Evidence of meeting #8 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 strategy.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
The question was about building codes and monitoring those things I'm talking about.
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development
In May of this year I'll be issuing three chapters of my next report. In there we're looking at the federal role in getting ready for severe weather. The building code is one of the things we looked at, so you'll be interested in that. We also are looking at infrastructure spending and whether or not it achieved the environmental goals that the infrastructure spending was supposed to achieve.
So stay tuned, end of May.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Branch, Department of the Environment
I'll be really brief. Buildings is indeed one of the sectors that will be explicitly looked at in the federal-provincial work that's ongoing from the Vancouver declaration on climate change. There will be work reporting back to first ministers on that in October, and ministers before that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Thank you very much. That was one of the issues that I had raised and wanted to have looked at, too, so thanks for bringing it up.
Mr. Fast.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
As Mr. Shields pointed out, the proposed plan, the strategy going forward from 2016 to 2019, talks about increasing the percentage of land and waters covered, certainly marine areas, from 1.3% to 5% by 2017, and then to 10% by 2020. That seems like a fairly audacious goal. I believe that was carried over from the previous government, if I'm not mistaken.
I would just love to know how you're going to do that. You're talking about a multitude of stakeholders. You're talking about commercial interests that will likely be impacted. It's going to require negotiations to get this right. Is there a formal plan in place, beyond what's listed in the strategy, as to how we're actually going to achieve those very ambitious goals?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Branch, Department of the Environment
There are a couple of points. Several departments are involved with this as well. Environment and Climate Change Canada has one aspect of it through the Parks Canada Agency. Fisheries and Oceans is going to be a key player in all of this. The legislative framework currently exists, so we don't have to go back to square one. There are clear authorities for both ministers, Minister Tootoo and Minister McKenna, to give effect to this. It will be complicated. We went through a significant period, a number of years, in which there weren't many, so it is going to have to be ramped up, but there's a strong commitment to doing that. It is going to require working with provincial partners and with the industry in order to get this right.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
In your assessment, are these timelines reasonable or are they stretching it a little bit?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Branch, Department of the Environment
In my assessment they're doable, and I say this with six years of experience in putting marine protected areas in place. It is doable.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Thank you, Chair.
When a proposal or a policy is being reviewed by the department, and then is issued forward, is there any transparency on the weighting of the different factors that are going into that? For example, the government came out recently and said they're going to include a climate test on resource projects, pipelines in particular. That's laudable in form, but when they were asked how they were going to contemplate carbon emissions, we don't necessarily have an answer for that.
John, just from your perspective, having been at cabinet, would there be a more public, more transparent way for these environmental or sustainable development principles to be judged for policies that are coming forward from the department, rather than having the lack of transparency that we have right now? All we have right now from Ms. Gelfand's report is whether they are being passed on. You can consider climate as 1% of the factors. You can have it at 50%. It depends greatly on how much weight you give to these things. I don't believe it's imagined in your act, but would there be a way to do that if we were to enhance what we have right now in law?
As an Individual
I really don't think I'm qualified to answer that in terms of giving you an answer about the kind of machinery that would work best for you. The one thing I would say is that I think we have to balance two things. One is the importance of getting decisions out rather than simply ragging the puck and having procedures that can go on for years and years and years. I do think that up or down more quickly would be helpful for municipalities, for industries, and for everybody else.
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Sure. You know what I'm getting at, and I noticed.... Maybe Ms. Gelfand or Mr. Vaughan could....
As an Individual
The one thing I would say is that building in both the mitigation and the adaptation parts is hugely important. If there's one neglected element to the climate change story, which I think is reflected in the documents that we have before us, including the progress report from 2015 and the forward strategy, it is how little attention adaptation actually gets, and yet this is the one that's going to come at us, and for which governments are going to be held responsible.
As an Individual
It's fascinating that the role on adaptation for climate change is actually NRCan's, and yet if you read the mandate letters of the ministers and you try to figure out who's really in charge of this whole-of-government strategy, it's not at all clear that we've captured it, at least in the mandate letters. The one thing I would urge, even if it might seem to belong to the committee on natural resources, is that this committee reflect very closely on the whole-of-government challenges of doing adaptation, because it is coming at us, and I think we're very ill-prepared for it. It's the one thing that people don't seem to want to talk about, and yet it's so urgent at the municipal level and everywhere else.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I have a quick question.
Mr. Retson, I heard in the introductions your title was about the greening of government. Are you part of that mandate?
Duncan Retson Director General, Portfolio and Government Affairs Sector, Policy, Planning and Communications Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I am.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
The question of the long-standing condition we have here on the Hill, which is symbolic, has been brought up a few times. Is the parliamentary precinct included in your mandate as well, or is it the federal government more writ large?
Director General, Portfolio and Government Affairs Sector, Policy, Planning and Communications Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
It's the federal government more writ large. Our role is basically three things. We work in support of our colleagues at Environment and Climate Change Canada to help them in setting targets and goals with respect to greening government operations specifically.
Director General, Portfolio and Government Affairs Sector, Policy, Planning and Communications Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Yes.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
So getting an EV station, a charging station up here on the Hill, would be through you.