David McGuinty

[Climate Change Accountability Act, February 5th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I will open by sharing the kind, gracious and gentle words that the member brought forward at the opening of his remarks with respect to the death of two senior captains, two firefighters who perished in Winnipeg. Our thoughts and prayers on this side of the House are also with their families and with those who were injured and their families.

I have no doubt that the member offers his comments and proposals in Bill C-377 with complete sincerity. I have known him to be a man of strong integrity. We have worked together in the past in other lives on a national climate change response and I commend him for contributing to the debate. I welcome the opportunity to put questions to him about the merits of his proposal.

Perhaps the leader of the NDP could help Canadians understand the position the new government is pursuing, which speaks directly to the question of what the government describes as hot air credits and hot air purchases offshore.

Could the leader of the NDP help us to understand how his bill would reinforce our international emissions trading obligations under the Kyoto treaty which would give access to Canadian companies and to the government as a whole to a wonderful and marvellous market mechanism that could help us to reduce our greenhouse gases at a lower cost? Could he help us to understand how his bill would reinforce those mechanisms in the Kyoto treaty?

[Business of Supply, February 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, it states:

He also cited the [new] government's repudiation of the Kyoto climate control treaty, signed by the previous Liberal administration.

Former Prime Minister Joe Clark says:

There is no question that it injured our international reputation.

Can the minister please explain to Canadians why a former prime minister and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada would make such a statement?

[Business of Supply, February 1st, 2007]

I will start again, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for the correction.

Let me ask the minister directly, quoting from the Montreal Gazette today. This is a comment that is attributed to the former prime minister of Canada, Joe Clark. It states:

He also cited the Harper government's repudiation of the Kyoto--

[Business of Supply, February 1st, 2007]

No.

[Business of Supply, February 1st, 2007]

Do you mean the former prime minister, Joe Clark?

[Business of Supply, February 1st, 2007]

I did not refer to another member.

[Business of Supply, February 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I have a quick series of questions for the minister, and I thank him for his remarks although I disagree with them wholeheartedly.

First, can the minister comment on former Prime Minister Joe Clark's comments as reported in the Montreal Gazette today? The report states explicitly that:

He also cited the Harper government's repudiation of the Kyoto climate control treaty, signed by the previous Liberal administration--

[Business of Supply, February 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, to answer this question simply, I will quote former Prime Minister Joe Clark, who said just yesterday I believe:

“There is no question that it injured our international reputation”, he said, when referring to the new minority government's repudiation of the Kyoto climate control treaty.

[Business of Supply, February 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I will take the opportunity to pick up on the theme of the question and remind the House of the facts, not the misstatements and disinformation from the government but the facts on what took place on this file during our time as the government in power.

In 1998, we signed Kyoto. In 2000, we spent $625 million on climate change research and emissions reductions. In 2003, we announced $2 billion in new climate change funding. In February 2005, Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party of Canada, called that budget the greenest budget in Canadian history. The Clean Air Renewable Energy Coalition said that the budget was so green that it should have been announced on St. Patrick's Day.

Further to this, of course, we see what has happened after a year under the new government. It cut $395 million from the EnerGuide program to retrofit houses. It cut $500 million from the EnerGuide for the low income households program. It cut $1 billion from our partnership fund for climate change projects with provinces and our cities that desperately need help from the federal government. It cut $593 million from our wind power production incentive and our renewable power production incentive. It cut $585 million from environmental programs at Natural Resources Canada. It cut $120 million from our one tonne challenge which we now know has been judged to be a very effective program.

Those are just some of the cuts, total cuts of $5.6 billion, effected by the government for the successful programs that were in place under our administration.

[Business of Supply, February 1st, 2007]

I apologize, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister of Public Works and Government Services talked about the many benefits of global warming, urging his constituents to buy land so that when the thawing occurred they could flip it and make money. The day after the so-called Flintstone's moment, all evidence of his statement was removed from the minister's website.

Where are we today? We have a government with no plan and no vision and a Minister of Natural Resources freelancing about building a nuclear power plant to support a fivefold increase in oil sands production in northern Alberta. We have a Minister of Finance in China flogging oil and gas and a Prime Minister having met with the president three or four times but not a single shred of evidence that greenhouse gases, climate change or the environment was part of any of those discussions.

Now we find out that in the mandatory reporting that this country is obliged to provide under the Kyoto protocol, the only programs being reported for 2006 by the government are the programs that were put in place by the former Liberal government; re-gifting and copying once again the heavy lifting and the work done by the former government. If we did nothing, why does the government continue to list our achievements as the only ones Canada has accomplished for the full year of 2006, the Conservatives first year in government? These are questions that Canadians are asking.

It also appears that the government is misleading the international community by not telling the international community that it slashed the funding cuts to climate change in its 2006 budget and instead reporting on all the programs we had in place.