Patrick Bonin

Mr. Speaker, Positioning · 47 wordssometimes I wonder whether the government thinks our roads have potholes because of the trade war. Hearing the Liberals talk, one might almost believe that the trade war is responsible for traffic and late buses. The government is blaming the trade war for a lot of things.Positioning Claims · 30 wordsBill C-39 clearly shows that the government has come to the conclusion that it has to trample on workers’ rights and our environmental laws to deal with the trade war. Positioning · 17 wordsIt seems to think that it has to adopt a Trump-like approach to deal with President Trump.Positioning Claims · 114 wordsThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it is launching the largest deregulation action in U.S. history, ¹and the Canadian government seems to find that inspiring. In a year and a half, the government scrapped carbon pricing.² It introduced Bill C‑30, ³which is completely anti-science and puts pesticides that were banned back into circulation.⁴ It scrapped the EV mandate.⁵ It passed Bill C‑5, ⁶which has been described as the greatest rollback of environmental law in recent times. That is on top of giving tax breaks to oil and gas companies, announcing the construction and financing of pipelines and liquefied natural gas projects, and planning to triple gas production and double oil sands production.⁷ Reasoning · 36 wordsClearly, the government will not respect the Paris Agreement, its commitments or its greenhouse gas reduction target, which it no longer talks about in the short term. Now it is talking about net zero by 2050. Procedure · 1 wordsHowever, ProcedureClaims · 131 wordsas every independent analyst has said, we know that the rollbacks are so serious that Canada cannot possibly meet its commitments.Unearned certainty With Bill C‑39, it seems that the government is trying to attract investors by being even more open to air pollution and the destruction of land and water than our neighbour to the south can be. The Bloc Québécois believes that there are other strategies for developing our economy while protecting the environment and without having to circumvent environmental laws. The government’s Bill C‑39 is quite literally breaking up the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada.⁸ With this new bill, the government is literally compromising the independence of scientists in assessing pipelines and nuclear energy by making the Canada Energy Regulator and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission responsible for conducting assessments.⁹ Positioning · 10 wordsThis is like putting wolves in charge of the sheep.Positioning Claims · 88 wordsThe Canada Energy Regulator is an institution that is known to support pipelines and has nothing to do with protecting the environment. That is not part of its mandate. None of these institutions talk about protecting the environment, even though they will now be responsible for assessing the environmental impact of projects with potentially dire consequences. These are oil and gas megaprojects, likely some of the largest oil and gas megaprojects we have ever seen in Canada. It remains to be seen whether they get off the ground, Promise · 13 wordsbecause we obviously intend to join others in opposing this type of bill. Claims · 72 wordsI must point out that the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development has already highlighted the issue that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is not independent from the Department of Natural Resources.¹⁰ The Canada Energy Regulator, formerly known as the National Energy Board, is an institution that is completely biased toward pipelines.¹¹ We have seen this in Quebec. Many of its members come from the fossil fuel sector. Positioning · 41 wordsIt is like asking cigarette manufacturers to carry out their own studies on the health consequences of smoking. It is completely biased. No one should take the public for fools, yet that is exactly what the government is doing right now.Positioning Claims · 118 wordsContrary to what the title of Bill C-39 would have us believe, this bill weakens Canada by bowing to the interests of the fossil fuel barons, among others. I would remind the House that the government has already passed the “no laws” law, namely Bill C-5, the Building Canada Act.¹² The Liberals passed it in record time. We were unable to examine it properly. This act specifically allows laws to be circumvented.¹³ Even so, over the past year, not a single project has been designated under this legislation, ¹⁴which the government rushed through as quickly as possible with the support of, among others, the Conservatives.¹⁵ Not a single project has been put on the list in a year. Positioning · 5 wordsWhy was it so urgent?Positioning Claims · 44 wordsNow the government is introducing Bill C‑39, and it even wants environmental assessments for all projects to take no more than a year despite the fact that the government has not managed to designate a single project under its legislation in a whole year.¹⁶ Reasoning · 42 wordsIt seems clear that environmental protection is being used as a scapegoat to mask the current government’s failure to get things done. The issue is not environmental protection; it is the government’s failure to move multiple files forward in a timely manner. Procedure · 5 wordsI can see it already: ProcedureReasoning · 49 wordsAssessments for complex projects will inevitably be rushed, if they happen at all, and consultations will be rushed because the government wants to meet a one-year deadline. The very notion of a one-year deadline is completely arbitrary. Projects must be assessed on the basis of their complexity and scale, The ask · 12 wordsand the government has to take the time to do it right. Positioning · 6 wordsThe government is literally bulldozing nature.Positioning Claims · 30 wordsLet us consider, for example, a new pipeline project, one that the Prime Minister wants to include on the list of projects of national interest.¹⁷ It is a 1,000-kilometre project.¹⁸ Positioning · 14 wordsHow is it possible to conduct proper consultations or assessments in just one year?Positioning Claims · 40 wordsThere is no doubt this will be rushed through, once again to the benefit of companies that will face fewer safeguards and are clearly delighted with the government’s legislation.Unearned certainty The Liberals hope that Bill C-39 will not affect environmental protection. Procedure · 7 wordsI hate to break it to them, ProcedurePositioning · 11 wordsbut the Prime Minister is not going to grant that wish.Positioning Claims · 108 wordsIt is misleading to tell the public that Bill C-39 does not weaken environmental protections or environmental assessments across the country. I would remind members of all the laws and regulations that can now be circumvented under Bill C-5. Bill C-39 will make that permanent and will even apply to entire regions. The Fisheries Act, the International River Improvements Act, the National Capital Act, the Canadian Navigable Waters Act, the Dominion Water Power Act, the Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994, the Canada Transportation Act, the Canada Marine Act, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, the Species at Risk Act and the Impact Assessment Act can all be circumvented.¹⁹ Procedure · 6 wordsI will now list the regulations.Procedure Claims · 73 wordsThe migratory bird sanctuary regulations, the Dominion water power regulations, the wildlife area regulations, the port authorities operations regulations, the metal and diamond mining effluent regulations and the migratory birds regulations, 2022 can all be circumvented. Twelve laws and seven regulations can be circumvented to accommodate projects designated to be of national interest by the government.²⁰ As I said, entire regions will now be able to use the this process to circumvent legislation, Positioning · 14 wordsand the Prime Minister, like a king, will decide which are to be sacrificed.Positioning Claims · 56 wordsThese regions will get access to projects pre-approved even before an impact assessment is done. Project pre-approval means that construction will start before projects are even assessed. Obviously, this is a new government that is promising the next gold rush by opening the territory up to development and fast-tracking projects, never mind what the law says. Reasoning · 28 wordsI would point out, however, that if we learned anything from the Wild West it is that when the law is weakened, outlaws are quick to step in. Claims · 51 wordsI would remind the House that legal action has been brought against the federal government for its Bill C-5 on the grounds that it is unconstitutional.²¹ To make matters worse, with Bill C-39, the government is broadening the scope of that legislation and making the exceptional powers enshrined in it permanent.²² Positioning · 18 wordsDoes the government expect the tariff crisis to be permanent? This tariff crisis is their excuse for everything.Positioning Claims · 23 wordsThis is clearly a pretext for giving cabinet extraordinary powers, enabling it to sell land to foreign interests like a good deal maker. Reasoning · 24 wordsLiberal members seem to think that if they repeat often enough that Bill C‑39 will not affect environmental protections, that will become the reality. Procedure · 7 wordsI am sorry to burst their bubble, ProcedurePositioning · 36 wordsbut we were not elected to make things up. We were not elected to bow to the demands of the oil and gas companies. We were elected to make decisions that will be part of history.Positioning Claims · 45 wordsThe bill explicitly includes serious rollbacks in environmental matters and workers’ rights. These are not just words on paper. This will have immediate and serious consequences on the land, on our ecosystems and on people’s health. That will be the legacy left to future generations. Positioning · 16 wordsHistory has a long memory. Our speeches may fade, but decisions of this magnitude will not.Positioning Reasoning · 27 wordsOne day, we will look back and ask ourselves who was aware of what was happening, who could have taken action and who looked the other way. Promise · 9 wordsThe Bloc Québécois will not look the other way.Vague promise