Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to have a chance to speak, and I will be sharing my time with the member for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell.

Canadians understand that polluting the air we breathe and the earth and the oceans that feed us must come at a cost to those who pollute. That is because they incur real costs for all Canadians. These costs are incurred through drought, smog, wild fires, and the effects pollution has on water, food, and the air we breathe. The price we pay is for our health and our future. The financial costs of pollution for Canadians are also very real. Last year in the Pontiac, my constituents felt it first-hand with the floods that ravaged our region.

Climate change alone is expected to cost Canadians $5 billion a year by 2020. We know that pricing pollution is the most effective way to reduce the emissions that bring about these costs, because it creates incentives for businesses and households to innovate and pollute less. That is why putting a price on carbon pollution is so central to our government's plan to fight climate change while at the same time growing the economy, creating jobs for the middle class and those working so hard to join it, and creating a better future for all Canadians.

The idea here is really simple, and the average Canadian does understand this. We are putting a price on what we do not want, which is carbon pollution, and we are fostering that which we do want, lower emissions and job creation through innovation in the clean economy. We are putting this plan into place through the greenhouse gas pollution pricing act. With this legislation, the carbon price will be fair and it will be effective. It is based on a practical approach to minimize the impact on the competitiveness of large industries that are emissions intensive.

I want to assure the hon. members on both sides of this House that this legislation was not developed in isolation. We know that it was developed through collaboration. We know that it was developed in consultation with the provinces, the territories, and indigenous people. Hand in hand, we have worked towards this plan, and it is an important part of our pan-Canadian framework on clean growth and climate change. I want to commend the environment minister for her hard work with colleagues across the country to achieve this.

This framework is our plan, developed to meet our emissions reduction targets, to grow the economy, and to build resilience to a changing climate. To support the implementation of this plan, our approach provides provinces and territories with the flexibility to choose between systems: an explicit price-based system, or a cap and trade system.

A price on carbon pollution, as we all know, is already in place in four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta. These provinces encompass over 80% of the Canadian population. In jurisdictions that do not have a pricing system that meets the federal standard, a federal pricing system will apply as of January 1, 2019, starting at a price of $20 per tonne of emissions.

It is important to note that the direct revenue from the carbon price on pollution under the federal system will go back to the province or territory of origin. I would like to point out to those who suggest that a price on carbon pollution will somehow negatively impact the financial health of Canadians that those provinces that already have a price on carbon pollution are, together, leading the rest of Canada in job growth. We are confident that we are going to see the same positive economic performance in other provinces and territories that have yet to implement carbon pricing systems.

I want to focus on the fact that the majority of Canadians understand this already, despite the misinformation from our colleagues in the Conservative Party. The majority of Canadians support this approach. My constituents in the Pontiac support it, and experts support it. There is a strong consensus among economists, scientists, governments around the world, and policy experts that a price on carbon is the single most important policy a government can put in place to deal with climate change.

I would like to take a moment to go to some of the comments I have heard from the Insurance Bureau of Canada, an obviously non-partisan institution that is an expert on the impacts climate change is presently having on our economy. The Insurance Bureau of Canada has publicly stated, repeatedly, that climate change is already costing Canadian taxpayers and home insurance policyholders billions of dollars every year. It has sounded the alarm. Climate change is not some future threat but is very real and a clear and present danger. It has stated publicly that the cost of pricing carbon is dwarfed by the future cost Canadians will face if we do nothing at all.

Here are its facts.

Residential property losses from severe weather have accelerated due to climate change and now total over $1 billion a year on average. Federal disaster relief losses also now average over $1 billion per year, and they continue to escalate, largely driven by climate change. Those are federal numbers only, and they do not even include the losses by provinces and municipalities. I can tell members that in the Pontiac last year, there were millions of dollars lost in property damage and public infrastructure damage due to flooding.

As a result of these rising losses, municipalities across the country are investing heavily in adaptation. The City of Toronto alone is investing $1.5 billion to upgrade its stormwater infrastructure to protect residents from the growing threat. Obviously, in the riding that I represent, in the City of Gatineau and over 40 municipalities in rural Pontiac, we are talking about millions of dollars of new investments to protect our communities.

At the end of the day, whether it is taxpayers or insured policyholders, it is the same Canadians who are now bearing the costs of our past inaction on climate change. When I say “our past inaction”, I also mean the party opposite's past inaction. The Conservative government did literally nothing to get our country moving on the right track on this file. That is one of the major reasons that I sought to become elected back in 2015.

With respect, politicians who say that they believe that we have to do something about climate change but not by using a carbon price are no better than those who deny that humans cause climate change or that gravity exists. Frankly, Canadians have no time for one-sided populist rhetoric, the kind of rhetoric that we are hearing from the opposite side right now, and they have no time for the lame partisanship that dumbs down a very serious and important policy debate.

Climate change is the single most important threat that we are facing in the world today and the science is clear that humans are causing it. If the Conservative Party of Canada has a real alternative to carbon pricing that would be effective, I would love to hear it. However, we know from experience that vague promises and ineffective voluntary actions are going to do nothing to reduce greenhouse gases. The Conservative Party opposite has no plan. It has no plan apart from some specious attempt to score political points on the backs of Canadians. It has no plan apart from a desire to divide and misinform Canadians.

I would like to point to the Globe and Mail editorial from a couple of months ago. It inspired me, and I thank this publication for stating this. It states:

...Canadians like carbon pricing when it does precisely what it is meant to do. But they tune out and focus on other priorities when carbon pricing is portrayed as...[a] costly, anti-oil and job-killing by populist politicians.

It’s all too easy to turn carbon pricing into a populist wedge issue, when in fact it is a sensible and centrist....carbon strategy, under which the...[federal government] will impose a $10 per tonne obligation later this year (rising to $50 in 2022) on jurisdictions that don’t come up with an equivalent policy.

It also said that the federal government, with respect to its national carbon strategy, under which the feds will impose this $10 per tonne obligation, will be returning the money collected to the province from where it came.

It further stated:

More than anything, what Canada needs is for politicians who understand and believe in carbon pricing to defend it vigorously and fearlessly. It’s tough to do battle with populists who sloganize about “job-killing” carbon taxes. But they are wrong, and this is a fight worth winning.

That is from the Globe and Mail editorial. I thank it for saying that because it is an adult voice in the room. We, the Liberal Party, this government, has a plan. We have a plan to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 30% below 2005 levels by 2030, to 517 megatonnes. Along with all the other measures in Canada's clean growth and climate action plan, the pan-Canadian framework for carbon pricing will put Canada on track to meet our 2030 emissions targets, which will help meet our commitments to the global community. This is so fundamental, because greenhouse gases know no national boundaries. By putting a price on carbon, we are going to join 67 other jurisdictions that have already taken this important step. According to the World Bank, those overseas jurisdictions together represent half of the global economy and more than a quarter of global GHG emissions. Therefore, together we are going to make the world a better place. To act otherwise would be a total dereliction of our duty as federal lawmakers.

It would be a dereliction of my duty as the representative of Pontiac, and as a father of two children. It would be a betrayal of our children, our grandchildren, and of generations to come.

In closing, I would simply like to say that with our climate plan we are building on these successes for a cleaner environment and a more prosperous future for all Canadians. I appreciate the opportunity to deliver these views from Pontiac.

William Amos

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