Evidence of meeting #10 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was going.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
It's the commissioner coming in front of the committee to open for discussion what she's bringing forward in her reports. I didn't want to have that go.
Then it's really up to the committee. We've now lost one day for CEPA, so what are we doing with this climate change study? Then we were again going to go back to federally protected areas on June 6 for the report that was supposed to be drafted, in this case, on the 17th.
I have a feeling people aren't with me.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
I'm with you. I think we have too much stuff for our meetings.
Conservative
Jim Eglinski Conservative Yellowhead, AB
I'll pass my time over to Ed.
I just want to state that initially we went over this at the beginning, and when the sustainability came in and it was mandatory that we bring it forward, we said that we were going to run into problems. I think we had a good discussion over that, but we all bent and said, okay, let's go with it. It was going to cause problems, it is causing problems, and we're going to have to work around it. I think we had a good discussion in the subcommittee and we all came to agreement on the time frames of these things. We're willing to move them, but we're going to have to move them. We don't have a choice.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
We did agree at the subcommittee that we would have flexibility. We did agree that we would be flexible if things looked like they weren't fitting, but I do want to try to make sure that we are clear on where we're moving forward. With regard to getting into the federally protected areas, I am concerned that having only three witness days and then potentially a day for drafting is not enough.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Hold on. I have a speaking order. That's my fault. I have an order here.
Mr. Bossio.
Liberal
Mike Bossio Liberal Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON
Once again, I hear where you're coming from. There's no hurry, but I would counter the same.... The minister is meeting with her provincial counterparts to discuss the climate change initiatives. Really, what are we going to add to that discussion with two meetings in June that we can't take more time for in the fall?
We're already into CEPA. Let's continue that discussion so that it stays fresh and we can move forward on it and hopefully continue to move it along more quickly. Then we can pick up climate when it's relevant to the discussion around what the minister and her provincial counterparts are going to be proposing.
Maybe I'm wrong in my view on that, but that's the way I look at it, to be honest.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Listen, Cynara has been telling me that we can make our meetings longer or we can try to have another meeting.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
No, no. Skype us all in, right?
Your suggestion is fine, Madam Chair. You've suggested essentially pushing the whole schedule down by one meeting so that everything gets delayed by one meeting.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
No, because you're eliminating one in CEPA. You're eliminating a meeting in CEPA, so it's not shifting it all down.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
No. I'm not suggesting that we eliminate a CEPA one, because we all agreed to how many days we were going to have for CEPA and how many we're going to have for the protected lands.
What you're doing is inserting, on the day on which the protected land study was going to start, the provision of directions to staff on the sustainable development report, correct?
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
Then we just push everything down. Also, I agree with Mike's suggestion, given the fact that the climate change discussions are going to be happening throughout the summer. My understanding is that it won't be until October that the premiers and the Prime Minister will be meeting again.
Nathan may not agree with me, but I think there's enough flexibility there to do justice to that study, yet go ahead with what we had agreed to. I think that in essence what you're proposing is acceptable.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
We will go one more time over what we've said, because I don't think everybody is completely clear on what we've said.
We are moving that on April 21 we're going to do the drafting instructions for the FSDA. On May 3, 5, 10, 12, and 17, we're going to have witness statements on the protected areas. We're going to do the drafting.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Yes, on the 17th. I'm really concerned that we're pushing it again, but that's okay. On the 17th we're going to do the drafting instructions.
We have CEPA coming in on the 19th and we have here June 21st and 23rd, which means we're doing it May 19, and then we're going to take a break again and go off to another issue, which is the climate change study. That's what it says and I'm not sure that everybody is on the same page with that.
I think what I'm hearing from some is that we should have some consistency in the work that we're doing, and we should do the Canadian Environmental Protection Act on the 19th, 7th, 9th, and 14th, and then, if there's time and we have the opportunity, we do climate change on the 21st and 23rd.
