The Environment  The Conservatives have no plan to reduce CO2. They have no plan to put a price on carbon. On the contrary, they subsidize big oil and gas companies, and not even Canadian companies. Here is an enlightening fact. Since 2009, thanks to Conservative inaction, Canada's carbon emissions have been steadily going up, not down, and that rise is expected to continue.

Petitions  Speaker, this summer I got to paddle for a week through the islands, shoals and riptides of the west coast of B.C., so I can understand this petition signed by people from all over Canada. The petitioners are calling on the Government of Canada to establish a permanent ban on crude oil tankers on the west coast to protect fisheries, tourism, coastal communities and natural ecosystems.

Natural Resources  China is the world leader in clean energy investment. It set aside $54 billion last year for the sector, dwarfing Canada's paltry contributions. Endlessly pumping oil is not even doing our economy that much good in the short term. It is becoming clear that over half of all of the oil and gas reserves in the ground will have to stay in the ground as monstrous stranded assets.

Natural Resources  Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The IMF reports that Canadian government subsidies to oil are a whopping $34 billion each and every year. We Canadians are addicted to oil. Raised on the car culture, I am a bit guilty myself. We have built a huge and wealthy, but unsustainable western economy, built upon cars and oil.

Regional Development  We in northern Ontario have been calling for years for FedNor to be an independent, stand-alone regional economic development agency, as in eastern and western Canada. Former NDP member Tony Martin introduced legislation that would have made FedNor an independent economic development agency governed by a regional board of directors, and I have raised this issue many times in this House.

Taxation  The Conservatives have been increasing the financial burden on Canadian families in other ways. Canada has one of the lowest large corporate tax rates in the world. Our rate on large corporations is less than half that of the United States. The OECD has warned that a tax rate on large corporations substantially below the top personal income tax rate, like we see in Canada today, “can jeopardize the integrity of the tax system as high-income individuals will attempt to shelter their savings within corporations.”

The Environment  Much of that increase will be from the oil and gas sector, which the government first promised to regulate in, wait for it, 2009. Four environment ministers and five years later, industry is still waiting for rules that would give us carbon reduction and the energy companies certainty.

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns  With regard to the so-called “carbon bubble”, or the inflation of hydrocarbon and oil and gas sector company stock valuation beyond their utilisable assets, what modeling, planning, estimates or mitigation strategies have been carried out since 2008 on this investment bubble or its potential impacts on the Canadian economy by (i) the Department of Finance, (ii) Industry Canada, (iii) Natural Resources Canada, (iv) any other government department or agency?

Business of Supply  Good for the NDP for standing up for Canadian autonomy, Canadian jobs, and the processing of Canadian resources in Canada. I am really disappointed in the Liberals' stance. I just do not see their logic at all. Building on what the member said, is he aware that Mark Carney, when he was the governor of the Bank of Canada, said that buying high from Brent crude oil and selling low, at a 20% to 30% discount, Western Canada Select to the U.S., was a really dumb thing to do?

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I have petitions from across Canada calling on our government to implement a national moratorium on hydraulic fracking, to compel oil and gas companies to disclose the database of chemicals used in fracking to date, to conduct a comprehensive environmental assessment on fracking, and in accordance with polluter pay, to hold companies to account for the cost of cleaning up fracking damage that has already occurred.

The Environment  Mr. Speaker, the London School of Economics states that up to 80% of Canada's hydrocarbon reserves are “unburnable” if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change, but speculators and markets are counting these stranded assets toward the value of oil companies.

The Environment  It would amount to Canadians losing a unique and vital research platform that is crucial to the government fulfilling its obligation to protect Canada's lakes and fisheries. Are the Conservatives looking into handing over the facility to oil sector interests? If not oil interests, just whom are they negotiating with to take over this facility?

Economic Action Plan 2013 Act, No. 1  I wonder if she heard my statement today at the beginning of statements by members. Mr. Stern of the London School of Economics has said that Canada is facing a huge carbon bubble with the risk that if we continue to export huge volumes of fossil fuels and do not diversify our petro-economy, at some point the bubble is going to burst, and it will cost us thousands of jobs and huge amounts of economic benefit to Canada.

Regional Economic Development  Thunder Bay is losing 75 people at the Canadian Grain Commission. Having no more research and no more inward inspections will damage Canada's reputation. Service Canada in my riding has seen over 20 jobs lost, impacting front-line service delivery to constituents. In total, over 130 people have been axed so far in Thunder Bay, and that number will soon grow to over 300 this year.

The Environment  Speaker, when in university 43 years ago, I helped organize the very first Earth Day, but we will have little to celebrate today in Canada. The government has dismantled our environmental laws, muzzled our scientists, ripped up Kyoto and refused to take action on dangerous climate change. For Earth Day on Monday, how about the government ending its $1.3 billion in corporate welfare handouts for big oil and big gas companies?