Jonathan Wilkinson

[Finance, June 13th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, certainly affordability is a critically important concern for this government. We have made enormous efforts to work with Canadians to try to ensure that affordability applies to everyone in this country. Certainly we agree with the opposition that it is an important issue that needs to be addressed.

However, to talk about out of touch, we are seeing forest fires across this country that are the product of climate change. We are facing a party that has no policy on climate change; in fact, it is not even clear that Conservatives believe in climate change and the scientific reality of climate change. That is being out of touch.

[The Economy, June 12th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said many times in this House, I think we can all agree that affordability is an important issue. That is why there is a rebate with respect to the price on pollution to ensure that we are actually addressing this in a thoughtful way. As we are seeing the evacuations of people across this country, it is time that the Conservatives start to think about climate change. I do not know whether they do not believe it is real or they just do not think it is important, but Canadians certainly do.

[Natural Resources, May 30th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Kings—Hants for his consistent advocacy on this file.

Canadians expect their governments to accept the scientific reality that is climate change and to take concrete and bold action, something our colleagues across the aisle could learn from. They also expect us to look to seize the economic opportunities that can be enabled through a transition to a lower-carbon future. One such opportunity is offshore wind to produce electricity and produce hydrogen. By 2040, the global offshore wind market is predicted to attracted $1 trillion of investments, and our east coast has some of the best resources in the world.

Today I was pleased to introduce amendments to the offshore accord acts, the legislation—

[Natural Resources, May 30th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Kings—Hants for his consistent advocacy on this file.

Canadians expect their governments to accept the scientific reality of climate change and to take concrete action to address it, something our colleagues across the aisle could learn, and they expect us to look to seize the—

[Carbon Pricing, May 30th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I think most members of the House recognize the scientific reality of climate change and the need to address it, but of course we need to do so in a manner that reflects affordability. That is why we have put in place the heat pump program, the grocery rebate and others.

I must say, though, that I find the positions being taken by the Conservatives to be increasingly bizarre. First, they ran and were elected as MPs on a platform that acknowledged that pricing pollution is the most efficient way to reduce emissions, and now they repudiate their own platform. Now, they criticize the clean fuel regulations, a policy very similar to the renewable fuels regulations that were introduced in 2010 by none other than Stephen Harper.

The Conservatives should start being honest with the Canadian public. The only thing they presently do that is constant is ignore the scientific reality of climate change. They have no plan to build an economy for the future.

[Carbon Pricing, May 29th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I think that we can all agree that affordability is very important. That is why we have put into place programs like the heat pump program, which will directly benefit Atlantic Canadians disproportionately across the country.

However, it is also important that we actually have a plan to fight climate change, which is an existential threat to the future of the human race. It is appalling that the party opposite has no plan to fight climate change. It has no plan for the economy of the future in terms of building an economy that can thrive in a low-carbon future. Later this week, I will be in Newfoundland to make a major announcement that is the direct result of having an appropriate, thoughtful plan to fight climate change.

[Carbon Pricing, May 29th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, we agree that we need to make sure that life is affordable. We have implemented a lot of measures to ensure that things will be affordable in the future.

However, it is also important that we reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We need a plan to fight climate change, which we and almost all of the other parties in the House have. The Conservatives are the only ones who do not have a plan to fight climate change. They want to leave our children and grandchildren with a poor future.

We need a plan to—

[Questions on the Order Paper, May 10th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, the GeoCAT program supports the transfer of geothermal project development knowledge to local indigenous groups and community representatives, who in turn will assess community-specific infrastructure and interest for geothermal project development. Given the program provides capacity-building funding, benefits to geothermal energy projects will be indirect.

Based on the program description, 50% of the funding will support awareness of community geothermal opportunities and 50% will support the development and delivery of training modules to acquire skills and tools to lead or advance community development opportunities. No funds will be used for other project components.

[Questions on the Order Paper, May 10th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, since 2016, to help expand Canada’s electric vehicle, EV, charging network to the scale required, the federal government continues to invest in charging infrastructure through NRCan’s electric vehicle and alternative fuel infrastructure deployment initiative, EVAFIDI. For details, please see https://natural-resources.canada.ca/energy-efficiency/transportation-alternative-fuels/electric-and-alternative-fuel-infrastructure/electric-vehicle-alternative-fuels-infrastructure-deployment-initiative/18352. It provided funding to organizations to help establish a coast-to-coast network of EV fast chargers along core routes and highways through NRCan’s zero emission vehicle infrastructure program, ZEVIP. For details, please see https://natural-resources.canada.ca/energy-efficiency/transportation-alternative-fuels/zero-emission-vehicle-infrastructure-program/21876. It provides funding to increase the availability of local charging options where Canadians live, work and play, in public places, on street, and in multi-unit residential buildings, workplaces and vehicle fleets. The Canada Infrastructure Bank, CIB, will be investing $500 million in large-scale charging and refuelling infrastructure that is revenue generating and in the public interest.

The charging investments fit in the greater, comprehensive approach of the Government of Canada to support this ZEV transition. For more on Canada’s action plan for clean on-road transportation, visit https://tc.canada.ca/en/road-transportation/publications/canada-s-action-plan-clean-road-transportation#_Toc117001122.

As part of NRCan’s efforts to support open data, we have created openly available maps with our latest information on open or nearly open projects, which can be found at https://gcgeo.gc.ca/viz/index-en.html?keys=draft-706a6d1a-df8e-40e3-8e0c-94211025c528.

Information pertaining to parts (a) and (b) can be found at this link. The fuel type “L2” refers to slow chargers and “L3” refers to fast chargers. The range of speeds of the latter are indicated as being between 50 and 99 kilowatts, kW. These figures are for projects that are already installed or in the very late stages of project completion. They represent 12,153 stations installed or soon to be installed, totalling over $183 million invested by the federal programs to date. Program officials have given the initial commitment for more chargers, although details are still being finalized. Including this latter category, the government has committed to 34,666 chargers and funding of over $277 million.

With regard to part (c), the programs are brand neutral and do not track charging station manufacturers associated with each project. The programs conform with international trade obligations and so do not prejudice against origin of manufacturing. Information on the carbon footprint of charging station manufacturing is not tracked.

[Natural Resources, May 2nd, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, the way we can get good projects built, including the critical mineral projects that are essential for the energy transition and offer an enormous economic opportunity to this country, is to do things the right way by respecting the rights of indigenous communities, ensuring that we are consulting thoroughly, working with indigenous communities as partners in these projects and ensuring that we are doing thorough environmental assessments. That is how we move projects forward.

That is very different from the gutting of the environmental assessment process that happened under Stephen Harper and the Conservatives. We are committed that going forward—