Evidence of meeting #6 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 cepa.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:50 p.m.
Green
Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC
Oh, the cream card. Okay, Madam Chair.
The greenhouse gas provisions of part 4—correct me if I'm wrong—give the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change broad sweeping regulatory authority for advanced planning for control of greenhouse gases.
Is that a correct statement?
12:50 p.m.
Director General, Legislative and Regulatory Affairs, Department of the Environment
No, sorry.
Part 4 allows the minister to require various entities—companies, institutions—to develop pollution prevention plans with respect to designated substances. The minister could require entities to do a GHG reduction plan.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
I'm sorry, but I have to cut that off.
Thank you very much for answering all the questions and giving us a good launch on this act.
I will suspend for 30 seconds to give you a chance to take your leave.
Thank you so much.
12:55 p.m.
Director General, Legislative and Regulatory Affairs, Department of the Environment
It was a pleasure.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
We had agreed to have 10 minutes for committee business. We have about four minutes. I'm going to get right into it, if you don't mind.
We were thinking we were quite pleased that the committee had identified an approach to go forward with.
I want to ask whether the committee is agreeing to have a press release. Normally press releases have been done after a report is finished and we're putting it out there.
I've had a lot of calls from people—I'm sure you may have had some as well—asking what we are going to be doing at the committee. I thought it might be helpful to put out our plan for the next little so that people know what the committee is doing. That's why I was thinking a press release might be useful. It's not anything earth shattering. We don't have a report to present, but we have an identification of what we're going to be tackling in the next several months. I thought it would be helpful to have that out there.
Do I have agreement from the committee that we put that out there as a press release? It's not so much me writing it. It will be done by the clerk and our analysts and then it will come back for agreement. It's not necessarily what I wrote, but whatever we think is appropriate.
Do I have general agreement that a press release could be helpful and that we would ask our staff to help draft something to be brought back to the next meeting?
Mr. Fast
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
Thank you, Madam Chair, for bringing this back because it was sprung on us a little bit.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
I appreciate the way in which you handled that, because it is about collegiality at the committee table.
I don't think it's a common practice for committees to regularly issue press releases as a consensus of the committee. We're prepared to consider press releases on a case-by-case basis.
It's helpful if our analysts actually prepare the press releases. They have to be scrupulously non-partisan. If there's anything that smacks even just a little bit of partisanship, then you're obviously going to get at least one party at the table that says no.
We're not closing the door to it and we'll look at any proposed press release on its own merits, but in principle, we're not necessarily opposed to it.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Okay.
I'm getting the sense that we think there could be agreement, depending on the wording, that we put something out to let people know what this committee has agreed to move forward on and that it could be helpful, and we will ask our very supportive staff—what do we call you?
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
We'll ask our analysts to help us draft something that will be completely non-partisan.
How's that?
Okay, that's great.
The next thing I wanted to announce to everybody is that the minister is no longer able to appear on April 12, but she is available on March 24 for the full two hours and she'll be speaking to the mandate and speaking to the estimates. I just wanted to make sure everybody knew that. It's a different—
Sorry, what was that?
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
It's a different schedule that day though, correct?
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
We're not yet sure whether that day is going to be an adjusted day to look like a Friday, because it's the last day before Easter break and often they go with a Friday schedule. We're not completely sure what's going to happen. We tried to ask and we haven't got the answer.
Would the committee be prepared if that was true to sit on that day? If the House had question period at 11 a.m., we would meet after and have our committee meeting—
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
I don't want to miss the opportunity to have her, so, in essence then, the committee is basically meeting from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., because she is not free later. I'm just letting you know that is a potential conflict we may have. It's a Thursday, but we're going to have her here for two hours on that day and I'm letting everybody know.
I think that was it. That's really all we had.
We're going to have our subcommittee meeting right after this.
That's all I wanted to bring forward to everybody.
Thank you very much.
That ends the meeting.