Sheila Malcolmson

[Main Estimates, 2018-19, June 14th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, it is late in the season, and we are all tired, but for goodness' sake, how many more times are we going to hear a speech like that about feminism and lifting women up? It is embarrassing. The goodwill of the government, the words of the government, and the words of the speech, yes, of course, but it is two and a half years later. It was 42 years ago that the previous prime minister Trudeau said the government was going to implement pay equity. It was 42 years ago, and it still has not happened. There are zero dollars in this budget to implement pay equity. My colleague across the way can say until she is blue in the face how important it is. Why does her government not do it? The Liberals have a majority, they have the mandate, and they have the words, but they have no concomitant action.

They say now they are putting in this great new parental leave benefit. Six in 10 workers in Canada do not qualify for employment insurance, so fix EI and do something with the power you have and fund it in the budget.

This is all rhetoric. It is all flowery words, and I so wish you would just get on with it in the year and a half you have in your mandate and put some action in place for feminism.

[Natural Resources, June 14th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, as Liberals put billions into Kinder Morgan, betraying their promised sunny ways renewable future, pipeline spills and accidents are rising. Equiterre's new report on oil pipeline safety found less than 50% of incidents are reported. The National Energy Board is “not capable” of handling the work on its plate and is not protecting citizens or the environment.

Why did the government buy a leaky old pipeline, knowing these risks? How will it police itself when the next leak happens?

[Business of Supply, June 14th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, under the previous Conservative government, former prime minister Harper received “Fossil of the Year” awards repeatedly at international climate conferences, yet the Liberal government continues to carry on with the same discredited greenhouse gas emission reduction targets of the Conservative Party.

While New Democrats agree that putting a price on carbon pollution is important, as it is for all forms of pollution, we are extremely discouraged that the Liberal government continues to subsidize fossil fuel expansion, including purchasing a leaky old pipeline. It is mind-blowing, honestly, to think that is where we are.

How does the member opposite view carbon pricing in conjunction with a failure to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions beyond what the Harper Conservatives promised?

[Business of Supply, June 14th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to hear my Conservative colleague's view of the government investing $4.5 billion of public money in the Kinder Morgan pipeline, and the possibility that may even come from Canada pension plan funds, or maybe from the infrastructure bank that the finance minister established. How does that that square with the government's action on climate change?

[Petitions, June 14th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, at a time of unprecedented global awareness about the problem of marine plastics, and horrifying images of choked whales and snared sea-turtles, petitioners from Nanaimo, Ladysmith, Parksville, and Gabriola Island call on Parliament to support the motion of the New Democrat member for Courtenay—Alberni, Motion No. 151. They call for action on marine plastics, supplementing the citizen action to clean up beaches. Citizens are also calling for change, and specifically calling on the government to regulate use of single-use plastics, as well as provide permanent and ongoing funding to deal with marine debris such as ghost nets, which have been killing fish and marine mammals for decades. We commend the petition to the House.

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, June 13th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, reuniting families is something the Prime Minister says he values, yet whether or not someone's parents and grandparents can come to Canada is all based on the luck of the draw. Imagine, a lottery decides whether they will be reunited with their loved ones. Last year, hundreds of spots remained unfilled due to errors, and critics say the process used can easily be rigged.

How can the Prime Minister justify family reunification that is based on a lottery?

[Business of Supply, June 12th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, New Democrats share the concerns of the Auditor General and G7 countries that Canada has not kept its promise to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. Is there any way the government would pay for this 60-year-old Kinder Morgan pipeline with Canada pension plan money? Please say it is not so.

[Business of Supply, June 12th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, with respect, I have to disagree with my colleague across the way. There is no consensus among Canadians that in order to defeat climate change, we have to build a pipeline. It is Orwellian logic and it does not make any sense.

I want to ask my colleague across the way about his government's commitment to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. This was a promise that Canada made to the G7 in recognition that subsidies for fossil fuels undermine efforts to deal with climate change, that they encourage wasteful energy consumption, that they reduce energy security, and that they impede investment in clean energy sources.

Because we are debating today the imperative for the government to shift its investment from a dirty old bitumen pipeline for $4.5 billion into clean energy jobs instead, when is the government going to act on its promise to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies?

[Business of Supply, June 12th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, many of my constituents have been concerned for a very long time about the Kinder Morgan pipeline. They supported people in northern B.C. to defeat the northern gateway project, but Kinder Morgan hits very close to home. We are right in the tanker traffic path, so we see what the impacts would be.

In the last couple of weeks in my riding, people have told me that the use of Canada pension plan money as well makes it that much worse. It is unfortunate that the Liberal Party has always listened very closely to the corporate interests, including those in the States. They are lining up, and apparently have the Prime Minister's ear more than people on the ground who are working and boosting our coastal economy right now.

That Canada pension plan money would even be a consideration for the Prime Minister's investment in his old pipeline is the final straw. People at home are furious.

[Business of Supply, June 12th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, this motion is necessary because New Democrats are dismayed that the government is putting public money into an obsolete, old pipeline instead of removing the barriers to workers' success and expanding the renewable energy economy.

As an example, with the G7 having met just last weekend, Canada made a commitment along with its G7 partners to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. A report that came out last week says Canada has broken that promise. It is at the bottom of the list; it funds the fossil fuel industry more than any other G7 country, and the Auditor General's report last year concluded that the government has no plans to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. This was after a bunfight of about two and a half years of trying to force the government to reveal anything about its election promise and its G7 promise to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies.

The government is talking out of both sides of its mouth. It says it is a climate leader, yet it has invested $4.5 billion in an old bitumen pipeline. It says it is for the workers and renewable energy, yet it funds the obsolete fossil fuel industry more than any other. This is the wrong direction for the environment and for the economy.