Debates of Dec. 1st, 2025

Natural Resources

[Billy Morin, Conservative, Edmonton Northwest, AB]

Mr. Speaker, last week, the Liberal Minister of Energy and Natural Resources blatantly disrespected indigenous groups by rudely offering pipeline consultations over Zoom. Not only is this insulting, but consultations with indigenous groups should have started eight months ago in person when the Liberals promised to move at a scale and speed not seen in generations. Canadians support pipelines and many indigenous groups do as well.

Was last week's announcement just another Liberal photo op underpinned by reconciliation rhetoric?

[Tim Hodgson, Liberal, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, I addressed those comments last week. I apologized for those comments. This MOU lays out clearly how we will work with indigenous peoples to get things built in Canada.

[Ellis Ross, Conservative, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, LNG Canada and Chevron's Kitimat LNG project got efficient approvals mainly due to pre-consultations, which the Liberal government has not done. Instead, the Liberal government proposed to do consultations over Zoom, over video calls, to deal with constitutionally protected rights and title. Now the Liberals say it is up to Alberta to get consent, which is wrong. This is Canada's responsibility.

When will the Liberals deal with constitutionally protected rights and title honourably, because it is too late to deal with pre-consultations?

[Rebecca Alty, Liberal, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations]

Mr. Speaker, all major projects require the duty to consult and, if appropriate, accommodation. The projects, as they move forward, require that consultation, and that is what we will do.

[Aaron Gunn, Conservative, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Canada used to be a country that built things and got things done. It built the Canadian Pacific Railway through the Rockies and across the Canadian Shield. Today, we are governed by Liberals who spend more time building fake backdrops for press conferences than on nation-building projects to secure our sovereignty from the United States. A new pipeline to the Pacific was already approved 11 years ago, and the Liberals killed it. Macdonald did not promise one day to maybe review a proposal and hope a railway got built. He promised a route to the Pacific and he delivered.

Will the government do the same, yes or no?

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, this summer, we signed a historic agreement to forge a new, ambitious and comprehensive partnership with European countries. Today, the Prime Minister announced the conclusion of negotiations for Canada's participation in SAFE. This will unlock billions of dollars in defence opportunities for our Canadian businesses. It will give our defence industry expanded access to the European market, new reliable suppliers for the Canadian Armed Forces and catalyze massive private investment in Canada.

We can compete and we can win. We are the only non-European country able to participate. We are building Canada strong.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Mr. Speaker, last week, Liberal members scrambled to explain that their so-called MOU with Alberta was not the approval of a pipeline. It was just more consultations, and the B.C. Liberal caucus rushed to distance themselves from it entirely. The same agreement includes a massive increase in the industrial carbon tax, a hike that will raise the cost of everything for families and businesses already struggling under the government. At committee today, the minister admitted Alberta's exemption for the clean electricity regulations will take place way down the road.

When the Liberals said they could move “at a speed and scale not seen in generations”, did they mean building projects or just raising taxes?

[Tim Hodgson, Liberal, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, Canada is in a trade war, and it is about time we all recognize that. Our agreement with Alberta is a wartime-like team Canada plan to strengthen our hand and put Canada in a winning position—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Francis Scarpaleggia]

I would like to continue with the answer, but we need a little more silence. I think we are good now.

The hon. Minister of Energy and Natural Resources.

[Tim Hodgson, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will continue. This MOU is about growing exports beyond a single customer, while driving down emissions with strong industrial carbon pricing and a commitment to decarbonization projects. Our goal is to create investment certainty, reduce regulatory overlap and ensure meaningful consultation with provinces and indigenous communities.

Automotive Industry

[Arpan Khanna, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

Mr. Speaker, termination letters are starting to roll out for CAMI workers out in Ingersoll, just weeks before Christmas. One of the workers said that it is “a punch to the gut”. On October 23, the Minister of Industry said, “I expect a full update within 15 days” from GM. Well, her self-imposed deadline has come and gone. There is no plan. There is no action. There is no update. Our workers cannot keep feeding themselves with empty Liberal promises.

After breaking her own promises, why should our auto workers believe a word she says?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions]

Mr. Speaker, I beg to differ, because the workers do not agree with my colleague's statement. The Unifor unionized workers are completely behind the government's plan to push back against any form of movement at Ingersoll, because we believe GM can act, along with the government and along with Unifor, to bring back a new model. Meanwhile, I have had several meetings. I even went to Ingersoll. I met with Unifor. We will continue to fight for these jobs.

[Andrew Lawton, Conservative, Elgin—St. Thomas—London South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, when GM shut down the CAMI plant and laid off 1,200 workers, the industry minister claimed she was on it. She said she was demanding a full update from GM within 15 days, and that she would offer transparency to Canadians. This was 39 days ago. There is no clarity, no plan and no relief for auto workers in Elgin, St. Thomas and London, whom the Liberal government told it would have their backs. When the Prime Minister was asked about standing up for Canadian jobs, he said, “who cares?”

My question for the industry minister is this: Does she?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions]

Mr. Speaker, we are all very much aware that auto workers are affected by the unjustifiable and unjustified American tariffs. That is why we have been supporting all of them, working with Unifor and working with Lana Payne, who is on speed dial and to whom I speak pretty much every day. This being said, we will continue to fight against Stellantis to make sure it brings back its operation in Brampton. We will make sure we work with GM at the CAMI plant in Ingersoll, because we think there is a path towards a good news story—

[The Speaker, Francis Scarpaleggia]

The hon. member for Edmonton West.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, apparently nobody in the government bothered to read the Stellantis contract to see if Canadian jobs would be protected before giving Stellantis billions of dollars in taxpayers' money. The Minister of Industry did not read it. The deputy minister of industry and the former deputy minister of industry did not read it. Finance Canada lawyers did not read it. They all pointed their fingers at the former industry minister, who is, of course, the finance minister now.

Before giving billions of taxpayers' dollars for a project whose jobs are now fleeing to the U.S., did the finance minister read the contracts?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions]

Mr. Speaker, not only did the entire team read it, but we also read what the Harper government did in 2009 when it bailed out GM and Chrysler at the time. What we saw was that there was no job protection in that deal. What we will do now is make sure we fight for these jobs. We will make sure we will put maximum pressure. The Conservatives should stop whining. They should just get on board and make sure—

[The Speaker, Francis Scarpaleggia]

The hon. member for Vaudreuil.

Artificial Intelligence

[Peter Schiefke, Liberal, Vaudreuil, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we know that artificial intelligence may be central to the economy of the future. Everything from health care to transportation has the potential to be revolutionized by AI. Canadians want to be confident that Canada is staying at the cutting edge of AI innovations.

Can the Minister of Artificial Intelligence tell the House how our government is supporting Canada's AI ecosystem and ensuring that Canadian researchers and companies continue to lead globally?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his leadership in his community of Vaudreuil.

Canadian pioneers like Jeffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio helped invent modern AI right here in Canada, and our three world-leading institutes, Mila in Montreal, AMII in Edmonton and the Vector Institute in Toronto are success stories.

We just invested more: $42.5 million in new AI compute for researchers all over the country. As the head of our digital research said, we are ensuring innovators have the tools they need to compete globally while keeping our data sovereign.

We are building here in Canada.

Housing

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Mr. Speaker, a resident pleaded with me, “My family and I are struggling with rent costs and the price of food.”

They are not alone. A CTV News article tells us that 35,000 families are fleeing the GTA because staying in the GTA means living on the edge financially, with very little room to grow. Families are being uprooted, with generations torn apart. Canadians are forced to leave the very communities that they grew up in. Increasing the industrial carbon tax increases the cost of cement, steel and all the materials that go into building homes.

Why is the Liberal government increasing the industrial carbon tax and making housing even more expensive?

[Gregor Robertson, Liberal, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure and Minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the good news is that the price of housing is actually coming down. We can see in the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report in October that average rents are down across Canada, the average price of housing is down, mortgage rates are down and housing starts are up.

This side of the House is doing something about housing affordability; that side of the House is voting against it.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Mr. Speaker, all we hear from the Liberals are empty promises. For the last decade, they have been promising the same things. They know these ideas do not work. The record speaks the truth.

In the GTA, housing starts have plunged, not increased, by 34% in just nine months. Condo starts are down 51% and the slowdown in the construction industry means 35,000 lost years of employment for Canadians. Instead of building homes, the Liberals are piling on more bureaucracy and increasing the industrial carbon tax.

Why can they not stop raising punishing taxes, driving away our jobs and investment, while Canadians cannot afford a home or food on the table?

[Gregor Robertson, Liberal, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure and Minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada]

Mr. Speaker, this side of the House has proposed a budget that has unprecedented investment in affordable housing. The Conservative side of the House has an opportunity to support a $13-billion investment in affordable housing.

Conservatives have dragged on the first-time homebuyers tax break on GST since June. That was an opportunity to save first-time homebuyers money.

We are giving them opportunities to support our investment in affordability and affordable housing across Canada.