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 the day before on this pressing topical issue.
“We need more resources to do this, more planes and more firefighters,” Poilievre said opening a scrum in the House of Commons foyer.
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.
The Bloc Québécois is using 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 in front of the journalists by detailing the motion put forward.
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 Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“We eliminated international fossil fuel subsidies last year. […] [Au niveau] domestic, it’s part of our agreement with the NDP [de la faire d’ici la fin de l’année]. We will respect this commitment,” he assured.
Mr. Guilbeault said the government is on “its last miles” to have fully fulfilled its promise.
With the support of the Liberals, the Bloc motion is guaranteed to pass, no matter how the other political parties represented in the Commons vote.
Mr. Poilievre indicated, in the morning, that he wanted to examine the Bloc motion further before making a decision on the vote of 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 from the federal scene have also noted that Mr. Poilievre did not address the forest fires during the day on Wednesday.
In addition to speaking during question period, Mr. Poilievre also delivered a speech that day to his caucus gathered for its weekly meeting. The party leader’s team had invited the media to listen to this speech during which the latter did not mention the forest fires either.
He insisted on blaming the Trudeau government for the rising cost of living and on his crusade to try to block the passage of Bill C-47 implementing the 2023 federal budget. this last point, Mr. Poilievre held a speech-river of several hours, Wednesday evening.