Linda Duncan

[Rail Transportation, February 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, 2016 marks the 30th anniversary of the Hinton, Alberta rail disaster where 26 people died and another 95 people were injured. Engineer fatigue was identified as one cause of that tragedy. Thirty years later, worker fatigue is still a major factor in derailments, including at Lac-Mégantic.

The Minister of Transport is mandated to improve rail safety, yet communities along rail lines are left waiting for government action. How many more disasters will there be before the minister finally takes action on engineer fatigue?

[The Environment, January 29th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, speaking of following the law, the Conservative government's war on the environment may be over, but the impacts linger. We have learned that it is not just the NEB that has been failing to enforce environmental laws. As revealed by the head of Environment Canada's enforcement branch, poor morale and fear of reprisal have made officers reluctant or unable to enforce environmental laws. They have been forced to turn a blind eye to even serious environmental violations. Budget cuts, layoffs, and intimidation have left enforcement officers unable to do their important job to protect Canadians.

What action is the minister taking to restore the powers of her enforcement officers?

[Business of Supply, January 28th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to follow on the question by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources.

Congratulations on the member's inaugural speech in the House. What I was clearly hearing is apparently what the parliamentary secretary was hearing from his speech. He thinks that we should usurp the federal regulatory process which states that the National Energy Board will go through this review and then it will be referred to cabinet, for a recommendation to cabinet.

Does the member not stand by, which I understand is what the resource sector wants, a robust, consistent, credible review process? We are only part way through that for the energy east pipeline. Please explain what exactly he is calling on the government to do.

[Business of Supply, January 28th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the minister on her appointment. We look forward to working closely with her in developing a robust environmental regime, one that we once operated under.

In the minister's initial remarks, which she seemed to reverse later on, she spoke of the announcements made yesterday as affecting major resource projects. In fact, they are very limited to just two specific ongoing reviews of two pipelines. The reason I raise this is because we need reform of far more than just the environmental assessment process.

The problem with the reforms put in place by the Conservative government was that they removed the very triggers for federal environmental assessments. They also removed the regulatory powers that the agencies could use when the environmental assessment recommendations were put in place by permit or regulatory power. Therefore, this will also affect the interests of not only impacted communities but of first nation and Métis people. Could the minister speak to this issue?

What I have heard from first nations, of course including in the Truth and Reconciliation report and UNDRIP, is that they want far more than just a say in the development of a pipeline by some external proponent. They are asking for respect for their rights and title, their voices heard, and benefits from resource development on their lands. How are the minister's announced reforms going to address this much bigger issue?

[Business of Supply, January 28th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, the former parliamentary budget officer has reported that the Conservatives left almost nine billion budgeted dollars unspent last year.

These dollars could have been spent to support job creation, retraining, the clean energy sector, and economic diversification. Their stance has simply been that we have a one-company town. When I went door-to-door in the last campaign, I talked to many oilfield workers who said that they were tired of the boom-and-bust economy and who wanted some economic diversification. However, the government completely drained the important funds for new energy sectors, such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, and clean-energy dollars budgeted for those sectors that could have created new retraining opportunities and jobs.

The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, in my city of Edmonton, has tripled enrolment in their renewable energy training program. It has a 100% job creation record, when their students graduate.

The Conservatives simply missed the boat for 10 years. They could have invested and provided economic alternatives while the oil price was plummeting.

Even if and when we get those pipelines built, there will be an interim period in which we need to be employing our Canadians. I would like to hear the Conservatives defend why they let that $9 billion go by when we could have retrained workers in Canada.

[Business of Supply, January 28th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for his remarks. I would like to comment on his remarks as well as on those of his colleague, the member for Portage—Lisgar.

The member for Portage—Lisgar just stated in this place that providing opportunities for impacted communities or first nations to have a say in decision-making on pipelines is a roadblock to decision-making. The member for Beauce just claimed that his government implemented measures to protect the environment. That is astounding.

It is well known across this country that one of the significant things the Conservative government did was completely shred a history of environmental legislation, such as the Navigable Waters Protection Act , the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, and the Fisheries Act, through a process that denied the opportunity to Canadians to have a voice.

Surely the major roadblock to decision-making on critical infrastructure has been the Conservatives' actions; they refused to provide a social licence for major projects.

[Business of Supply, January 28th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, the regulation, development, and support of natural resources is very important to my province of Alberta. The Conservatives are now raising this concern that export and interprovincial pipelines are not being built in Canada, yet during their 10-year tenure we did not see any being built. My concern is for the rising unemployment in my province. Apparently, there was a billion dollars earmarked by the former Conservative government for infrastructure, which was not delivered, yet we have the highest unemployment record since 2008, reported to be nearly four times higher for labourers and lower-paid workers than for higher-paid workers. Overall, we have lost more than 30,000 natural resource jobs. These layoffs did not just start this month; they did not start after the federal election; they started about a year and a half ago. Where was the Conservative government when it decided not to spend the dollars that would create good jobs in Alberta and across the country?

[Rail Transportation, January 26th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the Transportation Safety Board is reporting more derailments, runaway trains, and violations of rail safety rules, including exhausted engineers.

Following the Lac-Mégantic disaster, rail companies were required to report on potential risks, the locations, and how they are being addressed. During the election, the government promised to increase transparency, yet it is refusing to make public critical reports on risks from rail traffic.

Will the minister today, in this place, commit to making public the safety risks posed by rail operations across our nation?

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, January 26th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the member for Red Deer—Lacombe for his re-election.

I too had the opportunity to meet with Alberta farm producers last week. I attended the meeting of the Alberta Federation of Agriculture with the NDP agriculture critic. I had a terrific day with them and followed up with a meeting with Albert De Boer, who has been involved with the Canadian Dairy Farmers.

I wonder if the member could speak to some of the issues that were raised to me and my colleague by the farmers and producers. Alberta producers are still not happy with the previous government's record on getting their crops to market, and I am wondering if the member could speak to whether the Liberals are going to support greater regulation and action by the federal government to start regulating the rail industry.

Second, I am informed that the dairy industry continues to be opposed to the TPP and is disappointed that the previous government did not support action on milk proteins.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, January 26th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the member for Pontiac on his election. We have known each other for quite some time. I can presume that the hon. member will share the concern of his former colleagues at Ecojustice for the calls and support for a transitional process for the NEB process, for the reinstatement of protections of navigable rivers, legislation that was the key driver for federal assessment, and that his members support instigating federal protections for the participation, access to information, and effective enforcement under the environmental bill of rights.

Will the member for Pontiac be an advocate for these issues, which are concerns of the public, in his caucus?