Debates of Oct. 19th, 2023

Canadian Sustainable Jobs Act

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, I believe we are talking about federal legislation and Bill C-50. The member keeps going off track, referring to provincial legislation in a province he does not live in, a province his party does not care about.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

That is falling into debate.

I would remind members to come back to the bill we are debating.

The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will give you my notes afterward because, obviously, this is what we are talking about. I see there is very thin skin in Conservative country when one talks about their attempts to chase out investment.

Here is the thing with Danielle Smith. There were 33 billion dollars' worth of investments in clean tech killed in Alberta. If we were to talk to anybody in the clean tech industry internationally, they will recognize we are from Canada and ask where our project is. If we say Alberta, it is done. Why is that? It is because nobody is going to invest in a jurisdiction with a premier who is out to kill jobs. That is why this legislation is important. We have to have workers at the table, and we have to protect the potential for new investments.

Yes, we were meeting with workers in Alberta because we understood that these were serious issues, while Danielle Smith and the Conservatives over there, under the member for Stornoway, were talking about killing those jobs. What were they doing? Who were they meeting with?

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I did take the liberty of pulling out the declaration on order and decorum in the House by the Speaker yesterday. In there, it says:

...the growing tendency to make pointed criticisms in a way that is unnecessarily personal and designed to denigrate, bully, elicit an emotional reaction or attack the integrity of the person introduces a toxicity into our proceedings that hampers our ability to get things done. This includes coming up with fake titles for members in order to mock them....

The hon. member just said “the member for Stornoway”, so I seek your guidance on this, Mr. Speaker, because this was your declaration, and I am asking you to enforce it.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

I thank the member for that. He does make a very good point when it comes to the decorum of the House and things that the Speaker wants us to think about when making speeches. Making up names occurs on all sides of the House. Maybe we should stop doing it, period.

The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I hope none of my time has been cut off by the panic attacks of the Conservatives.

As far as making up names, I am talking about Danielle Smith and the Conservative Party and the fact that the member who lives in Stornoway was up for cutting off all these jobs. These are facts. Conservatives might not like facts, but—

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, I again refer to the fake title. If the member is referring to the hon. Leader of the Opposition, then he should refer to him as that, or as the member for Carleton. He should not refer to him as the member for Stornoway.

Again I refer to your document, Mr. Speaker.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on the same point of order. Trust me, I do not get up to defend the member for Timmins—James Bay often, but he explicitly said, “the member who lives in Stornoway”. There is nothing untrue about that. It is not name-calling.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

I have to refer to all members in the House by their riding names, and I think maybe we should all start using our riding names when referring to one another in the House. We should be referring to the member for Carleton or the Leader of the Opposition, the member for St. Catharines, the member for Barrie—Innisfil or the member for West Nova when he is not sitting in this chair.

The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

I really appreciate that, Mr. Speaker.

I do not even get to go back—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

The hon. member for Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte is rising on a point of order.

[Doug Shipley, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we have been talking a lot about proper decorum in the House, and I thought the rule was that, every time you rise to speak, members are supposed to take their seats. I see that is not being done.

Am I wrong in that? Should people be sitting once you stand to speak?

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

The Speaker did say yesterday that we want people to stay seated until it is time for them to stand to get the eye of the Speaker.

I would like to assure the hon. member that we have been stopping the clock the whole time. He will have all the time he needs.

The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay has the floor.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would have sat down, but at my tender age, I have a problem with my back.

The fact is that the Conservatives get panic-stricken every time I start talking about how much they are against technology and that they are climate deniers. What riding is the member from? He is the member for Carleton, who lives in a 19-room mansion with his own personal chef, paid for by the taxpayers. That is a fact. I know they get triggered—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

It is my duty pursuant to Standing Order 38 to inform the House that the questions to be raised tonight at the time of adjournment are as follows: the hon. member for Yorkton—Melville, Agriculture and Agri-Food; the hon. member for Spadina—Fort York, Foreign Affairs; and the hon. member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley, Agriculture and Agri-Food.

The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I hope that was not a point of order on this really important issue, but I will try to continue, because this is important.

We actually saw at our committee that the issue of sustainable jobs is a top-of-mind issue for Canadian workers, yet the Conservatives have done everything to slow it down and attack it. This is a big issue, because there are problems with this legislation, and our job is to fix it, not to obstruct something that is badly needed.

I want to get to the point of what we are up against in terms of Mr. Biden. In the first week of the Biden administration, he signed an executive order creating an inter-agency working group on energy transition. He set up a transition group to make sure that energy-dependent regions were not left behind. Biden came out of the gate in his first week. He also went to COP26 and said that America would create a new clean energy economy based on good-paying union jobs, because he knew that he had to send a signal that he was going to fight for the middle class, unlike what we see with the Conservatives, who are out to shut down job investments in Alberta and to attack investments in the battery plants.

This leaves us with, my God, the Liberals, who had never talked about these issues before. They were dragged kicking and screaming by the New Democrats. We said that we have to have some key investments. We need commitments and clarity, such as on prevailing wages. We need to say that if someone is going to get tax credits to do energy investment in Canada, there have to be good-paying union jobs. We also need to make sure that apprenticeships are part of the mix.

However, the promised $85 billion in clean energy tax credits, which sounds great, is not here yet. We are going up against a government that, within its first year, had set up its energy transition, a government in the United States that is now saying that there will be nine million direct jobs from the IRA. We have to compete with the U.S.

I have heard constant drivel of misinformation from the Conservatives about what the Chancellor of Germany asked for from Canada. I met the Chancellor of Germany, and he said that Germany was not interested in LNG but that it was interested in the long term and in hydrogen—

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, I would point out that Germany did then, in the 194 days, build an LNG terminal, so I think that it was interested in LNG—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

That is a point of debate and not a point of order.

The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is amazing. It is no wonder the German Chancellor did not bother to meet with the Conservatives, because he would have heard stuff like that. However, he met with us, and I met with him personally. He said that LNG was not where Germany was going and that it was moving so far ahead on green energy that either Canada was going to provide hydrogen or Canada was going to be out of the mix. That was the message we got.

Meanwhile, we get continuous misinformation, but where do we get that from? When the Conservatives go to Europe, whom do they meet with? There is Dan McTeague. Talk about a bonkers climate change denier, who somehow paid for four Conservatives to fly to the U.K. and put them up in big hotels. He is my cousin, by the way, so I am not saying anything out of family. Dan McTeague and his group apparently paid for three bottles of wine that came to $1,800 Canadian. Who drinks booze like that? Again, this is a party that goes on about affordability and about the price of potatoes, but, man, it can certainly afford it when it is being given a bottle of wine that costs $818 Canadian. Do members think the Conservatives would even know what an—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

The member for Barrie—Innisfil is rising on a point of order.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am certainly not going to speak about the NDP leader's $30,000 trip to Las Vegas, but I would like to know the relevance of this discussion in relation to the bill. I think it is valid point of order.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

I will accept that.

The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate that. It allows me to go back. I was responding to the previous intervention and attack on me by a Conservative, who said that she contested what was said by the Chancellor of Germany to me in a meeting. I was saying that we were meeting with the Germans about energy. The Conservatives went over. We do not know who they met with, but it is worth noting an $818 bottle of wine. There was then a second bottle of wine for $265. That still is probably pretty good. That is not sparkling Baby Duck—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

We have a point of order from the hon. member for Barrie—Innisfil.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I certainly will not speak to the NPD leader's ethical violation as it relates to a gift he received. I want to know what the relevance is to the bill we are debating.