Evidence of meeting #61 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was environmental.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Robert McLean  Executive Director, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environmental Stewardship Branch, Department of the Environment
Tovah Barocas  Director, Development, Earth Rangers
Mike Puddister  Director, Watershed Transformation, Credit Valley Conservation
Terri LeRoux  Executive Director, Credit Valley Conservation Foundation

9:25 a.m.

NDP

Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS

Thanks. I completely missed that one. When you have recommendations, it's good that those of us who are here on committee understand what they are.

Ms. Barocas, I thought it was interesting that you led into some recommendations as well about the role of the federal government. You talked about facilitating more private sector engagement, a little bit like what Mr. Puddister said, but then you talked about the role of regulating. Can you expand on that? I wasn't quite sure what you meant by that.

9:25 a.m.

Director, Development, Earth Rangers

Tovah Barocas

What I meant was just that the government's role is as a regulator and that corporations or the private sector would be more encouraged to partner with ENGOs, as the previous speaker said, if there were more communication and more promotion of the importance of those partnerships by the regulating bodies. They would see the benefits of partnering more.

9:25 a.m.

NDP

Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS

I completely understand that.

Thanks to both of you. Those are great recommendations.

Ms. LeRoux, you talked quite a bit about some of the benefits but also some of the challenges of working with companies, with the private sector. You talked about how some organizations have marketing agreements where they'll help you out but they get to have their logo on things, and stuff like that. I thought your analysis that they are more reactive than proactive was really interesting. You said that they will respond to requests, but they're not out there saying, “Oh, gosh, what can we get involved in?”

I can only imagine that takes a lot of management on your part and that there are folks in your organization who are actively monitoring, making those outreach requests, asking for those funds, and applying for those grants. How exactly does your organization manage all of this?

9:25 a.m.

Executive Director, Credit Valley Conservation Foundation

Terri LeRoux

We do our best. Absolutely, it is a tremendous amount of work. One of the things we have found to be very successful, in the sense that companies seem to be more reactive, is cultivating those personal relationships with employees at the ground level. We have found that the groundswell coming from employees influencing corporate management is where we end up getting traction in attracting investment into our projects and programs. Enersource and UPS are two really great multi-year examples that started with relationships between CVC staff members and their employees in just creating that experience.

9:25 a.m.

NDP

Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS

It's interesting that you talked about that groundswell, that way into an organization through individuals and building those relationships.

When you talked about employee engagement, your example was how some companies actually want to roll up their sleeves and plant trees. We had another organization here on another day of this study and I asked some questions about that tough balance where you want to engage individuals at a company, for example, and let them get their hands dirty and plant trees, but at the same time they're often not the most efficient people to be doing that project. The people working in your organization probably have a lot more expertise.

How do you get that balance of having corporate engagement while at the same time actually accomplishing your goals and not just creating more work for you?

9:30 a.m.

Executive Director, Credit Valley Conservation Foundation

Terri LeRoux

Credit Valley Conservation has an extensive program of volunteer engagement, so dozens of activities per year that are based on projects that need and have to be done. That is the primary consideration. Then they enrol corporate volunteers and volunteers from the community. Those volunteers are trained by incredibly skilled staff and they are supervised by staff so that the outcomes of the programs are met. The added value of those programs is that they're a starting ground, if you may, for cultivating those relationships and having those people turn into ambassadors or advocates or ideally donors in support of our causes.

9:30 a.m.

NDP

Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS

It makes sense that you're laying the foundation by working with individuals, letting them come and put their rubber boots on for a day and plant some trees.

9:30 a.m.

Executive Director, Credit Valley Conservation Foundation

9:30 a.m.

NDP

Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS

Ms. Barocas, can you talk a little bit about the experience with Earth Rangers in terms of organizations that want to be involved? How do you get them involved? Is it you who's always asking? Do you have that feeling of businesses being reactive rather than proactive?

9:30 a.m.

Director, Development, Earth Rangers

Tovah Barocas

Absolutely. It's a well-oiled machine in the fundraising department, prospecting for different areas, reaching out to corporations on a regular basis. We've found it really helpful, through the support we've received from the federal government, first through FedDev southern Ontario and now through the national conservation plan, to have initial funding to expand into a new geographic area. Let's say you contact a corporation who has never seen you on the ground in Edmonton. Even though you have an objective of expanding your program into Edmonton, they don't want to be the first people to put money towards that. We've been able to leverage support from the federal government to go to a community for the first time and then, in future years, almost every single time we've been able to replace that money with local corporations who want to see the program stay.

As the Credit Valley Conservation Authority mentioned, once the employees see the value of your program, it's really hard for the corporation to cancel it. If we visit an employee's child's school with wild animals, and we inspire them to join Earth Rangers, then the employee becomes an advocate for us. It ends up being very good for us financially in the future.

9:30 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Harold Albrecht

Thank you very much.

Committee members, I neglected to mention that we've had a request from the committees branch to have formal pictures taken of the committee at work. We have a photographer here who will be taking a few photos over the next five to ten minutes while we're at work—just so you don't think we've been invaded by another group.

9:30 a.m.

Liberal

John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON

The one day I don't wear a tie.

9:30 a.m.

Voices

Oh, oh!

9:30 a.m.

Conservative

Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB

We were waiting for the day.

9:30 a.m.

Voices

Oh, oh!

9:30 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Harold Albrecht

With that, we'll move to Mrs. Ambler, please, for seven minutes of questioning.

9:30 a.m.

Conservative

Stella Ambler Conservative Mississauga South, ON

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all of you for being here today, with a special thanks to Mike and Terri for speaking to us and letting this wonderful committee know about all the great things that are happening in the Credit Valley watershed. I happen to know about them, and am delighted to share them with my colleagues and with other Canadians. Thanks for your time.

I want to ask you a few questions, particularly in the area of water pollution.

Mike, I know that your area of expertise is water transformation. What is CVC doing...? You talked about low-impact development and reducing water pollution. Can you tell us how companies like Imax, Teck Resources, and RBC are helping CVC to do its work in the area of water transformation and water pollution?

9:35 a.m.

Director, Watershed Transformation, Credit Valley Conservation

Mike Puddister

Thank you, Ms. Ambler.

As you know, Imax is a corporate leader in innovation. In fact, our greening corporate grounds program was actually launched at Imax. They've been a partner with us from the very beginning. Our staff was working with them, and they came to realize that they were planning for major renovations of their parking lot facility. As you know, the impervious surfaces that parking lots represent are a major source of pollution—and of flooding, for that matter.

We sat down with them. Our engineers met with their technical staff. We talked about some innovative solutions that could be integrated into a retrofit of their parking lot. A variety of LID, or low-impact development, technologies have been integrated into the design. They're also supporting us in the monitoring of those facilities so that we can learn from that experience. As you can appreciate, they're very much in support of scientific research. They've become a very valuable and important demonstration site. They are leading the charge and showing other corporations and other potential partners the opportunities that some new technologies can represent to reduce impacts on water quality and peak flows flooding downstream.

Teck was a very earlier partner in the same general neighbourhood, the Sheridan research park in southern Mississauga just north of the QEW. They investigated the opportunity to really put in place environmentally sustainable landscaping, reducing chemical inputs into their landscaping operation by creating viable natural habitats. They were one of the early adopters and were willing to use their site as a demonstration site so that we could show others that these ideas can really work.

RBC has one of their major corporate headquarters at the intersection of Mississauga Road and the 401. I'm sure many of you are familiar with the large towers there. They have a variety of issues they're trying to deal with. Flooding is one of them. It's become a hazard for them. They have partnered with us, through Partners in Project Green, actually, to put in place another demonstration site. They will be retrofitting a portion of their parking lot. They will be converting it to permeable pavement so that we get infiltration rather than ponding, rather than flooding, recharging the groundwater system, and addressing a hazard that's there right on site. They'll also be participating in a habitat naturalization project along the edge of the property fronting on the 401.

So a variety of different initiatives are benefiting the local environment.

9:35 a.m.

Conservative

Stella Ambler Conservative Mississauga South, ON

Would you happen to know the dollar amounts these companies are contributing? Roughly what kind of money are we talking about?

9:35 a.m.

Director, Watershed Transformation, Credit Valley Conservation

Mike Puddister

I don't know the exact figures. The Imax project is well into the hundreds of thousands. It's a very major initiative and capital investment. For Teck industries, I don't have a number. For RBC, the current pilot project is around $90,000.

9:35 a.m.

Conservative

Stella Ambler Conservative Mississauga South, ON

Thank you.

On the subject of water quality and water pollution, I've participated in a couple of CVC-organized activities, in shoreline cleanups along Lake Ontario, and I know that a number of volunteers are involved. I'm wondering if any of those volunteers, or if the bulk of them, come from the private sector, companies that partner with you. Is that where you find the majority of your volunteers?

9:35 a.m.

Director, Watershed Transformation, Credit Valley Conservation

Mike Puddister

A significant number of our volunteers do come from the corporate sector. Along the Mississauga shoreline, we have the Holcim facility that I referred to earlier. Their employees have engaged in a variety of stewardship-related projects. Suncor is also a major facility right on the shore, not too far from Holcim, and their employees have been engaged in stewardship activities. At the other end of the scale, we have places like Michael's salon, a small private business in Clarkson. Their employees have been actively engaged in fundraising for Rattray Marsh, for instance.

We cross all aspects of that sector, reaching out to try to get more public and corporate engagement.

9:40 a.m.

Conservative

Stella Ambler Conservative Mississauga South, ON

In fact, I was at Michael's when they were promoting their tree-planting initiative as well, so I know they're very active in that area.

Terri, would you mind talking for a moment about the anxiety that you were talking about with regard to corporate involvement with environmental organizations? Where does that come from, and how can we fix it so that it doesn't happen?

9:40 a.m.

Executive Director, Credit Valley Conservation Foundation

Terri LeRoux

I think there is some anxiety within the ENGO sector about partnering with corporations. I think there's a little bit of resistance and a fear of greenwashing, if you may. There's a fear that the shared objectives are not truly mutual and that the corporation is looking to enhance its brand.

9:40 a.m.

Conservative

Stella Ambler Conservative Mississauga South, ON

What's greenwashing? Sorry. Tell us what you mean by “fear of greenwashing”.