Laurel Collins

[Committees of the House, December 5th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I wanted to ensure to that members know that on disrespectful or offensive language, Standing Order 18 states “No member shall speak disrespectfully” of members in the House.

[Committees of the House, December 5th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, on the first point of order I raised, Standing Order 18 talks about disrespectful or offensive language. The member said “sellout”—

[Committees of the House, December 5th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The member well knows that he is not allowed to use unparliamentary language. This has been ruled on before. I would ask the member to apologize and withdraw.

[Committees of the House, December 5th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, the member talked about Conservatives slowly cutting funding for abortion access, that Conservative creep that would restrict a woman's right to choose.

However, under the Liberal government, we have seen the closure of Clinic 554 in New Brunswick. I went to high school in New Brunswick and remember sitting with a friend as she looked at driving to Montreal, 14 hours away, because she could not get access. I did not think I would be standing here, two decades later, with the same issue coming up for young people in New Brunswick.

Can the member answer for the government's inaction on this?

[Committees of the House, December 3rd, 2024]

Madam Speaker, as stated in House of Commons Procedure and Practice, chapter 3, when members repeat inaccurate information again and again, the Speaker can rule that out of order. I have responded many a time to the issue, and the member knows full well that we support industrial carbon pricing, that carbon pricing is an important part of our—

[Committees of the House, December 3rd, 2024]

Madam Speaker, some of what the member said was deeply concerning. When I questioned the environment minister about the Trans Mountain expansion project and asked him whether he, as someone who has spoken against pipeline expansions in the past, stood by his government's decision or thought it was a mistake, he could not answer.

However, the member seems to be championing the Trans Mountain expansion, something that cost $35 billion, taxpayer money poured into the pipeline that is actually tripling the capacity to export diluted bitumen to our coast. It is not just about the bitumen that would otherwise be shipped there; it is also about increasing capacity. It is about expanding the tar sands, the oil sands.

Does the member stand by his government's decision to waste taxpayer money on a pipeline that is an economic and environmental disaster?

[Committees of the House, December 3rd, 2024]

Madam Speaker, this is an important question right now. We saw that, under Biden, we had the Inflation Reduction Act, something bold, something that really highlighted how ineffective Canada's climate policies have been and how we really need to step up. However, now, we are facing a whole new context where a Trump presidency means probably the undermining of climate policy in the United States and potentially around the world. It is even more important right now for Canada to put forward bold climate solutions and to steer away from those climate solutions we know are unproven, risky and expensive, things like carbon capture and storage, which this government continues to funnel billions of taxpayer money into. Profitable oil and gas companies could be funding that themselves.

[Committees of the House, December 3rd, 2024]

Madam Speaker, it is so disappointing to me that policies that could benefit Canadians and drive down our emissions are designed so poorly by the Liberal government that now we have Conservatives up in arms. Really, the Liberals are giving Conservatives ammunition to attack climate policy. We need strong, robust climate policy in Canada that drives down our emissions and creates good, sustainable jobs in every community across our country. Unfortunately, the Liberal government continues to fail by design.

[Committees of the House, December 3rd, 2024]

Madam Speaker, it is unfortunate that the Liberals continue to want to spread misinformation. We expect that from the Conservatives, but it is always disappointing that every time I raise ending fossil fuel subsidies, implementing an excess profits tax or investing in climate solutions, the answer from the Liberal government is, what about the carbon tax? We support carbon pricing and we want industrial emitters to pay more.

For some reason, the Liberals think their carbon pricing scheme is the be-all and end-all of climate policy. Guess what? Consumer carbon pricing is 8% to 14%, and industrial carbon pricing makes up about 40% of our emissions reduction plan. That is huge. We need to bolster the industrial carbon price. It is unfortunate that the Liberals seem to think consumer carbon pricing is a silver bullet.

[Committees of the House, December 3rd, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for New Westminster—Burnaby.

When I speak to young people in my riding, they ask me a heartbreaking question: “Why are elected leaders not doing more?” These are kids who are growing up seeing the devastating impacts of the climate emergency: each summer, more intense wildfires; people choking on smoke; the rising costs from climate devastation; and hundreds of lives lost in heat domes. They are looking to the House and to every member here and asking us, “Please, do not steal our futures.”

We are facing a climate emergency. Every scientific report underscores this truth and we have a rapidly closing window to act. Unfortunately, what we have seen from the Liberal government, and the Conservative government before it, are missed targets, empty promises and actions that prioritize the profits of rich CEOs of wealthy oil and gas companies over the survival of our planet.

I want to talk a bit about the Conservatives because they cannot even agree if climate change is real. They claim to care about affordability while denying the climate crisis itself. While they oppose measures to reduce emissions, they also oppose affordability measures. They continue to vote against ensuring low- and middle-income families could access heat pumps to bring down their energy bills, against GST breaks. They also offer no credible plan to address the rising costs of climate disasters. Hurricanes, floods and droughts are not abstract threats or things that are going to happen sometime in the future. They are happening here and now and are impacting communities from coast to coast to coast. Conservative denial and inaction leaves Canadians to pay the price, both in dollars and in lives.

The Liberals seem to want to be Conservative lite. They acknowledge the climate crisis is real, but their actions fall woefully short of what is needed to address the climate crisis. They say they are climate leaders, but Canada is ranked 62 out of 67 on the climate change performance index. I will let that sink in: 62 out of 67. We are in the bottom tier. The environment minister keeps saying it is okay because we are on track to meet our 2030 targets, but his own watchdog, the environment commissioner, has come to committee and said time and time again and has made it very clear that we are not on track.

The government is not on track. It continues to prop up oil and gas companies with billions of dollars in subsidies. These are the same companies that are raking in record profits even as the UN Secretary-General calls fossil fuel expansion “moral and economic madness.” How can the Liberals justify the billions of dollars they continue to hand to big oil and gas companies in public financing for fossil fuels while they claim to fight for a net-zero future?

The commissioner of the environment's reports also have laid bare the consequences of Liberal mismanagement. The net-zero accelerator initiative the Liberals have touted as a key pillar of Canada's climate strategy is a cautionary tale of inefficiency. Only two of the 55 largest industrial emitters in Canada have committed to the goals. The average cost to taxpayers for each ton of emissions reduced by the net-zero accelerator is as high as $523. This is not the pathway to a climate-safe future. Critical accountability mechanisms need to be involved in every climate solution we put forward. Unfortunately, the government continues to show it is not a climate leader. This is failure by design.

Young people and workers across the country deserve better. They are demanding action. They are demanding justice. That starts with listening to the communities that are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. Indigenous nations, low-income families and rural Canadians feel abandoned by Ottawa. These communities are not just victims of the climate crisis. They are also leaders in the solutions that we need. Renewable energy projects, conservation initiatives, sustainable agriculture, and indigenous and local knowledge must be at the heart of our climate response.

What should we be doing? The solutions are clear. They are within our grasp. Let us stop handing out billions of dollars in subsidies to the oil and gas companies that are fuelling the climate crisis. Let us redirect those funds into workers and into the clean economy. Let us implement an excess profits tax and invest that money in retrofitting homes, bringing down home heating costs, expanding public transit and creating good, family-sustaining jobs in the low-carbon economy. This will make life more affordable and curb the pollution that is driving up emissions.

I want to take a moment to speak directly to the young people who are worried about the climate and to the workers who are fighting to build a better future. We see them, we hear them and we will not stop fighting for bold, urgent action that matches the scale of this crisis. This moment calls for courage. It calls for leaders who will stop pretending they are on track, stop listening to oil and gas CEOs, and start listening to Canadians, to science and to their own environment commissioner. It calls for policies that put people over profits, that confront the greed of fossil fuel executives, and that deliver the justice and hope Canadians deserve.