Mr. Speaker, this year there have been catastrophes of immense dimension in Canada. Forest fires of untold proportions raged throughout the summer in British Columbia and Alberta. We recently heard that the Ward Hut ice shelf off Ellesmere Island in the Arctic detached itself and broke up. This is an area the size of the island of Montreal which gives people an idea of its dimension. More recently in Nova Scotia, hurricane Juan created a path of tremendous destruction, uprooting trees that were 200 and 300 years old. What do those things have to do with Bill C-48? The relationship is simple; it is called climate change.
Yesterday during the vote on Bill C-48 my colleague from Davenport and I stood to vote against the bill. We did not do it lightly or lightheartedly. These were tough decisions which were not done joyfully. In fact we regret them intensely. However, as environmentalists, we feel very strongly that there is a total contradiction between the government's policy toward climate change and our commitments to the Kyoto protocol.
The objective of Bill C-48 is to further promote the non-renewable energy sector, mainly the oil and gas industry which is a huge contributor to carbon emissions. These changes directly contradict the recommendations of the OECD that preferential treatment for the non-renewable sector should be eliminated. The same recommendation was made in the 1998 report of the Minister of Finance's technical committee on business taxation.
The Department of Finance technical study dated March 3, 2003 justified additional tax cuts which led to Bill C-48. It is interesting to note that there was no reference at all to the environmental or social costs of extraction of resources.
I would like to quote some very startling figures. I can vouch that they are official figures. The Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development stated that direct government spending on non-renewable energy has been $202 million a year. Over five years this amounts to $1 billion. Between 1998-2002, the oil sands tax expenditure was approximately $597 million, over five years. The oil and gas investment tax credit amounted to $128 million. Over five years this amounted to $640 million. Over the last five years approximately $2.9 billion has gone into subsidies to oil and gas, and Atomic Energy of Canada for nuclear power.
In 2000 the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development published a report on the energy sector. I would like to quote from section 3.86 in the conclusion of the report:
Two important ways to address climate change are using energy more efficiently and establishing a more sustainable mix of energy sources, which means a greater reliance on renewable sources. The federal government stated in its 1996 renewable energy strategy that it wants to increase investments in renewable energy. It has also said for many years that it wants Canadians to use energy more efficiently, and the Office of Energy Efficiency is currently promoting this goal.
It is also stated in section 3.68 of the same report:
The tax system does not give any preferential treatment to certain investments that improve energy efficiency.
In other words, we are loading the dice in favour of favourable tax treatment to the non-renewable energy sector, the fossil fuel sector, while not providing any favourable tax treatment to the renewable sector.
The same report mentions in section 3.36 the various types of federal support to the non-renewable industry the following:
Since 1970, the federal government has written off $2.8 billion of its investments and loans for energy projects in the non-renewable sector.
I repeat, $2.8 billion.
I get the very strange feeling that we are speaking out of both sides of our mouths. On one side we are talking about Kyoto and climate change, putting large amounts of money, $3 billion in the last two budgets, into energy efficiency, the reduction of fossil fuel consumption and a reduction of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. This is a good side of it. On the other side we are presenting Bill C-48 to promote the accelerated use of fossil fuel resources. It seems to me there is a total contradiction which I must say as an environmentalist I cannot support. In fact, this is exacerbated by the feeling that this is an industry with so much clout that it almost dictates policy.
The Prime Minister in relation to Kyoto wrote a letter to the oil and gas industry on July 25, 2003. One section of the letter states:
- Other environmental regulations: The “business-as-usual” reference for intensity targets will take into account future federal environmental regulations. A consistent approach across all federal policies will avoid imposing a greenhouse gas penalty on mandated actions to improve environmental performance.
This letter almost gives carte blanche to the fossil fuel industry to go ahead and continue putting out carbon emissions, that there will be a cap of 15% put on reductions so that it will not be too drastically affected and it will be able to certainly respect it. The feeling is that we are really saying one thing and certainly acting, through bills like Bill C-48, very much in the other direction.
My colleague from Davenport, who stood with me yesterday to show our disappointment, displeasure and disagreement with Bill C-48, was recently at the International Energy Agency in Paris. He asked a question about the state of the world's oil reserves. They told him that if no new reserves were identified, the mid-depletion point for oil and gas would be about 2020. Then there would be sufficient reserves for another 20 to 25 years. In other words, it goes to show that our oil reserves worldwide are being depleted at a huge rate, considering that transportation and all other uses of energy are multiplying manyfold.
In regard to gas, the answer regarding the mid-depletion point was 2020, another 20 or 25 years. We are talking about results and targets that will fall in the lifetime of most Canadians. This is not something that is one, two or three centuries ahead. The mid-depletion is there, next door, in a few year's time. The depletion point for oil worldwide might be 2050.
What conclusion should we draw from this? The conclusion we should draw is that we do not say let us not use our oil resources. Of course not. We have to and we must. At the same time we are saying to the oil industry and to the government, surely a slower depletion rate would be far better for our economy and we could keep our reserves longer. At the same time, it would open the way for parallel stream which we must push with far more vigour.
We need a parallel stream of renewable energies, such as wind, solar, biomass and cogeneration. While we slow down the depletion of our oil reserves, we accelerate the pace of our renewable energies. When the oil reserves are depleted in 25, 30 or 50 years, we will have a thriving renewable energy sector such as is in the making in places like Germany and Denmark where wind power has become a very positive, constructive and important fact of life.
The Danes have made a policy to replace all their coal and oil energy with wind power in 30 years. It seems to me that we have to embark on an overall strategy, 25 or 30 years along, to put the accent more on favourable tax treatment in favour of renewable energies and to disfavour the fossil fuel sector so that it depletes itself far more slowly. Rather, we are doing everything to accelerate depletion and are giving more profits, subsidies and incentives to the fossil fuel industry.
I would like to quote from a text from Foreign Affairs of July/August 2003, by three highly credible Americans: Tim Worth, president of the United Nations Foundation and a former U.S. senator from Colorado; Boyden Gray, partner of Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering and served as counsel to former president, George H.W. Bush, the present president's father; and John D. Podesta, a visiting professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center and was chief of staff to former president, Bill Clinton. I recommend to my colleagues to read this article which is entitled “The Future of Energy Policy”.
I will quote from it. It states:
The time has come to craft a long-term, strategic approach to energy. A central feature must be public-private coalitions for change that bring together business, labor and environmental advocates. The first step must be to focus on what is important and define what needs to be accomplished. Three far-reaching, 25-year goals encapsulate America's long-term interests and should guide its energy policies.
First, America should address its dependence on oil by cutting U.S. oil consumption by a third, setting an example for the rest of the world and breaking the grip of the global oil cartel. Second, to take on the dangers faced by the world's climate, America should cut its carbon emissions by a third as a stimulus to a two-thirds global reduction by the end of the century. Finally, the United States should develop, deploy, and disseminate clean energy technologies and institute trade policies that can increase the access of poor people around the world to modern energy services and agricultural markets. Such moves will improve the lives of billions of people, stimulate economic growth and create new markets for American goods and services.
In the course of this article, it points out that in regard to energy, of which we consume far too much, of the six billion people in the world, two billion do not know what electricity is. We just flick a switch and put on our lights. We just get into our cars and they go. Two billion people in the world do not even have electricity.
In closing, I would like to also quote from the same article. It states:
A strategic energy policy will unite diverse political constituencies and forge common cause among stakeholders that are often at odds. The environmental community's objective is not to shut down coal, it is to shut down carbon; zero-carbon coal thus is something to agree on. The automotive and oil industries' objective is to not to prop up dictators in the Middle East or to sully the natural world, it is to provide a return to their shareholders; making fuels, cars, trucks and buses that are clean and profitable thus is something to agree on.
Most of all, a collaborative strategic approach holds out hope for ending dependence on oil, eliminating excess carbon dioxide emissions, and providing clean and reliable energy services and agricultural opportunity to the world's poor. The result would be to “hurry the future” by unleashing a torrent of innovation that will stimulate economic growth, create new jobs, improve productivity, and increase prosperity and security for the United States and the world.
These same words could apply to us here. It is not through bills like Bill C-48 that we will achieve this. With great forethought, a strategic policy that will look ahead and base itself on clean energies while depleting our fossil fuel reserves, which we need, with far less speed will achieve this.
I hope that many of my colleagues will join us in voting against Bill C-48.