Environment Committee on Oct. 27th, 2016

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

I call the meeting to order.

We had discussed that we were going to do 15 minutes at the end to respect our guests' time; however, it's very important that we're all here when that happens. I know some of the members have to go early.

If our guests are okay with this, we're going to do 10 minutes right at the beginning to get our committee business out of the way. Then we can get right into witness statements. Thanks for your understanding, and we'll get this done quickly.

In front of us is a motion. Ms. Duncan brought it forward a couple of weeks ago, and we held off addressing it until you were here. Now is a good time to table it. I was going to open the floor for a very quick discussion on it. It's about the commissioner.

Just to bring it to everybody's attention, if you don't remember what the commissioner's reports were on, there was one on nuclear and one on fisheries. I don't have it in front of me, but it was on the fisheries department and keeping track of the numbers of species. Sustainable fisheries is what it was all about.

There was also one on a sustainable development strategy, which we already spent quite a lot of time on in this committee.

Those were the reports that she brought forward. Ms. Duncan is suggesting that we bring her in to have her report to us on those. I know you're new to the committee. We've actually had her in front of us many times.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Yes, it was many times.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

You haven't had the privilege of experiencing that, but we have definitely spent a lot of time with her. She was very helpful in our sustainable development study.

Let's open the floor. Does anybody have any comments?

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

I'd like to speak to my own motion. Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I was initially recommending the commissioner. In view of the fact that we had done a sustainable development report, she has done yet another one on different agencies, and she in turn wrote to us. She was surprised she hadn't heard from us, but the commissioner usually comes before the environment committee after she has tabled a report.

I would love to have her come and speak to us. We can be specific on which parts of her report she might talk to us about. I know there was something about fisheries, but I don't think we need to deal with that. Perhaps it could be on the sustainable development side of it.

I would love to have her come before us, even if it was just for an hour. I'd like to return the courtesy to her. She's asked to come before us. I would like to hear her feedback on our report and have people ask questions about her latest report, which reviewed another four or five agencies.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Does anybody else have anything to add?

I have Mr. Amos and then Mr. Fast.

[William Amos, Liberal, Pontiac, QC]

I say this with the greatest of respect for the commissioner, who I would actually love to meet with. However, I'm preoccupied by the timeline that we have for our CEPA report.

As you mentioned, Madam Chair, we've had the opportunity to meet with the commissioner on her previous reports, and I do think in an ideal world we would have the opportunity to meet with her every single time she issues a report. However, in light of the fact that we've taken extra time on the conservation and protected areas piece in order to get the necessary number of witnesses in to have a comprehensive report, and in light of the fact that we have a deadline on the CEPA report, I think we should be prioritizing that and getting through the witnesses on that issue.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Thank you.

Go ahead, Mr. Fast.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

I share Mr. Amos's concerns.

I have a question, first of all, to staff. Have we actually received a formal request from the commissioner to appear before committee to speak to us?

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

She offered. It's not—

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Yes, I appreciate the offer, but this is all about setting priorities. We've done extensive work on the conservation study. The commissioner has actually appeared on the Federal Sustainable Development Act work that we did. I know along the way there are going to be additional things we can learn from her, but right now we have the conservation study that we still have to provide drafting instructions for. We have a comprehensive CEPA review. We have a climate change study that we're going to be doing after that.

I would like to get through the studies we're committed to before we start inserting all kinds of other sessions that don't relate directly to the priorities this committee has established. I'm with Mr. Amos. At this point in time, I think this is premature.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Okay.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Let's just call the vote. Clearly we're going to lose it. Let's just move on to our witnesses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

I still wanted to put something in front of the committee. We don't have to lose a vote. We can suspend it for now and think about bringing her back. When we've done our work, if you want to do that, we have that option. We can adjourn debate, and it sits there. If we have time sometime in the future, we can bring it back up, but it's up to you.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Let's not waste any more time. I don't think she's coming.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Okay, we'll call the vote.

(Motion negatived)

That has not passed.

The other thing is that on Tuesday we have the finance minister doing an update in the House. I believe most people would probably like to be in the House to hear that. I'm wondering if there's any opposition to our moving our committee—we're doing drafting instructions—from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., recognizing that we do have a subcommittee after that for about half an hour.

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

Do you mean we start at 6:30?

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

No, we would start at 4:30 instead of 3:30. We move it back an hour, and that way we can be in the House for the minister.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

I can't speak for Mr. Stetski or whether he has obligations, so you might want to get in touch with him.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Whoever is in this House at this time is speaking for each other, so you're really the member today. You didn't know about this, so I will ask him, but I would just like to have the sense of what's around the table here.

Does anybody have a problem with that?

[William Amos, Liberal, Pontiac, QC]

Chair, unfortunately I've committed to a meeting of the subcommittee of the Joint Interparliamentary Council, where I'm serving as a witness. I will have to—

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

What time is that?

[William Amos, Liberal, Pontiac, QC]

That's at 5:30 to 6:30. They're reviewing the parliamentary associations and the parliamentary groups, and so everyone who's a chair of a parliamentary group or association has been asked if they would come by.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Okay, so you have a problem.

Go ahead, Mr. Bossio.

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

Chair, I won't be here for the whole week, so you'll have to go head without me, unfortunately.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Okey-dokey.