Environment Committee on Dec. 7th, 2017

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

On division is fine. Okey-dokey.

(Clause 6 as amended agreed to on division)

Shall clause 7 carry?

Wait, wait, back me up a bit. Does anybody have anything for clause 7? We didn't get anything earlier. I'm assuming there isn't anything. I want to make sure there isn't something before someone yells at me for not giving them a chance to bring it forward.

Shall clause 7 carry?

(Clause 7 agreed to)

(On clause 8)

We are now at amendment NDP-6 for clause 8.

Oh, sorry. We have a couple of other things that we have to be mindful of. If NDP-6 is adopted, then NDP-7 and LIB-3 cannot be moved. There's a line conflict.

Whichever came in first gets to be done first. You have to make sure you're looking at NDP-7, and look at LIB-3.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Can I make a suggestion? I'm simply going to accept the simple change—

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Let's have a discussion.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

—but I have other parts of mine—

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Just for clarity, we're going to discuss NDP-6.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

No, I'm not doing 6.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

It's NDP-7.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

I'm just going to do NDP-7.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Hold on. We're not going to do NDP-6?

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

It's included in NDP-7.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Okay.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

So it's NDP-7 versus LIB-3.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Let's do NDP-7 and LIB-3. All right?

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Do we need to vote down NDP-6, then?

[Olivier Champagne]

Is NDP-6 off the table?

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

It will be once we decide.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

I just—

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Let's just do that amendment. We'll just do NDP-7.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Wait.

[Olivier Champagne]

If NDP-7 is adopted, then LIB-3 cannot be moved.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

No, I got it.

You need to be aware that NDP-7 and LIB-3.... If we do NDP-7 first, then LIB-3 can't be done. We're looking at both of those.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

I'm willing to amend mine right off the bat.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Let's hear the discussion. Go ahead.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

The reason I had said that it should say “in relation to the environmental, social and economic impacts of their policies and operations” is that this was the language used in the act. I agree with the preference for “sustainable development”. I was just trying to be consistent with legislative drafting.

If everybody's amenable to just simply start.... There are other places in this act that we probably should have been changing to that. The problem is this act goes up and down and back and forth. Sometimes it talks about environmental and socio-economic impacts and sometimes it talks about sustainable development. It really would be preferable if, throughout the whole thing, it just simply references sustainable development.

I used that other phrasing because that was what was used in the act. I have no problem if everybody agrees that at least we start by replacing that phrase, which frankly doesn't even totally encompass the UN goals. I'm fine with that part, so I would amend mine right off the bat to say “in relation to the sustainable development impact.” Okay?

I'm fine with that, if everybody agrees. It's just that there are other places in the act where it really should be revisited. We should start being consistent.

What I have added in here is “policies”. Right now the wording only applies to operations. It doesn't apply to policies, which I find rather odd, so I simply said that Treasury Board may establish policies and directives applicable to one or more of the designated entities in relation to the sustainable development impacts of their policies and operations.

That's the first part, if we agree to the change.

The second part is that somewhere along the line, the government has chosen to take out the part about directives related to performance-based contracts. I simply added that back in so that the Treasury Board could establish policies and directives related to the impact on sustainable development of policies and operations, as well as policies and directives for performance-based contracts.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

Okay.