Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to be speaking to the motion today on behalf of the residents of Davenport.
Climate change, transitioning into a low-carbon economy and finding ways to live sustainably are key issues for my riding.
Before I go any further, I am very pleased to be sharing my time with the member for Cloverdale—Langley City.
Here is why I am particularly excited about the motion coming before the House and having an opportunity to speak before the members.
Within my riding, I have a large group of environmentalists. Most people care about climate change and what is happening. They have said that there is a sense of urgency around climate change. The fact that we have a government motion on climate emergency is very fitting and exactly articulates the feeling within Davenport today.
I also like the motion because it indicates that we have to do more, beyond everything we have done. We open a door to say that we have more to do moving forward. I wanted to mention those two points as I begin my remarks today.
I love hosting sessions within the community because I like hearing directly from Davenport residents. The first climate action town hall I held was on March 27. It was an informative session. The Minister of Environment and Climate Change has been going across the country and I have been sharing her presentation with the residents of Davenport, giving them a sense of all the actions we are taking to combat climate change. I have had a very lively exchange with them. Here are some of the points and questions they have raised.
Some of them said that we had a good plan, that we had good policy and that we needed to implement all of it. Some of them said that we needed to do more more and go faster.
Many people felt that we needed to be more urgent in our communications, to make people feel that we were acting urgently and we understood that this was a top-of-mind issue for many Canadians.
Many of them asked for more action on plastic pollution, particularly the youth. I have been to many classrooms within my riding and for many students, this is a top-of-mind issue.
Just as an aside, I have a lot of members of the community saying that they do not want us to use coffee cups from any type of local supplier if it is not 100% recyclable. I love that there is that level of interest within the community and that level of awareness for us to be conscious about what we are buying and using.
Many knew we were trying to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies by 2025, but they were looking for us to go faster.
Some in my community were okay with our buying a pipeline, but some said that it felt counter-intuitive to our objectives in moving to a low-carbon economy.
The main point they made was that they wanted us to not wait for a perfect plan, but to move forward on a really good plan. That is exactly what I feel we have and I am proud of all the actions our federal government has taken.
I decided to invite a panel of experts to do a second session to answer many of the questions that came up during my climate action town hall at the end of March. I invited a wonderful, well-known lawyer. I invited an academic. I invited an expert in the insurance industry because I wanted to have a clear sense of the costs of climate change.
Before I go into some of the insights they provided, one of the key points is that our conversation on climate change has changed substantially over the last three and a half years. I remember going to doors trying to convince people that we needed a plan to combat climate change. Now I feel like the conversation has shifted. It is not whether we should be combatting climate change; it is what steps we should take, how fast we should go and what should we do. It is an important distinction to make. Finally everybody is on side, that we have to take immediate and urgent steps on climate change. Now we just have to figure out how much more is that moving forward.
Getting back to part two of my climate action discussion in Davenport, one of the first questions I asked the panellists was whether the the federal government has the right plan in place to fight climate change. The members of the panel had a lot of wonderful things to say. They said it was a good plan, that the current government has done more to reduce GHG emissions than all of the previous governments had done in 30 years and that we have been fighting for action to happen. They mentioned that we are further ahead than we ever have been. They also mentioned the key areas that we are a leader in, such as carbon storage. We are also one of the top countries in the world as a leader in clean energy.
There was also a lot of lobbying of our Minister of Public Safety and his initiatives with respect to a national flood strategy, including assembling a round table on flooding, as well as initiating and putting resources into the mapping of flood plains across Canada. I think a lot of people felt this was going to be a game changer and much needed information as Canadians learn to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change moving forward.
We also had quite a conversation about the price on pollution. One of the key comments in that regard was that a price on pollution is absolutely needed because companies need incentives to innovate. Businesses also need certainty on the price on pollution or carbon pricing. They also mentioned that it is very good to have this price on pollution because they know that they have to be competitive not only across Canada but also around the world.
Furthermore, they indicated that there were some challenges they felt they wanted us, as a federal government, to be looking at. Some of the key areas where we really need to make progress include buildings and transit. They indicated that it is hard for the federal government to show results without support and action at the provincial level. I know that while we had all the provinces and territories sign onto a pan-Canadian framework, unfortunately over the last year there have been changes in government and I think we have had a lot more challenges trying to bring on side a number of the provinces that previously were on side with our pan-Canadian framework.
There was also some additional conversation in Davenport on the need for additional dollars for a disaster mitigation fund in places like Toronto. Davenport, for those who do not know, is in downtown west Toronto. Our sewage and wastewater system was built for flooding that might occur once every hundred years, not once a year or every two years. Therefore, everybody is looking at how we can adapt, mitigate, reinforce, and put additional resources into place and rethink the infrastructure we currently have in place.
Sometimes there are conversations that come up and we wonder where they will go. One of the key things that came out of the discussions was that some members of the committee said that they sometimes feel a little scared with all of this climate action and wonder what they can do. We had wonderful conversations about what we can do individually in our respective ridings and lives to make a change and have an impact on fighting climate change. I know I have a minute left, so I will list these. I think we can look at our transportation choices, whether we take more public transit or ride a bike versus being in a car. If we need a car, we should look at whether or not we should buy a zero-emissions vehicle. We can also be making choices around food and what we buy, whether it is local food or what kind of food we buy. Our energy sources can also be a way that we can have an impact. Our waste footprint is another way we can look at having an individual impact.
As members can tell, the conversation in Davenport is strong and robust. I am very proud of the actions we have taken at the national level on climate change. They are urgent. It is important. Moving forward, I know we are going to do more.
On behalf of the residents of Davenport, I am thankful for the opportunity to speak today.