QUESTION PERIOD — Environment and Climate Change
Climate Change Performance Index
November 23, 2022
My question is also for the Leader of the Government.
According to this year’s Climate Change Performance Index published during COP 27, Canada ranks 58 out of 63 countries when it comes to protecting the climate, even trailing behind China and the United States. After seven years of Liberal rule and seven years of carbon taxes, Canada is number 58.
Senator Gold, when will the Liberal-NDP government finally admit that their climate change plan is not working and that taxing Canadians more and more will not do anything positive for the planet?
Thank you for the question. Respectfully, it’s the position of the government that the assertion and assumption is incorrect.
Canada and this government has put into place a serious, responsible climate action plan that includes many features, one of which is the price on pollution. It is a market-driven mechanism that works to create incentives and disincentives for companies to do their part. It takes time for these things to take effect.
The government remains convinced that the measures that it has put in place — of which this is one of a large suite of measures — is the right thing to do for Canada, for our economy and, indeed, for the planet.
Last week at COP 27, Minister Guilbeault issued a challenge to other countries: they should copy Canada and impose a carbon tax.
Senator Gold, how many countries have decided to imitate Canada in imposing more taxes on their citizens in order to fight climate change?
I don’t have the number of other countries that are using this particular method and approach.
I will underline — as I have done on many other occasions, and as all senators know — that, of all the different measures to address climate change, carbon tax is the one most supported by most economists around the world because it uses market forces and is, in that regard, the most likely to succeed and the least disruptive, as compared to others.
