Evidence of meeting #69 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 information.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
I had a brief talk with John. I'm still a bit confused about how this ties with the private member's bill. The private member's bill, as I understand it, has to do with tax measures, and that can only apply to private property, not government property. So I'm still a little confused about how the two tie together. We might want to be more careful about how we separate those out.
I'll have Wayne do the public property ones, because that fits under his portfolio, parks and protected spaces. He's quite keen to do that.
The part I would like to participate in is regarding the private properties.
One aspect, which could apply to both the public and the private, is the issue of energy efficiency. I shared with John that I actually initiated a program in my own riding, in a heritage area called Old Strathcona. It's sort of the last heritage area of the city. We called it “greening the avenue”. Part of the challenge is that in those old heritage buildings, people rent for shops, restaurants, and so forth. They pay rent to somebody who owns the building. Part of the problem of maintaining those heritage structures is the energy costs. We looked at all kinds of initiatives.
I know that there is, in Canada—probably located in Toronto—a separate foundation that actually deals with this issue. If we could just Google it and look around, it would be good to have them come to testify, because I think energy costs would be a big deal for.... I know that the federal government is now looking to go renewable for all its facilities. That would include parks and historic sites, so it might be good to pursue that.
I would be particularly interested in being engaged. I founded a group in Edmonton in the 1970s, called the Society for the Preservation of Edmonton’s Heritage. I know what a struggle it is. Part of it is the tax measure, but it's just getting the money to put together the proposal and organize people. If we could get at that, too.... I know some of that merges into municipal and provincial, but you could have something that is of national significance that's in a city, or something.
I'm really interested in the private part, but I know Wayne will be keen on the rest of it.
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
Linda, if you have any leads—the organization you mentioned—I think that could fit quite nicely under the financial, environmental, and social piece.
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
I didn't put in things like municipal and provincial best practices that we may be able to learn from. I'm just trying to be careful about that, but I think there may be some lessons we could learn, both from municipalities and the provinces and territories.
NDP
Conservative
Jim Eglinski Conservative Yellowhead, AB
Thank you, John, for putting this together. I read it with some interest.
I'm quite interested in this whole concept, but I'm interested in a slightly different perspective.
Back at Canada's 125th birthday we tried to have the Alaska Highway designated as a national historic site. We were working on it all the time while I was a mayor, and I still see the negotiations going on. I think that's something we might want to look at in this report, because there are other areas of Canada that are trying to do similar things, not necessarily for a building but a region, because of the historic interests in Canada. I wonder if we could step into that a little bit and do a little bit of research on that.
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
On that, Jim, we have Dr. Alway, who is the chair of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board. The idea would be to bring him in right up front, to talk about how that program fits in with the identification of potential persons, places, and events of national significance.
He's been with the program for quite a number of years. Whether or not we would have to squeeze...if that's enough for its own session, or we can perhaps expand the first one. As I said, I was a bit unclear on how much time the committee was willing to give to this, but I think with some of these suggestions, it gives an idea that we could perhaps expand by a session or two and still—
Conservative
Jim Eglinski Conservative Yellowhead, AB
The reason they've been trying to make the highway an historic site is because of World War II and the significance it played with the aboriginal people in the settlement of northern British Columbia, northern Alberta, the Yukon, and right up to Alaska, so it has a lot of tie-in to this.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Yes.
I'm watching the time. I think it's good information and good input, and I think we have a place where that can go.
I'm going to turn the floor over to Mark in a minute. What I'm thinking is that this talks about “three weeks,” and we could start with this. Then, if we find that we have an area we want to delve into a little deeper or that we didn't feel we covered properly, we could always look to see how that expands.
Remember what is going to come back to us. We have work coming back to us that we're going to have to do as well.
I think that six sessions is a good start, and then I think we can see how it rolls, because we never know how many people are actually going to be able to come and be witnesses as well.
Mark, please be very quick.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
To Linda's point, I was just curious about how this ties back into Mr. Van Loan's bill. The committee is required to study that within a certain period of time, right? What is our timeline for studying that?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
We've asked for an extension, so we now have until December 1 to report back to the House.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Okay.
To Linda's point, are we planning to do these concurrently? How are we doing these?
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
What I had envisioned in the structure of this would be to orchestrate one or two sessions; the way it's laid out now is two. One would be for looking at financial and tax incentives. It would not look specifically at the Van Loan bill but at the types of things that exist now, or it could be in other jurisdictions. The Americans have a similar program to what Bill C-323 proposes.
It would be for us to explore those measures, and then when we actually get the bill for review, we would have some context for how it could fit into an overall—
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Your suggestion would be to do this first, and then, when it's finished, officially start Van Loan's bill, with the fact that we have some context that we've brought from the previous study.
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
Yes, I don't know if we would even have to have the report completed and tabled, but we would at least have the testimony that we've heard from witnesses about what options are available on the financial and non-financial incentives.
NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
He has to testify, too, right? He could be on the same panel.
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
Yes, so if we wanted to, we could have Peter in as one of those witnesses to speak to his piece, surrounded by other options. Then, when we actually get to study his, we could say what we've heard about what works, whether it makes sense to proceed with this one, and whether there is tweaking that needs to be done. Then, we could send it back, either unamended or with amendments.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Madam Chair, I would like to kill two birds with one stone and introduce a motion.
Ms. Jeanneault, who assists this committee, has advised us about Mr. Alway's appointment. The review of the appointment is scheduled for the first session.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
I would like us to be able to ask Mr. Alway some questions about his appointment. In the first session, we could perhaps give him a moment and then begin to look at the whole thing.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Everybody knows that we had a notice to basically approve his reappointment. I was going to ask the committee if we were interested in reviewing that, then having him in and speaking to that, or whether we were fine with it. Do we feel we need to actually have him come and speak in front of us? You're suggesting it's significant enough that we include it, because it's relevant to the topic.