Environment Committee on June 7th, 2016

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

It's 30%.

[Justyna Laurie-Lean]

Yes, and that reflects that most uses of copper have a long lifespan. For example, the wiring in this building will not be available for recycling for perhaps 50 years, plus there's growth in electrification around the world.

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

Fair enough, but based on your example of all the different uses, where are we? Are we using 30% more than we did 10 years ago?

[Justyna Laurie-Lean]

That question I could not answer off the top of my head. We would have to get some numbers.

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

I'm trying to figure out if at least what we're recycling now is making up the difference in the increased demand.

[Justyna Laurie-Lean]

Probably not, but the market responds to prices. As prices go up, more mines come to market. If there's an oversupply, then mines shut down, because there's too much and prices drop. It is difficult to align or assign the correlation. All we know is that when prices go too high, people start stealing brass plaques from churches.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

I'm going to have to cut you off there. You're over time.

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

In my community that has happened too. People are going on job sites and stealing copper.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Mr. Shields is next.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ms. Sian, I have a little something to read to start with.

Change is easy in theory. It takes desire, and a willingness to try. But in practice, it takes hard work, courage and a team of brilliant, open minds. It also takes collaboration – across all groups, defying all stereotypes. We do things differently because we want to be relevant in the future. The world is changing faster than we know it, which means we have to continually innovate to stay in the game. ...(better isn’t good enough anymore), fight for a balance in our ecosystem, and work toward a future where oil isn't a dirty word.

That's the manifesto of Imaginea Oil Company. Are you familiar with Imaginea? It's part of your group.

[Sherry Sian]

I am.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

I'm finding this is something we see in the junior oil companies out there. Would you like to respond to that?

[Sherry Sian]

I think what I would say is we're recognizing as an industry that the public expectations around performance are changing. As we're starting to develop better and more robust systems, which help us better understand the emergent problems in the environment, it's demanding more of the industry.

Some of the comments in the opening remarks I made were about how we evolve our systems to get better problem definition and more focused efforts on the part of industry. What you heard in that specific example is about how individual companies and their operations have a system, and how to deal with flows of resources accordingly in that context.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

When I see those junior oil companies out there taking that approach, I think we're seeing different leadership. This is the president of the company who really is strong on this particular position. Are you seeing that across the industry?

[Sherry Sian]

I would say that it varies.

There are a number of factors that affect different company positions. There is diversity within the industry in terms of approaches and best ways of dealing with those expectations.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

You have a conference coming in Calgary, the Canadian petroleum industry conference. Are you familiar with the program for that conference?

[Sherry Sian]

I'm not directly engaged in it.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

One of the things that is a major part of that conference is change to the environment and how to operate in a different world. Is your organization having any input into that conference? Maybe you're not as familiar with it as some of us are.

[Sherry Sian]

Actually, different parts of our organization would be involved in relation to event planning and helping to set the agenda. It's possible that one of our other operational units is more directly tied in. I'm happy to look into that.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

That's great.

It's being mentioned in the media, in the sense that there is a lot of focus on it in this conference in particular by the petroleum producers, and on how it has shifted over the years toward a focus on the environmental issues in the industry.

Are you seeing that, in the sense—

[Sherry Sian]

Yes, I am.

I am seeing that in terms of trying to evolve our.... We've been increasingly focused on collecting data and analyzing challenges in terms of performance in a more robust way, looking through all phases of our activity and using that frame of reference to look at where we have critical knowledge gaps and where we have areas of improvement that are quite critical. We're then taking that type of information through our various technical committees and using it to inform our input into research and innovation through various organizations that we partner with.

I've just given a couple of examples in terms of the Petroleum Technology Alliance of Canada and Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, but it actually goes a lot broader in certain companies. There may be bilateral relationships whereby companies are funding or helping to support industry research chairs in universities. There's quite a broad spectrum there.

I think what we're looking for and what would be tremendously helpful for us is being able to use some of the open public data. Fundamentally, that's what people rely on to have confidence in effective management. We're using that information to help to inform these decisions and self-assessment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Cullen is next.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to our guests here today.

I have a quick question for Justyna. You mentioned that there was a lack of data and release of data.

Is this the NPRI you're speaking of specifically, or is there a broader malaise with data being released to the public?

[Justyna Laurie-Lean]

No. In some of the government publications, they mention that they are monitoring this or this is based on monitoring data. However, when we ask where that data is, it's, “Well, we're not publishing it.”

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

What reason is given? What exists within CEPA right now that prevents that?