Environment Committee on June 7th, 2007

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Mr. Warawa.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have just a couple of quick comments and then a question for the department.

The issue of the advertising campaign: with a business background, a successful business would budget into its annual budget a certain amount of dollars for advertising. You needed to have an advertising campaign that was effective and efficient at getting one's message out, and businesses that did not have an effective and efficient way of getting their message out would not be successful, generally speaking.

So having a successful advertising campaign I think is critical, and the message is that we each need to do our part to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are caused by our use of energy, number one.

A comment was also made about the One-Tonne Challenge, and of course the previous government had a comedian who was the spokesperson for it. Maybe they thought it was a humorous plan. But obviously it wasn't successful, it didn't get it done. Our plan is now working with our international partners. It's part of a global international plan that will be very, very effective and is already effective, and the Liberals are still laughing.

So I have a question, and it's again an offshoot of the congress I went to at GLOBE. We heard of the need for electricity. In India, 100,000 villages have no electricity, and a lot of the energy now being planned is to create the new power generating plants using coal.

In rural Canada, in British Columbia, there are communities that use diesel to create electricity for some of the outlying areas. There is Highway 37, which is an electrification project. Could you elaborate on the benefits of that project again to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and have a cleaner supply of electricity?

[Michael Martin]

Mr. Chairman, I'm not familiar with all the details of that project.

The purpose, of course, is to provide cleaner forms of electricity and help communities move away from diesel. This is actually a very significant challenge in rural Canada, particularly in northern Canada and in northern parts of provinces across the country. A range of initiatives will be needed to help such communities move to cleaner forms of energy. There are some promising technologies in that area, and this project is an example of one.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

Mr. Chair, I thank the department for being here. This was informative.

I will maybe make a commercial--because we are televised--that each of us as Canadians produces, on average, 10 tonnes. You can go onto the Environment Canada web page and do a quick calculation. It's fun, easy, and interesting to see how much carbon each of us produces as an individual.

I took the test, and there are lots of ways and lots of suggestions on how we can reduce our carbon footprint. We can't just ask government to do it or industry to do it; every one of us has a moral responsibility. There is urgency, and it's actually fun to be environmentally friendly.

Thanks to the department for being here, and thanks to Canadians for doing their part.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Thank you, Mr. Warawa.

Mr. Rota, you and I have a negotiated time here.

[Anthony Rota, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

I have two minutes. I'll be very concise with my questions. If I could have concise answers, I'd appreciate it.

Did any MOUs get signed with any provinces on the ecoTrust?

[Michael Martin]

No.

[Anthony Rota, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

Has any province received money yet?

[Michael Martin]

Mr. Chairman, I said earlier I would defer to the Department of Finance on the mechanics of how funds are being transferred to the trust fund.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

We have that request.

[Anthony Rota, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

I'll get a little specific, because I know there's been some question on this one. Has Quebec received any money--just the one province?

[Michael Martin]

My understanding is that the funds will be placed in the trust and that provinces will draw on the trust at their own discretion. Again there, I would defer to the Department of Finance to clarify what the precise mechanics have been with regard to disbursements under the trust fund.

[Anthony Rota, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

The money legally should go through the trust; if it doesn't go through the trust, then it goes directly to the province, and that wouldn't be kosher, let's say.

Has the fund been set up?

[Michael Martin]

Mr. Chair, again, I believe the trust will be established under the authority of the Budget Implementation Act. On exactly what arrangements have been made or are in place now, I would have to defer to the Department of Finance, which is managing that.

[Anthony Rota, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

The request is already in. We'll leave it at that, then.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Thank you, Mr. Rota.

Thank you very much to our guests.

Our time is up, Mr. McGuinty.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Very quickly in closing, I'm not sure how other committee members feel, but I'd like to get the attention of the parliamentary secretary.

I counted eight separate occasions today when--

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

There is a point of order, Mr. McGuinty, from Mr. Warawa.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

Mr. Chair, it's after one o'clock. My understanding was that I was the last speaker. I cut it short to be within the comment period, and now we're going over the meeting's end--

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

It's a comment to you and to my colleagues. It's not to do with the--

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

We can excuse our guests, I'll adjourn the meeting, and we can discuss this. I believe that's what you want, Mr. McGuinty.

Thanks very much for appearing.

Mr. McGuinty would now like to talk to the members here off the record.

The meeting is adjourned.