Debates of May 11th, 2006

Arts and Culture

[Bev Oda, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women]

Mr. Speaker, this party has announced that it supports the CBC and Société Radio-Canada. We believe it has to remain relevant because it is supported with public funds. Even the president of the CBC and the chair of the board of the CBC are supportive of the review. They are willing participants.

The Environment

[Bernard Bigras, Bloc, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of the Environment claims that in order to achieve the Kyoto protocol objectives, we would have to get rid of all planes, trains and automobiles, which is strangely close to the ill-considered statements made by the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration who said on his Web site that implementing the Kyoto protocol would be a return to the stone age.

Is the Prime Minister not worried, like more and more people are, that his Minister of the Environment has such a twisted understanding of her primary mandate?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, my mandate is to have accountability on the environment and show real results and action on the environment for Canadians.

The Bloc clearly does not have the interests of Quebeckers or the priorities of Quebeckers in mind. The largest cause of greenhouse gas emissions in Quebec is transportation, so the Bloc's solution is to shut down every plane, train and automobile in Quebec to reach the Kyoto targets. That is not a solution that we support for Quebec.

Instead, we have responded by investing in cleaner, greener transportation and making sure that Quebeckers have incentives to use that transportation.

[Bernard Bigras, Bloc, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister's statements are pure lies. The minister is clinging to her role as chair of the Bonn conference despite the fact that she has already lost a great deal of credibility on the international scene.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order, please. I did not hear every word, but I believe I did hear one word that is not parliamentary. The hon. member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, who is well aware of the procedures of the House, cannot continue to use such language. He no doubt wants to withdraw the word that I believe I heard.

[Bernard Bigras, Bloc, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I withdraw what I said. Nonetheless, the minister is making things up.

The minister is clinging to her role as chair of the Bonn conference despite the fact that she has already lost a great deal of credibility on the international scene.

Are we to expect to hear her say in Bonn, in front of the attendees of the conference on the Kyoto protocol, that implementing the accord means that planes, trains and automobiles will have to be scrapped, like she said yesterday during question period?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member needs to be honest with Canadians and Quebeckers about what it means to reach our target that was negotiated for Canada under Kyoto. I will give the hon. member another example of it. Department of Environment officials have informed me that we would have to shut down all electricity generation tomorrow, but that would not be enough, and we would also have to shut down our entire agricultural industry.

I would like to ask the hon. member if he would like to tell the Quebec people that he wants to shut out the lights on them and oppose farming.

Textile Industry

[Guy André, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, Consoltex shut down its textile mill in Montmagny as a result of the ongoing crisis in that industry. Like the Bloc Québécois, the company's president, in a letter to my colleague from Montmagny, is calling on the government to implement a program to facilitate the entry of clothing made abroad from Canadian textiles, thus providing export opportunities for Canadian textiles.

Will the remarks of this business leader convince the government that action is urgently needed on the textile issue?

[Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Conservative, Minister of Labour and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec]

Mr. Speaker, we all know that there is a program in place to help the textile industry. It is called the CANtex program. Through this program, the affected industries and regions can receive non-refundable contributions of up to $100,000, thereby promoting economic diversification in the textile industry.

[Guy André, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the CANtex program does not respond to the needs of these industries. When it was in the opposition, however, the Conservative Party supported the Bloc Québécois on February 8, 2005, when it called for incentives to promote the use of Quebec and Canadian textiles.

Why is something that was acceptable then no longer acceptable?

[Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Conservative, Minister of Labour and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec]

Mr. Speaker, since 2004, assistance was provided to more than 50 textile companies through the CANtex program, for a total of $5.7 million.

That said, I might add that it is not out of the question that we re-examine what changes could be made in order to help the various regions affected.

The Environment

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Mr. Speaker, next week the Minister of the Environment is flying to Germany to chair the UN climate change conference and she will have to resign--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The hon. member for Kings—Hants has the floor.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Mr. Speaker, nobody wants her there. The David Suzuki Foundation, the Climate Action Network, the Pembina Institute, Greenpeace, the Toxics Watch Society and the World Wildlife Fund are united. They have all asked the minister to resign from her chairmanship, saying that she would be a negative influence.

Will the environment minister do the planet a favour, stay home and resign her post as chair of COP?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, we gave submissions to the United Nations this morning. One of those submissions is our greenhouse gas inventory, which shows that Canada is 35% higher in emissions than the target that was set by the Liberals and negotiated on behalf of Canada.

Just to put that into perspective, to reach that today we would have to shut down every individual household in Canada not once, not twice, not three times, but four times, and that is not something we are willing to do. We are going to protect the interests of Canadians.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Mr. Speaker, earlier today the Minister of Natural Resources said that the environment minister has the toughest job in the Conservative government. No doubt she does. It must be tough to be an environment minister for a government that does not believe in doing anything for the environment.

In fact, this is what the Prime Minister said: that “the science is still evolving” with respect to climate change, and “It is a scientific hypothesis and a controversial one” that “may be a lot of fun for a few scientific and environmental elites in Ottawa”.

When the Prime Minister does not even believe in the science of climate change, why is the environment minister trying to chair a climate change conference?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of the Environment is putting together a real plan to deal with climate change. Let me read for the House a description of the previous government's plan:

Instead the [previous] government's plan in terms of the Kyoto agreement was basically written on the back of an airplane napkin on the way to Kyoto. There was no long term planning. There was no real negotiation with the provinces or with industry sectors. In fact it was a last minute, hastily drafted agreement.

Those are the words of the member for Kings—Hants.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order, please. The first 15 minutes were going so nicely today. Things have gone downhill and I would suggest that we try to get back up the other side with a question from the hon. member for Honoré-Mercier.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians believe in Kyoto. The Conservatives could care less. There is now the question of the minister resigning as president of the next conference on climate change. That is embarrassing. Things have got to the point where ecology groups are asking Jacques Chirac and Tony Blair to put pressure on the Canadian Prime Minister not to abandon Kyoto.

Will the Prime Minister be set straight by the entire planet or will he get on with the job and ensure Canada assumes the leadership role it played under the previous government?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, I have been in contact with all of my international counterparts leading up to next week. A lot of us face these same challenges Canada faces, but unfortunately some of our international counterparts actually negotiated achievable targets and we face a very different challenge in Canada, where the Liberal Kyoto plan and targets would have meant $600 per Canadian family being shipped overseas to be spent on credits for emission targets.

We will not do that. We will defend the interests of Canadians and invest in the Canadian environment.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, what is quite clear is that the Conservatives have abandoned the environment. What we do not know is why? Why have they abandoned the environment? Is it because they do not understand the issues or lack vision, perhaps? Is it because they lack the leadership, the conviction or simply the courage?

Which of these reasons led to their abandoning the environment? Why did they abandon Canadians?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, we have made a very important investment in Canada. Canada is very far behind a lot of our international counterparts in investment in clean public transportation. We made it in our last budget. We have also invested very recently in incentives to make sure we get people out of their cars and into public transportation.

Said one individual who feels that Canadians can make a difference and who is near and dear to everyone on this side of the House:

The big news is they are proposing a tax break for people who use public transit.... When I heard this I couldn’t really believe it because, well, it makes so much sense.

That was said by Rick Mercer.