I think it's important that we review what this clause actually means and what it actually does. Clause 14 authorizes any resident of Canada or entity that believes an environmental law has been contravened to apply to the commissioner for an investigation of the alleged offence by the minister responsible for that law and sets out what information must be included in the application.
The government is supportive of providing opportunities for residents of Canada to seek investigations of environmental offences. Such opportunities are already provided for under the Auditor General Act, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act of 1999, and the Species at Risk Act. This proposed provision would create a significant overlap of those opportunities. We heard testimony from several witnesses who were concerned about this. Now we have clause 13, which will create what I call a super power commissioner or a commissioner in chief that has such binding power and authority.
If we have people from all across the country or entities from all across the country applying for investigations, are we going to have a massive increase in the commissioner's office to be able to entertain what could be thousands and thousands of applications for investigations? Are we going to see a huge increase in the size of the commissioner's office and the realm of the power controlled by the commissioner? I have concerns about that.
If you were a developer looking to start a project in Canada, if you were a foreign entity looking to invest, and you had several countries in which you could choose to invest, the increasing amount of red tape, of redundancy, of challenges, of applications for investigation that this bill is now creating would give pause to anybody who was going to invest in projects in this country.
As I mentioned before, I'm the only committee member from Atlantic Canada. We have several projects. We have tidal power in the Bay of Fundy. We have lower Churchill Falls in Newfoundland. These are large projects that really could determine the future of the east coast of Canada and in fact the power production of the entire country. We have huge opportunities there.
This would allow entities, foreign entities, maybe individuals who are employed by or who are agents for companies that have competing interests that are bidding on contracts, to try to create more and more investigations and to make all kinds of frivolous applications to the commissioner.
All these applications are going to have to be reviewed by the commissioner and his office. I am very concerned about the impact of that. So clause 14 gives me great pause and great concern because of the redundancy, the increase in red tape, and really, once again, the possible enlargement and increase in the power of and control by the commissioner's office.
I think we should take great pause before we pass clause 14 and consider what the actual impact could be or will be.
Thank you.