Evidence of meeting #133 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 forests.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:05 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
Is there unanimous consent to deviate from our established procedures?
I'm not seeing unanimous consent so we'll take the three notices of motion.
4:05 p.m.
Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, CPC
Okay, with that response from the Liberal members of the committee, I move:
That, (a) the Minister of Environment and Climate Change appear before the Committee to discuss the Committee’s study of Clean Growth and Climate Change in Canada: Forestry, Agriculture and Waste; and, (b) in the event the Minister appears before the Committee with regards to Supplementary Estimates (A), 2018-19, the request in (a) be considered to have been fulfilled.
That's the motion I'm putting on the table now.
4:05 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
Okay, and because that one relates to the study at hand, we are able to consider it.
Does anybody want to speak to this?
4:10 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
Okay, we'll start our speakers list.
Mr. Lake.
4:10 p.m.
Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, CPC
I have a couple of thoughts here. As I mentioned in asking for unanimous consent with the previous one, it struck me that in our process as a committee, we got in a bit of a weird situation in the last meeting because it was presented at the end of the meeting that the minister had been invited for specific times and dates, obviously very limiting in the busyness of a minister's schedule, and had gotten back that she was not available for any of those dates.
In having a conversation around the committee table, it turned out that there was no conversation to be had because there was no mechanism within the rules of committee to allow us to do that. That's concerning to us because clearly, from our side—and I think we'd have agreement from the NDP in this case—it would be important for the minister to appear, and as a responsible environment committee, we should make ourselves available at whatever hour we can to fit the minister's schedule if she's able to appear, and that clearly is a bit of a challenge because we couldn't even have that discussion under the rules of the committee. The way the committee was set up we couldn't even move a motion in that direction and agree as a committee that we would want to have that happen.
We've done a little research, of course, and taken a look at supplementary estimates in this committee previously, and in almost every year since 2008, the minister has appeared for the supplementary estimates. There are very few exceptions in that time frame, so it stands to reason that particularly in this budget, with the numbers we're talking about being asked for in supplementary estimates going well above the planned expenditures of the department, that the minister would appear before this committee.
Mr. Chair, first of all, I'm wondering how many people are on the list to speak.
4:10 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
They are Monsieur Godin and Mr. Aboultaif.
4:10 p.m.
Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, CPC
Maybe I'll put myself on the list after them. Maybe I'll pass the ball to them to say a few more words and then it will come back to me.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I think the motion proposed by my colleague is reasonable. I believe that, as parliamentarians and in situations such as the current one, we must be able to question the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. I can understand that a minister has a very busy schedule. But if we are to do our job as parliamentarians and continue to protect our planet, we must question the person who determines the government's perspective. There were questions at the last meeting on the use of the additional funds.
I would like to stress something that is extremely dear to me. As a parliamentarian, I have a dual mandate to protect the future of my children, both economically and environmentally. These are the two fundamental criteria that will let me be proud, walk with my head held high and say “mission accomplished” when I stop being a member of Parliament. In the meantime, I believe that the least the minister could do is appear before the committee.
At some point, to show good faith, you have to know how to adapt. As I said, I understand that the minister has a very busy schedule. As my colleague said earlier, we are open to the idea of changing our sitting hours to meet our needs. However, for us parliamentarians, it is a need to be able to question the minister.
There is nothing abusive about that. I know there are situations where people exaggerate and partisanship comes into play. Yet this is something very important. Today, people are wondering about the importance of the measures that should be put in place quickly in terms of the environment. However, this is not the same as writing a blank cheque. In light of the answers I heard at the last meeting, the situation is not very reassuring. The government has even decided to vote supply for a bill that has not yet been passed, namely Bill C-69, which amounts to putting the cart before the horse. Let's stop. Let's be responsible. I think we need to ask questions of Canada's leader on the environment.
I'll repeat what my colleague mentioned: we are available, and we are ready to adjust our schedules. I don't know if it's the whiff of an election in the air that is making us a little more partisan. However, we have been successful so far—Liberals, New Democrats and Conservatives—in working together for the benefit of our environment and our planet.
So, I reiterate my colleague's request that we meet with the Minister of Environment by December 3. Our flexibility shows that we aren't being stubborn. We don't need her to make any changes to her schedule. We are ready to adapt in order to get answers to our questions.
4:15 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
Mr. Godin, I have given you almost three minutes.
I want to remind anybody on the speaking list that they are to speak to the motion that's before us right now and to stay on that one, which is to have the minister come and speak to this study.
If you have comments on the other motions that have been put on notice, I will be cutting people off on that. I gave you a bit of leeway there, but we need to keep it tight and on the motion before us that relates.... If anybody needs it read again we can do that, but keep your comments focused.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Throughout my speech so far, I believe I have only defended my colleague's motion that the Minister of Environment appear before us to answer our questions on the supplementary estimates for the next quarter. I just want us to make sure—
4:15 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
We're now talking about the motion to have the minister come and speak to this study. That debate we can have when those are brought forward, but not at this time.
I'm going to move now to the next speaker.
4:15 p.m.
Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, CPC
I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.
In the motion as I read it, which you deemed to be in order, there's a clear reference there that if the minister does agree to come to the committee in regard to supplementary estimates, then the previous request to come on this study would have been fulfilled.
I would say as we're discussing the motion, a conversation around supplementary estimates is in order with the motion.
4:15 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
I'm saying that it's not. We have experts from three panels. I want to hear from everybody on their points, but I would also like to have us get through the discussion on the motion to have the minister come and speak to this study. The point's been made that you would like her here for the supplementary estimates (A), and we're waiting from the response from her office. That has gone back to them with a request for availability.
If there are reasons why we would like to have the minister come for this study, then that's completely fair. I think the point has been made. We're not going to be richer for knowledge if we start getting into all the reasons why we want her to come on the supplementary estimates.
Mr. Godin.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Mr. Chair, to demonstrate the good faith of the MPs on this side of the table, I will respect the procedure and what you have said, but I think the motion my colleague has proposed is acceptable.
4:15 p.m.
Edmonton Manning, CPC
Thank you, Mr. Chair, for welcoming me for the first time on this committee. It seems to be a very peaceful committee that does really reflect on the environment in general. I hope this is what we will truly achieve at the end of the day.
I will speak to support the motion from my colleague. I've never been on this committee, and as I said, this is my first time, but I've been on other committees and I believe that this is a very reasonable request. The reason is that when you have the minister at committee answering questions on such an important topic, I think it does add a lot of value to the discussion as we approach the last year of her mandate.
I think it's very important that we can have that or take this opportunity to shine the light on this important topic right now, and be able to come up with some solutions, and add better results to the discussion and our time around this table.
I do support the motion my colleague put forward. I hope all members around this table from different parties will be able to support it and will put it forward. As I said, I think it's very valuable. I think it carries a lot of weight. I believe it's a reasonable request that somehow we will be happy to see that supported and at least can get everybody's agreement on the importance and the value of it.
Thank you.
4:20 p.m.
Kootenay—Columbia, NDP
Thank you.
I just want some clarification, Chair. Are we particularly speaking to the forestry, agriculture and waste component, or the larger study of Canada's leadership around climate change?
4:20 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
It's specifically to the agriculture, forestry and waste study.
4:20 p.m.
Kootenay—Columbia, NDP
Then I'm very interested in having the minister come to talk about Canada's leadership in climate change in general, but if that's not what we're dealing with on this motion, I will wait.