Environment Committee on May 10th, 2016

[The Chair (Mrs. Deborah Schulte (King—Vaughan, Lib.)), Liberal, Deb Schulte]

We're going to start the meeting.

I apologize to all of our witnesses. We have a couple of things. I sent out an email last night asking if people would be willing to entertain meeting on the 17th, rather than dealing with drafting instructions, to give us a chance to hear from some more witnesses.

We have polled the witnesses who are here today to see if any of them would be able to come back on the 17th, so that we would have a more fulsome discussion rather than a very pinched discussion that might happen today with all six on the agenda.

If it happens that we're going to try to fit them all in, we'll have very short questioning. I didn't think that was the right way to go, given the knowledge that needs to come out of the question period.

I proposed, through the email, to move the 17th as an additional witness day. We would move our drafting instructions to after the summer. I don't know if you have all considered that, but we do have three witnesses, almost four, who would be prepared to come back on the 17th if we do that. That might help us today.

We have the Canadian Wildlife Federation and the Mining Association of Canada, both are prepared to come back on the 17th. We have the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, one on video conference and one that's prepared to come back here. The Forest Products Association of Canada is prepared to come back and they're by video conference. We have two on video conference.

Welcome to all of you and thank you for being very accommodating, giving us that option. I need the committee to put their thoughts quickly on the table about that.

Mr. Eglinski.

[Jim Eglinski, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Madam Chair, our side would be willing to stay over and continue, and get rid of the special committee thing, so that we can get most of the witness presentations. One of our members has to leave, but the rest of us are willing to stay because it's a very important topic. We would be willing to stay after one o'clock if it's agreed by the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Does anybody have any comments on that?

[Darren Fisher, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

I can't stay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

You can't stay either. Is there anyone else who can't stay?

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

I can stay up until about 1:40.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

No, I can't stay. I have a meeting at one o'clock and then at 1:30.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

It's a good idea, but the other issue is that we can't do the work that we need to do in the subcommittee. We do need to do that as well because we have some additional witnesses that I needed to review with the subcommittee to see how we would move forward on that. If we are going to put a budget for travel, we need to do that very soon.

If there's a chance at all to travel in the summer, that has to be worked out and then discussed. The longer we put that off, the less chance we are going to be able to make that happen. I will leave it up to the committee.

Mr. Fast.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

There's also the other issue of debating the two motions that have been deferred on a number of occasions. Given the fact that we do have a full slate of witnesses here, in the interest of ensuring they get the time to present and we get a chance to ask some questions, I would be prepared to defer consideration of my motion if Mr. Gerretsen was prepared to defer consideration of his motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Mr. Gerretsen.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Madam Chair, unfortunately, I'm not prepared to do that. I need to put forward my motion today. I would like to table it and I would rather not do that during the questioning of witnesses. I would like to know if there's going to be some time toward the end to do that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

My intention was to try to get agreement to move some people to the 17th, so we could have a fulsome discussion with the ones that need to stay here today and with the ones that are prepared to come back, and to get any motions that need to be tabled, so we can get that work out of the way because we've been delaying that now for over a week and we need to have it heard.

I appreciate your comments, but I'm hearing that you're not willing to entertain that. I was thinking we would do your motion at the end.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

As long as you're allotting time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

I am allotting time at 12:45 to do that.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Madam Chair, that gives our witnesses about 45 minutes to present.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

If four of them are prepared to come back, then we can do that on the 17th.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

It's still going to be very tight for questions. We're cheating a number of very important organizations out of a full opportunity to be heard. That's my concern about packing in motions at the end. I understand Mr. Gerretsen wants to go ahead and he's entitled to do that. I believe we've now discarded the idea of cutting into the subcommittee time as well. I think this is a problem.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

If we get started very soon, we can have two witnesses do 20 minutes of statements with 40 minutes of questioning, which is robust for two people. We should be fine if we work quickly and get this resolved, so that the two witnesses that are willing to stay get their full time and get good time for questioning. The 40 minutes is only 10 minutes shorter than normal, but we need to get started.

Mr. Gerretsen.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

I would put forward a motion that we invite the four guests back to our next meeting. Is that how you want to handle this?

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

We first need to agree as a committee that we are prepared to have the 17th. We had made a work plan that we would have the 17th for drafting instructions. We need to open the 17th up for witnesses. Maybe that could be brought forward if we're prepared to do that.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Unless you have consensus from the committee, I'm happy to put forward that motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

I know I'm rushing and people aren't feeling comfortable, but I'll call a vote on that one. I did put it out to try to ensure everybody was aware of what we were thinking of doing. It isn't just for the chaos today that we're doing that. There are other people who also want to come and talk to us as well, and we wanted to try to get one or two of them in as well.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Madam Chair, this is an example of what happens when you invoke closure so suddenly on bills. Can you clarify again which organizations will not be heard today? I want to ensure that those who are being asked to come back on the 17th would not be unnecessarily inconvenienced.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Could the Canadian Wildlife Federation let us know if they're prepared to come back and if there are any issues with coming back on the 17th?

[Rick Bates, Acting Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice-President, Canadian Wildlife Federation]

We're prepared to come back. It would be fine.