Evidence of meeting #36 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site.) The winning word was park.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
What did you mean by “the godfather”? It's not something that we take nicely to.
Next time you go to insult the entire Italian race, think about it. Try to be a little bit more [Inaudible—Editor] before you insult people. It's not something that we take lightly.
Conservative
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
I think the witness heard my question and was about to answer. Perhaps I could ask him to start again at the beginning.
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
Thank you.
Prior to my appointment at Environment Canada, I was the senior associate deputy minister of National Defence for a period of about 17 months. Prior to that I was the deputy secretary of operations at the Privy Council Office which, as you may know, is responsible for economic, social, and environmental policy matters before cabinet and for providing advice to the Prime Minister in those areas.
I think in both those assignments, I gained some experience of value to this job. First, I think, at the Privy Council Office I was able to gain an appreciation of the horizontal role of deputy ministers in terms of supporting both their ministers and the government agenda. At National Defence, while that was a change for me, I gained a lot of extremely valuable experience in terms of managing a very large organization. As well, of course, I also had the opportunity to work closely with the Canadian military, which was a great privilege.
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
Can you tell me where you are with regard to the briefing for your current responsibilities? I imagine that taking over a department that size isn't something one can do at the drop of a hat. Quite frankly, I'm not quite certain as to when you actually took up your briefing and how long you expect it to take before you'll be able to settle in and set some of your own priorities.
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
I did spend four years at the department previously, from 2006 to 2010, so I feel I have a good understanding of the challenges it has, both as an organization and also in terms of supporting the government's environmental agenda.
I'm learning certainly, and as I mentioned, I'm hugely aided by a tremendous group of professional colleagues at the department. I feel I'm able today to effectively function as the deputy minister, both in terms of my policy advice function and also in terms of program management.
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
Very good.
Concerning your work in relation to climate change, according to my recollection of reports, Canada was very instrumental in getting the major emitters to sign on, I think, to the Copenhagen Accord. I don't want to ask you to breach any confidentiality that you might be subject to, but can you tell me if I'm generally right that Canada played a big role in that respect?
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
Well, I'm humble by nature, sir, but I think it's important in the international climate negotiations to bear in mind two points. One, it's a public process, a very open process. I think one can appreciate the nature of the process, and it's intended to be very transparent. It also has over 180 participants, and given its iterative nature, it would be difficult to simply say that one country or another helped to create a certain outcome. It is certainly the case that Canada, along with a few other developed countries, did argue very strongly that in order to achieve an environmentally effective agreement, we needed to find a regime that captured and motivated action by all major emitters, and that includes the major developing countries.
November 5th, 2014 / 5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
Thank you very much.
Mr. Chair, I'd like to defer my last moments to Mr. Calandra.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Harold Albrecht
Actually, we're out of time.
I'm going to suggest, committee, that because of our time situation we're going to go to Mr. McKay for the last intervention, and then we're going to move to committee business for about, hopefully, three minutes, to approve a budget.
I want to go to Mr. McKay.
Mr. McKay, I did not understand or hear the earlier intervention. I would welcome it if you're open to this; I didn't hear what you said, but if you care to make an apology or make a statement, I would not take that off of your time.
Mr. McKay for five minutes plus 30 seconds.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
I'll deal with that later.
Mr. Martin, I think you are the fifth or sixth deputy minister since 2006. Is that about right?
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
If you give me a second here, I can....
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
I think we've heard from most of them at one point or another.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
The fifth. Okay. That's a year and a bit for every deputy minister.
Have you had an opportunity to meet with the environment commissioner?
Liberal
Liberal
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
If you saw from our response to her report, we agreed with all of her recommendations.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
Her recommendation is pretty strong that there's not any chance Canada's going to meet its 2020 targets. Do you agree with that statement?
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
I don't have it in front of me, but as I recall, she commented that, based on the evidence published by Environment Canada, we are not yet on track to meet our 2020 target. Again, I wouldn't want to misquote her.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
I think that's a reasonable reflection of what she said in her report, so the question is, do you agree with the fact that the environment commissioner says we're not on track to make that target?