Madam Speaker, this adjournment proceeding stems from a question I asked the Minister of Environment and Climate Change back on March 2. We had just heard reports that the High Arctic had seen record high temperatures, more than 30°C above normal, leading to melting ice in the middle of winter. Let us think about that: sea ice was melting in mid-winter near the North Pole when the sun was not shining. Something is clearly wrong with this picture.
We all know what is wrong with the picture. The climate is changing because we are putting too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Canada committed in Paris, with countries around the world, to keep global temperature change below 2° Celsius. Other countries have stepped up and done their bit. Many European countries have already met ambitious targets. However, the Liberal government chose to stick with the weak, inadequate targets set by the Harper government, and every analyst will tell us that Canada's action plan, if we can call it that, will not get us anywhere near even those targets.
The minister answered my question by saying that the government has brought in a national carbon pricing plan. I applaud the government for that. It is a good first step and might get us almost halfway there. The fact is that most Canadians were living under a carbon pricing plan before the federal government stepped up. In British Columbia, we have been living with a carbon tax for almost a decade.
The minister mentioned that many provinces have phased out or are in the process of phasing out coal. That is admirable and necessary as well. However, again, it was not the result of federal government action.
The minister also mentioned that we are saying the right things on the international stage. However, that will only work for so long, until Canada actually comes up with a plan to do the necessary work here at home. We cannot implore other countries to make deep cuts to their carbon emissions if we are not doing the same.
Last December, Canada's progress report to the UN showed that we will be 66 megatonnes short of our target by 2030, and that gap has doubled since the Liberals came to power. We are going in the wrong direction. Eighty percent of our emissions come from the transportation and the oil and gas industries, and now we have bought a 65-year-old leaky pipeline for eight times the cost that Kinder Morgan paid for it just a decade ago. How can the government square this with meeting our climate goals? How can the government square this with its promise to do away with subsidies for the fossil fuel industry? We are dealing with the low-hanging fruit right now, and getting to our 2050 target of an 80% reduction will be more difficult still.
I hear the government is trying to use land use and forestry carbon sequestration to fudge its own efforts. Whether this is allowed under the Paris Agreement is unknown, but I know that the Climate Action Tracker website states that such a move would change its assessment of the climate actions of Canada from “insufficient” to “highly insufficient.”
The minister finished her answer by saying, “We are all in on climate action. We are serious. We owe it to our kids.” When will the Liberals actually get serious and do what is necessary to fight climate change?