Environment Committee on Oct. 22nd, 2009

[Michael Martin]

The fundamental policy goal is to achieve an agreement that is environmentally effective, one that places us on the path to achieving reductions of at least 50% globally by 2050. In order to get there, as I mentioned, we're going to need economy-wide actions and commitments from developed countries and we are also going to need very broad action from developing countries. We're going to have to find a way to build this package in a manner that is consistent with the aspirations of all countries to pursue sustainable development and to continue to grow their economies, to continue to provide increasing sources of affordable energy to their people to enable them to continue to reduce poverty and increase living standards.

All those policy goals have to be addressed together. We have to find a way, through this agreement and broader collaborative action, to achieve growth, sustainable development, while also achieving the deep emission reductions that science tells us are necessary. To get there, again, we're going to have to scale up global cooperation. We're going to have to drive the development and deployment of clean technologies. We're going to have to also generate the financial resources necessary and the investment necessary in order to enable that clean growth path going forward.

So it's a very ambitious goal that we're seeking to achieve.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

Thank you.

I have one closing question on the summary you provided to the committee on emission reduction commitments, which became a public document in, I believe, June or July. Where can Canadians get access to this?

[Michael Martin]

It's available on the United Nations website, the framework convention website. I'm not sure if it's available on our own website or not, sir, but I can certainly check that.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

And this is a summary document?

[Michael Martin]

In the negotiations, when we've had an ongoing discussion about targets and comparability of effort, we provided this to help parties understand more about Canada's circumstances and to provide an indication of the policies and measures that the Government of Canada was implementing in order to achieve those goals. It's consistent with what parties provide in that setting.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Thank you.

I want to thank the witnesses for your presentations today. It will help us form our study and report and evaluation of Bill C-311. I appreciate your comments and very frank discussion, Mr. Martin.

Thanks for joining us, Dr. Cooper and Ms. Buckley. We appreciated your input today as well.

We do have a notice of motion to consider from Mr. Trudeau. Would you like to read that into the record.?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Yes. The motion is that the meetings in relation to Bill C-311, An Act to ensure Canada assumes its responsibilities in preventing dangerous climate change, be televised.

I think the interest generated by the discussions we're having here would be of great interest to Canadians and I think we should. We've talked about it many times before, so I finally moved a concrete motion that we ask the clerk to try to schedule, inasmuch as it is possible within the limits of the House of Commons, that each of these hearings in the future be televised.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Since we are considering legislation, we do have a priority over other committees for meeting rooms that are televised.

Mr. Warawa.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

I thank Mr. Trudeau for his motion. I think it's a good one. We'll be supporting it. We want to give Canadians an opportunity to hear from science, industry, economists, all the professional expert witnesses who will be coming here. They need to hear this as we critique Bill C-311. I don't think it's a good bill, but we look forward to Canadians hearing from the witnesses. Having it televised will give them that opportunity.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

My own comment on this is that in normal practice when we do go to clause-by-clause, those proceedings usually aren't televised, but I leave it to the committee's discretion on whether or not you want clause-by-clause televised.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

My intent with the motion is very much more around the testimony we'd be hearing rather than the clause-by-clause.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Can we make it part of the motion that clause-by-clause consideration will not be televised?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

I accept a friendly amendment on that.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Are there any other comments?

Go ahead, Ms. Duncan.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

I'm pleased to see the switch in opinion. I, of course, had wanted to have proceedings on tar sands and on water televised, and there wasn't interest in that. It's regrettable that the first two days of testimony--Tuesday's, I think, being the more significant--weren't televised, but I'm certainly in favour of finally making our proceedings open to the public.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Ms. Duncan, I can tell you that as chair, I take my direction from committee. If committee brings forward a motion, then we will be scheduling televised meetings, but until that happens, we maintain the status quo.

Go ahead, Monsieur Bigras.

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

It's hard to oppose virtue, but I find it somewhat paradoxical that this motion is being brought forward after study of the bill has already commenced, after we have already heard shocking testimony from scientific experts and after the government has made its position known. I'm not opposed to the motion, but I do hope that the committee will not make a habit of opening the discussion up to the general public after it has begun to study a bill.

I would have preferred to see the motion tabled earlier. We always agreed to have committee meetings televised and to have as few in camera sessions as possible, particularly when the time came to set out the agenda and our list of witnesses on BillC-311. Not every opposition party felt the same way, but I'm pleased today to support this motion, even if it is a little late in coming.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Go ahead, Mr. Trudeau.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

I would just like to add that I would have been more than favourable to any motion that the other parties or anyone else might have brought forward on this. There were no other motions. We've been talking about it for a while.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Are there any other questions or comments?

Let's call the vote.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Having received a motion to adjourn the meeting, I declare the meeting adjourned.