QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Environment and Climate Change
Canada's Emissions Targets
November 22, 2023
Minister, the Trudeau government’s clean electricity regulations will cost Saskatchewan $40 billion by 2035, doubling electricity rates for the people of our province and putting hundreds out of work. The only people we want to see out of work are Liberal MPs, but Saskatchewan has already done that. After eight years of the Trudeau government, you have met your climate targets net zero times. The Commissioner of the Environment just told us your government is also unlikely to meet your 2030 target.
Saskatchewan has a more affordable and realistic plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Why won’t the Trudeau government let us use it?
Senator, I disagree with everything you just said. One, we haven’t missed any of our targets. The target we have is for 2030, and that’s not what the Commissioner of the Environment said, senator. The Commissioner of the Environment said that the window of opportunity is closing for us to be able to meet our 2030 target and that we need to accelerate the deployment of measures, which is exactly what we have said. He said we weren’t there yet, and I have said it a hundred times publicly that the plan we have doesn’t allow us to get there. There are six more years over which we need to deploy measures to ensure we reach our 2030 targets. We have interim 2026 targets, which we’re on track to meet.
Frankly, that $40-billion figure from the Saskatchewan government is not based on any study. They have published no studies to back this number up. It’s the same thing for the increase in electricity rates in Saskatchewan. Your colleague earlier talked about the Canadian Electricity Association, who said that they wanted to work with us to make this plan happen. The industry is on board.
We have New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which have already signed agreements with us to deploy a clean electricity grid in their provinces, and more provinces are coming on board. For ideological reasons, the Province of Nova Scotia has decided they didn’t want to take part in this endeavour, but we’re still willing to work with them despite that.
Minister, I would have asked why your government is doing this to Saskatchewan, but Minister of Rural Economic Development Gudie Hutchings has already given us that answer: We don’t elect enough Liberals. Saskatchewan prefers to keep that number at net zero.
The Trudeau government’s clean electricity regulations plan is a lot like electing Liberals: It is brutally expensive, it misses the mark, and you get net-zero return. Saskatchewan can address the emissions issue in a way that provides reliable power and is sustainable and affordable for our people. Why is it you think that Ottawa always knows best?
As I said, we already have agreements with companies and with provinces on clean electricity. If there is a plan in Saskatchewan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, I haven’t seen it. Trust me; I have looked long and hard, and there is no such plan.
