Mr. Speaker, it should come as no surprise that the Bloc Québécois will not be supporting Bill C‑15, the budget implementation bill. We were very clear during the vote. The Bloc Québécois is the only party that stood firm. We had a number of reasons for rejecting this budget. Obviously, it is a big bill. It is 650 pages long, contains 80 legislative measures, and amends 49 laws. What we have is a mixed bag. The government can say that there are good projects in this bill, projects that the Bloc Québécois has been calling for. I am thinking of projects for the Magdalen Islands, Charlevoix and the Gaspé region, among others.
However, when we look at the bill as a whole, we see that the six priority demands of the Bloc Québécois were completely dismissed by the government. There were no negotiations, not with anyone. Still, we made it clear that the purpose of these demands was to represent and defend the interests of Quebec. These demands included support for seniors, support for young families in accessing home ownership, support on climate action and increases to health transfers. None of these measures are in this budget, which projects a deficit of almost $80 billion. In fact, our demands would have made it possible to generate significant benefits across Canada, beyond Quebec, which was of course our priority.
It gets worse. When we look at this budget, we see that fossil fuel companies, oil and gas companies, will be swimming in billions of dollars' worth of additional subsidies. The government decided to give even more money to oil and gas companies, which are already raking in record profits. The government will increase and extend tax credits for businesses, meaning that it will be paying to capture and sequester their carbon. Businesses should be the ones paying for their own pollution. They should be paying to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Quebeckers and taxpayers in general should not be subsidizing the companies that are largely responsible for climate change.
In this budget, the government is providing subsidies. Interestingly, the former heritage minister, the member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie, met with the Green Party representative to promise action on the environment. He promised her that the tax credits would not enable oil companies to produce more oil just because they intend to capture carbon. The former heritage minister made that promise, and the budget said that tax credits for carbon capture and sequestration will not be used to allow oil companies to produce more oil.
However, last week, in an agreement between the Prime Minister and Alberta, the Liberals completely contradicted their budget. They betrayed the Green Party member, who voted with them, just to keep the oil and gas companies happy. Not only is the government giving money to oil companies, but we can see that the Prime Minister is unreliable when it comes to the environment. We cannot trust what he says because he goes back on his word.
Obviously, we have other concerns about this budget. From now on, nuclear companies will be able to receive money for small modular nuclear reactors through clean electricity tax credits. Those are credits for clean electricity, but nuclear energy produces nuclear waste. Just two hours from here, in Chalk River, nuclear waste is being stored next to the Ottawa River. There are 100 municipalities in Quebec that are opposed to that project. First nations are opposed to that project. This week, 85 groups from across Canada made a public statement about how it is not right that highly radioactive waste is being stored next to the Ottawa River. We are talking about carcinogens that stay radioactive for thousands of years.
If that is clean electricity, then I think people need to start asking some serious questions about the government's greenwashing. There are additional tax credits for nuclear power. The same applies to gas-fired power plants, as if it were clean to generate electricity from gas.
There is something else we discovered in this budget. We did not catch it at first because it is buried on page 300. The government has decided to allow major project developers to circumvent the law. We were not happy this spring when the government joined forces with the Conservatives to pass Bill C-5 under a gag order. That was a completely undemocratic move. We were concerned about Bill C-5 because it allowed the government to completely set aside 12 laws and seven regulations, including several on the environment. Now, we see that the government hid a measure in the middle of this omnibus budget implementation bill, on page 300, that allows any minister to exempt any company from the application of any federal law for a period of three years. Any federal law can be set aside now that the government has decided to sneak this into its budget. Honestly, that is worrisome.
A further look at this budget shows that it goes even further, or rather further backwards. What we have seen since the new government came into office is not that new. It is environmental backsliding. Some might say there is a problem when the government offers billions of dollars in additional subsidies to oil and gas companies. The government presented its budget as a budget for a climate revolution, with a climate competitiveness strategy that would revolutionize everything and demonstrate the government's ambitions. However, the budget does not have a competitiveness strategy. It has a climate capitulation strategy. The overall budget only has an additional $4 million over five years for the climate competitiveness strategy.
If the government thinks Canada will get back on track or get on track to fight for the climate, it cleary has a ways to go. The budget does not have new investments to create a green economy. Environment and Climate Change Canada's budget has been slashed by 15%. The government has extended tax credits for oil and gas companies while simultaneously easing their emission reduction obligations and lifting their existing limits. The government is breaking its promise by continuing to subsidize oil and gas companies even though it had said it would remove subsidies.
Let us turn to greenwashing rules, which the budget has watered down. As we know, oil and gas companies engage in greenwashing all the time. They claim they are green, that they are working. They are sort of like the Prime Minister who has talked about green oil. The government had introduced rules against greenwashing, but the budget watered them down.
The government told us that it was going to review industrial carbon pricing. However, there is nothing specific in the budget about new, stronger pricing measures. The government is doing away with the program to plant two billion trees. The budget contains no new money for parks or protected areas. The government is scrapping the Canada public transit fund, which was intended to fund public transportation, and it is transferring that money to another fund. We do not know how much money, if any, remains in the fund. The same goes for the sustainable mobility fund.
There is no new money for climate change adaptation, even though we are experiencing forest fires, floods and droughts, and the government is doing away with the ZIP program, which targets areas of prime concern in Quebec. That program cost $1 million a year. The government has just made cuts to this program and taken another completely useless step backward just to save a few bucks.
This budget does not meet any of the Bloc's demands. Furthermore, it is clearly the worst budget in the history of this country in terms of environmental backsliding. Consequently, the Bloc Québécois will vote against this budget.