Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act  Madam Speaker, indeed, one of the major problems with Bill S-5 is that the enforceability of the right to live in a clean and healthy environment is left up to the minister. It is not up to the residents of Canada, who should be able to bring forward concerns to the minister and then follow a transparent and timely path so we can make sure this right is upheld in a proper manner.

Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act  Madam Speaker, I totally agree with the member. This bill is one of the steps in the right direction. It is something we feel we should support because we want to make a step in the right direction. We just wish there were several steps or bigger steps. At least with the right to a clean and healthy environment, for instance, we now have that enshrined within legislation.

Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act  Madam Speaker, Canadians care about the health of their environment. According to polling, 92% of Canadians believe the government should recognize the right to live in a healthy environment. Canada has several major pieces of legislation on environmental protection, but the Canadian Environmental Protection Act is the centrepiece of that commitment.

Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act  Madam Speaker, I just want to bring up the business of enforcement, which the member talked about at the end of her speech. The Canadian Environmental Protection Act is widely held as unenforceable. It has not ever been enforced in any reasonable way by the public. Bill S-5 would not change that.

Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act  Madam Speaker, we just had a question about some of the amendments that were not considered. Some of the amendments that people wanted to put forward were considered out of scope. We even heard one of the Liberal speakers today say that he hoped we would go back to this bill as soon as possible, as soon as we passed it, and create another bill that would fix the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.

Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague mentioned at the very end the things we need to fix about this bill that were considered out of scope, and I assume that is why they were not fixed in this iteration of the bill. However, Bill S-5 was introduced as a different bill in a previous Parliament.

Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act  Madam Speaker, I am really confused as to what my colleague wants here. He talks about how important it is to have a clean and healthy environment, as well as how Canadians expect and want that. However, he says we need fewer regulations for that clean environment. How do the Conservatives expect us to maintain a clean and healthy environment without regulations in some form that will keep companies like Imperial Oil in check when they spill toxins into rivers?

An Act for the Substantive Equality of Canada's Official Languages  Mr. Speaker, I consider the minister a friend and colleague. New Democrats are pleased that we are finally getting to this bill. We are disappointed that it took so long. It was first introduced in the last Parliament; days later, an election was called. Months after we reconvened, it finally came back before us.

An Act Respecting Regulatory Modernization  Madam Speaker, I would like to pick up on the theme of regulations and agriculture. I grew up on an apple orchard. My father sprayed those apples with DDT. We had a big bag of DDT under the sink that my brother and I used to play with. Then we found out that DDT was destroying the environment.

Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1  Madam Speaker, the member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo briefly mentioned health care and seemed to indicate that we were spending too much money on health care. I am wondering what he had in mind for health care. If we want to move to a more private health care system, like the States, they spend twice as much on health care per capita than we do and they have a poorer outcome.

Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1  Madam Speaker, the member for Foothills is a real champion for agriculture, and agriculture is very important in my riding. I know the farmers, orchardists and vineyard owners in my riding saw their gas prices go up three cents a litre this year because of the carbon tax. It is a provincial carbon tax in B.C.

Innovation, Science and Industry  Mr. Speaker, young Canadian scientists have walked off the job today. They have not seen a wage increase in 20 years. Here on Parliament Hill and at universities across the country, thousands of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows are rallying for the wages they deserve.

Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, I am glad the parliamentary secretary mentioned the interchange fees on credit card transactions. The NDP has been fighting for that for decades. Jack Layton was certainly a champion for that, and I have been pressing for it in my role as small business critic. I also want to mention that, in this budget, the tax credits for creating a new clean-tech economy have been tied to good, union-scale jobs across this country.

Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1  Madam Speaker, my neighbour in the Kootenays spent a lot of time talking about the carbon tax. The Conservatives, and certainly a British Columbian conservative such as he, never mention the fact that the carbon tax in British Columbia is a conservative tax. It was brought in by Gordon Campbell in 2008, 15 years ago.

Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague, the member for New Westminster—Burnaby, for his real championing of so many things that give Canadians a better life. One of the things he has been championing is the green new deal, the idea that we have to have a transition to a cleaner future and leave no workers behind.