Environment Committee on June 19th, 2007

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Justin Vaive]

Members of the committee, I see a quorum. We can now proceed to the election of a chair. I'm ready to receive motions to that effect.

Mr. Godfrey.

[John Godfrey, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

I'd like to nominate Bob Mills.

[The Clerk]

It's been moved by Mr. Godfrey that Mr. Mills be elected as chair of the committee.

Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

[The Clerk]

I declare the motion carried and Mr. Mills duly elected chair of the committee.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Members of the committee, we do have Mr. Mulroney here as our witness, and I'm aware of a motion that has been put. I think that Mr. Warawa wishes to....

That motion should be put first. Mr. Godfrey, are you prepared to do that at this point, and then we'll get that on and we can move on with the hearings.

[John Godfrey, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

I am, Chair. The import of the motion is simply to revert to where we were on Thursday.

The one suggestion I would make is that rather than splitting the panel, which I think we had thought about before.... It's my understanding that one of the witnesses, Mr. Bramley, is not available, and that Professor Jaccard is available but only until 12:30. And I don't know, is Mr. Drexhage here? Is he coming? He's not the sort of chap you'd miss if he were in the room.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

The clerk advises me he was told to come at 12 noon.

[John Godfrey, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

I see. Just because, as I say, we have this slightly practical problem of a limitation on Professor Jaccard's piece, I'm wondering if--

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Could we hear from Mr. Mulroney, and we'll try to finish that even a little bit closer to 12 noon, and then get Mr. Jaccard?

[John Godfrey, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Sure.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Why don't we let him testify, ask him questions, and then go on.

[John Godfrey, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Perfect. I think we should put him on the line, by the way, so he can hear this.

What we need to do, then, is pass the motion with the understanding that we're going to have the vote. Mr. Mulroney is not mentioned by name, and we apologize for that. It is understood that this motion is in the context of the other witnesses who are here. I think we can just try to accommodate--

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

We can just to try to work it through the two hours when we're going to talk about the G8.

I want to thank all of you as well. It has been a rather difficult time the last few days. I appreciate all of the calls that I've had from many of your colleagues in the Liberal Party, from certainly NDP members, and my own colleagues. Obviously things did move a little further than we hoped they would. I've learned from that. Unfortunately, I think that things unravelled a little bit, and I'm sorry for that.

But I do have to tell you that in all honesty it was my total decision to arrange to swap the dates, which I thought was acceptable to do the best work of the committee. That I have to say. Certainly I've learned from it, and I look forward to working with all of you--I'm sure in a much more collegial way than possibly sometimes in the past.

Anyway, I look forward to it. Thank you very much for your confidence, and thanks to all of your fellow colleagues for the confidence they've given me.

If we could proceed, what we're going to do is vote on the motion.

Mr. Warawa.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

Could I have a clarification of the motion? Then I may have a comment.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

To summarize, we'll begin with Mr. Mulroney. He'll do a 10-minute presentation for us. We'll then get a round. Obviously we'll get Mr. Jaccard on the phone so he can hear what's happening. Mr. Drexhage is coming at 12 o'clock. As soon as we can finish with Mr. Mulroney, we will then move on to the other two witnesses.

I don't know whether Mr. Bramley is.... We can check to make sure whether he's available or not available and proceed that way.

I'm not sure. Do we really need a motion to do that? If that's understood and agreed upon by all members, can we just move on?

Mr. Godfrey.

[John Godfrey, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Just as long as we understand that we can hear, sooner rather than later, from Professor Jaccard simply because he's not available past 12:30.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Yes, because of his timeline. And I would propose that maybe Mr. Drexhage could do his presentation after Mr. Jaccard does his.

Is that okay, Mr. Warawa?

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

That's fine.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

David, you and I go back a long way, back to our China days, so I certainly would like to hear from you and hear about the G8. The real purpose was to learn about the statement that Canada made about what happened at the G8, and I know you've lived and breathed that for quite a few months.

If you could give us a brief overview, then we'll get right to questions as quickly as we can.

[David Mulroney, Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (Foreign Affairs)]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

I am joined here in the room by a couple of colleagues: David McGovern, whom I think you know, the assistant deputy minister, international, at Environment Canada; and Keith Christie, who is the director general, environment, energy, and sustainable development at Foreign Affairs.

If I can, I'll just give you a very quick overview in terms of what I think are the salient points, the results achieved by Canada and by the G8 community at Heiligendamm, which is the place where the summit took place, and then I'd be most happy to take any questions.

This year at Heiligendamm the G8 achieved consensus on a way forward on the challenge of climate change. Leaders emphasized the importance of engaging all major emitters of greenhouse gases in discussions to tackle climate change, including their commitment to participate in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in December 2007 in Indonesia, with their view to achieving a comprehensive agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

Leaders recognized that climate change is a global problem that requires a global response and that we share a long-term vision of the need to accelerate our action to achieve deep reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. Notably, G8 leaders recognized Canada's plan to reduce emissions by 60% to 70% by 2050 over 2006 levels, as set out in our new domestic plan of action on climate change.

The G8 achieved consensus on a way forward to combat climate change. G8 countries emphasized the importance of engaging all major emitters in the fight against climate change, including their commitment to participate in the UN Convention...

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Excuse me, Mr. Mulroney.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

I believe there's a problem with the sound system.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Yes. I'm having trouble picking up translation here. And that sound indicates that we're trying to get Mr. Jaccard on the phone. I'm not sure why we're hearing that.

Yes. Mr. Jaccard, can you hear us?

It doesn't sound as though he's hearing us. The technicians will continue to work on it.

I'm sorry, David. What can I say?

[David Mulroney]

Can I continue?