Evidence of meeting #2 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.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
You can wonder: if the youth had Internet in the parks, they might come, but that's a totally different experience.
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
I've taken kids all over the world on tour. The most recent one was in April. I had high school kids in the Amazon and there was no Internet.
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
You bet they did. They saw stuff they'll never forget. They took lots of pictures they could tweet later. Right? Yes, right, we did that.
When youth can experience it, they really enjoy it. You take them to a different place, but we have to get them there and we have to get young families there to enjoy it together.
I believe there are too many barriers, but we need to study this and figure out what those barriers are.
11:20 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Those are great. I like a lot of what's being said. I would add to Ed's comment about clean tech that I think the preponderance of news around the environment this year will be around climate. As we come out of Paris and the ministers meet, what's the plan? What's the target? All of those questions will be coming forward.
I'm sensing a different approach from government. It was a lot more sectoral in the past in how much reduction was coming sector by sector, what plan, and what to reduce. This time it seems to be a lot more regional and province by province. Who's contributing what seems to be how the debate is framing up. Ottawa is going to play some role. We don't know what yet until that meeting happens, but I think this committee in terms of looking at what the challenges are, what the solutions are, and what the potential is around climate, will be very important.
I think the CEAA 2012 review is going to be important. The government has made some commitments along those lines, but how it manifests and what that means for proponents and for communities is going to be hugely important. A couple of sub issues on that seem to be coming again and again, one around cumulative and one around GHG contributions, where the government has made some comments, but they're not necessarily clear yet.
We're in camera here and so it's easier. I'm disappointed we're not going to see the minister until April because, as was said, it sets in the past—
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
No, we're not in camera, sorry. Remember we had that discussion and everybody felt it was not necessarily the way we wanted to start off our committee meeting.
11:20 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I'm not that uncomfortable with it being.... I'm disappointed because the minister's own work, and her decision to focus on different issues, is very informative and helpful to the committee to be able to know what other agenda items will be coming up. That's a bit late, but it is what it is.
On the water side, I think water is great. I may tack in because it comes up every few years when bulk water exports pop up on the radar for people. We get sued by somebody and people want to know how firm the law is and if there's any progress on that.
My only caution would be Ottawa's jurisdiction on water in terms of municipal waste water treatment, some of the standards, and where our jurisdiction ends.
11:20 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
The first nations piece is for sure one of them. There are many communities in rural Canada that are cross-jurisdictional and it gets to be a total mess. The government has made commitments to end all boil water advisories by a certain date and that may fall here. Indigenous Affairs may want to pick it up, I don't know. A lot of these issues are going to crossover.
On clean tech, the industry committee might want to get all excited about that and then sort of push us out of the way, but we'll set our own path.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
I think that's going to be a bit of a challenge for our committee. A lot of things are going to cross over into the other, so we're going to have to find a way to work that in with the other committees and cross-pollinate.
11:25 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
It's always true in environment. One advantage is starting first.
11:25 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
If we get into a clean tech climate change kind of discussion, and show this committee to be the place.... Depending on how important the issue is to Canadians, the environment committee cycles up and down in terms of prominence. My ambition would be for all of us to cycle it up. If we take on the issues of the day, and they resonate with what a lot of Canadians are concerned about, then we'll have that. It's not that we're being adversarial with the other committees, but we don't want to launch into a 5- or 10-day study that almost exactly mirrors what another committee is doing, because that quickly gets very repetitive.
11:25 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Chair, you and I talked earlier about one issue that is time-pressing, and that is nuclear waste disposal. That issue has come to us, and we are going to address it with the committee members. We're only bringing it up because it is time-sensitive. We don't get to put it off for three months. If we don't look at it until three months from now, that will be too late. It's something that's in front of the U.S. Congress as well. I'll speak to that later maybe, once we go around on the blue-sky piece, if that makes sense.