Linda Duncan

[The Environment, November 29th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Environment is facing court action for failing to comply with laws protecting Canada's boreal woodland caribou. She has just this week received a petition seeking an order to protect the critical habitat of five severely threatened caribou herds in northeastern Alberta. Successive governments have failed in their mandatory duties to ensure the protection. The province admits it lacks the necessary powers.

Will the environment minister immediately recommend to the government to issue a section 61 order to save these herds?

[Ethics, November 27th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, it troubles me when the Liberals run for office, go to the communities, and promise one thing and then we get the budget bill, with $180 million going to Asia, not that Asia does not need better infrastructure. I have worked in Indonesia and Bangladesh and know the need. The infrastructure needs in our rural, isolated aboriginal communities troubles me. Not one cent in this budget, or last budget, goes toward helping those communities to get off diesel or switch over to what they would prefer—access to clean energy.

Does the member think that perhaps the government has its priorities in the wrong direction?

[Department of Public Works and Government Services Act, November 27th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague, the member for South Okanagan—West Kootenay, for an extremely thorough speech on this topic. I am appreciative of the fact that not only did he mention that this may be advantageous in tackling climate change but also where else the federal government has jurisdiction, including through the national building code and certainly in procurement.

The government would be well advised to look at the report we did at the government operations committee a few years ago. It talks about actions that could be taken by the federal government in its buildings to reduce greenhouse gases.

Could my colleague elaborate more on safety? He raised the fact that there is not yet public confidence. I have had a number of discussions in my nine years here with both police chiefs and firefighters themselves. I wonder if he could elaborate on some of the measures being taken to address the potential concerns about the safety of fire officers and whether they should also be included when we are designing the use of wood for building.

[Cannabis Act, November 22nd, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, as my colleague previously said, we will be supporting this bill.

However, we are concerned about a number of matters that are not being addressed. One of the matters that really troubles me, that I have become aware of, is that the government is refusing to call the opioid tragedy a national emergency. It is now saying that it wants to take measures to try to address opioids, and perhaps limit doctors' prescribing.

The government has decided that Canadians cannot get drug coverage for marijuana, a less harmful medicine than opioids. Can the member please explain why on Earth there has been all of this work, to legalize the use of marijuana, including medicinal, to encourage the marijuana industry to establish, and yet the government is not allowing people, for example, those who are suffering from nausea due to cancer, to choose to have marijuana prescribed as they would for an opioid, and have it covered through a drug program?

[Cannabis Act, November 21st, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I note the member sits on the committee with my colleague, our health critic, and so he is well aware of the fact that our party has tried to get the Liberal government to address the issue of pardons and that a bill has been drafted that would not allow for expedited pardons for the tens of thousands of youth who are going to have a criminal record despite the fact this is going to be legalized.

The hon. member said that he had frank discussions with officials in Edmonton and Alberta. I am wondering if he is aware of the letter that went from the president of the treasury board in Alberta to the federal Minister of Finance remonstrating that the provinces are only going to be given 50% of the revenue of the tax on cannabis despite the fact that they have to cover enforcement, road safety, justice, health and education, as do the municipalities? Is he going to support Alberta's needs, or is he going to stand with his own government?

[Indigenous Affairs, November 21st, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the government is keen to accept accolades for efforts to combat climate change. Regrettably, it has failed to give equal attention to its duties to transboundary waters and to address injustices suffered by indigenous communities from toxic pollution.

Canada has been chastised by the U.N. for failing to protect the Peace–Athabasca Delta and the indigenous communities who depend on it for their survival. In approving Site C, the government ignored the pleas of Alberta first nations to first assess the impacts of it on their treaty and constitutional rights.

Successive governments have turned a deaf ear to these communities seeking studies of the impacts of oil sands emissions on their health, a mandatory duty long vested in the federal minister of health. Despite parliamentary reports recommending regulation of oil sands' toxic emissions, there has been no action. The report by The Lancet identifies pollution as the greatest global threat to life and health and decries governments for their failure to address this injustice. The government has the power and the responsibility to act. Why does it continue to abandon these indigenous communities?

[The Environment, November 9th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the government likes to deride the Conservatives for their failed action on climate change and Canada's melting Arctic. How then do the Liberals defend that it took a private petition just to get the government to finally provide just enough dollars to keep the lights on for one year for our renowned PEARL project? The government is granting a mere $1 million to a climate program that was once given $22 million overall by the Conservatives.

Will the government respect calls by our nation's leading scientists and recommit long-term support for this critical climate change research?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 2, November 8th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I want to share with the member how much I appreciate his city. On 9-11, I was stranded in Fredericton when the towers came down. Fredericton was very kind to all of us who were in an international meeting.

I would like to ask the hon. member a question about global co-operation, work of the federal government on climate change and clean energy. What is troubling to me is there are several things missing from the budget. One is a tiny inkling of a measure to begin bringing down the $5 billion to $6 billion perverse subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, which Canada has committed to bringing down expeditiously.

Second, regrettably, there is nothing in this budget, which is one of the big topics happening at COP22, which is happening as we speak, and that is a just transition while providing capacity building. When Canada signed on to the Paris agreement, it committed to contributing toward capacity building.

Could the member speak to why he thinks the government has not stepped forward to support the provinces in building capacity for those workers who would like to get into the renewable energy sector?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 2, November 8th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for her very thorough listing of measures for which ordinary families are waiting.

It appears the government feels it has a lot of money to spend. It is going to send hundreds of millions of dollars over to China to develop infrastructure around the world, and yet, it cannot seem to find the time, the money, or the heart, to provide pharmacare.

The Liberals say we are all in this together, and yet, they vote against every single private member's bill and motion we table. That includes calls for the right to affordable housing, and the right to affordable medicines, so people do not have to decide whether they are going to pay their rent or buy their medicine.

Could the member speak to the fact there are many working families, and many people trying to get into the middle class who are not benefiting yet from the government?

[The Environment, November 8th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, in 2015, Canada announced $2.65 billion over five years to support efforts for the poorest and most vulnerable countries to adapt to climate change. While welcomed, this promise delivers just a portion of Canada's fair share.

This week, leading into COP22, the OECD criticized Canada for failing to deliver on its meagre target to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Will the Liberals commit today to real action on our nation's promises to act on climate change?