Building a resilient economy, a cleaner and healthier future for our children.

[Editor’s Note: Senator Coyle spoke in an Indigenous language.]

Honourable senators, I rise today to respond to the Speech from the Throne. On November 23, our new Governor General — Mary May Simon, the first Indigenous Governor General in the history of Canada — delivered the Speech from the Throne, officially marking the opening of the First Session of the Forty-fourth Parliament of Canada.

Governor General Simon, an accomplished Inuk woman from Nunavik, has decades of organizational leadership, diplomatic, journalistic, political, public service and life experience. I have admired her for years and I was greatly moved when I heard her deliver the Speech from the Throne in Inuktut, French and English.

Thank you, Governor General Simon, for shining a light for all Canadians to see on the original language of the peoples of Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, Nunavut and the Inuvialuit region and highlighting the importance of all Indigenous languages in Canada.

In her speech the Governor General reminded us:

Our Earth is in danger. From a warming Arctic to the increasing devastation of natural disasters, our land and our people need help.

[Editor’s Note: Senator spoke in an Indigenous language.]

Honourable senators, this is not news. In his October 1970 Speech from the Throne, then-governor general Roland Michener noted that:

All our efforts for a stable prosperity and for a humane community will be of little value to us, however, if we do not quickly and determinedly grapple with the threat to our well-being and the well-being of future generations of Canadians which is represented by environmental pollution.

Colleagues, next year will mark 30 years since Canada ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro; it will mark 25 years since the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol and 22 years since the Copenhagen Accord. Canada did not meet the commitments it made at those landmark gatherings and neither did the international community.

It was the failure to meet those commitments that led us to the critical Paris climate summit of 2015. At COP 21 in Paris, the Government of Canada stated its commitment to stopping a global temperature increase at 1.5 degrees Celsius, phasing out fossil fuels, financially supporting clean energy and assisting developing countries to meet their targets.

The most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which came out this past August, noted that:

Global surface temperature will continue to increase until at least the mid-century under all emissions scenarios considered. Global warming of 1.5°C and 2°C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades.

Honourable colleagues, Senators Galvez, Pate, McCallum, Forest, Mégie, Miville-Dechêne, Griffin and Gagné have all, in recent days in their debate on Senator Galvez’s climate emergency motion, spelled out, in unambiguous detail, the clear and present danger that our planet, our future generations and all species face at this time. As United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson said at COP 26, “It’s one minute to midnight and we need to act now.”

“All right,” you might say, “surely Canada has made some strides.” Yes, of course we have. Since the Paris summit, Canada has taken steps towards addressing climate change. Senator Gagné mentioned some of these in her intervention on Tuesday.

Colleagues, allow me to provide you with highlights of both our actions and our stated commitments.

Canada has committed to cut our emissions by 40% by 2030. The government has increased the carbon price and is escalating it by $15 a year until it reaches $170 per tonne in 2030. It has moved forward the goal of achieving a 100% sales target for zero-emission passenger vehicles from 2040 to 2035. It has committed to establishing new targets for the reduction of methane emissions and to plant 2 billion trees over 10 years.

Budget 2021 proposed to provide $17.6 billion towards a green recovery to create jobs, build a clean economy and fight and protect against climate change.

Canada’s newly released Hydrogen Strategy set an ambitious framework cementing hydrogen as a key part of Canada’s path to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and to make Canada a global leader in hydrogen technologies.

Canada has plans to reduce methane emissions in the oil and gas sector and advanced regulations related to its Clean Fuel Standard.

Just days before the Speech from the Throne, Canada’s official delegation of 276, as well as many other Canadians, participated along with 40,000 registered participants and 120 world leaders at COP 26 in Glasgow, Scotland. In Glasgow, Canada pledged to end deforestation by 2030; reaffirmed its support for the Global Methane Pledge; reiterated its call for a global standard on pollution pricing; committed to protecting 25% of its lands and oceans by 2025; committed $5.3 billion for developing countries, earmarking 20% for nature-based solutions; and committed to ensure that 80% of this climate finance contribution will target gender-equality outcomes.

Canada committed to financially support developing countries in climate change adaptation; signed the Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement; reiterated its support for the 12 recommendations of the International Energy Agency’s Global Commission on People-Centred Clean Energy Transitions; committed to reducing carbon pollution from transportation; committed to invest $10 million over five years towards the Climate and Clean Air Coalition Trust Fund; and signed on to co-lead a carbon dioxide removal — or CDR — mission.

Colleagues, even with all of these commitments — and it is very important for all of us to know what those commitments are — we are not where we need to be.

According to the Climate Action Tracker, targets for 2030 remain totally inadequate. The current targets put us on track for a 2.4-degree temperature increase by the end of the century. Colleagues, we know what the 1.1 increase we are experiencing now is doing.

Honourable senators, as our colleagues in the Senate Prosperity Action Group highlighted in their recently released report:

Canada has enormous assets and strengths, given its status as the 10th largest global economy, its membership in the G7 and its consistent ranking as one of the best countries in the world in which to live.

We prosper. But we cannot take this for granted. Prosperity is linked to our ability to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Canada ranks within the top three greenhouse gas emitters worldwide per capita— this is not a podium we want to stand on.

Mark Carney reminds us:

The dialogue has shifted from viewing climate change as a risk, to seeing the opportunity, and really translating that into a single objective, which is to move our economies to net zero as quickly as possible.

What does this mean, to move to net zero as quickly as possible and why should we? The why is obvious. The flames from the heat scientists have been telling us about for decades are nipping at our heels. They have literally set our houses on fire, flooded us out, flattened our communities and businesses, melted the land our northern homes sit on, destroyed our vital infrastructure and caused large migrations of people. The threats have become out of control threat multipliers.

The other side of the why coin is the one Mr. Carney and our Prosperity Action Group are focused on: the opportunities. We all know the expression “If you snooze, you lose.” Well, colleagues, getting to net zero is an economic imperative and the quicker we focus our choices and efforts in that direction, the better off we will all be.

Honourable senators, I don’t have time today to get into the answers as to how we will get to net zero. I would argue that the imperative is for all of us to focus our attention and efforts on figuring that out and getting on with it — with even more urgency, innovation and collaboration than what we have witnessed with the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Let’s take a page from the successes of that playbook. Colleagues, the Senate has well-resourced committees that can conduct quality studies. We can improve and initiate legislation. We can convene experts and the public. We can work together through our new Senators for Climate Solutions group and collaborate with our fellow parliamentarians in the other place and in other countries.

Barack Obama said at COP26 in Glasgow that saving the planet isn’t a partisan issue. Nature, physics and science don’t care about party affiliation. Honourable senators, it’s our job to hold the government to account. With the passing of the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act this past June, we have a powerful instrument to ensure both the targets set out by the government and the plans to meet the targets are transparent and that they are met and implemented. The Minister of Environment and Climate Change has recently extended the deadline to establish the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan to March 29, 2022, so let’s all be on high alert on that date.

Honourable senators, as I conclude my remarks, I would like to quote Sir David Attenborough, who summed up the crux of the issue at COP26 in his compelling manner when he asked the audience present:

Is this how our story is due to end? A tale of the smartest species doomed by that all-too-human characteristic of failing to see the bigger picture in pursuit of short term goals?

Colleagues, I would like to answer Sir David by quoting one of my favourite authors, Dr. Seuss, from his book Oh, the Places You Will Go:

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

Honourable senators, let’s choose the quickest and smartest direction to net zero. Governor General Mary May Simon said in the Speech from the Throne, “ . . . we must go further, faster.” Honourable senators, fellow Canadians, let’s strap on our fastest running shoes, or wheels, adapted for both a sprint and a marathon, and let’s get on with this race against time.

Thank you, Wela’lioq, Nakurmiik.