Catherine McKenna

[The Environment, June 7th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, let me explain again what we are doing. We spent one year working with the provinces and territories to come up with the first-ever serious plan to tackle climate change and to meet our international agreements. After a decade of inaction under the previous government, we have stepped up. We are putting a price on pollution, we are phasing out coal, and we are making historic investments in public transportation. In Ottawa, our investments in LRT will see the largest reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in our city's history.

We are investing in clean technology. We understand that we need to do it for our—

[The Environment, June 7th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, let me explain what we are doing to tackle climate change here. We are putting a price on pollution across the country. We are making historic investments in clean technologies. We are phasing out coal. We are making historic investments in public transportation.

We are going to continue doing what we promised to Canadians, which is meeting our international agreements, and we are going to continue pushing abroad. We can do both. We can talk and chew gum at the same time, and that is what we are going to do.

[The Environment, June 7th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, we will not apologize, because we do stand up for the environment and for jobs. We are doing what we have to do. Canadians expect us to combat climate change and plastic pollution and to grow our economy.

We have created 600,000 jobs. This is the biggest job growth Canada has ever seen. We will continue to do this every day. I am working very hard to combat climate change, protect the environment—

[The Environment, June 7th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud of what we are doing for the environment to tackle climate change and plastic pollution.

Creating a charter on plastic pollution is a top priority for the G7 leaders' meeting. We are working very hard with all the countries to make sure we are doing what needs to be done. We need to stop plastic from reaching the oceans. We are facing a major problem, and we are going to do everything in our power to fix it.

[Impact Assessment Act, June 6th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased the member opposite cares so greatly about climate change. It is really unfortunate that the Conservative members of the environment committee voted to remove the consideration of the impact to our climate from Bill C-69. That might have been an oversight or a mistake. However, we know that unfortunately the Conservatives do not have a plan to tackle climate change. I do not know whether they all believe climate change is a problem or real. Nor do I think they understand the huge economic opportunity.

We understand that. We understand we need to be ensure we do right by our planet, that we tackle our emissions, but that we also have a plan to get our resources to market in a sustainable way. That is exactly what we are doing with Bill C-69. We certainly hope all parties will support it.

[Impact Assessment Act, June 6th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, we listened to everyone. We listened to rural municipalities, cities, indigenous peoples, and to industry. We come together to find a process that will work. It is really important that we have a robust assessment process and that we rebuild trust. That is the only way we can get good projects going ahead.

That was a real challenge under the previous government, which gutted the system. It did not have the trust of Canadians. Canadians told us we needed to do better, we needed to rebuilt trust, and we needed to consult with people. People living in rural communities should be consulted through environmental assessments. They should have the opportunity to make their concerns and views known, and they should be taken seriously.

At the end of the day, we need to make decisions based on science, evidence, and fact, and we need to do that in a transparent way. That is the only way to get good projects going ahead in the 21st century.

[Impact Assessment Act, June 6th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, we have made it clear that we need to make decisions on robust science, evidence, and facts. We have rebuilt trust by ensuring that this is key. Transparency will be there. When people see how decisions are made, they will see which evidence was used, which science was used, and which indigenous traditional knowledge was used. That is critically important. We know we have to make decisions based on science.

[Impact Assessment Act, June 6th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I know my hon. colleague cares very passionately about ensuring we do things the right way, which is through listening to Canadians, listening to indigenous peoples, listening to communities, and listening to industry.

That is exactly what we are doing now. We are ensuring that there are robust consultations and we are not limiting standing to a small group. If people have views or concerns about a project, they have the opportunity to have their views heard and concerns responded to.

This is really important, because Canadians said we needed to rebuild trust, and that is exactly what we are doing.

[Impact Assessment Act, June 6th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I am a little confused about the question. The projects that the member opposite is speaking about went through an environmental assessment. We built in additional consultations and reviewed the project in light of our climate plan and the 157 conditions for the project, and in light of our historic investments in oceans protection. We then approved the project.

When it comes to environmental assessments, we really believe that this process is good for industry, because it provides certainty that was not there before. It also provides a more timely process. That was really important. We heard from industry that they wanted to be sure about how things would be done and the timelines for the process. We worked very hard on that.

[Impact Assessment Act, June 6th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I hope they are watching. We are working very closely with them.

This legislation reflects the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. I would like to clarify that it does respond to feedback from indigenous peoples and organizations. The amendments clearly referenced the UN declaration in regard to the proposed impact assessment act, and the Canadian energy regulator act requires that the government, the minister, the agency, and federal authorities exercise their powers under the impact assessment act in a way that respects the government's commitments with respect to the rights of indigenous peoples.

It requires in the Canadian energy regulator's mandate that it exercise its powers and performance, duties, and functions in the same way. It clarifies that indigenous knowledge would be considered. This would not be limited to the traditional knowledge of indigenous people. This is very important to indigenous peoples. It requires transparency about how indigenous knowledge is used in impact assessments.

We think it clearly fits with our commitment to a renewed nation-to-nation relationship with indigenous peoples based on recognition of rights, respect, co-operation, partnership, rooted in the principles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.