Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise to speak to Government Motion No. 9, which reads as follows:
That this House call upon the government to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
First, I would like to congratulate my colleague, the member for Rosemont—Petite-Patrie, for the excellent work that he has done on this issue. Even his speech earned him praise from the environment minister. It is not often that we hear a minister praise a speech from this side of the House because with the kind of partisan debates we have here, members have a tendency to be more receptive to speeches made by colleagues of their own party.
Having said that, I want to recognize, in a non partisan way, the work of the member for Rosemont—Petite-Patrie, particularly with regard to the educational aspect of his work as a member of Parliament. He sends householders regularly to his constituents. Personally, I have relatives who live in the member's riding, and I know that people always appreciate receiving information. It is not partisan or biased information, but factual information that allows people to form their own opinion on the ratification of the Kyoto protocol.
Furthermore, since I remember this because I followed the issue on television and in the newspapers, I would like to point out that our colleague and environment critic, the member for Rosemont—Petite-Patrie, had assembled a very large coalition comprised of almost a hundred stakeholders to ensure that the government would finally decide to act and ratify the Kyoto protocol.
I continue to say what my colleagues in the Bloc Quebecois have maintained during the debate and what we had the opportunity to point out regularly in the House, which is that we find it unfortunate that Motion No. 9 tabled by the government did not contain a ratification date. Following some persistent and tenacious questioning by members on this side of the House, we have been able to get the Prime Minister to acknowledge, last week, that there would be a vote and ratification of the Kyoto protocol before the end of 2002.
Despite this, the implementation plan introduced by the federal government in this regard can still be improved. For example, we still have serious doubts about this plan, because it uses 2010 as the base year by which specific reduction efforts will be demanded of each province or economic sector.
We in the Bloc Quebecois as well as a majority of Quebeckers, consider that this approach is unfair, because it does not allow past and current efforts to be taken into account and it encourages polluters to pollute more until 2010. It is as though we were saying today, in 2002 “There is no problem. You can still continue to pollute for the next eight years, because the base year will be 2010”. This is a technique that lawyers refer to as wilful blindness, that is closing our eyes to pollution events until 2010.
We in the Bloc Quebecois had asked that 1990 be used as the base year, because we felt that we should not encourage or reward polluters and that we should avoid penalizing those who have already made efforts.
I should remind the House that, before I was elected here, I worked in the pulp and paper industry for 14 years. I worked for Abitibi Price, the largest pulp and paper company in Canada. I worked there from 1976 until 1990. I saw pulp and paper companies, and not only Abitibi Price, invest millions and millions of dollars. I could talk about Consolidated Bathurst, Kruger, Donahue and Domtar. In Quebec, these corporations made some serious efforts to develop clarifiers to process and remove unwanted solids.
The pulp and paper industry expanded in Quebec in the 1920s, around 1924-1925. We have 60 pulp and paper companies in Quebec. Except for the most recently built plants, most of them are facing pollution problems. Some of the plants, like the ones in Kénogami, in the Saguenay region, and in Port-Alfred, were built in the 1920s near the water.
By definition, the plants needed two things: first, a supply of wood material, which is why the plants were built in very densely wooded areas, like in the regions of Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean, the Mauricie, Abitibi, the North Shore and the Gaspé area. Usually, plants were also built close to the water.
We know that in the 1920s and 1930s, people were not as concerned as they are today about the environment. Oftentimes the residues of sulphites used to bleach paper were discharged directly in the river.
Another reason why companies built plants near rivers was because a paper mill is necessarily energy-consuming; it needs hydroelectricity. In Lac-Saint-Jean, paper companies built dams in the Shipshaw and the Saguenay rivers in order to obtain the hydroelectricity they needed for the papermaking machines.
I can say that, in the 1980s, the paper companies invested large sums in clarifiers. They changed the production processes so that they could use products other than sulphite to bleach the paper.
Where I worked, we produced kraft pulp. It is one of the most polluting processes. Quebec companies invested heavily in environmental protection in an attempt to control both solid and liquid residues discharged into waterways and dust particles that escaped into the air.
I did say I am from Saguenay--Lac-Saint-Jean. I come from Chicoutimi. Alcan is everywhere in that region. It started operating in the former city of Arvida. The Arvida aluminum plant was for a long time the first industrial complex in the world. In the days when we did not use kilometres and metres, we said that the plant measured a mile and a half long by three quarters of a mile wide. That is the size of the potroom at the Alcan plant in Arvida.
Alcan was used as an example, but it could just as easily have been Péchiney, Reynolds in Baie-Comeau, or the aluminum smelters in Deschambault or Bécancour, Quebec. These companies chose to establish in Quebec because of its major hydroelectric potential, since aluminum smelters are by definition huge energy guzzlers. That is why the pulp and paper and aluminum companies established operations in areas with high hydroelectric potential.
Otherwise, it would have been more logical to set up a plant on the outskirts of New York City or Chicago. The problem is that they lack the hydroelectricity required for their vats and paper making processes.
The purpose of this digression is to explain that, by selecting 2010 as the base year, the government is again refusing to take past efforts into consideration. It still has time, however, to alter its approach, if it wants to get all of the provinces on side. It should take into consideration the fact that, since 1990, a number of industrial sectors have been making efforts that deserve recognition.
The Bloc Quebecois is also concerned by another issue. The implementation plan for the Kyoto protocol confirms that Ottawa is prepared to fund projects from the oil and gas industry.
As we know, in the past, Ottawa has given subsidies to the oil and gas industry that were 20 times greater than those allocated to renewable energies. One has only to think about oil production, and more specifically the Hibernia project, off the coast of Newfoundland. I agree that Newfoundland had an unemployment problem. It is true that this project was going to help economic development.
In this regard, I know that discussions are currently taking place with the Quebec government to undertake oil and gas research in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, off the Gaspé coast and Anticosti Island. I hope that when the time comes to sit down, the federal government will remember the benefits that were given to the Hibernia project, off Newfoundland. As for the Gaspé, the Lower St. Lawrence and the North Shore, they also need to develop the oil and gas potential that exists in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. I will stop here as regards this issue.
The Bloc Quebecois is asking the federal government to pledge that, for each dollar given to the oil and gas industry, one dollar will also be given to the renewable energy industry.
I must remind everyone that the tar sands are located in the riding of my colleague, the member for Athabasca, and that it is a process that produces a great deal of pollution. Earlier, he was quite happy to ask questions of my colleague, the member for Rosemont—Petite-Patrie.
For his benefit and for the benefit of the members of the House, when Quebec developed its hydroelectricity, it did not ask for one red cent from anyone. When Quebec harnessed the Manicouagan River to erect various dams, from Manic I to Manic V, and when, under the Robert Bourassa government in the 1970s, it harnessed the La Grande and Rupert Rivers to obtain the James Bay complex, it did not ask for anything from the other provinces to develop its hydroelectricity.
However, since the grants came in by the shovelful, if not by the tonne, for the oil patch out west, I think we should keep in mind the fact that Quebec has done its share in developing a non-polluting, renewable and clean source of energy.
In Quebec, hydroelectricity is a clean energy. Other sectors are waiting for funding from the federal government. Other sectors want encouragement. Take the wind energy sector, for example. Quebec already has the beginnings of wind energy development in the area of Cap-Chat, where the Gaspé Peninsula begins, on the north side. There are various wind energy projects there. It is still in the very early stages. There is a little field of windmills. I do not know how many there are, but it is quite an energy source for this region to develop. There are also windmills on the Magdalen Islands. More could be done.
We also know the Murdochville area needs a boost. During the last election, the member for Bonaventure—Gaspé—Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Pabok was strutting about telling everyone, “Elect a Liberal member. Elect a government member, you will see”. He practically told them that money would fall from the sky, that they would be able to pick it up by the fistful. The people were basically taken hostage; it made a mockery of everyone. I challenge the member for Bonaventure—Gaspé—Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Pabok to ensure that wind power projects are developed in the Murdochville area. He sure talked up a storm during the election campaign of November 2000, just over two years ago now. He needs to put his money where his mouth is.
Unfortunately, I will not have enough time to speak about another type of energy that could be developed, tidal energy. There are tidal energy production plants in Nova Scotia, in the Bay of Fundy. That is another industry the federal government should help and promote.
Finally, the Bloc Quebecois supports ratification of the Kyoto protocol by Canada, for the following reasons. It is time to reverse the trend toward global warming, which will lead to dramatic environmental damage. My colleague, the member for Rosemont—Petite-Patrie, said it quite appropriately earlier today. We just have to think about the 1998 ice storm and the flood in the Saguenay.
However, my colleague forgot to mention another event. I will do so on his behalf, just to show that our perspective is not totally focused on Quebec. There are the floods caused by the Red River in the Winnipeg area. We all remember that, in 1997, they even thought about postponing the election in Manitoba, because the flood reached a magnitude never seen in the last 125 to 150 years. There surely is a reason for all of this. There must be something causing this. I am not a expert, but studies on the question say that we should consider the environmental aspects of this climate warming.
There is another reason why we in the Bloc Quebecois are asking for the Kyoto protocol to be ratified. Canada has to cooperate in the international effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Canada is a large source of greenhouse gases. If we exclude Quebec, Canada is the worst polluter per capita in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.
The Bloc Quebecois therefore believes that the people of Quebec want Canada to ratify the Kyoto protocol. The Quebec National Assembly, which is our true national assembly, voted unanimously for such ratification. By unanimously, we mean that the members of the Parti Québécois, the members of the Liberal Party of Quebec, the official opposition, and the five ADQ members all voted in favour.
This being said, the government would do well to listen more carefully to the consensus developing here in Quebec. I believe that we in the Bloc Quebecois must make that consensus known.
Anyway, there are Liberal members from Quebec who have been elected to the House and we never hear them say that they speak for the consensus in Quebec. They never want to go against the party line. They just act like trained seals.
