(Ottawa) Pressure is mounting for the Trudeau government to completely stop subsidizing fossil fuels. The New Democratic Party and the Green Party added their votes to that of the Bloc Québécois. The forest fires raging across the country are rekindling the debate on the fight against climate change.
“Isn’t it time, in view of the evidence of the damage caused by climate change, to put an end to all forms of financing for fossil fuels and to channel this money particularly in Quebec because it is our strength towards sustainable economy? asked Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet in a speech to the House of Commons on Thursday.
“We are open to having the necessary amounts that are currently invested in oil, but that would be invested in the energy transition, be largely and essentially left in Western Canada, which has a great need to engage in the energy transition,” he suggested.
PHOTO SEAN KILPATRICK, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet
The party presented a motion for “the federal government to stop investing in fossil fuels” and “develop […] to stimulate the use of renewable energies and public transit” while respecting Quebec’s areas of jurisdiction.
The Liberals intend to support it in Monday’s vote, as do the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Green Party.
PHOTO SEAN KILPATRICK, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Alexandre Boulerice, deputy leader of the NDP
“We saw the images of the Statue of Liberty in New York completely enveloped by the smoke of the Quebec forest fires. It’s still crazy, ”denounced the deputy leader of the NDP, Alexandre Boulerice, during question period Thursday.
Climate change knows no borders. What is it going to take for this government to stop talking empty words and finally take action?
Alexandre Boulerice, deputy leader of the NDP
“I would like to remind my honorable colleague that it is with the collaboration of his party that we are in the process of eliminating fossil fuel subsidies in this beautiful country that we call Canada,” replied the Minister of ‘Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault.
He said the government had already phased out international fossil fuel subsidies last year, an effort hailed by Oil Change International. These amounts granted to Canadian companies for oil and gas projects abroad totaled 2.5 billion in 2018, according to his cabinet. “And there won’t be any more this year,” he said in an interview. It must also present a framework by the fall to eliminate domestic subsidies.
What is the use of eliminating them if it is to add others later? “In the 2023 budget, there is an addition of more than 3.3 billion in subsidies,” denounced Green Party MP Mike Morrice.
The last budget notably contains a tax credit of 520 million over five years for the capture, use and storage of carbon.
We do not support companies to produce hydrocarbons. We support companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change
“This is what we do with the steel sector, cement plants, aluminum, he added. We support a package of industrial sectors to reduce their carbon footprint. If we do it for these sectors, we will also do it for the oil and gas sector. »
Like the NDP and the Bloc Québécois, the Green Party also criticizes the purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline by the government, “a white elephant” whose bill today exceeds 30 billion.
The Conservative Party of Canada, which is demanding the elimination of the carbon tax, has not yet indicated whether or not its MPs will support the Bloc Québécois motion. Its leader Pierre Poilievre said in a press scrum on Thursday that he wanted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by adopting an approach inverted from that of the Liberals.
“They believe in increasing the cost of the energy that we still need,” he said. I believe in lowering the price of the carbon-free energy we want. He gave examples of hydroelectricity, nuclear energy, carbon capture and storage, and tidal energy.
“I would respect Quebec’s environmental assessment process instead of duplicating it to speed up the construction of hydroelectric dams,” he continued.
“A Poilievre government would break down the barriers and greenlight these projects,” he continued.
He did not specify the quantity of GHG emissions that such a measure would make it possible to eliminate.
Mike Norton, director of the Northern Forestry Centre, a research center of the Department of Natural Resources, said in a briefing on Monday that “wildfires are inevitable in Canada, but climate change is making them more serious”. The peculiarity this year is the fact that they occur in the spring due to abnormally hot and dry weather instead of occurring later in the summer.