Environment Committee on March 5th, 2013

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Thank you, Mr. Storseth.

Mr. Woodworth.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all of the witnesses for attending here today. There are a few things I'd like to touch on.

The first is regarding the questioning earlier about the Nature Conservancy. I'll preface my remarks by saying that over the last number of years we have had numerous witnesses appear before this committee, and whenever any of them were asked about the Nature Conservancy program that our government operates, they praised it, and it unreservedly was considered to be a great success. Until the NDP member spoke earlier, I have never heard anyone challenge the merit of that program.

I would like to ask you this, Mr. Hamilton. I understand that it was a multi-year program of several hundred million dollars at least. Could you remind us of over what number of years and what the total government expenditure was on the program with the Nature Conservancy?

[Bob Hamilton]

Yes. I can say that it's a five-year program, and what we're looking at this year in the estimates is the last phase of that. We talked earlier about the $25 million. That's the last phase of that program.

I think I would echo your comments. Any commentary I've received on the program has been very positive in terms of what it has been able to do and how it has been able to leverage that money more broadly to achieve its goals.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Do you happen to have at your fingertips the total amount of the government expenditure on that program over the five years?

[Bob Hamilton]

I believe that it's $210 million over the five-year period.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Very good.

This item that appears on the supplementary estimates, the $24 million, is the last installment of that, so I assume that at this point it falls off the books and would not be repeated in the 2013-14 estimates. Is that correct?

[Bob Hamilton]

That's right, pending any future decisions that might be made. Yes.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Very good.

I'd also like to ask you about the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, because we have people who go across this country and accuse the government of not doing enough on environmental assessments, getting it wrong on environmental assessments, and not consulting with aboriginal groups on environmental assessments. I regard that criticism to be ill-informed at best and mischievously misleading at worst.

I was interested to hear the minister mention that the Canadian environmental assessment funding is estimated to almost double, from $17 million to $31 million in 2013-14. I wonder, Mr. Hamilton, if you could just elaborate on what that is directed toward and how that will improve the environmental assessment process in Canada.

[Bob Hamilton]

Sure. Well, certainly since we have the president of the agency here—

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Oh, I'm sorry. My apologies.

[Bob Hamilton]

—Elaine, I'll allow her to answer that question.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

That would be fine. Thank you.

[Elaine Feldman]

Thank you very much.

Our funding does show an increase of $14 million for next year, and that's because a lot of the funding we have is sunset funding that was renewed in budget 2012. Of that funding, $6.6 million is devoted to aboriginal consultation. That includes funding for aboriginal groups to participate in environmental assessment, because the government uses a whole-of-government approach in dealing with aboriginal groups and impacts that projects may have on their potential or established aboriginal rights and titles. The agency provides funding to aboriginal groups to participate in consultations during the course of the environmental assessment. Part of that funding is for aboriginal groups. The other part of that $6.6 million is for the agency to conduct those consultations.

In addition, we received funding to enable the agency to carry out environmental assessment of major resource projects. Prior to the enactment of the new CEAA legislation, all government departments were responsible for carrying out environmental assessment. That responsibility now falls to only three authorities: the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, the National Energy Board, and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

So CEAA is responsible for the environmental assessment of the major projects across Canada.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Very good, and I hope Canadians will be assured by the fact that we are increasing and renewing funding to CEAA to look after that responsibility.

Mr. Chair, do I have some time left?

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

You have about eight seconds.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

In that case, I don't think I'll be able to ask about the fast-start program, but thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Do you rest your case?

Thank you, Ms. Feldman.

[Bob Hamilton]

Could I use that eight seconds for one quick thing?

When you asked how much money has been spent on the national conservancy, I believe I said $210 million. Just to correct, $225 million will have been spent over the course of the five-year period.

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Thank you for that clarification.

Ms. Duncan.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Can you tell me which strategic outcome or grant and contribution the oil sands monitoring program would fall under?

[Bob Hamilton]

We're working jointly with Alberta on the monitoring program. The agreement is that the industry would pay for that monitoring, so it comes in under vote net revenues for us. For example, if it turns out that between ourselves and the Alberta government we spend $20 million to enhance monitoring, the industry would pay that for us.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

But right now the industry has agreed to pay a maximum of $15 million a year for the monitoring. It's my understanding that so far there is no governance structure in place to collect the money. Is that correct?

[Bob Hamilton]

That's part of what we're working on with Alberta. Basically, in the state we're at now, there's been a lot of work done since the announcement about a year ago. We've been working with the Alberta government on exactly how we're going to carry out and implement that announcement. I'd say we're very far along the road. I think we've resolved virtually all of the key issues. One of the issues is the governance structure, and we hope to be agreeing soon on an MOU with Alberta on that governance structure. Part of the agreement is that the industry will pay for the cost.

I believe you might have said $15 million?

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

No, $50 million.

Will there be a plan to recoup the cost that industry has promised to pay?

[Bob Hamilton]

Yes.