Environment Committee on Feb. 16th, 2016

[John Aldag, Liberal, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Is that also the day the commissioner is coming? I'm wondering if we couldn't have the commissioner do her 101 piece, if it's 10 minutes, at the beginning of the day that she comes on her own to do the report. It would then free up that slot for the department to do 20 minutes. I don't know if that would address the—

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

We worked it out. We thought it would work, but I don't mind if she comes later. It would be the following Tuesday. She could come do it all at once. That's fine. The idea was for her to introduce the departments that are under her authority and then have them do their presentations. One of them has asked us to extend the 10 minutes, because they have a presentation that's longer than 10 minutes. I didn't think it was a problem but I have to put it to the committee. We've passed some rules, right?

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

What's the total amount of time?

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

The total amount of time would be 20 minutes for Minister McKenna, 10 minutes for Parks Canada, and 10 minutes for the Environmental Assessment Agency.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

That's 40 minutes of presentations, and then there would be questions after that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Yes, and then she was going to do 10 minutes.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Okay, so that's 50 minutes.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

I like the combo idea. Fifty minutes is not that unusual.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Yes. We figured it would be in the first hour and then there would be questions back and forth.

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

What would the second hour be?

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Discussions. They do their presentations and then there's discussion.

[Jim Eglinski, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

As long as we have an opportunity to ask questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Yes, absolutely.

Rather than just having the departments come in her absence, the idea was to have them come and set the stage with her so that they are under that framework. But I don't mind. I'm open to the suggestions of the committee. It was just a suggestion that she come to frame it and that the presentations come from those three departments and agencies we talked about. We can move it to Tuesday. I don't mind. It's up to you guys.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

You've done some thinking and work on it. I don't want to disrupt it. I think that's fine.

Then on February 25, you propose that we discuss possible motions and set priorities and an action plan for the committee. I don't know if we need two hours for that. I think people should come prepared with some sense of what we said today and...

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

I've taken copious notes. We'll put something together and send out to you what everybody said. If there's anything we didn't capture correctly, we can have that updated in preparation for February 25.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

I'm going to seem obsessed. This isn't my thing, but I said I would move this at some point.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Hang on. Let me just make sure that we are okay with that framework we just put out.

We do need to make the invitations.

[William Amos, Liberal, Pontiac, QC]

Yes, but I have a question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

We'll make a motion to go forward with the plan that was just discussed.

[William Amos, Liberal, Pontiac, QC]

Part of Jim's motion...and I'll accede to it, I'm sure. I did want to know what we are asking from these various presenters in terms of written briefing materials beforehand. I think we're going to find that we really just get into the surface. I think Nathan's point earlier about the commissioner saying what the problems are, and the defence sort of standing up and providing that input.... We'll end up not necessarily that satisfied. We do want to have the ability to get more than just, say, a PowerPoint presentation deck provided to us earlier. I wonder if there's a mechanism by which we could provide questions in advance, if we have them, so that they would come prepared for some questions in advance and we would have written materials. Or should we just wait for it, and they'll do follow-up?

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

They weren't planning on giving us something ahead, but they will have speaking notes. We will have some information that we can provide. You're asking if we can have something so we can be prepared ahead of their presentation. I can certainly ask, but I don't think that was the intent. The intent was to basically come and familiarize us with things. So if you have some interest in that area, can we do a little bit of that work ourselves to kind of just...? If you have some ideas, some detailed discussion points, just jot them down.

They weren't prepared to come ahead with a deep.... It's really just a 101—here's what they're all about; here's what they're dealing with; here's what their problems are, the concerns, the issues; here's what they're focused on—so that we have a sense of what they're all about and what they're doing and where they're going. It's just a briefing.

I don't want to get it too deep right off the bat. It's really a briefing to get us to set the stage, so that as we have discussed our vision, we would see the vision and direction of the different departments that we have some influence on.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

By the way, I appreciate your bringing up that point, because from my experience, having chaired before, we typically asked delegations that came to present to us to provide us with materials ahead of time. In the case of the commissioner, it's different. This is basically her opening presentation to us. I totally understand. As long as we don't discount the value of having material ahead of time. It will help us with our questions and engagement.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Okay. I don't have any problem with asking. We'll ask them if they can provide it to us ahead. That seems fair to me. We'll see what we can get.

I think it's a good idea.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Most delegations are quite prepared to do that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Okay, so let's do that.

Mr. Eglinski, you've made a motion—