Debates of Oct. 31st, 2023

Carbon Pricing

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in homes across the country that heat with natural gas, the carbon rebate delivers more than the carbon price costs in eight out of 10 homes across the country. That is how we are fighting climate change and putting more money back in people's pockets. Home heating oil is dirty and more expensive, and we are phasing it out and replacing it with free heat pumps if the provinces sign up.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Environment announced a pathway, but he has not announced new immigration targets. The plan is for him to announce them tomorrow, but he candidly admitted that he does not know them. Today, he does not know the numbers he will be announcing tomorrow.

That worries me a little. This is not a high school project one puts together the night before it is due.

Why would he not wait until he knows the targets and has done consultations before announcing the announcement date?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we know immigration enriches our country. It enriches us in terms of the economy and diversity, and it enriches communities from coast to coast to coast.

We will continue to welcome people from all over the world, and we will always do so responsibly, taking into account what our businesses, our families and our communities need, as well as what is needed internationally. We will continue to do so responsibly, and I am very much looking forward to making that announcement tomorrow in due course.

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am afraid I will not get to hear any more details.

We are debating a motion on successful immigration that would require the Minister of Immigration to consult Quebec, the provinces and territories, which is perfectly appropriate by the way, to establish targets starting in 2024.

Dare we hope that, if the House votes in favour of the motion, the minister will not announce targets given that he cannot know the targets until he has consulted Quebec and the provinces? That would be a responsible act of good faith.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we fully agree that we need to consult the provinces and that we must work with the municipalities and various groups of Canadians to set the right targets. That is what we have been doing for months, even years.

We are working hand in hand with the provinces, organizations and municipalities to set the appropriate targets for the country, and we will continue to do so. This is a very reasonable proposal, and we will be supporting the Bloc Québécois motion.

Taxation

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's own cabinet minister already admitted that the Liberal government only wants to help people who vote for them. We already have a climate denier Conservative leader who pretends to help people. Now we have an out-of-touch Prime Minister who only acts when it is in his own interests.

New Democrats have proposed taking the GST off of all home heating, a measure that would help all Canadians. When will the Prime Minister stop dividing the country and put in place a measure that gives relief to all Canadians?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, a number of years ago, we made the decision to phase out coal because it was dirty and inefficient in how it powered our country. We are now making the decision to phase out home heating oil because it is more expensive, because it is more polluting and because it is disproportionately relied upon by lower-income Canadians who need extra support.

That is why we have created a program, which three provinces have already bought into and agreed to, to give free home heat pumps to low-income Canadians across the country. We look forward to having more provinces sign up and deliver heat pumps to Canadians who need them.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is delivering a program that divides the country.

The announcement regarding home heating is cynical and divisive. We have an out-of-touch Prime Minister who only wants to help the regions where his popularity is declining. We have a Conservative leader who denies the existence of climate change. The NDP has long been calling for the GST to be removed from home heating to help all Canadians.

Will the Prime Minister do that?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite knows full well that there are Canadians across the country who depend on home heating oil. Our program, which will apply across the country, is there to help them make the switch to a heat pump, which is cheaper, more efficient and better for the environment. We are here to work with the provinces. We are here to deliver free heat pumps to low-income Canadians. We are here to help fight climate change, support families and build a better future for everyone.

Carbon Pricing

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Mr. Speaker, after eight years, the Prime Minister is just not worth the cost. He is desperate and in total free fall, so he announced a gimmicky plan to give a temporary pause to just some families in mostly Liberal-held ridings. The senior Liberal minister from Newfoundland is proud that this exemption only applies in her region. She even called out Liberals from other parts of the country for not protecting their communities.

The minister for Prairie development is a Liberal member of Parliament from Manitoba. It gets cold in Manitoba, so why was he so useless in protecting Canadian families in his area?

[Jonathan Wilkinson, Liberal, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, as we discussed in the House yesterday, the focus of this program is enabling affordability and getting people off heating oil, which is more than double, on average, the cost of natural gas in this country. It is about reducing carbon emissions at the same time. It is an important step forward for climate, it is an important step forward for addressing a key affordability issue and certainly it is good public policy.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the carbon tax is a complete failure. It drives costs up and has not allowed the government to hit its own emissions targets. Now the Bank of Canada confirms that the carbon tax alone is responsible for 16% of the extra inflation plaguing Canadians. With this announcement, families that heat their homes with clean Canadian natural gas will be punished just for living in areas where the Prime Minister is massively unpopular.

He once said, “A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian”, so will he stop his divisive tactics and take the carbon tax off home heating for all Canadians?

[Jonathan Wilkinson, Liberal, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, as I said before, the focus going forward is on ensuring affordability and addressing climate change. The hon. member is entitled to his opinions, but he is not entitled to make up his own facts. At the end of the day, 80% of people in this country get more money back in a rebate than they pay in the carbon price.

This program is focused very much on addressing both climate change and affordability. It is something my hon. colleague across the way would not understand, because they simply do not have a plan to address climate change at all.

[Adam Chambers, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the government's recent announcement is a comedy in the making. The Liberals said they could not deviate from the carbon tax plan. They said that extreme weather, hurricanes, floods and fires demanded that they quadruple the carbon tax. They said anybody who challenged it was a Luddite. They said people get more in rebates than they pay, except last week they said that pausing the tax will make life more affordable.

Canadians are realizing the Prime Minister is not worth the cost, so why will he not just cut the tax on all forms of home heating for everybody this winter?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind this House that before we came to power in 2015, emissions projections by 2030 were going to be 80 million tonnes above our 2005 levels. We have now brought this down to 50 million tonnes below our 2005 levels. That is the equivalent of removing from our roads 20 million gas-powered vehicles.

We have had the best record in the G7 for reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the last few years, and we will continue to work for Canadians to fight climate change and help with affordability.

[Adam Chambers, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, as inflation continues to remain, Canadians are realizing the Prime Minister is not worth the cost. The Bank of Canada is concerned that the soft landing it once projected is now much narrower. That is because economic uncertainty is increasing while inflation still has not been tamed.

Two things the government could do to help the Bank of Canada tame inflation are cancel the carbon tax and reduce its spending, so why is the government not taking up these two very simple ways to make the Bank of Canada's job easier to bring inflation down for Canadians?

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, it is wonderful to hear the Conservatives quoting the Governor of the Bank of Canada, someone they wanted to fire a few months ago. It is surprising and wonderful, because if we listen to what the Governor of the Bank of Canada said, he said that carbon pricing was contributing 0.15% to inflation and that cutting the carbon tax would have no long-term effect on inflation and no effect past that one year. If the Conservatives are serious about helping Canadians, let us get supportive of what this government is doing to increase affordability and stop peddling whatever it is they are trying to peddle.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last week, the Liberal Prime Minister looked at the polls and panicked. After eight years, he has finally realized that the common-sense Conservatives were right in saying that the carbon tax created inflation and drove up the cost of everything.

Once again, however, the Prime Minister completely forgot Quebeckers, who are also overwhelmed with the stress of being unable to feed their families. We know that the Bloc Québécois wants to drastically increase the carbon tax, but that is certainly not what Quebeckers want. We know that it is costly to vote for the Bloc Québécois.

Does the Prime Minister realize that he is not worth the cost?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Mr. Speaker, what surprises many members of the House and many people watching at home is that a party aspiring to form government has no climate change plan, no adaptation plan. Just yesterday, La Presse reported that this summer's torrential rains in Quebec are going to cost our farmers $150 million as a result of climate change.

What are the Conservatives proposing? They want to make pollution free. That would result in even more climate change and more impacts on the agricultural industry.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Mr. Speaker, even more shocking is that after eight years, one in 10 Quebeckers has used food banks every month in 2023. That is after eight years of this Liberal government.

The Bloc Québécois wants to keep punishing the middle class by radically increasing the carbon tax. As for the Liberals, they are choosing who gets relief on their bills based on which party they voted for. That is unacceptable, divisive and unfair to Quebec families.

Does the Prime Minister realize that he is not worth the cost? Will he announce today that he is fully and permanently scrapping the second carbon tax that unfairly punishes Quebeckers?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Mr. Speaker, what is shocking is that at least four Quebec MPs from the Conservative Party once voted for carbon pricing and spoke in favour of carbon pricing. Today they are flip-flopping because they have a leader who is ideologically opposed to fighting climate change and to doing anything at all to help Canadians deal with the impact of climate change and reduce our pollution.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Toronto Star reported that, from now on, Ottawa will set its immigration thresholds according to provincial integration capacity in terms of housing, health care and infrastructure. This means that the federal government will have to consult Quebec about its integration capacity before announcing its new immigration thresholds. However, on October 4, Quebec's immigration minister, Christine Fréchette, said that the federal government has not listened to her concerns about Quebec's integration capacity. As of October 4, Quebec had not been consulted.

Can the minister release documents showing that Quebec has since been consulted?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the Bloc Québécois refuses to understand that the Canada-Quebec accord on immigration has been in place since 1991, which is just as long as the Bloc Québécois has been around. For some mysterious reason, it refuses to understand how this works.

Quebec has a voice. Canada has a voice. We are in constant talks with Quebec and, for that matter, with all the provinces. We are setting our thresholds. We have to respect jurisdictions, but it is clear that, on the Bloc Québécois side, there is a foolish refusal to understand what is at stake.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, consultation is a two-way street, and it means listening, not making nonsensical accusations against the other party.

The government is going to table its new immigration thresholds tomorrow. As it promised in the press, it will take into account integration capacity with respect to health care, housing and infrastructure, and it will engage in planning with the provinces. The government also said it would vote in favour of the Bloc Québécois's motion, which also includes integration capacity in terms of education and French language training. At this point, there is every indication it does not know what Quebec's integration capacity is and has not done any consultation.

Will it postpone the immigration thresholds announcement and consult Quebec and the provinces at long last?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, obviously our review of the thresholds and our measures will include consideration of Quebec's integration capacity and that of the rest of Canada. Consultation is not a two-way street; it involves 13 of us. We are a country. This is a debate for our whole society. We have to talk to all Canadians to ensure we all have a good understanding of immigration and of what our country's future looks like.

I invite the Bloc Québécois to look at what we are going to propose. Quebec already knows, actually. It has been consulted all year.