moved:
That the House call on the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change to declare an environment and climate emergency following the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and urge the government to bring forward a climate action strategy that: (a) prioritizes reconciliation with Indigenous peoples; (b) invests in a transition that leaves no workers or communities behind; (c) increases the ambition of its 2030 greenhouse gas reduction targets to avoid a more than 1.5 degrees Celsius rise in global warming, as recommended by the IPCC report; (d) includes robust rules for implementing the Paris Agreement; (e) prescribes transparency and accountability mechanisms to address climate change; (f) does not proceed with the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project; (g) immediately eliminates all federal fossil fuel subsidies, including through Export Development Canada funding; and (h) integrates human health into Canada's climate commitments.
Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the incredible member for New Westminster—Burnaby.
It gives me immense pride to stand today as the leader of the New Democratic Party to bring forward our motion, which calls for a declaration of an environment and climate emergency. However, we go beyond just words.
The time for good words is over. What we need now is concrete action.
More than ever, we need to go beyond just declaring the emergency. We need to commit to certain concrete steps, and I want to lay out some of those steps today.
Our motion acknowledges that some of those key steps will include prioritizing reconciliation. We know we cannot achieve our goals with respect to defending the environment and fighting climate change without acknowledging the importance of reconciliation.
Another key component is that in the fight against climate change, it is going to take thousands of people working together toward the goal of reducing our emissions. We cannot do this alone. That is why our plan will ensure we leave no worker and no community behind. We all need to do this together.
There are additional other components. The IPCC report makes it clear now that the science is so abundantly clear, there is a preponderance of evidence. Everyone is pointing out that there is a serious and dire threat, not just of climate change but of catastrophic climate change if we do not act.
In the past, we have seen other initiatives and plans. In fact, the Liberals talked about targets and completely missed them, with no repercussion whatsoever. Our motion calls for strong transparency and accountability measures to ensure that the government attains those goals. If it does not, there will be repercussions.
Our motion points out that right now, at the federal level, a project has been proposed that would dramatically increase emissions. That would put our coastline in B.C. at risk. It would threaten marine diversity. The toxic tanker traffic will severely impact and threaten the entire coastline, and we do not know how to clean up diluted bitumen. If it spills, it will devastate the entire coastline, threatening jobs, marine diversity and communities. This is terrible.
In addition, if we are truly committed to tackling climate change, we need to, once and for all, end all subsidies to fossil fuel sectors. It is a basic requirement. There is no way we can continue forward by continuing to subsidize these sectors. Instead, we should be spending our public money on investing in green and clean energy jobs that will generate good work and sustainable economies.
Finally, we want to integrate human health into the climate discussion, because we are seeing the impact on health. Members will know that last summer was the second summer in a row of the worst fires in the history of B.C. There were ramifications.
I met a mom who had a young daughter. She told me her number one concern was climate change. I saw her daughter and I assumed she meant for the future. I told her I understood that she was worried about the planet and the environment her daughter would grow up in. She said that she was worried about the environment and about the future, but not the future I was talking about. She said that she was not worried about a distant future; she was worried about next summer. That would be her baby's first summer. She worried whether she would be able to breathe the air.
Last summer, we had numerous days when we were told we could not go outside. We were told we could not breathe the air because it was a risk to our health. She is worried about her baby not being able to breathe the air this coming summer.
We have seen massive floods in eastern Canada. Floods have devastated communities in New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. The cost of pollution is real. The impact of climate change is real.
Today I was shocked to hear a member of the Conservative Party talk about fearmongering. This is not fearmongering. These are the facts and we are seeing the impacts of climate change on the lives of Canadians right now, on the lives of Canadians in Conservative ridings. This is not a matter of Conservative or Liberal. This is a matter of fairness and justice for people and for the planet on which we live.
I also want to touch on the commitment I made as leader to fight for a brighter future for the environment and tackling climate change. I put forward a number of initiatives, but I did not do that in isolation. I built on the strong work of Jack Layton, who was one of the first elected officials to take the issues of the environment to the next level, bringing forward climate accountability measures and strong innovative approaches to defending the environment. I built on the work of Megan Leslie, who fought fearlessly to end microbeads, alongside a number of other members who are currently sitting in the House.
My commitment was more than just good words. My team and I have been working tirelessly to get the Liberals to drop the half-measures, stop sounding like a broken record, and focus on taking concrete action.
Unfortunately, the Liberal government has consistently chosen the side of powerful and wealthy corporations over that of everyday Canadians. Liberals voted against two of our motions last year regarding Trans Mountain and investing in a clean economy that works for everybody.
They have shown that this is not a priority for the Liberal government. The Prime Minister has made it clear that the government's initiatives and its work are to protect the most powerful instead of the people who need it.
They refused to make Quebec a world leader in transportation electrification. Quebec already has the necessary infrastructure, as well as some of the most innovative companies in the world.
We put forward a plastics ban because it is abundantly clear that there is a rise in plastics levels in the ocean, to the point that experts believe if we do not change our course of action, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. That is the reality we face. It is not fearmongering; these are the facts and this is evidence.
Instead of supporting our motion and our plan to end the use of single-use plastics and supporting the initiative brought forward by the member from Vancouver Island, which proposed a bold way forward, Liberals voted against it.
They chose to give Loblaws $12 million for new fridges, instead of investing in retrofitting all housing stock in Canada by 2050, an initiative that would create thousands of jobs, save every family almost $900, and help fight climate change.
This is an issue that impacts young people. We have seen thousands and thousands of young people go out on the streets because they are worried about their future. They are worried because they see a planet that will not be habitable for humans.
These are some of the headlines we have seen: “Canada warming two times faster than the rest of the world”, “Canada produces more greenhouse gas emissions than any other G20 country”, “Canada provides more government support for oil and gas companies than any other G7 nation and is among the least transparent about fossil fuel subsidies”, “Nature is in the worst shape in human history”; “Canada on pace to meet Paris climate target...two centuries late”.
The hopeful news is that if we make better decisions, we will get better results. All experts say that it is possible to change course. It is possible to save our planet and fight climate change. It is a matter of having the courage to do so. It is a matter of coming together and realizing that this is our united fight, that all of us, together, must do this.
If we make better choices, we will get better results. Making better choices means stopping investments and subsidies in fossil fuel sectors. It means building a sustainable economy. It means ensuring that we are looking to and working in the interests of the young people who will inherit this planet. It means ensuring we end precarious work and invest in a clean energy economy that creates good jobs for today and tomorrow.
We can do this if we have the courage. The New Democrats have the courage to make the right choices. We ask all members in the House to make a commitment to support our motion and show that they care about climate change. It is not just about good words and saying the right things. It is about doing the right things. Members should have the courage to follow up their words with concrete action and support our motion. Together, we will build a brighter future.
