Speaker: Ms. May
Time: 25/04/2022 19:12:52
Context: Question
Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP): Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in this place to pursue, in Adjournment Proceedings, a question I originally asked not that long ago, actually, on March 24. My question related to something we have debated in this House quite a lot, mostly on supply day motions of opposition parties, the notion that somehow Canada can step up and do more for Ukraine by producing more fossil fuels and exporting them.
There are many fallacies in that proposition. At that time, I directed my question to anyone on the government benches, but it was the hon. parliamentary secretary who responded, that the notion that we needed more pipelines was quite misguided, there was not any evidence for it and I posed in my question that the International Energy Agency, which is an unquestioned expert on supply, price and sustainability of energy supplies, put forward a recommendation to reduce the use of oil daily by 2.7 million barrels. That is 2.7 million barrels of oil a day that could be reduced in terms of the demands within the European Union and they are all quite simple things. I mentioned some of them in the 10-point plan and asked if Canada would consider joining the European Union in implementing this 10-point plan.
The hon. parliamentary secretary, who happens to be the member for Toronto—Danforth, as there are a couple of parliamentary secretaries to the Minister of Environment, was really very positive in her response and said they are considering it, but did not actually suggest what we might do. That is why I wanted to pursue this in Adjournment Proceedings.
The world has paid a lot of attention to many things that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said since his country has been so cruelly and viciously attacked by Russia, but it has not paid a lot of attention to the things that President Zelenskyy has said about the climate crisis and his commitment to climate action. In other words, whenever we hear someone in Canada say that we need more pipelines, we need to produce more oil, we need to produce more gas as that is how we help Ukraine, that is not something that the president of Ukraine, the extraordinarily courageous leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has said.
In fact, March 29, after the war had been raging for a month at that point and just as he came to us on Zoom and addressed this Parliament, President Zelenskyy addressed the Parliament of Denmark. These are statements that I think would be worth having on the record for people to consider in the Canadian Parliament. President Zelenskyy, in addressing the Danish Parliament, said, “Russian aggression against Ukraine and against everything on which life in Europe is built is an argument for accelerating the green transformation on the continent.” He went on to say, “Long before this war, it was obvious that humanity should reduce the use of fossil fuels. The era of coal and oil has caused very serious damage to…our planet as a whole. Green technologies, green energy have become a logical and fair response to this challenge.”
If the European Union understands what needs to be done, the International Energy Agency understands what needs to be done, the Government of Ukraine understands what needs to be done and the Government of Germany understands, why is it that Canada is failing to understand that in the context of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, the best way we can support Ukraine and President Zelenskyy is to go off fossil fuels as quickly as possible? No more Russian oil, no more oil.