Environment Committee on Jan. 28th, 2008

[John Drexhage]

Yes, at times, but not an awful lot.

I agree that the access wasn't as great as I would have hoped, and they were a relatively small delegation who were constantly away in negotiations, so frankly I didn't have as much time to—

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

The traditional pattern has been, for two decades, that there are morning briefings for the Canadian delegation.

[John Drexhage]

Right.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Mr. Henderson, you have participated in that in the past, and Mr. Lavoie, you may have also. I certainly have.

Tell me, did that not occur in this...?

[John Drexhage]

No.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Okay.

Could you see reflected in the Canadian position anywhere in Bali these two core IPCC-recommended approaches: first, 25% to 40% cuts, and second, the one on the question of extinction of species? Was that in any way brought in to help inform the Canadian approach and Canadian position in Bali?

[John Drexhage]

I can't explicitly recall, for example, the minister making mention of that in the intervention he made on behalf of Canada.

I would note, though, that there is a very significant reference to the IPCC findings, which Canada finally agreed to. That's the last message or positioning that the youth delegation was referring to. It actually happened after the Bali plan of action. There was an additional decision about the responsibility of Kyoto parties to strengthen their targets, and there was a much fuller reference there to the IPCC findings on the impacts.

Initially there were concerns expressed by Canada and Russia about it. After the first intervention and a number of other interventions that came through saying we need to keep it there, including interventions by the EU and others, the minister said in his second intervention that he would allow it to go ahead, so it went ahead.

So I would say that Canada allowed those discussions and those findings to go ahead; it was a passive role, not an active one.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Thanks very much, Mr. Drexhage.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Thanks, Mr. McGuinty and Mr. Drexhage.

Mr. Watson.

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Lavoie, I'm going to come back to you for a moment. Let's talk about Mr. Dion's last year as environment minister.

The Climate Action Network, whose delegation you were a part of in Bali, received funding from the government. You wouldn't happen to know how much that was, would you?

[Olivier Jarvis Lavoie]

No, I don't.

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

According to a copy of the Public Accounts of Canada, it was $1.78 million.

Just to review some of the facts here about the who's who for Bali, we have Mr. Frank Guest, who worked in the Martin PMO with Stéphane Dion on climate change policy and his Project Green. We have Stéphane Dion, who gave $1.7 million to the Climate Action Network of Canada, whose delegation you were a part of. We certainly have a list of partisan involvements as far as your own individual activities are concerned, Monsieur Lavoie. We have John Bennett, a member of the Climate Action Network, if I can go further; he is a former director sharing office space with the Canadian Centre for Policy Ingenuity, where Mr. Guest is on the board of directors. I will table that as well. Thirty members of this Bali youth delegation are registered to Climate Action Network, along with Mr. Guest, as well as three members of Stéphane Dion's personal staff.

If it looks like a Liberal front organization and it smells like one, it probably is one.

[Olivier Jarvis Lavoie]

Frankly, that's insulting to Katrina Genuis, who is a card-carrying Conservative Party member.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[Olivier Jarvis Lavoie]

Is that one member less valuable to you than any other member of your party?

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

I would also suggest she doesn't work in the leader of the official opposition's office.

[Olivier Jarvis Lavoie]

Mr. Chair, I would ask, would you consider that the membership of Katrina Genuis in the Conservative Party is worthless because she is on our delegation and that the delegation was accredited through an organization that has individuals who are Liberals and has individuals who are of other parties as well? I don't take the point.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

I possibly agree with you. I don't think this is what we're talking about. We're talking about the Bali conference. I would ask Mr. Watson to try to keep it to that as well, please.

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

I did. These are the players in Bali, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

You're finished, Mr. Watson?

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

I am finished. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Unless members want to carry this on, I believe our time is up.

I would like to advise members that Mr. Scarpaleggia has a motion, which we'll deal with probably in the last 15 minutes of our next meeting, as we have witnesses coming. I believe you've all received a copy of that. We will deal with that at the end of the meeting, next meeting.

Thank you very much, guests, for being here.