Evidence of meeting #114 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 see.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
I hear you, but it's not going to happen this time. It has to come another way.
NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
Are we given assurance here that members of advisory councils are going to have their costs paid?
NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
So will only those people who can afford to come on their own be on the advisory council? All right.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
There we go. Amendment NDP-61 is inadmissible.
We're now moving on to amendment PV-77, and we're missing Elizabeth.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
I think we will. She can't explain it, but we will vote on it.
Mr. Fast requests a recorded vote.
(Amendment negatived: nays 7; yeas 1 [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Let's move onto the next one which is LIB-58.
Mr. Aldag, go ahead.
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
For this one, the committee should be familiar with this kind of terminology, which we looked at with my private member's bill. It has the goal of meaningfully engaging indigenous peoples, which we feel is really foundational to this bill. It takes the wording and puts it in acceptable terms for the legislation. It does ensure that we'll have a person recommended by an indigenous governing body or other entity that represents interests of first nations, of the Inuit, and of the Métis.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
First of all, I'd like a recorded vote, but I'd also like to make one comment.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
Yes, I do.
There's nothing here that establishes how many members will be on that council, so effectively, it's the minister's discretion to appoint the members of the advisory council. It's possible, then, that you would have three Inuit who would be the council, right? I don't think that would be the intention. Correct...?
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
The intent is to have at least one from each of the three indigenous groups.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
I totally understand that, but there's no fixed number of members on the advisory council, so we have no assurance that it will be balanced between indigenous and non-indigenous. There's no guarantee here.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
I think that's a problem. Before we move ahead with fixing indigenous representation on the advisory council, we should probably make sure there's going to be an appropriate balance and that we know what the numbers might be, whether it's nine or six, but at least we have to know. Based on this we know that there's an entitlement that our indigenous communities will have three members on there. We have no other idea as to how large this advisory council will be or who else will populate that council.
For that reason, I can't support this at this time, although I want to strongly speak in favour of having members of the indigenous community on this council. The proposal as it sits is fine, except it's being done in a vacuum of information, and it's strictly up to the minister to decide whether there's going to be a balance on that council or not. For that reason, I'm going to have to vote against it.
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
If I could just comment on the initial bill, it didn't specify that either, so this recommendation says that there will at least be three indigenous, so there's still that same level of discretion, but noting that three have to be indigenous.
Conservative
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
Right, and with that, I will be voting yes.
(Amendment agreed to: yeas 6 ; nays 2 [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
We're now moving to LIB-59. Note that the original 59 is being replaced by a new 59.
Go ahead, Mr. Amos.
Liberal
William Amos Liberal Pontiac, QC
I just want to confirm that everyone has LIB-59 in front of them. This goes specifically to the improvement of the regional and strategic assessments as tools for taking into account cumulative impacts, those impacts that go beyond any one specific project. We heard a great deal from stakeholders about how to ensure that rigorous assessments are achieved and that their findings are used not just in the context of that project but in subsequent projects. I think that's one of the key aspects of these regional and strategic impact assessments. This amendment is intended to build on existing provisions related to RIAs and SIAs by requiring the minister's advisory council to make recommendations on priorities for these assessments and by requiring the minister to respond to those priorities.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
I'd like a recorded vote.
(Amendment agreed to: yeas 6; nays 2 [See Minutes of Proceedings])