Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise in this chamber to offer my thoughts on the motion before Parliament. Today's motion purports to be about the price of gas, and connects it to our environmental plan and pipeline capacity in Canada. I am sure that the member who put the motion forward understands that regulating the price of gas is not within the federal government's purview and notwithstanding the recent debates we have dealt with on our plan to put a price on pollution.
However, what the motion is really about is affordability, our environmental plan and pipeline capacity. I hope to address each of these issues. I will start first with a subject that is very important to me, which is the need to have an effective plan to combat climate change and ensure that Canada does its share to help reduce its emissions to prevent some of the catastrophic consequences we have heard about.
It is perhaps trite to begin by saying that climate change is real and we have an obligation and an opportunity to do something about it. We see extreme weather events across Canada and around the world. Whether it is the recent floods in eastern Canada or forest fires in the west, we have a number of consequences being felt very directly in our country.
We know from a recent Environment Canada report entitled “Canada's Changing Climate” that Canada is experiencing warming at twice the global rate. I do not mean to suggest that this has to be a story of doom and gloom, because there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We know that if we adopt smart policies today, we can achieve reductions in our emissions that will prevent the most severe consequences from coming to pass. It is in that spirit that I would be happy to outline some of the measures we are implementing to ensure Canada does its part in the global fight to combat climate change.
The plan we have put forward and have been working on for the last numbers of years, implementing piece by piece, one after the other, has over 50 measures. We are going to have 90% of our electricity generated from clean resources by 2030. On that same schedule, we will have phased coal out as a source of electricity in Canada. We are making investments in energy efficiency for small organizations, homeowners and large organizations to help everyone in Canada pull in the same direction to bring their contribution to our emissions level down.
We are investing in green technology and green infrastructure. We are making the largest investments in the history of public transit in our country, to encourage more people to ride mass transit in order to take more cars off Canadian roads. We are making electric vehicles more affordable with recent measures included in budget 2019. As well, we are investing in helping to train the workforce in industries that are converting toward cleaner technologies, for instance, coal workers.
Of course, we are moving forward with a plan to put a price on pollution, which I have talked about at length in this House on a number of occasions. I want to take this opportunity to help educate the public on what this policy does. We hear a lot of noise coming from one side and the other, and I find we are in this bad habit of talking past one another rather than engaging in the merits of the policy in a substantive way.
What we are planning is not some policy idea that came out of an exclusively Liberal room. We have engaged with experts to figure out the most effective thing we could do in order to reduce our emissions. I point members to the winner of last year's Nobel Prize in economics, who won the prize for developing a plan that more or less mirrors what we are trying to do. It is one that would put a price on pollution but return the revenues collected directly to residents in the area where the price applies. Relying on advice of folks like the winner of last year's Nobel Prize in economics, we have moved forward with a plan to do just that: put a price on pollution and return the revenues to Canadians in the jurisdiction where it applies.
We started out by trying to negotiate with the different provinces and territories to find a plan that would work for them. Where the provincial or territorial government would not play a leadership role and enforce a minimum standard of price stringency, we said that a federal backstop would apply. This path is one that has garnered support from folks who are usually on the opposite side of the aisle from the Liberal Party of Canada. It has garnered support from the likes of Mark Cameron, Stephen Harper's former director of policy, who has been advocating for a fee and dividend system for some time.
It has garnered the support of one of Doug Ford's advisers, although it has been walked back a little. If we look at the testimony of one of Doug Ford's budget advisers who testified before the Senate, he said that the most effective thing we can do to transition to a low-carbon economy is to put a price on carbon emissions.
We can look at Conservative stalwarts like Preston Manning, who is urging his colleagues to stop fighting progress on the environment and adopt a market-based model to bring emissions down.
I would also like to draw attention to the recent decision of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal. It did not deal with the political issue but dealt with the legality and constitutionality of our plan. In identifying it as a national concern, a minimum standard being applied by the federal government and provinces that would not come to the table, it spoke to the effective and essential nature of GHG pricing in the global effort to reduce emissions.
What it said was that carbon pricing is not just part and parcel of an effective plan to reduce emissions but an essential aspect. It put that in italics to draw the attention of the reader, that it is an essential aspect of the global effort to reduce emissions to prevent the consequences of climate change. It went further to explain that because of the global nature of the problem, it requires countries like Canada to engage on the international stage to adopt international agreements that would identify a strategy to bring our emissions down.
It pointed to the Paris Agreement. It stated that in a country like Canada, it would obviously be difficult to meet the targets outlined in an international agreement like the Paris Agreement if some provinces refused to put forward a minimum pricing standard. It surveyed the evidence, and there was no question that the record before the court demonstrated that GHG pricing was both effective and essential if we are going to achieve meaningful reductions in our emissions.
It is important to recognize that our plan does not simply put a price on pollution, but it makes life more affordable for a vast majority of Canadians. In provinces where our plan applies, namely Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick, because big emitters also contribute to the revenues that are collected, families are left better off. In Saskatchewan, through the climate action incentive this year, when residents of that province filed their taxes, they would have received $609. That would more than offset any costs associated with our price on pollution. In Ontario, the number is a little more than $300. In New Brunswick, it is a little more than $250. In Manitoba, I think the number is $339. That goes directly to families.
We have a plan that has demonstrated an essential aspect of the global effort to reduce emissions. We have found a way, based on expert evidence such as the plan put forward by last year's Nobel Prize winner in economics, that will leave families better off at the end of the day. This is a win-win situation. Despite some of the noise that we hear from opponents of the plan who are trying to grab lightning for political purposes, when we dig into the facts, it is impossible to ignore that this is an effective policy. It is going to do the right thing for our environment and reduce emissions as well.
One of the things I am concerned with is that we have spent so much time on this one policy that Canadians may not understand it is one of 50 policy planks we have implemented to help reduce emissions. As I mentioned, 90% of our electricity will be generated from clean resources by 2030. We are phasing out coal and making a large investment in public transit. There are a number of different investments and initiatives we have undertaken that will have a meaningful impact.
The effects of climate change also have a very serious impact on nature and wildlife. I know during one of the questions from an NDP colleague during the previous speaker's turn, he drew attention to the recent UN report that indicated we are facing a potential mass extinction of one million of eight million species in the world. If members look at recent data, they will see that on average about 60% of different vertebrate species have been lost in the last half-century.
Canada is one of five countries in the world that has three-quarters of the world's remaining wilderness. We have an opportunity and an obligation to do whatever we can to protect nature and to fight climate change so we can preserve our natural environment for future generations.
The motion also addresses the issue of pipeline capacity. One of the things I want to draw attention to is that the previous government had a very difficult time getting major projects built, because it did not have an effective environmental assessment process to properly consider the impact of projects. It ended up fighting projects in court rather than building them in the ground.
What we have done is ensure that there is a little more work done at the front end but the timeline is not extended. It gives certainty to businesses, but it also allows environmental considerations and the perspective of indigenous people to inform the process so that we are less likely to be fighting about projects during and after the approval process and can move forward with them.
For example, we are seeking to move forward in the right way on the TMX project, taking in the perspectives of indigenous communities and those who are concerned about the environment to ensure that we can get our resources to market and Canadian producers do not have to consistently take a haircut on the price they get when they export or sell to the United States rather than to customers all over the world.
One of the things I want to focus on during the time I have today is that this motion is really about the affordability of life. There is no concern that is potentially more important to many of the people I represent. I come from a riding where the median income is somewhere in the range of $22,000. Getting by on that kind of income is exceptionally difficult to imagine.
One of the things we have focused on from day one is growing the economy and making sure that the economy operates in a way that works for everyone, not just the wealthiest Canadians.
When we look at our record of economic growth, the results speak for themselves. The Canadian economy since we took office has added over 900,000 jobs, primarily full-time, private sector jobs. Our unemployment rate across the country and in my home province of Nova Scotia is at an all-time low. It is at the lowest level in over 40 years, when we started to keep track of those statistics.
There is something special happening in the Canadian economy today, but it is not happening by accident. It is happening because Canadians are working hard, they are working together and they are benefiting from polices that have created an environment that encourages economic growth.
When I look at the investments we have made in infrastructure, I see that we are building out communities to strengthen them, put people to work and create opportunities for growth in the future.
If I look at the twinning of Highway 104, in my own backyard, between Sutherlands River and Antigonish, what I see is a project that will have 500 people working at peak construction and that will make for safer and more effective transportation for people and businesses going forward.
When I look at investments in things like the Pictou Campus of the Nova Scotia Community College, where we helped build a new trades innovation centre, I see the 125 people who were working onsite at peak construction. It is also going to educate the next generation of skilled workers.
When I see investments in the Halifax Stanfield International Airport and a new logistics park and cold storage facility, I know that it is going to help get our products to new markets so that our fishermen can put more money in their pockets and keep rural communities alive.
I see trade deals that create opportunities for local exporters in my community that are actually having a real and tangible benefit for families. There are a number of policies I could point to, examples in my own community, through which people are better off.
On the efforts on international trade, it was not long after we secured market access to our largest trading partner, the United States, that Michelin announced that it would be adding or making permanent a total of 350 jobs at its tire production facility in Pictou County, Nova Scotia.
The fact is that we are creating an environment in which the economy can thrive, and Canadians are taking advantage. However, left unchecked, economic growth may not benefit everyone equally. It tends to favour the richest members of society. As the rich get richer, it is important that we put checks and balances in place to ensure that most Canadians are not left behind. That is why we are moving forward with programs like the Canada child benefit. This plan has been a remarkable innovation in social policy that has helped lift over 800,000 Canadians out of poverty, 300,000 of whom are children.
This plan changed the previous government's approach to child support. It puts more money in the pockets of nine out of 10 Canadian families and stops sending child care cheques to millionaires. The people who need the most, get the most, and the people who have the most, do not need it, so they do not get it.
Frankly, it is not families like mine that need the extra support at the end of the month. I earn a good salary working as a member of Parliament. It is families like the ones I speak to when I knock on their doors who tell me that the cost of food is getting too high, and they are eating less healthy because of it.
When I talk to my constituency staff and they tell me that people have called because their power is about to be shut off in the middle of winter, I know that it is those people who could use a little extra help.
It is not just the Canada child benefit we can point to that is actually helping people who are more vulnerable, ensuring that everyone benefits from the economic success our country has been experiencing. If we look at the support we have added for seniors living in Canada, the beefing up of the guaranteed income supplement is going to help the most vulnerable low-income single seniors by putting almost $1,000 more a year in their pockets.
I spoke to a senior during the last campaign, and she told me that she received an update to the amount she was going to receive. She got a raise of 44¢, and she wrote to the previous prime minister and asked, “Should I save this up for a rainy day, or should I spend it all in one place and host a party for my friends?” To know that individuals like her are going to have up to $947 extra at the end of the year is meaningful, because I know it is going to go to a person who could use the help.
We are looking at programs like old age security. We reverted the age of eligibility from 67 to 65 to ensure that we did not screw up the plans of seniors who have been scheduling their retirement for some time. To ensure that the next generation of seniors can have a secure and dignified retirement, we beefed up the Canada pension plan as well to ensure that their needs will be met after their careers are over.
We can point to investments in the Canada workers benefit that will help Canadians who are working but are struggling to get by because the cost of living has gone up.
These are not the only reforms I can point to. We have made changes to the EI system around parental leave. We have introduced proactive pay equity legislation. We have made investments in health care by transferring more money to the provinces than has ever been transferred before, with carve-outs for mental health and in-home care for seniors. The fact is that we have created a circumstance that not only spurs economic growth but ensures that the most vulnerable Canadians are not left behind in the process.
When I see protests bubbling up around the world in the spirit of the French Revolution, which tried to take down the aristocracy, I know that people are frustrated, and the frustration is real. It is one thing to talk about the number of jobs that have been created in the economy, but unless the people living in my neighbourhood are better off, it does not mean too much.
When I see families that are benefiting from a tax cut, I know that they are doing well, because they are spending it on things like a new outfit for their kids for the first day of school that they may not have been able to afford before. I know that they are spending it on signing their kids up for swimming lessons. I know that they are taking their kids to join the soccer or basketball team, things I benefited from growing up that I took for granted, not realizing that the kids who may have lived next door to me could not afford to take part in those organized sports.
Our entire focus as a government is to help protect the environment and create an economy that is growing and working for everyone, not just the wealthiest Canadians.
I will not be supporting the motion on the floor, because it seemingly is an attempt to mislead Canadians about the economic impact of our plan for the environment. At the same time, the opposition refuses to produce one of its own, and it suggests, somehow, that Canadians are worse off and unable to afford the cost of living, despite the fact that the investments we have made leave them objectively better off.
When it comes to this fact, people do not have to take my word for it. We have an officer of Parliament, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, whose job is to ensure that there is transparency in government spending and to explain to the public the real impact of the measures the government has implemented. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has indicated that families under our plan across Canada will be $2,000 better off, and when it comes to our price on pollution, eight out of 10 families will be better off, and the families that will pay more will be restricted to the wealthiest 20% across Canada in the first year of this plan, maxing out at $50 a year for the wealthiest 20% of Canadians.
We are moving forward with a plan that is going to protect our environment, grow the economy and make sure that everyone has a chance to succeed, not just the wealthiest.
