Evidence of meeting #56 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was project.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:15 p.m.
Executive Director, Earth Rangers
I don't know that I know enough about the city to comment on that.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
Could any of the panellists comment on Ottawa?
Mr. Husk.
5:15 p.m.
Member, City Councillor, City of Drummondville, Conseil régional de l'environnement du Centre-du-Québec
If I may, thank you.
I would say that in my municipal experience, Ottawa is beginning to be a reference in active transportation and alternatives to using the car. It's a town—the Ottawa and Gatineau region—with a bike service, what they call BIXI in Montreal. I'm not sure what the name is in Gatineau and Ottawa. It is becoming a reference because of the impacts of active transportation: lower greenhouse gas emissions; they make public health easier; they reduce the use of carbon fuels; and so on. So in that sense Ottawa is a reference.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
Ms. Blais, thank you for coming back. I would like to ask you a question, if I could. Again, coming from a farm constituency, I'm very much intrigued by what you said about conservation via incentives. In terms of agricultural communities, many of the rules and regulations that try to control agriculture just simply are not working. Can you expand on the idea of an incentive program for conservation?
5:15 p.m.
Biologist, Conseil régional de l'environnement du Centre-du-Québec
For agriculture, we are trying to put certain practices in place in Quebec, be they riparian strips, windbreaks or reducing the use of fertilizers. Owners don't always pay enough attention to these practices. In that respect, money needs to be invested, but money is scarce in agriculture.
We could do what the United States does. There, they fund the purchase of riparian strips. They buy the land and plant trees close to waterways. The government could certainly fund that type of activity. Riparian strips help connect the natural environments that are protected. As Mr. Koch mentioned, conservation isn't only urban. It's truly a corridor of natural environments. Urban conservation shouldn't be considered in a vacuum. It needs to be considered along with the agricultural environment. It would be an excellent way to consider that connectivity.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
Ms. Blais, would you say the regulatory approach in terms of controlling agriculture has failed and that we should look at replacing some of the regulations with incentives?
5:15 p.m.
Biologist, Conseil régional de l'environnement du Centre-du-Québec
I wouldn't say it's a failure, but I would say that there is a lack of application and follow-up. In Quebec, the policy on the protection of riverbanks, shore areas and flood plains defines a certain area where there cannot be any agriculture. The municipalities must incorporate this regulation into their zoning or housing development regulations. There often isn't any follow-up. So there isn't enough funding to send inspectors to those places to see if the policy is being respected. The policy itself is excellent. But there isn't enough money in the budgets to oversee the application of the regulations.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Mark Warawa
Thank you very much.
Madame Quach, you have four and a half minutes.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Anne Minh-Thu Quach NDP Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
Thank you.
I would like to ask an open question about rainwater management.
There has been talk of greening and replacing pavement with bioretention basins. In the case of Mr. Savard's schoolyard project, we were told that it had improved the quality of the water in the St. Charles River. What can the federal government do to improve the reuse of water or have better conservation and better drainage of rainwater?
Mr. Koch, you spoke a lot about studies on this. Can you give us some more detail?
5:20 p.m.
Instructor, School of Environment, Olds College
From where we are, I don't know if the federal government has to do much. I will tell you that the way water consumption is happening in urban environments...I would say the cost in the next five to ten years will increase exponentially. It's at the point that the end user—i.e. the consumer or resident—is going to start waking up to the fact that they have to handle water better.
We can certainly have many systems in place and legislate, but the main driver is going to be cost. What we're doing here in our area is we're certainly looking at different avenues regarding collection and reuse, so we don't have to use potable water for more secondary kinds of applications. But even with that, we have to be a little bit careful, because as we detain rainfall, we're having an effect on groundwater levels.
Again, I don't think it's just a black and white answer that we really have to look at. If we're going to capture and reuse, what are the beneficial aspects, and what are the implications to it? In short, the cost of water is going to be the driver.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Anne Minh-Thu Quach NDP Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
Thank you. I see that the others do not necessarily have…
Mr. Savard, go ahead.
5:20 p.m.
Representative, Green School Project, Municipal Councillor, City of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, As an Individual
We were talking about agricultural environments. In Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, a lot of land borders the St. Lawrence River. There is a lot of overflow when there is rain in the spring and fall. Some systems have been tested, such as in the ditches. Work can be cascaded to leave time for deposits. The techniques are known, but there is a lack of financial assistance for specific projects.
It would also be good to help people implement the techniques that are approved by special subsidy programs. It would be very helpful.
5:20 p.m.
Biologist, Conseil régional de l'environnement du Centre-du-Québec
A little earlier, there was some discussion about eco-conditional support for federal programs. It's a good thing when we build roads and municipal infrastructures. Eco-conditional support for rainwater management in a context of climate change, where there will be droughts and flooding, is an excellent way for the government to be involved in managing rainwater.
5:20 p.m.
Member, City Councillor, City of Drummondville, Conseil régional de l'environnement du Centre-du-Québec
I don't know exactly how the federal government could be involved in rainwater management in municipal jurisdictions. But we can talk about best practices from Europe, among other places. In fact, some European municipalities have established an infiltration coefficient when a developer develops land. In order to get a building permit, the entire area must meet a certain infiltration coefficient for rainfall. It's a very progressive measure. But I'm not sure how the federal government could get involved in that.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Anne Minh-Thu Quach NDP Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
Thank you.
I have one last question for Mr. Koch.
Could you tell us if the federal government could intervene in the use of cosmetic pesticides?
5:20 p.m.
Instructor, School of Environment, Olds College
I think right now, Ms. Quach, most municipalities in most provincial jurisdictions have set their criteria for the use of cosmetic pesticides. There's been strong, lively debate in many of them. Again, I don't know if the federal government really would be just duplicating what already is in place in those jurisdictions. So I can't see it being much different.
I think what's happening currently, either provincially or locally, at a municipal level, has been very effective, given the different jurisdictions in the communities.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Centre-North, AB
Thank you.
Again, on behalf of everyone who participated today, thank you so much for coming out. Your testimony was most useful and helpful to our deliberations here.
Something we've heard from witnesses almost consistently is—and, Mr. Savard, I believe you brought this up—the lack of best practice sharing.
Dr. Koch, you also alluded to the fact that the concept of urban conservation is one that's very broad, and part of the objective of our committee study is perhaps to gain some insight into how to put some definition around that concept.
With those two things in mind, I'd just like to give all of the witnesses an opportunity to talk a bit about how you feel we could better facilitate, or if there's a role for the federal government to facilitate, best practice sharing for urban conservation, but perhaps contextualized within your definition of what you see the scope of urban conservation being.
Mr. Savard, since you brought it up, I'll throw it to you.
5:25 p.m.
Representative, Green School Project, Municipal Councillor, City of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, As an Individual
We can use websites, for example. If there could be a place within the government dealing with environmental practices that we can develop and on urban sites, already that would be a great start. When we want to carry out a project, everyone has ideas. We could consult the government site to see if there are any similar projects. It could be by category. It would provide some ideas. The web pages can recreate how the project works or show how it was carried out. Publishing all the projects would help us a great deal. That would be sufficient.
5:25 p.m.
Biologist, Conseil régional de l'environnement du Centre-du-Québec
Thank you.
Environment Canada has published some excellent guides on conservation and biodiversity, especially How Much Habitat is Enough?, which provides basic rules for conservation. I think publishing a guide is very effective. The Quebec ministry of municipal affairs, regions and land occupancy has also done this for urban conservation. The Fédération québécoise des municipalités and the Union des municipalités du Québec talk about urban conservation. We deal directly with these jurisdictions. I think it's a great start for providing information on the topic.
5:25 p.m.
Member, City Councillor, City of Drummondville, Conseil régional de l'environnement du Centre-du-Québec
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has their green municipal fund, as we've discussed earlier, and they have an energy section and a transportation section. They have best practices examples and what project has received so much money. To my recollection, there is no department for urban conservation.
If there would be a way to gather that information on one site, one portal, guichet unique, as we would say in French, that would be an obvious plus. There's also the Quebec municipal affairs ministry, which has an observatoire on best practices, what's been done in North America and around the world, and also many guidelines on how to advise municipalities on conservation.