Catherine McKenna

Mr. Speaker, in January 2016, we released interim principles. There were two parliamentary committees that looked at Bill C-69. There were two expert panels. There was consultation across the country with businesses, with provinces, with indigenous peoples and with environmentalists. Then the Senate actually went on tour to listen to people. Then we accepted 99 amendments.

However, let us go back to what happened under Stephen Harper. What did he do? Through an omnibus budget bill, with no consultation, he gutted environmental assessments, which meant that good projects could not go ahead in a timely way.

Mr. Speaker, I am wondering if the member opposite noticed the report that showed that Doug Ford's climate plan is twice as expensive as our climate plan. It is twice as expensive.

What is Premier Ford also doing? He is spending $40 million of taxpayers' money to fight climate action rather than to fight climate change. He has a sticker campaign where he is actually going to make businesses pay if they do not mislead Ontarians.

We need to take serious action on climate change. We need to do it. It is good for our economy. It is good for the environment, and we owe it to our kids.

Mr. Speaker, do you know who is insulting taxpayers? Premier Ford, who is spending taxpayers' money attacking pollution pricing.

Quebec has put a price on pollution. Is my colleague opposed to pollution pricing in Quebec? I do not know if the member realizes that Quebec's economy is growing. It put a price on pollution, and it is working. The province has good jobs and a vibrant clean technology sector.

The economy and the environment go hand in hand, as Quebec perfectly illustrates.

Why is the member not standing up for Quebec and Quebeckers?

Mr. Speaker, do you know what Quebeckers tell me when I talk to them? They say that they want us to take ambitious measures to fight climate change and protect the environment. They do not want to go back to the days of Stephen Harper; rather, they want us to strengthen the environmental assessment rules.

Yes, they want us to grow the economy and create good jobs. They know that we have a plan. The Conservative Party has no plan for the environment, no plan for the economy and no plan for Canadians.

Mr. Speaker, it is time for the country to come together. We do need major projects to go ahead. Under the failed system under Stephen Harper, environmental protections were gutted, and we did not care about our constitutional obligation to consult with indigenous peoples. In the end, good projects were not able to go ahead in a timely way.

We have better rules. Everyone should be standing for those better rules, because we want to continue to grow our economy. We want to continue to attract investment.

We had the largest foreign direct investment in Canada last year. We created a million jobs. Families are $2,000 better off. We are showing how to grow the economy—

Mr. Speaker, we have a $500-billion economic opportunity for major projects in the next decade. Under Stephen Harper, under gutted rules, good projects were unable to go ahead, we did not listen to indigenous peoples and we did not protect the environment.

We are very proud of the better rules we brought in through Bill C-69. We listened to senators and accepted amendments that made the rules better.

We can protect the environment. We can partner with indigenous peoples. We can do all of that while ensuring that good projects go ahead in a timely way. I would ask the parties opposite to support this good—

Mr. Speaker, I am surprised to hear the opposition member's comments.

Is he telling Quebeckers that he no longer supports Quebec's carbon exchange? Is the opposition member saying that Quebec should not put a price on pollution? Does the opposition member believe that we cannot do as Quebec is doing and grow our economy while tackling climate change? Has the opposition member not seen the millions of young people in the streets calling for concrete measures to deal with climate change? I know that Quebec members of the House know this.

Mr. Speaker, that member should be ashamed of his comments, given that he is from Quebec, where there is a price on pollution that works. What is happening in Quebec? Quebec is reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and growing its economy. It has the largest clean technology sector in the country.

I hope the member opposite will step up, as Quebeckers want, and present an ambitious climate action plan to meet our targets.

Mr. Speaker, let me set it out plainly for the member opposite. I hope he will listen. We are taking ambitious action on climate change in everything from pricing pollution to phasing out renewables. We are also taking other measures that are not reflected in the Parliamentary Budget Office report, from phasing out plastic and tackling plastic pollution to the incentives for electric vehicles that we just announced, and from doubling nature to planting trees.

We are committed to meeting our international obligations and doing more, but what Canadians want to know is whether the party opposite understands we have a climate emergency that we need to be taking—