Madam Speaker, it is a privilege to rise today to talk about nuclear energy and some other associated important issues. The issues are related to carbon neutrality, net zero and all the efforts our government and various other governments across this country are making to encourage and join a green and clean revolution when it comes to how we generate electricity and how we get our energy in Canada and around the world.
I have to start by acknowledging the devastating impacts climate change is having on Planet Earth, but specifically here in Canada. Our planet is literally burning up and climate change is the root cause. Already we know that Canada is warming at a rate two times greater than the rest of the world. The wildfires last year blanketed Canada with smoke. They burned over 18 million hectares, which is a size that is unfathomable, larger than many mid-sized countries, and displaced 200 communities and 232,000 Canadians from their homes. In fact, 42% of the world's people displaced due to wildfires were Canadian.
Let us put that in perspective. Canada has 0.5% of the world's population and is responsible for 1.5% of global emissions, which means, for the Conservative members opposite, that our emissions are more than three times higher than average. Therefore it is important to recognize that we measure emissions not by the flag a country has, and most countries have one, but per capita. In Canada, our emissions are very high per capita but are coming down because of technologies like nuclear.
Despite Canada's very small population, more than 40% of the world's population that has been displaced from its home due to wildfires in the last year was Canadian. If that does not tell the Conservative members, who are now having a conversation, that we are vulnerable to climate change and the impacts of extreme weather, then I do not know what does. I think it is clear they drank the oil-and-gas Kool-Aid and there is no coming back to reason for them.
The cost of natural disasters has ballooned by over 1200% since the 1970s. Just this past summer, damages from severe weather costs were over $7 billion in insurable losses, making it the most destructive season on record.
Doing nothing is not an option. There is no question that the threat of climate change is existential, but today, despite the challenges, Canada finds itself in a unique and actually highly enviable position, because for Canada, action on climate change does not just mitigate floods, fires and droughts but also presents a generational economic opportunity, one we have not seen since the Industrial Revolution.
Global finance and the global economy are beginning to rapidly transform in ways that are creating many economic opportunities for those who approach the transition to a low-carbon future in a thoughtful and focused manner. In the global race to net zero, an electricity grid that powers our homes, businesses, industries, cars and country with clean, reliable and affordable energy is mission-critical in every province and territory right across Canada.
The good news is that Canada already has a head start with a very clean grid. More than 80% is non-emitting; that is because we have hydroelectric, wind, solar, and yes indeed, nuclear. It is true in Ontario, and very much because of nuclear power; in fact, the story of nuclear in Ontario is one of considerable success. Nuclear energy helped make the phase-out of coal possible in Ontario, resulting in smog days' going from 53 in 2005 to zero in 2015, all while dramatically cutting carbon emissions.
I remember 2005, because I relied on the atmosphere for my line of work at that time; I was an endurance athlete. I competed in kayaking on a world stage for Canada. I was just coming off a successful Olympics in 2004, when in 2005, the air in the greater Toronto area was too dirty to breathe for my training. I had to travel to Germany that summer and train in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands in order to benefit from a clean environment.
How tragic it is that the air in the greater Toronto area in the summer of 2005 was not compatible with endurance sports, where one has to consume hundreds of litres of oxygen every hour in order to perform those activities. Since that time, because we phased out coal, our air is much cleaner. There are measurable impacts on health. People do not get sick and die from cardiovascular- and respiratory-related distress as frequently as they used to, and that is worth the investment.
As we transition our energy grid to net zero in the coming years, nuclear is not only a silver bullet but also in many provinces is likely to play a very important role as a source of baseload power. Canada is a tier-one nuclear nation, and we have been safely operating nuclear energy and safely managing nuclear waste for decades. Under the world-class independent regulator the Canada Nuclear Safety Commission, there is no question that Canada is a leader. From medical isotopes to small modular reactors, responsible uranium development and CANDU technology, Canada is a nuclear leader, and the sector drives significant economic activity within the Canadian economy.
However, I want to point out that earlier when I mentioned isotopes, the Bloc Québécois said it was some kind of a red herring and that I was distracting from the real issues. That could not be farther from the truth. I was visiting a hospital recently where staff talked about how important medical isotopes are for their processes and how about 90% of them get furnished here in Canada because of our systems. They suggested that we could still make medical isotopes, but maybe not the power. It just does not work like that. The system works in conjunction, supplying our energy grid with clean electricity and at the same time providing our medical system with isotopes that literally save lives.
That is why we are supporting provinces that choose to use nuclear energy, so they can further develop renewables, support a zero-emissions electricity grid, create jobs and give businesses and industry an enormous competitive advantage over other jurisdictions. That is why we announced $74 million to support SaskPower's leadership on the province's deployment of a GE Hitachi small modular nuclear reactor by the middle of next decade. It is why we announced an investment of $50.5 million for small modular nuclear reactors in New Brunswick and almost $1 billion to develop Canada's first grid-scale, small modular nuclear reactor in Ontario, set to reduce emissions by 740,000 tonnes, the equivalent of millions of vehicles.
This is a national conversation and effort. Work among provinces, territories and indigenous leaders, utilities and industry, the private sector, unions and academics, as well as civil society, are all needed to build a clean, reliable and affordable electric grid together. It is also an international conversation about how the world can have non-emitting baseload power that we need in order to fight climate change.
Right now, when there is an on-demand power issue in Ontario, there is a gas-fired power plant just outside my riding in Halton Hills that fires up and provides the grid with intermittent power when necessary. I was driving by it yesterday, and the effluent coming out of the facility was very significant. It was not just steam, as the Conservatives just suggested. Steam is not brown. It is disappointing that in 2024-25, we still burn natural gas in order to produce electricity, because indeed we do not actually need natural gas. There are other options that are cleaner, greener and cheaper, and those are the ones we need in order to fight climate change.
We are going to continue to fight climate change and to power low-carbon economies right around the world. Experts show the world that nuclear power is necessary if we are going to meet our objectives. Scenarios under the IEA and IPCC say nuclear is an important piece of that puzzle. Canada can and will continue to play a role in it, just as we have for decades, helping our allies reduce emissions with our state-of-the-art technology.
The world is looking for leadership in the fight against climate change, so it turns to us as we put a cap on oil and gas pollution. It turns to us as we join it in putting in place a price on pollution, a carbon price, as we build out the clean hydrogen sector and we promote a renewable energy boom, just as we support clean nuclear energy. Building out low-carbon electricity grids is not just a competitiveness issue; it is also a climate change issue and a global security issue and. As I have pointed out, it is also a health care concern.
When Russia launched its illegal, reprehensible invasion of Ukraine, the energy security apparatus moved to the forefront of the global conversation. Our European allies worked to replace Russian energy imports with those from other countries while accelerating their transition towards non-emitting and more secure forms of energy, including renewables, hydrogen and nuclear.
International interest in Canada's nuclear industry is coming from countries looking to refurbish their existing CANDU reactors, one of the greatest Canadian inventions, and to build new reactors as well. Canada was proud to support Romania's clean power future by making available up to $3 billion in export financing for Canadian CANDU reactors. This will help Romania reduce emissions while also removing its reliance on Russian energy. That is a key way to support Romania, but it is also supporting Ukraine, Poland and other European allies.
One hundred per cent of the dollars being financed by the Canadian government will flow to Canadian companies. Much of this will go to small and medium-sized Canadian companies involved in those energy sectors. There are nearly 200 companies across Canada currently supplying products or services to the nuclear industry, including existing CANDU reactors, that will be well positioned to compete for supply contracts. This means more good jobs and great economic opportunity for Canadians. The benefits of nuclear energy are enormous, for the fight against climate change, our economy and creating good jobs.
However, it must be done safely. Safety is always our top priority when it comes to nuclear energy. Our world-class nuclear safety regime is administered by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, an independent regulator that makes science-based, objective decisions and regularly undergoes peer reviews from world-renowned organizations. As an International Atomic Energy Agency member, Canada implements practices that align with the best practices and guidelines of the international community.
All radioactive waste in Canada is currently being safely managed according to international standards at facilities that are licensed and monitored by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. In fact, the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development said in his audit that Canada is successfully managing all radioactive waste.
The Bloc Québécois, however, says these decisions about nuclear safety should be made by politicians. Frankly, I could not disagree more. We in the House are not experts on dealing with nuclear waste. Elected members of Parliament should never intervene in and override the international controls and safety measures that objective science says are needed, and we must always rely on experts, research and science in those decisions.
We have seen objective scientific fact be thrown aside for political purposes. We see it with the Conservatives, who are against doing anything on climate change even though it is hurting our economy and our communities. We see it with the New Democrats, who flip-flopped on the carbon price. Obviously, we are now seeing it with the Bloc Québécois.
The carbon price is a policy that will be responsible for reducing one-third of our emissions; it is already having that impact. The Conservatives want to bring us back to a time under Stephen Harper when they did nothing on climate change. They did not even care about lowering our emissions. They abandoned our Paris commitments. In fact, in the House, I have heard them ridicule the Paris Agreement—
