Jonathan Wilkinson

[Carbon Pricing, February 1st, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the price on pollution is an affordability measure. The vast majority of Canadians receive more money through the carbon price than what they pay. Research from the University of Calgary shows that the Conservatives' plan to cut the carbon price would only benefit the richest 1% and hurt the other 99%.

While the Conservatives are fighting to give money to the rich and take money away from those who are most vulnerable, we are building a climate plan that addresses climate change in a manner that—

[Carbon Pricing, February 1st, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, folks are entitled to their opinions, but not their own facts. The hon. member knows very well that 80% of Canadian families get more money back, and it works in reverse order of income, so the most vulnerable and poorest people in this country are actually much better off. The Conservative Party would take away the rebate. The Conservative leader's climate plan is to let the planet burn. In fact, when the member for Calgary Forest Lawn was recently asked on television what the Conservative Party's climate plan is, he said it was to build more pipelines and produce more oil. However, they are upset when people call them climate deniers. My goodness.

[Carbon Pricing, February 1st, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I would just say that the Conservative Party needs to stop misleading people.

The carbon price is an appropriate and thoughtful way to address climate change in a manner that actually addresses affordability. Eight out of 10 Canadian families get more money back. The Leader of the Conservative Party's plan to address climate change is to take rebates away from Canadian families. It is to let the planet burn. It is to actually ensure that Canada's economic competitiveness will be eroded going forward. He should be ashamed of his thoughtless policy on climate change and the Canadian economy.

[Carbon Pricing, February 1st, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I would suggest that Conservative members of Parliament should stop misleading Canadians.

The carbon price is a thoughtful approach that addresses climate change and affordability. Eight out of 10 Canadian families get more money back. The Leader of the Opposition's plan to address the climate issue is to take rebates—

[Questions on the Order Paper, January 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, Natural Resources Canada, or NRCan, produces the Comprehensive Energy Use Database, or CEUD. CEUD provides an overview of sectoral energy markets in Canada and in each region of the country and provides data on the stock of residential heating systems in each province and in the territories. CEUD data for the residential sector is derived from multiple sources, including Statistics Canada’s Report on Energy Supply and Demand, Survey on Household Energy Use, or SHEU. The latest CEUD data is for 2020. CEUD 2021 data is expected in early 2024. The CEUD can be found online at https://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/corporate/statistics/neud/dpa/menus/trends/comprehensive_tables/list.cfm.

According to CEUD data, in 2020, it is estimated that there were 12,000 residential heating systems that use heating oil in Alberta, 12,800 in Saskatchewan, and 8,200 in Manitoba, totaling 33,000 across the Prairie provinces.

[Questions on the Order Paper, January 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the total amount of the contract awarded to KPMG on July 13, 2022, is $630,000 (without tax). The contract was established to leverage the firm’s experience to support the modernization of internal services and departmental operations. The work began prior to the President of the Treasury Board’s Government of Canada spending initiative, which was detailed in budget 2023. In support of the spending initiative, Natural Resources Canada, or NRCan, submitted its proposals to refocus spending to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat in October 2023.

With respect to part (a) of the question, KPMG conducted an independent financial review of internal service expenditures to identify cost-saving opportunities for the department, in line with the department’s ongoing efforts to manage public resources efficiently. The department worked with the firm to analyze cost-saving opportunities, specifically in information technology, or IT, and real property. The analysis was much broader than spending on professional services.

KPMG’s analysis revealed opportunities for efficiencies in operational IT areas such as IT service and software asset management, IT contractor usage, desktop computing, printer optimization, and application portfolio rationalization. Their analysis also pinpointed areas of potential efficiency improvements in real property, such as fleet management, space utilization, and the centralization of real property functions.

KPMG provided recommendations that covered areas of policy, procurement, governance, planning, organizational structure, and technology. These recommendations provided both short and long-term options and proposed operational efficiencies and risk mitigation for the department.

With respect to part (b) of the question, KPMG’s advice was derived from: analyzing diverse data types, that is, financial data, internal service volume and website analytics; conducting consultations; and performing benchmarking analysis against similar organizations. This facilitated the development of methodologies, tools and templates for assessing potential efficiencies and proposing actionable next steps.

The analysis revealed efficiency opportunities in IT areas benefiting from optimization or lower cost alternatives, and helped the department ensure the continuity of ongoing activities and strategic real property activities.

KPMG provided an external perspective to the department to identify efficiency opportunities using industry best practices’ benchmarking and data analysis methodologies.

[Questions on the Order Paper, January 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, Exhibit 3.2 of the Auditor General’s report “Hydrogen’s Potential to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions” references pages 101 and 102 of the Hydrogen Strategy for Canada, in particular the section entitled “Roadmap to 2050”.

This section outlined potential actions that could take place in the near, medium and long term, if the low-carbon hydrogen market were to develop in a correlated manner to the incremental or transformative scenarios described in the Hydrogen Strategy. The section does not reference specific federal government policies, programs, initiatives, or commitments. As such, it did not include cost projections for those actions. Costs of individual projects, including production, infrastructure, or pilot projects, are borne by project proponents, are project specific, commercially confidential, and vary based on jurisdiction.

[Questions on the Order Paper, January 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the hydrogen strategy for Canada released in 2020 provided initial analysis of the potential opportunity and role that low-carbon hydrogen could play in Canada. As such, it modelled what the full potential of hydrogen could be in Canada’s energy system, including the economic, environmental and social benefits created by different scenarios and actions.

The modelling focused on the near term, and economically viable end-uses, such as heavy-duty transportation, natural gas blending, cement and steel manufacturing and low-carbon fuel production. These were identified through the engagement undertaken with other government departments, provinces and territories, academia and industry across Canada. The analysis included aspects of technology readiness levels, economic competitiveness, adoption potential and other factors, including supporting infrastructure. Projected demand was not within the scope of this initial modelling, thereby associated costs of supplying hydrogen that would be deployed to meet the projected demand were likewise out of scope.

The modelling undertaken for the hydrogen strategy for Canada was the first of its kind, as Canada had never previously undertaken nationally-based modelling specifically looking at the potential initial vision of using low-carbon hydrogen in various decarbonization applications such as those identified above. Since this was a nascent sector, the modelling had limited data on actual usage of low-carbon hydrogen. It relied on data and assumptions based on historical usage of hydrogen as an energy source. Future modelling will make use of data based on actual usage of low-carbon hydrogen as an energy source, based on pilot, demonstration and early deployment projects.

Natural Resources Canada, or NRCan, continues to track progress on low-carbon hydrogen production, infrastructure and end-use projects to improve projections in Canada around the potential role of low-carbon hydrogen in the future, including its role in electrification. In the upcoming progress report update of the hydrogen strategy, expected to be published in early 2024, NRCan will provide updated low-carbon hydrogen modelling projections from six different modelling initiatives that considered hydrogen in the context of net-zero by 2050. Each of these were undertaken since the publication of the hydrogen strategy for Canada in 2020, and the progress report will present the full range of new results.

[Oil and Gas Industry, January 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, following months of Conservative filibustering and obstructionist tactics, the Conservatives proposed over 21,000 amendments to the sustainable jobs act in an attempt to stop workers from getting a seat at the table. When it came to a vote on these amendments, the committee was chaotic. The Conservative members were actually shouting overtop of each other. A handful of the thousands of Conservative amendments were passed by the committee in the chaos.

I encourage the Green Party leader to review the nine amendments that I have put on the Notice Paper which address and rectify this issue now.

[Carbon Pricing, December 12th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, when this government came into power after 10 years of Stephen Harper and the member for Carleton, emissions in this country were projected to go up by 15% versus 2005 levels by 2030.

Last week, we released the emissions reduction plan update for Canada. It shows that we have far exceeded the Harper target. We raised the target. We will achieve the interim objective in 2026. We will achieve the 2030 objective of a 40% reduction.

We have a climate plan that is working. Where is his climate plan?