Thank you, Chair.
I want to speak to the Conservative amendment, because I think we have a window on this deal, and if we don't take this window now, anything we study later will be irrelevant. That window really comes down to the fact that there are a number of key concerns that have never been addressed, but I'll start off with the issue of the sell-off of the pipeline.
After $34 billion of public money, it is not a feasible financial operation to ship bitumen down that pipeline, because the toll fees would be so extraordinarily high. We tried to get an answer from the Canada Energy Regulator on the reports that they'd capped the toll fees at 22% of the cost, so 78% of the cost has to be borne by the taxpayer. That's outrageous.
How, in any universe, are we going to say the taxpayer should pay 78% of the cost for an industry that made about $50 billion in the last two years? That's not going to fly with anybody.
The reason we need to make this a priority above other studies, though, is the government has been floating an idea that they're going to sell the pipeline. Obviously, they have an idea who they're going to sell it to. I've been around politics long enough to know that backroom deals are in the Liberal DNA—no offence, Chair, I think you're a great guy.
Who are they selling the pipeline to? If the pipeline gets sold off, then by the time we get to study it, it's going to be too late. I want to know what the terms are, because if we're going to look at this just on a financial cost basis, at the very least the Canadian public deserves to be paid back $34 billion for this. If we're going to give it to some group, or they're going to create some fiction group out of thin air and call it the reconciliation pipeline, how about telling us how much of a cut-down, haircut, they're going to be taking on this that is going to end up being borne, again, by the taxpayer? That's why I support the Conservative motion to bump this study up.
The other area, of course, is the Prime Minister went to COP26 and announced an emissions cap. What we found out is that there were no prior discussions about how that emissions cap would be implemented. In fact, the net-zero advisory council had never heard of the discussion about an emissions cap until it was announced at COP26.
Was the Prime Minister just doing what he's really good at, which is going on the international stage and making grand pronouncements? An emissions cap is a serious issue, and many people who are super concerned about the climate crisis took the Prime Minister at his word.
An emissions cap is impossible if the one major financial investment that this government has made in terms of environmental legislation is $34 billion to massively increase bitumen production. There is no way you can impose an emissions cap, and there is no way you can meet the targets that they have been announcing.
We see that, because Mr. Guilbeault is trying to pull numbers out of thin air and his best thing is saying how it's actually not as bad as it looks. Well, that's a pretty weak excuse after nine years of saying you're going to deal with the climate crisis, and that the numbers overall are actually going down. Yes, some of the emissions numbers are going down, and certainly the industrial tax on emissions has helped, but what we've seen in the oil patch are emissions continuing to rise. Those are the facts.
What we've seen with the announcement of the Trans Mountain being finished is that production in the oil patch had its biggest increase ever. In fact, in February, production rose to 3.95 million barrels a day—which is bigger than ever—and that was based, according to ATB Financial, on the expectation that now they have a pathway to move 900,000 barrels a day.
Expanding bitumen production is going to increase emissions. As I said earlier, to pretend otherwise is like when you're dealing with someone you're trying to get to go to A.A., and they're telling you to just let them keep drinking, and they'll drink their way to sobriety. It's not going to happen.
Either there's an emissions cap or there's no emissions cap. I think the least this government can do is be honest with Canadians, because people are taking this issue very seriously.
We have the huge increases. We have the massive overrun of costs, and there seems to have been no public input. There was no parliamentary oversight as to how this boondoggle carried on.
There is the issue now of who is going to end up covering off to make this financially viable for some kind of front group, and it's all being done to the benefit of Pathways Alliance.
I've worked with the mining industry. It's the area I come from. I know many of the leading people in the mining industry, and we expect that in mining if we're going to say that they're going to have to meet standards, they have to meet them. We expect the same from oil and gas.
Yet, last year, we saw Rich Kruger, Suncor CEO, in the middle of the biggest fire season in Canadian history, talking about the urgency to make more money in automation so they were going to use fewer workers and make more money in stock buybacks and dividends. If that was the biggest urgency that we were seeing in climate fire, there are serious questions that need to be asked.
However, the new Pathways Alliance head, Derek Evans, said that he believes that the emissions cap isn't fair and that it's unreasonable to meet the targets that are being suggested.
Why would we spend $34 billion aiding an industry right now that hasn't met the targets, and hasn't even tried? Their numbers are going up. So if their numbers are going up, why are we making it easier for them to go even higher? This is a question about government policy that the government has to answer, and they haven't answered that. People expect an answer because people are deeply concerned about where we're going.
When we look at other regions in the world and the amount of investment that's happening now in clean energy and long-term jobs, Canada is not even in the game. For over a year we've been promised these ITCs. Where are they?
Biden came in, he brought in an all-of-government approach. We're seeing hundreds of thousands of jobs. We can actually track the projects that are getting off the ground.
We've been talking about a lot of projects here, but what we can track is $34 billion that was given to TMX. That is going to increase emissions. There is no pathway to getting lower, under this plan.
The deep concern, which I'm going to end on, is the UN that has been warning that the window is rapidly closing. The 2022 report said that there is, “no credible pathway to [maintain]1.5C”, which is the red line between catastrophic feedback events of climate catastrophe. The “Emissions Gap Report 2023”, released in November 2023, reiterated that failing to sufficiently reduce emissions over the next six years will, “make it impossible to limit warming to 1.5°C with no or limited overshoot”.
Canada is failing. Canada is the outlier in the G7. Canada has failed to meet its targets, and we have a government that's now locked us in.
I am urging my Liberal colleagues not to filibuster. I think it would send a very bad message if this government tries to filibuster a fair study, an open study. Everyone can bring their witnesses, but it's our job to get answers to the Canadian public.
I am not going to speak any further. I am ready to vote on the Conservatives' amendment. I come here in good faith. I'm asking my Liberal colleagues to do the right thing. Let's get this thing cleared up. Let's get on with this, and then we can finish our other reports so that we can continue to show Canadians that we're here to work.