Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Sherbrooke.
It is with great pleasure that I rise today to speak to the budget tabled by the Conservative government, a budget that completely misses the mark when it comes to environmental issues and the fight against climate change.
A review of the part on investment in the environment reveals that one-third of the budget will be allocated to nuclear power and big oil, as though that kind of federal government investment could offer us any hope of one day building a sustainable economy. This government needs to understand that investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy is investing in job creation.
With a third of this green budget going to oil companies and nuclear power, we seriously doubt that the government is making the green shift it needs to make to revive the economy. That is the message my constituents sent me last fall when more than 700 people answered my call and asked the federal government to make major investments to reposition Canada's economy and make it more competitive and more sustainable.
But the federal government did not listen to anyone, including the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, who clearly told the international community that the current economic crisis should not be used as an excuse to ignore other crises, such as climate change. Spending on the environment totals $1 billion over five years, or $200 million a year.
This is deplorable, especially since the government is creating what it calls a new energy fund. But let us look more closely at where these energy dollars will go. We might have hoped the government would increase funding for renewable energies, particularly wind, solar and geothermal power. But no, this energy fund will be used to fund carbon storage research and technologies. That will enable oil companies that are thinking of producing five times more oil from the tar sands to capture CO2 and bury it. Meanwhile, internationally, the technical compliance and effectiveness and the social acceptability of these carbon capture and storage technologies have not been determined.
We are talking about $850 million for carbon capture projects and $150 million for research, and that is over and above the $375 million previous budgets have provided for carbon capture and storage projects in Saskatchewan. Basically, this energy fund will not be used to fund renewable energies for the future. Instead, it will be used to fund an unproven technology that will help Canada's oil and gas industries continue producing polluting energies from fossil fuels.
This budget contains a second mistake. Not only is money going to oil companies, but it is also going to the nuclear sector. According to the minister, $350 million will be put towards reinforcing Canada's nuclear program. While we have yet to find sustainable ways to store nuclear waste, the government is taking us on an endless adventure without fully understanding the consequences. And just last week the current technology—think about the advanced CANDU—once again proved its inefficiency with leaks into the Ottawa River.
We are investing in technology while the waste problem has yet to be solved.
Investing $350 million over two years to improve home energy efficiency is not much, especially knowing that energy efficiency could create jobs.
Here is a single statistic from the United Nations Environment Program: in Europe, a 20% increase in energy efficiency would create one million jobs. That demonstrates that energy efficiency can create jobs and thus stimulate the economy. However, the government prefers to put money into home renovation programs for properties and condos to build bigger balconies and decks. The Minister of Finance made that as clear as day. He definitely does not understand that energy efficiency can create jobs.
But, the new president of the United States, Barack Obama, understands. How did he show that he understands? His $815 billion stimulus plan first aims to double the production of renewable energy and then will invest $60 billion to create 500,000 jobs in green energy. The United States has rightly understood that investments in green energy create jobs. In 2005 alone, the American environmental industry created more than 5.3 million jobs. This demonstrates that investing in the environment creates jobs.
The Canadian government decided instead to give $2.7 billion, for 2009 alone, to the auto industry and did not even bother to attach conditions to this financing. The government could very well have asked, as Barack Obama did a few weeks ago, for stricter emission standards for new model vehicles. Why not make Canada's automotive industry more competitive with its Japanese counterpart? If we are going to invest $2.7 billion we should at least impose manufacturing conditions that will make the industry more competitive. But no, we give them a blank cheque for $2.7 billion and we do not invest in renewable energy, an area that will create jobs, I insist.
The U.S. plans to improve the energy efficiency of two million homes. That is the objective set by the new American president in order to improve energy efficiency in the United States. The energy efficiency of 75% of American federal government buildings will have to be increased. Why? It is not because the American government wants to invest for the sake of investing. It understands that by improving the energy efficiency of these institutional buildings, it will help improve and create new jobs.
The Conservative government just does not understand. When we compare the budget before us with the American recovery plan, we realize that only one sixth as much money, on a per capita basis, will be invested in the fight against climate change.
The Americans seem to have grasped that a green shift is absolutely necessary to spur economic recovery. In Canada, however, the economic recovery plan is set in stone and leaves no room for value added, as seen in green industries.