Mr. Speaker, at various points it was nice to see the House of Commons get along and get something done.
The consideration we have before us is a question I put to the minister some weeks ago. I think all Canadians, once given the evidence, will also agree that there needs to be something done. Specifically, what we have before us is hypocrisy, which would be the more cynical term, but at the very least a contradiction of ideas.
Year in and year out we see governments providing a tax subsidy to an economic sector that is experiencing its greatest boom perhaps of all time. This is the oil and gas sector of northern Alberta, in particular the tar sands and the development around Fort McMurray. This started with the previous Liberal government, but the Conservative government has chosen to keep it.
There was a moment in last year's budget when there was a huge surplus. We knew there was some $13 billion extra sitting in the kitty. The government followed this surplus up by cutting another $1 billion of vital programs to Canadians, programs that people have wanted and used for years, programs to museums, programs to help adults learn to read and write and programs to help women finally achieve some status of equality, both in pay and in quality of life conditions. The government chose to cut programs because I guess it did not see them as a priority, or it did not feel they were important.
It also chose to cut the EnerGuide program, a program that had received credit for having thousands upon thousands of homes achieve better environmental conditions. All the while these cuts were going on, the government still found enough room in the budget to syphon off $1.5 billion to the oil and gas sector.
When I asked this question some weeks ago, the minister stood up and gave another ministerial response about how important it was to use taxpayer money wisely.
I know the parliamentary secretary will be answering my question. Hopefully he will make an announcement that this ludicrous subsidy is ended. It makes no more sense. There is no incentive needed for companies to go into the oil sector. They are there already. They have massive plans to do more. Yet the government seems committed to shuffling them off some corporate welfare while at the same time not supporting things that we know are important for Canadians.
This is unbalanced because the government has also made its commitment that it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, the government has agreed, in full, to the recommendations provided by the Auditor General's office under the Commissioner of the Environment. In those recommendations is the need to attack and aggressively go after the emissions in the tar sands because they will double in the next number of years. It is hypocrisy to suggest it will reduce the pollution while at the same time it subsidizes that pollution.
This is the parliamentary secretary's opportunity to come clean on the issue, to allow his government's plans to stand to the light of day and to suggest that this subsidy is simply no longer required. The industry is one of the healthiest industries in the entire country. To continue to push them down toward unsustainable development is unwise. Even the soon to be retiring Premier of Alberta has recognized that this is unwise. It is time for the government to stand up and agree with that statement, pull the subsidy back and put it into the energy projects that we actually need, the ones for which Canadians are looking.