Bill C-30 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) Committee on Feb. 5th, 2007

[The Chair, Conservative, Laurie Hawn]

Thank you very much, Ms. Buckley.

We'll move to Transport Canada, to Ms. Guylaine Roy, director general, environmental affairs; and Madam Catherine Higgens, director, environmental initiatives division.

The floor is yours.

[Guylaine Roy, Director General, Environmental Affairs, Department of Transport]

Thank you very much. I will give a brief presentation.

Bill C-30 amends the Motor Vehicle Fuel Consumption Standards Act. I will refer to it as the MVFCSA, because it's too long to keep going with that title.

The Motor Vehicle Fuel Consumption Standards Act is a federal act that was adopted by Parliament in 1982, but it was never proclaimed. Instead, there was a voluntary regime for the industry to meet fuel consumption standards for vehicles sold in Canada. I thought it was important to clarify that it's federal legislation that was adopted by Parliament in 1982 but it was never proclaimed.

I will go through the amendments in numerical order. There are five sections that are being amended, so I'll go quickly through them.

Section 3, as amended, is the regulatory authority section. The amendments would modernize the regulatory authority of the legislation. There is currently authority to make regulations under the act. What we're doing here is adding a further authority, or a clarification, that addresses the use of a method to establish fuel consumption standards under the act. As I said, right now there is authority to set regulations; we just wanted to clarify that through the regulatory authority you could set the standards through a formula through regulations.

Section 5 is being amended. It's about the coming into force of the regulations. The proposed amendments would repeal section 5 in order to remove the minimum timeframe of 24 months plus one day between the publication of the regulations in Canada Gazette , part II, and the coming into force of new regulations in the event of industry objections to the regulations. With this amendment, the government would have increased flexibility to introduce regulations, as appropriate.

The current act provides that if you have regulations published in Canada Gazette , part II, they cannot come into force for 24 months plus one day if there's an objection by the industry. So the amendment would provide flexibility by removing that provision. If you go 23 months or 22 months, your regulation could come into force within a timeframe that you deem appropriate.

Section 24 is being amended. This is the search power provision. The amendment would modernize the current search power of the MVFCSA by requiring an inspector who does not have the consent of the owner of a place to obtain a search warrant before entering a dwelling place. It also modernizes the search power provisions by indicating that an inspector can use a computer system at the place, or can reproduce material that can be printed out, or can use copying equipment. As I said, the act was adopted in 1982. At that time, there were not the computer systems that we have right now. So this is simply to modernize these types of provisions.

The amendments would also modernize the language of the provisions to reflect current drafting practices.

Subsection 27(2) is amended. The amendment removes the current reference in the MVFCSA to the use of information obtained under this act in criminal proceedings under another act of Parliament. Again, this is to modernize the legal drafting of such a provision, since the act is 20-some years old.

Finally, the amendments propose to amend the coming-into-force provision of the act. As it is right now, the act comes into force by way of proclamation. The current drafting proceedings provide that acts come into force by order in council, not by proclamation. It's a matter of modernizing the way in which legislation is drafted.

So these are the five provisions that are amended under Bill C-30 to amend the Motor Vehicle Fuel Consumption Standards Act.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Laurie Hawn]

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. That's a lot of information: there'll be a test later.

We have about five minutes before the bell rings, so I would ask for your indulgence for a few minutes so that we can deal with the first report.

My apologies, members; there's a little bit more work to do on this. A couple of other things are missing.

[The Clerk]

Yes.

My apologies for this. I took these right off the printer on my way to the committee meeting, and there are a few omissions. I will attempt to correct those, and hopefully I'll have a final version for you soon.

[The Chair, Conservative, Laurie Hawn]

Mr. Cullen, go ahead.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

This is something quick that I meant to mention before, when we were at subcommittee. It was pointed out by some who were looking at the list that we haven't explicitly said that we will try to use videoconferencing technology as much as possible. Some of these witnesses are from very far away.

So just some direction from the committee that it's to be considered...that whenever possible, it's encouraged, that type of thing, when we're talking to witnesses. Some are coming from the U.S., and there have been suggestions that some people come from Europe and even further.

[The Chair, Conservative, Laurie Hawn]

I think we had addressed that we would use videoconferencing, had we not, when we had our initial organization meeting?

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

I would just like to make sure that the committee's aware of it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Laurie Hawn]

That we use it where it's appropriate or necessary.

Mr. Watson.

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Mr. Chair, am I to gather, then, by what the clerk is saying, that we're not prepared to discuss specific content yet? I had a recommendation with respect to witnesses.

Are we going to discuss that later, or can we talk about that now?

[The Clerk]

Mr. Chair, there are a couple of sections missing. For instance, for the meeting on Tuesday the 13th, there's a panel on international experience that was agreed upon. That hasn't been included. As well, the actual witnesses on air pollution, where it says “to be determined”, are the other ones scheduled for the 13th and the 15th. The only one missing is the international experience one for the morning of the 13th.

[The Chair, Conservative, Laurie Hawn]

It may answer your question, I don't know.

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Actually, it does in one respect, but I wanted to draw attention to the transportation one for tomorrow afternoon. I don't know whether this would require a motion to add somebody as a potential witness.

The CVMA typically represents the Big Three automakers, not the Asian or other import automakers that are here in Canada. I'd like to recommend that the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers of Canada be added to the list. I know that they would be prepared to meet at that time slot if the committee's amenable.

I don't know whether I need to leave that with the steering committee or whether I should make a motion to that effect to amend this. I'll take the direction of the chair on that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Laurie Hawn]

No, a motion would be appropriate. We'll get to that.

Quickly, Mr. Cullen.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

I wasn't going to speak specifically to that, but I can.

It's something we'll obviously need, because the time is pressing that the committee agrees to what's happening tomorrow, in essence, without adopting the entire process. I know it's a formality, but it's important.

As a caution on the invitations, I appreciate Mr. Watson's struggle with invitations at the last minute. As committee members and as subcommittee members, we are going to be constantly petitioned by groups—and this is not casting aspersions on the group that approached Mr. Watson—and individuals and Canadians to get involved in the Bill C-30 process. We've all agreed to a deadline for this bill coming back, so it's going to take some discipline from the committee not to accept people new to the list at the last minute or once the subcommittee has made a decision and the committee has accepted it.

So I put that note of caution out for all of us. We'll be hearing it, if we haven't already. There'll be more, it's going to make for a very onerous process, and it will go on forever.

[The Chair, Conservative, Laurie Hawn]

Perhaps the chair can make a suggestion. We may want to deal with this at the end of the meeting tomorrow, as long as we agree on tomorrow's—

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

Well, no, if the suggestion is that there are some witnesses who need to come for tomorrow afternoon, we should probably know that tonight, to get them here or to get them prepared.

[The Chair, Conservative, Laurie Hawn]

Monsieur Bigras was first, then Brian.

[Bernard Bigras, Bloc, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Chair, I'll be brief. I believe this list was established based on a consensus and a compromise by everyone in each of the political parties. It wasn't easy to prepare this list. Could we suggest to the witnesses who would nevertheless like to be heard that they agree to file a brief? I think that might enable us to get the opinions of those who aren't necessarily invited, but who could nevertheless give us their views by filing a brief with the committee. It isn't easy to come up with an exhaustive, consensus-based list.

[The Chair, Conservative, Laurie Hawn]

Mr. Jean.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to speak to that particular issue as well.

We have, on the Conservative side here, an ex-auto worker who can bring a lot to the table as far as transportation is concerned. We have three witnesses for tomorrow. He has said that this particular group, which seems to be appropriate, since we have a huge amount of manufacturers of foreign vehicles in Canada, could come tomorrow and be part of this discussion.

Most days we have four or five witnesses. I don't see the problem of having somebody along who would actually bring, I think, greater benefit than another person who is on the list for tomorrow, quite frankly.

[The Chair, Conservative, Laurie Hawn]

The committee can add a witness with a motion and consent.

Mr. Watson.

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Mr. Chair, I'd like to move, then, that we add the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers of Canada to the afternoon session on transportation tomorrow, February 6.

[The Chair, Conservative, Laurie Hawn]

That's a fairly simple motion. We don't have a lot of time to discuss it. Are we prepared to make a decision on that?

Okay.

Then the motion is—

[The Clerk]

The motion reads:

That the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers of Canada be invited to the afternoon meeting of February 6th, 2007, to present to the Committee.

(Motion agreed to)