Evidence of meeting #40 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 industry.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:35 p.m.
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change, Queen's University, As an Individual
There you go.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Ms. Cholak, I'm just going to give you a chance, if I could, to extrapolate on something you said as well.
You talked about regulation being critical. You talked about mitigating risk and critical functions. Then you said that, if the rules are too cumbersome, there would be unintended circumstances.
I wasn't really sure where you were going. Were you suggesting that, if regulation were too stringent, if the rules were too stringent, industry would just ignore those rules or would fight back? What exactly did you mean by that?
4:40 p.m.
Director, Stakeholder Relations, Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association
I don't think industry ever says it's going to ignore them.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
4:40 p.m.
Director, Stakeholder Relations, Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association
Certainly, I think the consequence is that you run the risk that new investment coming in and new capital looking at that might say it's far too complicated, far too onerous, and too costly to understand what that may be. That becomes an unintended consequence of trying to protect the health of and do the right things for the environment.
But on the other hand, to the outside global marketplace that we're also trying to attract, to say that we actually want to create jobs and have that good kind of sustainable development in our regions—not just the heartland; I mean this is about a Canadian model that we're looking at—then you want to make sure you have an opportunity to say you understand the playing field. “Cumbersome” may not be the right choice of word there, but you don't want to create an environment where the investment potential looks at that and says this is far too onerous to continually apply it.
To your point about data, it's a complicated factor—
4:40 p.m.
Director, Stakeholder Relations, Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association
No, that's fine. Sorry, Madam Chair.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. It's good to see all of you here today.
Here is the airshed question I have. It was mentioned that we have a person here with airsheds, so I'd like to direct the question to you.
The comment was made that it's a very independent body. Can you explain the independence of the body?
4:40 p.m.
Nadine Blaney Executive Director, Fort Air Partnership, Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association
Do I assume you're directing that question to me?
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
I can't remember which one of you was directly involved with the airshed.
4:40 p.m.
Executive Director, Fort Air Partnership, Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association
Yes. I'm directly involved with the airshed. Yes, we are an independent, transparent body. We are a multi-stakeholder organization. We have representation on our airshed from all levels of governments, industry, and communities. We also make data available to the public and to all of our stakeholders through a variety of means. We post our data live on our website, as do all of the airsheds in Alberta, so it's immediately available to the public within an hour of its being collected, with a caveat that it is raw data. That data is validated by our data validators, and it's housed in a provincial data warehouse. Then that historical data is available to anybody to use, so policy-makers, industry, universities, or anyone has access to that data.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
When you say you're independent you named all those pieces to it. What drove this organization to exist and how is that independent? Did the government form it? Is it sourced by industry? Can you back up one more step?
4:40 p.m.
Executive Director, Fort Air Partnership, Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association
Fort Air Partnership specifically was formed over 20 years ago through a grassroots approach, as were most of the airsheds in Alberta. People within a community or an area saw an issue with air quality and decided they wanted more monitoring, so they got together with other community members, got industry in the area involved as well as governments, to make sure that everybody who is involved or has an impact on air quality in a region is part of the solution.
We all work together to determine what needs to be monitored. We obviously follow regulations with regard to provincial as well as federal air quality monitoring data needs, but we do have that collaborative effort in place.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
Are you self-directed, or do you get directions from anyone else?
4:40 p.m.
Executive Director, Fort Air Partnership, Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association
Obviously, we follow provincial government requirements for air monitoring in a region. That's mainly directed by operating approval requirements under the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act, so we have to follow those.
We also are able to go above and beyond that, so we do special monitoring projects. Right now, we're starting a volatile organic compounds speciation project. That is not mandated by anyone. Our organization has received funding and is able to do it. We're also starting a particulate matter speciation project. All these things are over and above what is required by government.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
The government has a mandate for these things that need to be monitored, but beyond that you can pick projects that you choose as a committee that are important for the airshed.
4:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Fort Air Partnership, Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association
That's correct. A couple of years ago we had an independent network assessment done by an organization out of the United States that specializes in modelling and things like that. That directed the development of a long-term monitoring plan where we indicated what projects we would like to work on, and then obviously searched for funding for those projects.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
What science resources do you have to work with to support your airshed committee, volunteers, or contractors?
4:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Fort Air Partnership, Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association
We have a science advisory committee that drives how our network is operated. We have Environment Canada sitting in that group, as well as Alberta Environment and Parks's monitoring and science division. Then we have a lot of experts from industry who give their expertise in kind, environmental health, safety, that kind of expertise. Then we also contract experts to do the actual monitoring.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
In the area you work in, do you have any idea of how much public perception there is that you exist?
4:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Fort Air Partnership, Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association
Public awareness of us? It's increasing. I know at Alberta's Industrial Heartland, because we have the communications group that Pamela mentioned, the “Life in the Heartland” group, we are able to communicate what we are doing through social media, so we use that as a communications tool. We also do presentations throughout the region and we have annual reports to the community.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
Thank you very much.
Dr. Smol, to clarify, you said “oversight by government”, but you also said “oversight by the scientific community”, so who's overseeing whom here? You said both.
4:45 p.m.
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change, Queen's University, As an Individual
Yes. Oversight by government could have advice from the external scientific community. That would be my view.
