Debates of June 8th, 2006

The Environment

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, it is easy for the Bloc Québécois to support the Kyoto protocol when, after 10 years, there is no plan to achieve its objectives. Nonetheless, as I have said many times, this government has started to act by investing in public transit and in renewable fuels. I appreciate the support the Bloc Québécois has given for these initiatives since the beginning. I can assure the leader of the Bloc Québécois there will be more action by this government.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, when he said it was easy for the Bloc Québécois to support Kyoto, we do so because it is our responsibility to do so and it should be his as well.

It is all well and good to criticize the Liberal plan. The Conservatives did not agree with this plan and neither did we. They are now in government. Where is their plan? Where is the territorial approach Quebec has been asking for? What about joining 162 other countries in respecting the Kyoto protocol? That is what we are asking of his government, not empty words and a plan that has still not seen the light of day. Will he take action?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois is talking about its responsibilities. It is the responsibility of politicians to take positions. It is our responsibility to take action. This government is taking action. The Bloc Québécois is not able to and never will be able to.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the House that it is very important that we respect the decisions of this House regarding the Kyoto protocol, which the Prime Minister does not wish to do at this time.

The Prime Minister has adopted an environmental strategy that is proving to be a carbon copy of George Bush's strategy in terms of climate change.

Does the Prime Minister not understand the message that 79% of Quebeckers are sending him, namely, that instead of copying George Bush, he should be trying to convince the American president to join the Kyoto protocol?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, the truth of the matter is that thanks to the Liberal government being in power for 13 years the Bush government has done more on the environment than this country has for the last decade.

The Americans are outperforming us on pollution control. They are outperforming us on emission reductions. This government is going to ensure that we outperform not just the Americans but all of our counterparts.

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

Mr. Speaker, the more we listen to the environment minister, the more we are convinced that she is about to take our money and give it to the major oil companies as aid. This is the truth.

Why will the government not come to its senses and adopt a territorial approach that will allow Quebec, which wants to take action to respect Kyoto, to obtain its share of the envelope set aside in order to go ahead with its own plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Quebec?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. The only thing the member cares about is money. The environment is more than just about money. We are putting in place a national plan. We will not put in place territorial plans or regional plans. We are putting in place a national plan that will protect the environment for Canada.

[Jack Layton, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, a report from the Sedna IV mission reveals that it now rains in Antarctica, the coldest place on earth. Over the past 50 years, temperatures there have jumped by 6^o Celsius. Dangerous climate changes like this one affect the entire planet, and especially the poles.

Today the NDP presented several elements of an action plan. Since he does not yet have his own plan, is the Prime Minister willing to immediately implement the greener homes strategy submitted by the NDP?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as I have already said many times, this government has begun to take action by investing in renewable fuels, in public transit infrastructures, and in those who use public transit. I appreciate the NDP's suggestions. It is proposing ideas for creating greener homes. I believe the NDP will be happy when this government announces measures in this area.

[Jack Layton, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, when will we finally see the plan that the Prime Minister talks about every single day while it is raining in Antarctica?

Is there no understanding that there is a climate crisis facing us; that these are dangerous levels of pollution; that we now have ocean waters off British Columbia becoming so warm that fish stocks are plummeting, according to his own department; that we have had nine smog days; and that in Oshawa the other day, the levels of greenhouse gas were double the permitted level?

My question is for the Prime Minister. How much more evidence does the Prime Minister need before he stops debating the science and starts getting down to action?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I do not think the alarmism necessarily helps the serious debate.

The government has moved forward on very meaningful plans to develop renewable fuel and include those in Canadian fuel content on the mandate of the government. We have also seen significant investments in public transportation toward those who use public transportation.

I note today there are some useful ideas in the green homes plan of the NDP. I think the NDP members will be happy when we come forward with our ideas in that area, and they will support them, just as they supported the ideas in our budget.

Natural Resources

[Roy Cullen, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Minister of Natural Resources claimed that the wind power production incentive was not cut from the budget. But what he was careful not to mention was that the credits not yet allocated have been frozen, which actually paralyzes the program and any action in this sector.

Why has the minister decided to create such uncertainty for this sector and to hang wind energy technology out to dry?

[Gary Lunn, Conservative, Minister of Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, we are developing our plan. At committee earlier this morning, I asked the hon. member to bring forward his ideas.

I applaud the NDP members. I was quite surprised that after I asked them to submit their ideas and indicated that we were interested in talking to them, only a few hours later they actually came up with some suggestions.

We are moving forward with proposals that will have a meaningful impact on every single Canadian. We believe wind will play a future role in Canada's energy supply and we support that.

[Roy Cullen, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we know what works. It was in our programs, but there is more.

The government pretends it wants to meet an ethanol target of 5%. However, we now learn that the government has let the ethanol expansion program die. There is no new funding for wind energy, no new funding for biofuels, and the government is cutting the EnerGuide home program.

Is this the government's only response to global warming, scrapping and freezing programs without one single new idea of its own, not one?

[Gary Lunn, Conservative, Minister of Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, if the member opposite wants to talk about the programs that were working for the Liberal Party, I do not know if he is talking about the sponsorship program or what he is referring to, the facts speak for themselves.

Greenhouse gases under the old Liberal government, the very old Liberal government, went up each and every single year it was in office for 13 years. We have done more in six months than that old government did in 13 years.

I want to remind the hon. member, on renewable fuels, that the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Minister of the Environment, and I met with every provincial counterpart, and we are moving forward to bringing real results to every single Canadian.

The Environment

[Belinda Stronach, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, for the first time in seven years, the smog summit in Toronto was without a federal presence. Where was the minister? As one newspaper described it, she was speaking to a blue chip luncheon crowd where she compared--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order. The hon. member for Newmarket--Aurora has the floor. Her remarks seem to have created a bit of a sensation, but we will have to have some quiet so we can hear the question. The hon. member is about to pose a question and we will now have some order so we can hear it.

[Belinda Stronach, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Mr. Speaker, at the luncheon she compared doing a good job for the environment to earning a Boy Scout badge. We checked it out and it turns out that the Boy Scouts actually have a climate change program, which would put them light years ahead of this minister.

When will the minister follow the example of the Boy Scouts and introduce her climate change program?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, we were happy, as the Government of Canada, to sign the declaration for the smog summit, but yesterday I was here in Ottawa speaking.

As I said, we took a big step yesterday to clean up the air Canadians breathe by announcing our new mercury strategy. The Clean Air Foundation was encouraged by our announcement and said that this is going to protect the health of Canadians. It is the first time in Canadian history that we have taken a step like this on our environment.

[Belinda Stronach, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Mr. Speaker, based on that answer, I do not think she is going to get a climate change badge to sew on her outfit.

If the minister really cared about air quality, she would have been at the smog summit yesterday in Toronto.

The minister claims to have a plan to deal with smog. Then, why did she decline to attend the obvious forum in which to share the details of this plan? Does she not care about air quality? Or, does she simply share the Prime Minister's low opinion of Toronto?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, the government is concerned about smog days in Toronto. That is why on June 1 we regulated the lowest content of sulphur and diesel fuel in Canadian history. That is why yesterday we took measures to introduce regulations that would eliminate 10 tonnes of mercury out of our environment. Mercury adds to blindness, paralysis and infant death. These are real results and real actions on the environment.

Gasoline Prices

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the summer vacation season is approaching and bringing with it unjustified gasoline price hikes, despite a likely decline in the international price of crude oil.

Can no one in the government wake up and see that consumers are paying too much for gas, because the refinery profit margin that all the oil companies take is far too high and could go even higher during the vacation season?

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, as I said in this House last week, I am happy to see that the Competition Bureau has conducted six investigations in the past 15 years. Every time it investigated, it concluded that there was no collusion in setting prices.

Members should also note that in this House in 2003, the Standing Committee on Industry, Sciences and Technology investigated and issued a report that drew the same conclusion: there was no collusion in setting gas prices in Canada.

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the federal government has responsibility for competitive refining prices. That is where there is a fairly large problem that needs to be solved.

In any event, the industry minister has zero credibility when he talks about the price of gasoline. On January 19 on Radio-Canada he said that the price of oil is high because leftist environmentalists are putting pressure on the oil companies to prevent them from refining products and that he wished Quebeckers would stop pointing the finger at the oil companies.

How can the government side with the oil companies rather than with consumers by making irresponsible statements like that?