Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to this emergency debate this evening. I welcome the Speaker's decision to allow it to occur as this is a very important moment for our country, indeed a pivotal moment.
I was pleased to hear my colleague from Cariboo—Prince George speak. He reminded me that it was perhaps about a year ago that I was sitting in the legislature in Victoria. We were having similar discussions with respect to moving forward with this pipeline. I am pleased we made the decision to support it, and I am pleased to continue to support it today.
As someone who has lived on the ocean all of my life, I will focus my brief remarks on the role the Canadian Coast Guard plays in protecting our environment, while highlighting the number of important investments our government has made, and will continue to make, to protect our oceans.
These investments to our coastal communities are important, not just in British Columbia but on our other two coasts as well, regardless of whether the construction of a pipeline was in motion. This is still ever important.
I cannot, however, avoid the context of tonight's debate. We have an important decision to make as to whether we will do something in the national interest or avoid this decision because there are at least two competing views on what we should do.
We can construct the pipelines safely while protecting our environment, including our marine environment.
Again, flashing back to my time in Victoria, I remember when I was the minister of children and families. As well, I was the minister for health promotion. My wife and I were foster parents. I chaired a committee working with seniors. I was always fighting for more dollars for the provision of those social programs that were so crucial to the operation and sense of community and livelihood within our communities.
Moreover, constructing this pipeline and the revenue generated from that will help in so many ways in our province and indeed right across Canada. We can do so knowing that protecting our environment, creating jobs, and diversifying our energy sources are not incompatible.
Those who oppose the pipelines, as is their right, should not deny the fact that the government has invested significantly in meaningful action to protect oceans and respond to any improbable oil spills.
Let me give just one example, and there are many.
The President of the Treasury Board, on behalf of the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, the member for Beauséjour, invested $80 million in new science funding. These investments will support new partnerships with universities and industry to improve our knowledge and to develop new technologies that will help mitigate and prevent marine incidents, such as oil spills.
Specifically, $46 million were announced for research programs to leverage collaboration among the world's very best researchers, $10 million to go toward research that will bring together the brightest minds from around the globe to collaborate with world-class Canadian researchers. Together, they will enhance our collective understanding of how oil spills behave, how best to clean and contain them, and how best to minimize their environmental impacts.
Further, the government is investing $16.8 million to support oil spill research to specifically focus on how oil breaks down, how oil behaves in various ocean conditions, including cold water.
The government will also invest $17.7 million toward enhancing ocean models of winds, waves, and currents, so emergency responders can accurately track spills and predict their path. The goal in enhancing ocean modelling is to support safe marine navigation and help prevent spills from happening in the first place.
These investments total $80 million and are part of a much larger, comprehensive strategy under the umbrella of Canada's oceans protection plan. The oceans protection plan is a $1.5 billion plan that will ensure our coasts are protected in a way that ensures environmental sustainability, safe and responsible commercial use, and includes significant collaboration with indigenous communities.
Under the oceans protection plan, the government has opened new Coast Guard search and rescue stations to increase our capacity to respond to on-water emergencies. We are committed to working in partnership with indigenous communities to further expand our search and rescue capacity.
Further, we are protecting and restoring important marine ecosystems now, through the $75 million coastal restoration fund, and we are strengthening partnerships and launching co-management practices with indigenous communities.
This leads me to highlight facts related to the Trans Mountain project.
The protection of our environment and the preservation of fish and fish habitat are top priorities, led by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. These principles guide our decision-making process when authorizing major projects.
Members will recall that within weeks of taking office, the government approved the Trans Mountain project, subject to legally binding conditions. For its part, as part of the legally binding conditions for the pipeline approval, Fisheries and Oceans was one of many departments engaged in the approval process. Fisheries and Oceans was duty-bound to assess potential risks and harm associated with this project, and to do so before issuing a Fisheries Act authorization.
On September 8, 2017, the minister issued a Fisheries Act authorization for expansion of the Westridge Marine Terminal, which is a component of the larger TMX project. This followed a very rigorous and thorough review of the proponent's application and consultation with 33 potentially affected indigenous groups.
As part of the authorization, the proponent will be required, on an ongoing basis during construction, to adhere to conditions to reduce and mitigate harm to fish and fish habitat. The conditions of the authorization include measures to avoid or reduce serious harm to fish, to offset potential losses in fisheries productivity, and to monitor the effectiveness of mitigation actions.
Others will speak on other measures our government has taken to ensure that the TMX project is done right. To do nothing seems to me not to be an option. The government has made it clear that the development of the pipeline is very important to this country and to our provinces. We believe we have the duty to ensure that it is completed. We also have a constitutional duty to ensure that the national interest is met. Most of all, we have a duty to ensure that this project is done in a way that protects our environments, including our marine environments. I believe that we have met those obligations.