Finance Committee on March 9th, 2023

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Thank you so much.

I want to say a huge thank you to Mr. Sample and Mr. Boldt for joining us today and for being part of the first part of this very important study.

The creation of the Canadian sustainable finance action council was one of the 15 recommendations made in the sustainable finance report that was put out in 2019 and is part of recommendation number 3. What it indicated was that there should be a Canadian sustainable finance action council created “to advise and assist the federal government in implementing the Panel's recommendations”.

I know you've indicated that SFAC is helping to create the framework around a mandatory climate reporting. I want to know what role, if any, SFAC will have in implementing any of the other 14 recommendations?

[Matthew Boldt]

I think you're referring to the expert panel on sustainable finance, which had delivered a report to the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Environment and Climate Change in 2019.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Yes.

[Matthew Boldt]

You're correct that the report included a wide range of recommendations. I think there were 15 recommendations, and you're correct that one recommendation was to create a sustainable finance action council.

There were a number of other recommendations in there that related to what we've been talking about here today: the creation of financial market infrastructure to support the growth of a sustainable finance market. Climate disclosures, green and transition investment standards, climate data—those were areas on which the expert panel had recommendations. Those are areas that are in the core mandate of the sustainable finance action council.

I would add that some of the other expert panel recommendations went beyond financial market infrastructure and went into what I might call sectoral policy areas such as infrastructure, electricity and clean technology. Those areas, I think Robert and I would say, are a bit beyond our expertise. Those are getting into broader economic policy.

In budget 2022, the government did add an element to SFAC's mandate, which is to look at net-zero capital allocation strategies. I think in doing this work, the SFAC is going to look at some of those financial sectors and ask how they can mobilize capital into infrastructure and how they can mobilize capital into electricity. It will get into that a bit, but some of those expert panel recommendations are a bit broader.

I think the expert panel also recommended that Canada map its economic plan to net zero. That was a very broad recommendation that is probably more in the ambit of the net-zero advisory body I mentioned a bit earlier.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

I appreciate that. I was actually going to go there next, Mr. Boldt.

We're going to move forward on this topic, so I'd be grateful, just for written purposes since I don't have time to go to each recommendation, if you could submit to this committee which of the 15 recommendations are actually being implemented by SFAC or the finance team broadly. That would be helpful.

The first recommendation I was going to get to—and you ended on it—was about mapping Canada's long-term path to a low-emissions climate-smart economy sector by sector, with an associated capital plan. Is anyone within government looking at that and doing that? It might not be your department, but do you know of anyone who's taken that on?

[Matthew Boldt]

I think that question on the broad economic plan, the sector-by-sector plan to net zero, would be best addressed to the environment and climate change ministry.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Okay. Thank you so much.

I think I have 10 seconds left, so I just want to say thank you so much for your excellent contribution today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, MP Dzerowicz.

We want to thank our officials. Thank you for your testimony and for appearing before the committee for this study, Mr. Boldt and Mr. Sample. We really appreciate it.

Members, you will have received members' budgets for this committee. I just want to see if we can have approval for those.

[Adam Chambers, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Is there travel in them?

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

There's no travel, MP Chambers.

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, everybody. We're going to adjourn the meeting at this time.