Jim Carr

[Natural Resources, June 7th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's colleague stood in his place in the House and wanted the government to approve a pipeline project that had not yet been installed with a regulator. He believed that the responsible thing for a government to do was to assess a project before a single Canadian had the opportunity to express a point of view.

We think a better idea is to have a transparent process, with predictable timelines and ways in which Canadians can let government know what they think is in the national interest, after which the government will decide.

[Natural Resources, June 7th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I had the pleasure this morning to meet with a mayor of a major Canadian city, Vancouver. I have also heard from the mayors of other Canadian cities who hold a different view on pipelines and major energy projects.

The sensible thing to do is to establish an independent panel of experts from western Canada to talk to mayors and others who have an opinion, after which the government will decide what it believes to be in the national interest.

[Natural Resources, June 6th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Nickel Belt for his question.

When I was in San Francisco last week, I announced that Canada would double its funding for clean energy to $775 million by 2020. With these investments, our government is taking a strong leadership role on climate change.

[Natural Resources, May 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, an independent group of distinguished western Canadians, all of whom will be known to those members, will, along with the regulator, assess the evidence that has been offered by Canadian people, evidence-based through the regulatory process, along with an assessment of upstream greenhouse gas emissions, along with meaningful consultation with indigenous communities, all of which must be in place if we are going to carry the confidence of Canadians.

[Natural Resources, May 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, we have not replaced anything. We have introduced a set of conversations with Canadians, after which Canadians will say, “Yes, this has been a fair review, according to principles that were made transparent for all”, because we believe that if there is going to be success at building major energy infrastructure, the project has to carry the credibility of Canadians, which for the last 10 years it has not had.

[Natural Resources, May 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has said many times that among the more important responsibilities of the Government of Canada is to move our natural resources to tidewater sustainably. The only way that will happen is if we have wide-ranging conversations with indigenous communities, those who want to protect the environment while we grow the economy.

We have given to Canadians the certainty of those principles. We have given to Canadians the certainty of a decision by which those principles will be acted on. We think we are doing it in a way that stands a better chance of achieving all of our objectives.

[Natural Resources, May 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, actually, we have removed the uncertainty. We have announced a set of principles that will govern this review to restore the confidence of Canadians and we have even given a precise date. The certainty of a date and the certainty of principles is a lot more certainty than we had from those people on the other side of the House.

[Natural Resources, May 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, there are very distinguished western Canadians who are going to take a bit of time, but not too much time, because the final decision on Kinder Morgan will be taken before Christmas. That was the promise we made on January 27 when we announced a set of interim principles. We delivered on a very important part of that promise today and we will deliver a final decision before Christmas.

[Natural Resources, May 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, we had the pleasure today to announce the appointment of three very distinguished western Canadians who will spend the next number of months consulting with people up and down the Kinder Morgan line, both in indigenous and non-indigenous communities.

We knew that the process that had been used so far resulted in no pipelines being built to tidewater in 10 years. We then took the decision of changing the process to invite people in to show them that it has credibility, which will give us a better chance than that process did.

[The Environment, May 11th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, clean technologies are a central part of our clean growth plan to transition to the economy of tomorrow.

Yesterday we announced that funding proposals are now being accepted under two new electric vehicle and alternative fuel infrastructure initiatives. As part of budget 2016, this $62-million program will put more low-carbon vehicles on the road, which will decrease emissions.

By investing in electric vehicle technology, we will be showing national leadership on climate change while our economy grows.