(OTTAWA) Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced Thursday that he is calling for a “national action plan” to build Canada’s capacity to deal with wildfires, after some pointed to his choice not to speak out, the watch over this glaringly topical issue.
“We need more resources […]more planes and more firefighters,” Mr. Poilievre said during a scrum in the foyer of the House of Commons.
He asserted, in the same breath, that “the pilots’ unions had already warned governments at all levels of the need for more pilots”.
Succeeding him at the microphone a few minutes later, the leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, refuted the idea of a pan-Canadian action plan by stressing that Quebec already has a system in place.
” We have […] SOPFEU, we have firefighters, we have people, we have institutions. It’s the money we don’t have. For what ? Because Quebecers’ money stays in Ottawa, then Ottawa uses Quebecers’ money to centralize,” he said.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, for his part, said in an interview with The Canadian Press that Ottawa “already has an action plan”, deploring that Mr. Poilievre “still arrives a little late in the parade” .
“We’ve been working on this for a long time. A (federal) climate change adaptation plan was presented last December. The government has already invested more than six billion dollars,” he said, adding that Ottawa needed to do more.
End of fossil fuel subsidies
The Bloc Québécois used its opposition day on Thursday to force a parliamentary debate on the effects of climate change, such as forest fires, but also on the cessation of all investment in fossil fuels.
” He is […] necessary not only to observe, but to take action. And the most incoherent gesture that we can make as a State is to support the main known cause in Canada – and among the main causes on a global scale of global warming – it is the obsessive exploitation of hydrocarbons”, insisted Mr. Blanchet detailing the motion put forward by his party.
Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have been promising to cut subsidies to the fossil fuel industry all the way to elimination since the 2015 election campaign that saw them elected for the first of their three consecutive terms.
This commitment, also made by Canada at the G20, has not been completed since. With their most recent election campaign platform, in 2021, the Liberals promised that this will be done by the end of 2023.
Consequently, the government will “absolutely” support the Bloc motion which must be put to the vote on Monday, said Mr. Guilbeault. The Bloc Québécois can also count on the support of the New Democratic Party (NDP), said a spokesperson for the political formation.
“We eliminated international fossil fuel subsidies last year. […] (At the) domestic level, it’s part of our agreement with the NDP (to do it by the end of the year). We will respect this commitment,” assured Mr. Guilbeault.
He claimed the government is on “its last miles” of fully delivering on its promise.
Not everyone agrees on what constitutes, or does not constitute, a subsidy to the oil industry. The Minister agrees that federal contributions presented as aid for the decarbonization of oil players are seen as indirect financing of the sector which must be abolished.
“For example, carbon capture and storage subsidies, some say (that) it’s a fossil fuel subsidy,” he noted. The Bloc Québécois is of this opinion in particular, which differs from that of the Liberals.
“Insofar as we help the aluminum sector, cement factories, steel, the forestry sector to decarbonise, from an ethical point of view, the government cannot say ‘Well, we help you , but you, we don’t help you,” defended Mr. Guilbeault. And I understand that on this, not everyone agrees. »
Either way, the Bloc motion is guaranteed to pass no matter how the Conservatives vote.
Mr. Poilievre signaled in the morning that he wanted to examine the Bloc proposal further before making a decision on the vote for his troops. However, it is very likely that his party will oppose it.
“I’m all for our oil industry in Western Canada,” said the Conservative leader. It is a very good sector that finances our social services. »
He added, however, that “at the same time”, he is not “the type of politician who favors subsidies”, regardless of industry.
During Wednesday’s Question Period, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Poilievre of refusing to take notice of the many wildfires raging across the country. In the same breath, he affirmed that the Conservatives position themselves at odds with the fight against climate change.
Mr. Trudeau made the comments as Mr. Poilievre was using all of his time to pound on Liberal policies he deems inflationary.
Since the Prime Minister’s attack on the Leader of the Official Opposition, observers of the federal scene have also noted that Mr. Poilievre did not address the forest fires during the day Wednesday, despite several distinct moments. of speaking.