On this side of the House, we know that the fight to save our planet is one we cannot afford to lose. As my colleague suggests, we have to preserve those wild roses for future generations.
This is a war that claims as its casualties our air, our water and our wildlife. It is affecting our children and it will damage generations yet to come. It is a battle that needs all nations to unite and fight as one, but if what is in this budget is any indication, the Conservative government seems intent on denying this reality.
The Conservatives are not taking into account the very real risk of climate change, besides being determined to nullify the efforts made by the previous Liberal government to halt this destructive process. Thus they have discreetly axed environmental programs, and they have been silent, contradictory, indeed sometimes incoherent about their plans for our environment.
Through denial and inaction, the government is cutting short our country's future and jeopardizing worldwide efforts to reverse the damage that has already been done. The Conservative government plans to kill programs that would help Canada to meet its Kyoto commitments. It intends to use the savings to fund a $2 billion transit tax credit. This tax credit will cost over $2,000 per tonne of greenhouse gas reduced. This is incredibly inefficient. For a government that prides itself on efficiency, here is a number that is between 10 and 100 times more ineffective than the Liberal plan. Ninety-five per cent of the money going to the transit pass will go to people who use the system anyway. What is the point?
What the government refuses to acknowledge is that a tax credit is not an environmental program. It will not do anything to address the urgency of climate change.
Meanwhile, I used to be minister for NRCan and, in response to high energy prices, we established a super program through EnerGuide that provided funding to low income Canadians and to other Canadians to help them improve the energy efficiency of their heating, and it worked. EnerGuide has been a proven success over many years.
Energy efficiency improvements are good for the environment because there is less pollution, and they are good for the pocketbook because it costs us less to heat our houses. It was a great program but the government simply cut it. It does not make sense when it says that it was ineffective because having been there I know it was highly effective.
Since 1997, the Liberals funded programs that have helped us better understand the challenges and risks of climate change, promote green technologies and innovations, develop policy options that allow us to address the climate change crisis and take every action possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We have worked to move Canada toward a clean energy future and increase the efficiency, sustainability and international competitiveness of the Canadian economy.
I am particularly proud, as a Canadian, of Canada's global leadership role played at the Kyoto conference in Montreal in December 2005 by our former minister of the environment. He really led the world to develop the next stage.
Also, as a Canadian I must say that I am particularly dismayed by the role of our new environment minister who, as president of this same conference, will check in and then check out pretty fast. What an abdication of responsibility and what a loss of a great opportunity to show leadership on this global project that is so important to Canada and to the world.
Canada must continue to play an influential role. We cannot relent in our determination or in the efforts we should make to reduce greenhouse gas emissions both in Canada and in the rest of the world.
I urge the Conservative government to rise above petty politics and adopt specific measures for the environment.
I turn now to Canada's aboriginal people, to what is in the budget for them, or more accurately, what is not. The Conservative government jettisoned the Liberal government's Kelowna accord, an agreement by both levels of government committing $5 billion to improve aboriginal housing, health and economic development.
While the commitments the Conservatives have made, including national water standards for first nation reserves and native-run school boards, will no doubt be beneficial to our country's first nations, Inuit and Métis people, they are little more than a distraction from the larger issue at hand.
The programs outlined in this budget were laid out in the Kelowna accord. What the budget lacks is any new funding at all for aboriginal Canadians.
Kelowna was the result of first nations, Métis and Inuit leaders joining with premiers, territorial leaders and the federal government, for the first time in history, to forge a comprehensive plan, with measurable targets to ensure accountability, that will address the urgent problems facing aboriginal communities.
On this side of the House, we believe the commitments made in Kelowna are essential in order to bridge the gap in living standards between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians. However, with this new budget, it is clearer than ever that what we achieved in Kelowna is in danger. The Conservative government has abandoned the plans laid out in the accord for the sake of ideology.
The Conservatives' lack of commitment to what was achieved in Kelowna is no secret. During the last election, the former Conservative finance critic, now the immigration minister, publicly stated:
[The] Kelowna agreement is something that [they] crafted at the last moment on the back of a napkin on the eve of an election. We're not going to honour that. We will have our own plan that will help natives a lot more than the Liberals'.
It is disappointing but not surprising, I would say, to see this lack of commitment reflected in the Conservative budget. Where is the plan that was promised by the former finance critic? Is this budget a signal of what is to come? Is it the first step in the Conservatives' plan to abandon the Government of Canada's commitment to aboriginal people? Is this their strategy to gradually undermine the Kelowna accord?
Kelowna is the product of more than two years of hard work by native leaders and the federal and provincial governments. Together we managed to reach a historic agreement to overcome the economic divide that will still exist in 10 years between aboriginals and their fellow citizens in the areas of education, health, housing and economic opportunities.
I cannot see how a government of any kind could withdraw in all conscience from such an agreement. Aboriginal Canadians deserve at least that. They deserve all the funds they were promised at the first ministers’ meeting in Kelowna, and not just crumbs. Only a detailed plan will enable us to make real changes to the quality of life of aboriginals and help them move from poverty to prosperity.
It is simply unacceptable to cherry-pick from the Kelowna accord without even having the decency of consulting the aboriginal leaders. In the Liberal Party, we are committed to working together with first nations, Métis and Inuit leaders. Despite the poor showing in this budget, we will continue to strongly encourage the Prime Minister to do the same. It is not enough to just pay lip service. Canada's aboriginal peoples deserve a government that can achieve real progress.
Throughout the past few months, the Conservatives have been trying to create a phony war between their government and the opposition on the subject of child care. The Prime Minister and his ministers have tried to frame the child care debate as a matter of choice. In a way, they are right, but it is not a choice between the Liberal child care program and the Conservative child care program. It is a choice between an existing national public system of early learning and child care--