Mr. Speaker, it is great to talk about this important issue, a concurrence motion tabled by the Conservatives. I suspect that the only reason they have tabled another concurrence motion is because they are starting to run out of speakers to filibuster the other item they have in the House, which was talked about just moments ago.

When it comes to the environment and our climate policy, it is working. The evidence and the data is now coming out to show exactly how it is working. This is the first time since the Industrial Revolution that Canada has seen a decline in carbon emissions while at the same time experiencing economic growth, an increase in economic output. That is because of a number of policies that we brought forward. The one that has been talked about a lot today is the price on pollution, and I will touch on this.

It is not surprising to me that the Conservatives maintain their same position, at least the position they have had since the last election. During the last election, they ran on pricing pollution, in a very similar but very complicated way of earning aero points, so to speak, to get purchases from a catalogue, but they have flip-flopped completely since then. Therefore, I am not surprised.

However, I am most surprised about my NDP colleagues. The NDP members of Parliament, who we have been able to work with over the last number of years, have always been in favour of pricing pollution. They voted in favour of it 24 times, as the Conservatives point out. I have endless quotes on my laptop of NDP members in the House getting up and supporting pricing pollution time and time again.

I was absolutely floored today when I heard the member for Edmonton Griesbach say that the New Democrats thought that the way it was done was not the best way, that it should have been done a different way and that the Prime Minister failed Canadians because he did not do it differently. Meanwhile, the member offered no solutions of what that other way might be. He never once mentioned this before today, or at least since the leader of the NDP made this big reveal toward the end of August.

The New Democrats were always squarely in focus, knowing that eight out of 10 Canadians got back more than they paid, in particular 94% of the households that earn less than $50,000 a year definitely got back more.

Therefore, let us be absolutely clear. When the NDP abandoned its position on pricing pollution, it did not just abandon the idea of collecting money and understanding and agreeing with 300 Canadian economists, and countless professionals and economists throughout the entire world. It did not just abandon that principle as the right way to decrease emissions. It also abandoned the principle of knowing that more of the money collected through pricing pollution would be going back to those who needed it the most. That is the choice the New Democrats made, and they made it for a very good reason. They understood the politics of this to be worse than the potential benefit from a policy perspective.

I will be the first one to admit that we did not have a good communication plan. We did not inform Canadians, and we let the Conservatives take the narrative on the carbon tax. However, when I am older and look back on my time in Parliament, I would much rather be on the side of good policy than great slogans. I will be very proud to have stood up for good policy, even when Conservatives know that it is good policy because they have run on it several times in the past.

I also know that unlike the NDP, I did not cave to the Leader of the Opposition. I did not look for my own political opportunity over the slogans and the way that the Leader of the Opposition took great policy and weaponized it, regardless of what comes from that program in the future.

This whole idea of hypocrisy and flip-flopping is completely in line with what we see from Conservatives lately. The parliamentary secretary to the House leader brought this up and I will do it again.

We have Conservatives who, on a daily basis, have been jumping up in the House time and again demanding that more be done for their constituencies with respect to housing. The Leader of the Opposition has been putting forward proposals and slashing the programs that we have put in place. We then end up with Conservatives getting up and reciting his talking points. They talk about how the Liberals have done nothing good, that we cannot bring about any change for housing and that we need to help communities.

Then we find out what has happened behind the Leader of the Opposition's back, most likely without him knowing. I read what the member for St. Albert—Edmonton wrote to the Minister of Housing. Rest assured that there is no way the Leader of the Opposition would have allowed the member to send this letter to the Minister of Housing had he known what he wrote in it. However, the member for St. Albert—Edmonton did, because, at the end of the day, he knew his community was more important than his party. He may go along with all the slogans and the three-word phrases the Conservatives come up with, but when push comes to shove and he really needs to get things done, he will ensure the minister knows how he really feels about the Liberal programs.

This is what the member for St. Albert—Edmonton said in his letter, “The requested federal funding is critical to making this needed development a reality — a development that will help address the significant shortage of affordable housing options in the community.” That is exactly what the member for St. Albert—Edmonton had to say about the housing accelerator fund, after many times getting up in the House and lambasting the government for doing nothing.

The member for Fundy Royal said that the housing accelerator fund “will provide much needed housing in this area.”

However, they are not the only two members. A number of other Conservative MPs have sent letters to the minister as well, encouraging the same thing: the member for Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, the member for Simcoe North and the member for Lambton—Kent—Middlesex.

Today we just learned of another member, who always likes to get up in the House. He is very good at this and I applaud him for it. At the beginning of him speaking, he always says, “It is an honour to rise on behalf of the constituents of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo.” I want his constituents to know that not only does he takes that pride when he gets up in the House, but he also takes that pride on their behalf when he sends a letter to the minister asking for housing accelerator funding for his community. He extends that outside of the House, but we would never, ever know that he was actually supportive of it by the way the member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo engages in the House.

We have a great—

Mark Gerretsen

$508,543.00