Environment Committee on March 10th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

It was the minister.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

I understood this committee was going to be independent of direction from ministers.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

I just spoke to that.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Right, but what I'm saying is that to be consistent with what I believe the Prime Minister has said.... He said, “Listen, committees operate independently. We're not going to micromanage them. The parliamentary secretary isn't going to be involved, sitting there, and telling everyone how to vote. We want there to be a great degree of independence.”

Based on that independence, we came up with a list of studies we would conduct and the order in which we would do them. Now we're finding out the minister is saying, “I want you to do this on such and such a date”.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

I can understand how you may take it. I do not take it that way. I take it that we came up with four issues of concern and potential priorities we wanted to address in this committee as expeditiously as possible. I do not want to see this committee closed to any possibilities of having input on what might be going on elsewhere in government—

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

I'm not suggesting that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

I'm saying that she has referred it to us. We can ignore it as a committee, if we so choose, or we can address it. I think we'll discuss on the Tuesday in the subcommittee how we may want to deal with that and bring it forward to the committee.

You're arguing why do we put it...because we discussed it at the subcommittee, and we agreed that we would at least have that report that was brought to us and referred to us. We will have a discussion on it at that meeting. That was what we agreed to in the subcommittee. The meeting was in public.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

I'm not challenging that at all, but I think we're being asked for a decision on that to move ahead on March 22 with the sustainable development study.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

For that day.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

I know it's for that day, but here we have Mr. Cullen who at the same time is also saying we had this discussion. Despite that discussion, and the consensus that was arrived at, he also now wants to move up his review.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

You should raise this at the subcommittee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Thank you, Mr. Gerretsen. I think that's something that we will discuss.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

That's a point of order.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Except that the March 22 date suggests the study we would undertake then is conflicting with the agreement we made originally on the order.

I don't want to be an ass about this. Quite frankly—

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

We're in public, by the way.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

No, no.

It's just that I think as we move along in the future, we stick with...unless there's an emerging issue that comes up and I understand that. I agree with the chair, we should be willing to adapt our schedule as things develop.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

I want to make something very clear. The minister's obliged under the act to refer to committee. We have a choice in how we deal with it, and my understanding that is we'll tackle that at subcommittee on the 22nd. That is budget day, so it's not going to be a long meeting. We're going to try to tackle it on the 22nd. I'm hoping all of you will give me more information about witnesses you'd like to hear so we can look at the timing for these things.

I don't want to spend a lot more time today. The only thing we're agreeing to here is what's happening on that day. We had to do that because we were going to do something else on that day, and we decided that we would take that opportunity. We agreed. This is just a record, and it has to come to committee to adopt what we agreed in the subcommittee. That's all this is. It's not setting the tone or decisions for the future. It's just one meeting. We agreed, and we have to adopt it, so that's why it's here.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

I would like to move that we adopt that report and that we hold off on the press release until we've had that discussion on Tuesday to set the rest of the agenda. The press release speaks to the rest of our time, and we've yet to decide that as a committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

I'm hearing you.

Does anyone have any comments on the motion that's on the table?

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

I'm sorry, but how have we not already decided? We did decide this through a motion, did we not?

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

You're saying that—

[An hon. member]

No, no.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

I'm talking about the press release. We did decide on this.

[An hon. member]

We did.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Cullen has a different idea and would like to proceed perhaps in a different fashion, that's subject to a different motion that can be discussed in the subcommittee, can be voted on there, and if necessary voted on here. But in the interim, we decided on this, and therefore I vote against the....

I mean, I want to vote in favour of part of it, but I also believe we should be putting forth the press release.

Do you want me to amend it? Or what's the best way to do it?