Kim Rudd

[Natural Resources, April 27th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, let us talk about capital expenditures in the energy sector. By NRCan estimates, there are approximately 140 oil and gas projects under construction or planned in the next 10 years, worth an estimated $400 billion in capital expenditures. When we consider the whole energy sector, including electricity, that number is nearly $530 billion.

The energy sector has hundreds of projects and hundreds of billions of dollars in planned investment. The minerals and metal sector has planned projects worth tens of billions of dollars. Planned projects in the forestry sector are worth billions of dollars. The member opposite—

[Natural Resources, April 27th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, the TMX project, as we have said, is of vital strategic interest to Canada, and it will be built. Our government has initiated formal financial discussions with Kinder Morgan, the result of which will be to remove the uncertainty overhanging the project.

We are also actively pursuing legislative options that would assert and reinforce the federal jurisdiction in this matter, which we know we clearly have. Hundreds of thousands of hard-working Canadians depend on the project being built. Protecting our environment and growing the economy are not opposing values. On the contrary—

[Department of Public Works and Government Services Act, April 25th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague and say on behalf of the committee what a pleasure it is to work with him and his passion for the natural resources sector and wood in particular. It is a distinct pleasure to support him.

I want to talk about a couple of things and ask if he could expand on them. Certainly Brock Commons in his home province of British Columbia is another outstanding example of wood construction. The member took me on a tour of Structurlam in the summer, and I had the opportunity to talk to the workers and to the owner. One of the things that struck me is that Canada is becoming such a leader in cross-laminated timber, CLT, and what the opportunities are like on the international market in terms of Canadians' know-how in architecture and building and what that means to companies in British Columbia.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 1, April 23rd, 2018]

Madam Speaker, I enjoyed listening to my colleague's remarks. He has a single vision, with a number of pieces that he has pulled out of a number of reports without any context at all, some of which are quite misleading. When he talks about the billion-dollar market debt, what he forgets to mention is that it first went to that number in 2012 under the Harper government. Indeed, that market debt includes crown corporations and others.

The misleading statements are not helpful to Canadians in terms of their understanding of what it really is. I would ask the hon. member if he does not think it is irresponsible to provide only partial information.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 1, April 18th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I heard an earlier speaker talk about SMEs. I am an entrepreneur, and as an entrepreneur and a woman, I appreciate so many of the measures in the budget that support women and the work we do.

In my role as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources, I have the great privilege of meeting with many industry leaders and having conversations about how they see the benefit of more women, more indigenous people, and more people with disabilities involved in the world of work as well as on boards and in positions of authority.

I wonder if the member could talk a bit about the importance of getting women into these roles, and particularly about the $74 million for women to get into the red seal trades. There is a shortage of trades in this country, and we are getting a great response to that. I wonder if she could talk a bit about that as well.

[Firearms Act, March 27th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I grew up in a home with guns. My father was an avid hunter. In the conversations I have been able to have with folks in my riding about this, mostly the response I am getting is that it is balanced, except for those who have received an email from the party of the official opposition. One of the things that I am hearing is that they are really pleased with the best practices that we are providing within this legislation that are already happening with organizations like Canadian Tire and Cabela's.

I wonder if my colleague might speak to that a bit more.

[Natural Resources, March 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, as we continue to say, the environment and the economy go hand in hand. We continue to support the energy sector in a variety of ways, including the approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline. I would like to add a number of other pipelines as well: the expanded export capacity for the Alberta Clipper, the Nova Gas pipeline, the Line 3 replacement project, and our support of the Keystone XL pipeline. I could go on and on.

Our government has approved the Trans Mountain expansion and we stand by that approval.

[Forest Industry, March 2nd, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, our government has invested millions to support the forestry sector in Quebec. We invested $87 million to support scientific research, including funding to combat spruce budworm, and more than $23 million in funding to Quebec to support innovation and transformation in the forestry sector. Most recently, in budget 2018, we provided $191 million to support softwood lumber jobs. That is in addition to our softwood lumber action plan of $867 million, which we are providing to support workers, families, and communities against the unjust punitive American duties.

[Regional Economic Development, March 2nd, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, our government has invested millions to support the forestry sector in Quebec. We invested $87 million to support scientific research, including funding to combat the spruce budworm, and more than $23 million in funding to Quebec to support innovation and transformation in the forestry sector. Most recently, budget 2018 provides $191 million to support softwood lumber jobs. That is in addition to the softwood lumber action plan of $867 million that we are providing to support workers, communities, and companies affected by the unjust American duties.

[Natural Resources, March 2nd, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said before in the House, we have done more for the natural resources sector and the energy sector particularly than the previous government did in 10 years.

We are working on a new plan with indigenous peoples around resource development to have the ability for indigenous peoples to have a greater say and more impact on the process. We believe that this is the right thing to do. Had the previous government done that and engaged more indigenous people, the northern gateway pipeline would not have been struck down by the courts.