Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2020-09-29 23:24 [p.309]
Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate the leader of the New Democratic Party and the team who made the improvements in the legislation we have before us tonight. It is very important. It is important to see people are not going to be receiving less off CERB as they transition to EI.
I also recognize, though, the leader of the New Democratic Party is in a position to do considerably more. About climate he said, “the climate crisis is still raging”. Of course it is. It is worse by the minute. With the power that party has, I wonder why in the election we heard that this was going to be a priority for the NDP. The NDP in British Columbia has of course increased greenhouse gases and bet its money on fracking and LNG.
I wonder when we will see this federal NDP press the federal Liberals to give us more than lip service on climate. This is the moment. We are running out of time.
Jagmeet Singh (Burnaby South)
2020-09-29 23:25 [p.309]
Madam Speaker, in fairness, the member is right when she talks about a Liberal government that pays lip service to the climate crisis but then does the opposite. The Liberals talk about these lofty goals, and then miss each and every one of them without any accountability. They talk about planting two billion trees and have planted zero. They talk about the importance of our climate and then buy a pipeline.
What we need to do is to stop the pretty, empty words. We need some concrete action. One of the things that we are fighting for and pushing for, once we get past the immediacy of the second wave of the pandemic, is the recovery where we invest in people, create jobs locally and fight the climate crisis by reducing emissions. We must do that. Nothing less can happen.