Madam Speaker, the minister did not mention, at all, one of the fundamental points of the motion before us that we are being asked to support, which is the Vancouver declaration. There was not one reference to the Vancouver declaration.
I know why that is, and I refer her to the declaration. It talks about working together; a collaborative approach between provinces, territories, and the federal government; ensuring that the provinces and territories have the flexibility to design their own policies; enhanced co-operation; acting together to fight climate change, and on and on. However, the minister was in Montreal yesterday, meeting with the provincial and territorial environment ministers. They were meeting because they were instructed by the premiers and by the Prime Minister to finalize a national climate action plan. In the middle of that meeting, the Prime Minister pulled the rug out from underneath them and said he was imposing on the provinces and territories a harmful carbon tax grab.
I would like to know from the minister who was in the meeting, did she know when she was going in, in good faith with all of the premiers, that the Prime Minister was going to do this to the premiers? How can she justify imposing such a harmful carbon tax on provinces that are struggling and which economies are struggling?