Evidence of meeting #82 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 video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC
Prove that the decision to cut Northern Gateway is sustainable, as you mentioned in your speech.
Liberal
Catherine McKenna Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
I'm happy to talk about sustainability. It includes the economy; it includes health; it includes the environment; and that's the frame that we approach, how we move forward. That is certainly reflected in the Federal Sustainable Development Act and that's the approach we take as a government.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB
On a point of order, Madam Chair, I'm outraged that our colleague across the way challenged my colleague here. I've been on committees for almost seven years now, and the four of us on this side are veterans of committees, and nobody on the other side has been on a committee.
I want to make the point that parliamentary privilege is real and it's important. We are elected by our constituents, and the Northern Gateway pipeline was in my colleague's constituency. It's clearly directly related to the concept of sustainable development.
Madam Chair, you have to give all of us a very wide latitude to exercise our parliamentary privilege.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Mr. Sopuck, I gave you the chance to speak. I gave him his full time. I gave him more time because there was the challenge. I ruled on the challenge. I think it was appropriate and we'll leave it at that, please.
Let's move on with the opportunity we have in front of us, please.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Really? No. I've ruled. Let's just move on because we do have time here, and I don't want to waste the minister's time.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Fair enough.
I think we are done. We're at 9:45 now, so I think we're just at the end of the time. I was going to give an opportunity for one more question, but really, honestly, we're almost out of time. We're going to wrap it up.
Thank you very much.
We'll take a suspension.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
On a point of order, Madam Chair, I want to follow up on the conversation we were having, before we entertain our next witnesses. I appreciate the fact that Mr. Sopuck indicated that there are four veterans on the other side of the table, and I have a great amount of respect for them. However, this isn't my first time sitting around a table or chairing a meeting or being involved in a meeting.
I want to point out for the record that, as Mr. Sopuck indicated about parliamentary privilege, one of the most basic and fundamental parliamentary privileges is a right for a member of a committee to address a point of order when they are of the impression that the meeting is not following the procedural order that it should.
I want to say that is exactly what I did. I raised a point of order. I addressed a specific deficiency in terms of the way the meeting was being run, as I saw it. Then it was up to the chair to use her discretion to rule on that, which is exactly what happened.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
I'll go to Mr. Fast, and then I'd really like to wrap it up and get back to....
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
Madam Chair, if that is so and we're going to be really, really strict about containing the discussions we have around this table to the specific issues mentioned in the agenda, then I'm going to make a motion:
That the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change be invited to appear before the Committee in relation to the Supplementary Estimates (B) 2017-18.
That would be my motion for consideration at the next meeting of our committee.
Liberal
Liberal
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
That would address the problem, right?
With the supplementary estimates (B), we have a wide-ranging latitude to discuss anything we want with the minister.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
May I make a point? I heard the point of order, and I think I was fair in how I dealt with it. With regard to the question, we tried to just focus it. It was open, very open, and it was drilling down into specifics. We were trying to stay in more the specifics on the act, right?
Conservative
Conservative