Environment Committee on March 29th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

I call the meeting to order.

Welcome, Mr. Viersen, to the environment committee. I hope you enjoy your experience here.

Welcome to the 22nd meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development. Pursuant to the order of reference of Wednesday, February 3, 2021, and the motion adopted by the committee on February 17, 2021, the committee is resuming its study of Bill C-204, an act to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, regarding the final disposal of plastic waste.

We have government officials with us here today as requested. They will be here to answer questions during the clause-by-clause.

As the name indicates, this is an examination of the clauses in the order in which they appear in the bill. I will call each clause successively, and each clause is subject to debate and a vote. If there are amendments to the clause in question, I will recognize the member proposing the amendment, who may then explain the amendment. The amendment will then be open for debate. When no further members wish to intervene, the amendment will be voted on. Amendments will be considered in the order in which they appear in the bill or in the package each member received from the clerk. Members should note that amendments must be submitted in writing to the clerk of the committee, or by email for members participating virtually.

Since this is the committee's first clause-by-clause consideration of a bill in a hybrid meeting format, the chair will go slowly to allow members to follow the proceedings properly. Amendments have been given an alphanumeric number in the top right-hand corner to indicate which party submitted them. There's no need for a seconder to move an amendment. Once an amendment is moved, you will need unanimous consent to withdraw the amendment.

During the debate on an amendment, members are permitted to move subamendments. These subamendments must be submitted in writing or by email for members participating virtually. They do not require the approval of the mover of the amendment. Only one subamendment may be considered at a time, and that subamendment may not be amended. When a subamendment to an amendment is moved, it is voted on first. Then another subamendment may be moved or the committee may consider the main amendment and vote on it.

Once every clause has been voted on, the committee will vote on the title and the bill itself, and an order to reprint the bill may be required if amendments are adopted so that the House has a proper copy for use at report stage.

Finally, the committee will have to order the chair to report the bill to the House. That report contains only the text of any adopted amendments as well as an indication of any deleted clauses.

I thank the members for their attention and wish everyone a productive clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-204.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Mr. Chair...?

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Yes, Mr. Longfield, let me just get set up to see the hands here. We have Mr. Longfield and Ms. Collins.

Go ahead.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you.

Just before we get going to the clause-by-clause, we've received a number of letters. Three of them have been translated, and there are seven more, to my count, that haven't been translated yet. However, they've been sent to us, and I've looked at them.

We have the president of the Alberta Plastics Recycling Association, the president of Merlin Plastics, Van WasteCo, P.E.T. Processing out of Delta, B.C.—

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Excuse me, Mr. Longfield—

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

I'm in the middle of a motion. I'm just giving you a short preamble to give you a motion.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

I'll come back to you, Mr. Longfield.

Go ahead, Mr. Albas.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Mr. Chair, this is not relevant to the subject of clause-by-clause.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

No, it actually is.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

I came here specifically intending to do clause-by-clause.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

It actually is. I have a motion that I'm in the middle of making. I was just listing the letters we've received, and then I was going to make a short motion, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Go ahead, Mr. Longfield.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

There are letters from the chief executive officer of Ontario Waste Management Association; the president of Waste Management Association of B.C.; the sustainability manager of Ice River Sustainable Solutions from Shelburne, Ontario; the director of Rundel Eco Services out of Calgary; and of course the president and CEO of the Association of Plastic Recyclers.

These are important stakeholders we haven't heard from. Three of the letters have been translated for our consideration, and Bill C-204 is generating a lot of interest from industry that we haven't heard from.

We've had only three of these letters translated, Mr. Chair, so I'd like to move that we defer consideration of Bill C-204 to consider these submissions; that the remaining submissions be translated and distributed to members; that we have the steering committee consider whether some of these individuals should be asked to appear as witnesses; and that the steering committee report back to the committee on its recommendations.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

I have a point of order again, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Yes, Mr. Albas.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

We are here to do the business of clause-by-clause, not to entertain other motions for committee business. I think you should find that the member is not being relevant to the subject at hand. I think you should rule this out of order, so that we can get on with the business we are here to do today.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

I think this is in order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Give me a second. We're going to go slowly today, since this is our first experience with clause-by-clause.

First of all, Mr. Longfield's motion relates to Bill C-204. It also relates to clause-by-clause in the sense that he wishes to delay clause-by-clause. I have to consider the motion in order.

Ms. Collins.

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This is not necessarily related to Mr. Longfield's motion, but it's potentially relevant. I was just having tech issues as we were logging in. I haven't done my audio check-in. Hopefully, this can serve as that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

You sound fine. Yes, it's all good.

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Great.

We had agreed at our last meeting to start off this meeting with a motion on the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development. I was hoping we could still do that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

You did mention that, absolutely, Ms. Collins. I'm told that you would still have to move it at this meeting. Unfortunately, Mr. Longfield moved his first. What I would suggest is that after the debate.... Well, let's get through Mr. Longfield's motion first.

Mr. Baker.

[Yvan Baker, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Thanks, Chair.

I want to speak to Mr. Longfield's motion. I think what Mr. Longfield is trying to do is to flag for the committee the concerns of a number of stakeholders whom I think he would like us to hear from. I think that makes a lot of sense.

I'd be surprised if there was push-back on this; I'll put it that way. I hope there's not push-back. There are concerns from across the country, from British Columbia, from Alberta, and I think there are pretty significant and foundational concerns from industry groups. They are concerned about the loss of jobs, including in Alberta and B.C.

Some of the letters have been translated. Some of them have not. We should at least have time for those letters that haven't been translated to be translated so that we can all consider them. We've had a number of discussions at this committee and at others about the importance of making sure that materials that are brought to the committee are translated. Here we have several letters that haven't yet been translated. That's not a criticism of anyone. I'm just trying to underline how important it is that we take the time to get them translated so that we can properly interpret them and consider them.

My greatest concern, of course, is the substance of what's being said in these letters, which is that businesses could be destroyed and jobs could be lost. I just think that's something we should be considering before finalizing the bill and sending it back to the House.