that the Liberal government's focus is on protecting a domestic economy that is heavily focused on oil and gas, is planning major increases and has a major GHG emissions problem.
How does the Liberal plan to protect our domestic economy jibe with our international obligations from Paris and COP26?
5:25 p.m.
Team Lead, Climate Emergency Unit
We do not have a convincing plan that aligns with our Paris obligations if we allow production to continue to increase.
As we have our conversations here about how we lower emissions from the existing oil and gas industry, at play are brand new projects on either coast—LNG Canada and Bay du Nord—that currently have no emissions, yet will become massive carbon bombs on each coast. These projects would only happen with federal support or federal approval.
We do very much need to align these.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
That is really helpful because our Prime Minister is really great on the international stage, but then he comes back and we find we're back to defending the domestic economy at all costs.
I want to follow up on the second question my Liberal colleague asked, which was about whether there's any international possibility of having a global treaty on production. It seems me that the weakness of COP26 in the eyes of the world was that we hadn't actually clarified that.
We have the Montreal Protocol, which literally saved the planet from freon production. If the Liberals had been there and said they were going to look after domestic production, we probably all would have been fried by now.
On the importance of the freon treaty, I have to give kudos to Brian Mulroney. I've never said anything nice about a Conservative, but it was Brian Mulroney who signed this international agreement. He said we have to have an international end to destructive gas production.
Don't you think that would be a model that our Prime Minister could emulate?
5:25 p.m.
Team Lead, Climate Emergency Unit
The Montreal Protocol is an incredible model for how we actually tackle an emergency. Your point is well taken, which is that when you confront an emergency, you have to cut using both arms of the scissors. Tackling demand is one arm and tackling production is the other.
The other key missing piece thus far in the current government's approach has to do with just transition and support for workers and communities. We've been waiting for a just transition act, but in particular, we need real money on the table for that just transition.
I understand you're going to be hearing on Wednesday from Gil McGowan from the Alberta Federation of Labour. He and I have talked about the need for a new federal transfer—a climate emergency just transition transfer. It's something audacious that would signal for all workers in the fossil fuel sector they need not fear and that they're not going to be left behind.
This task is great, the time is short and we're going to need everybody's skills and strength to meet this moment.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John Aldag
Thanks to our panellists for joining us today and for the excellent testimony. You've given us lots of things to think about.
Thanks to the members for being nice and tight in the questioning.
With that, we're going to take a very brief break to get logged out and then we're going to come back in camera for very brief committee business.
[Proceedings continue in camera]