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.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
No, no, we appreciate your consideration. How's that?
Mr. Gerretsen, you want to say something?
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
I just want clarification on one thing.
When you were talking about how Finance wasn't providing you with the information, you did, if I heard Mr. Hayes correctly, say that the formal request wasn't put in until just last....
Can you repeat that?
5:10 p.m.
Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Office of the Auditor General
No, no.
We made many requests during the time of our audit, for an entire year or more. It refused. It allowed us to proceed with writing in an audit that it had refused that information. That is “highly unusual” as Mike would say.
The new order in council that was presented to the Auditor General a few hours before he tabled...is what we are now referring to when we ask for the new information.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
I think that's clear.
We're going to continue on this discussion when the staff is able to come in front of us and when you are able or willing to come back to us on this issue.
Thank you very much for today.
5:10 p.m.
Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Office of the Auditor General
Thank you so much.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
I'm going to suspend very quickly just to allow those who aren't going to continue with us to leave.
The next thing we're going to talk about will be John Aldag and our next study. We will just review that very quickly as a team.
Thank you.
[Proceedings continue in camera]
[Public proceedings resume]
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
5:15 p.m.
Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Office of the Auditor General
We're going to head off. Thank you very much. Have a great summer.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Do you want to take a piece of cake?
I'm really sorry that we don't get to do this with Penny. I was really wanting to say thank you.
To you, Tim, and of course, to Penny, we really can't thank you enough for the work you've done. We've had some excellent reports come out as a result of your hard work. They've been very well regarded. I've had good feedback on the two that are already out there.
I want to personally and on behalf of the committee say thank you. It has been a real pleasure to get to know you. Many of us are new, and this has been a great experience that you've made very easy for us, so thank you so much, and we wish you all the best in your retirement. You can't definitely be retiring. You're way too young.
I have also a little card from us. We have one for Penny, and we have cake.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Can you put it in the blues that we love Penny, too?
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
We absolutely love Penny too, and the comments apply to both because you were an awesome team. We dragged you all the way out on our committee trip, and you kept us on track and kept everything documented so that we could then incorporate it into a report, and we're most grateful, so thanks very much.
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
I want to add that I knew these two when I was first elected, when I was environment critic, so I'm doubly sad to see them disappearing because I've had the benefit of their stellar work all these years.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Tim shared with us that he has been on this committee for—how many years?
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
All that experience has come to guide us, so it's amazing.
Jim, do you want to speak?
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Jim Eglinski Conservative Yellowhead, AB
Tim and Penny—Penny's not here—on behalf of the Conservative Party, thank you for working with us over these last two years and for your wisdom and guidance. Lots of times you stopped and corrected us all, and we appreciate that.
I hate to tell you this, but retirement's not all it's made out to be.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
It's not all it's cracked up to be.
You mean he might want to come back?
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Jim Eglinski Conservative Yellowhead, AB
I tried it maybe a couple of times now. We might see you back here. Anyway, good luck in your endeavours from the Conservative side, and remember, have fun out there.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Yes, and stay well.
The cake says, “Thank you, Penny and Tim”, and you are going to cut it for us because we're going to keep working. Is that okay? You'll bring out slices. That would be awesome.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Take a picture, and we'll tweet it out or whatever. Tim is going to come and take a picture so Penny can see what she's unfortunately missing.
We'll get going because we're almost out of time.
The next thing up is what John sent around. I think you've all had a draft outline. We had something previously that was identified for review, and it has been refined, so I'm going to turn the meeting over to John.
You can walk us through what you're proposing.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
Sure, thank you, but I don't see it as John's study, as much as—
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
—ours.
This was very much a first crack at thinking about it. I hope everybody has had a chance to look at it. I really invite comments. I assume that at some point we're going to be turning it over to the analysts and to the clerk to make it happen.
As I said, I had a small group who have been involved in this field for a number of decades. What we looked at was really six sessions, and we can decide if we want to expand or contract that.
The first one is very much just trying to lay the foundation for the study, which is looking at the existing state of heritage legislation rules in Canada. Parks Canada plays a lead role for built heritage within the federal public service, so we will have the person who heads up that program. They administer the federal heritage buildings review office and other programs. Then there's the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. Dr. Alway has been with that organization for years. This is to try to get a sense of what the state of built heritage is, legislation regulation, and other programs.
The second is starting to explore some of the benefits and impediments to built heritage programs within Canada. I tried looking at what the financial, environmental, and social benefits are, and then at what some of the impediments are to achieving these objectives within society.
On the third one, we talked about having international best practices. This was identifying who would have comparable federal structures in Canada. Britain has some great things happening, as do many European countries, but they don't have the same kind of division of powers that we have in Canada. It was felt that the Americans and the Australians were probably the closest. If the committee wants, we could also look at other ones and see if they would apply to a Canadian context.
There is a session on indigenous heritage. Although there's not a lot of built heritage, there's archeological and cultural heritage. There seems to be a bit of a void in terms of how we're dealing with indigenous communities and the protection of their very rich history.
There's a session on financial and tax incentives. The thought is that this is where we could bring in the Van Loan piece, to give it some context within what's happening at the federal level.
Then we have contributions and grant programs, a bit of a different beast from the tax incentives.
That's what I had come up with. If we had a minute now just to throw it out, then—if there are any real gaps in terms of what people would like to see—we could give direction to the clerk and analysts as we work on organizing it.
