Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Good evening, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee. My name is Dave Collyer. I'm president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. We represent Canada's upstream oil and gas sector, and our members produce more than 90% of Canada's petroleum resources. I certainly welcome the opportunity to provide our perspective on Bill C-38, part 3, responsible resource development.

Environment committee  The point I would make is that the point of integration or the point of balance differs across different interest groups. I would say the level of alignment we have with groups like the Nature Conservancy is quite good. I would make a similar comment about the Alberta Conservation Alliance.

Environment committee  If I could add to that, it would be to say very much the same thing Brenda said. I think this is all about trying to define outcomes, creating alignment among the diversity of interests stakeholders have a view on and a role in for conservation and biodiversity, and then allowing innovative practices and plans to be developed across a multitude of jurisdictions and interests to actually achieve that objective, rather than trying to be prescriptive.

Environment committee  I'll just be very quick. I know that Brenda wants to make a comment as well. I wanted to come back to your last point, about relying on environmental groups and others to do this. We work very closely with academia, research institutions, environmental groups, but I would also highlight the fact that the companies that are appearing here today also have on their staff many environmental specialists.

Environment committee  I'd be happy to take a first pass at the response to that. We've been very clear that we're supportive of the initiatives around regulatory reform. We're also very clear that in no way should this compromise environmental outcomes, and I don't believe that to be the intent at all of the proposed legislation.

Environment committee  He's raised an excellent point. I have a very quick add-in. Gord, I think you mentioned this in your remarks. It's very important also to highlight that this technology is being shared and deployed across a number of different companies. You've heard the recent COSIA announcement around accelerating environmental performance technology and sharing intellectual property across companies.

Environment committee  Could we have David Pryce respond to that?

Environment committee  I think at the one level, as Gord mentioned, there is a need to educate about conservation and biodiversity. But I would add to that the need for education on the linkage between conservation and a broader framework. The question is the line of sight between resource development impact and conservation objectives and biodiversity objectives and how we integrate those two.

Environment committee  I would answer that question at two levels. First, coming back to the point I made just a moment ago, there will be some form of environmental impact from almost any industrial activity. Our job is to try to mitigate those impacts, and as I said earlier, as a matter of principle, to try to land with regulators and governments and other stakeholders on the appropriate balance between environmental protection and economic growth.

Environment committee  I'm happy to start. Thanks for the question. I made the comment that there's more than a semantic difference, and I believe there is. I guess I'll start with the view that conservation is a multi-faceted activity with many different stakeholders and many different governments involved in the process.

Environment committee  I just have a few brief wrap-up comments, Mr. Chair, if that's okay.

Environment committee  I will be very brief. I hope that our presentations have conveyed a couple of key themes. The first is that CAPP and its members are supportive of efforts to develop a broad vision for conservation in Canada through what we would characterize as a national conservation framework.

Environment committee  Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. My name is Dave Collyer. I am the president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. With me today is Dave Pryce, who is the vice-president of operations at CAPP, and three representatives from our member companies: Richard Dunn from Encana Corporation, Murray Elliott from Shell, and Gordon Lambert with Suncor.

Environment committee  I think we've got a world class regulatory system in Canada. We can do better. I think we've got a regulatory system that stacks up extremely well relative to most other jurisdictions. The areas that we've talked about, timelines and processes, making sure we've got a world class monitoring and baseline science foundation for our regulations I think are all opportunities.

Environment committee  There are some differences, and I think we have to acknowledge those. The best one that we've run across is some of the work that's been done in Australia. Mr. Gratton referenced that earlier. I think it is an example that ought to be looked at, and we can--