Environment Committee on June 9th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you.

Mr. Longfield.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

I'm going to oppose this amendment, just because we have a motion coming up from Mr. Bachrach that is, I think, more rigorous, that has the public reports requirement in it and that requires that an annual report to the advisory body be made public within 30 days of its receipt and be responded to within 120 days. Those reports already go onto government websites, so this is redundant with respect to an upcoming motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Mr. Albas.

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

Mr. Chair, I just hope for Mr. Longfield's sake that Mr. Bachrach doesn't suddenly pull a fast one on him and not put that motion forward.

(Amendment negatived: nays 10; yeas 1)

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

We go to amendment NDP-6.

Mr. Bachrach.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Chair, this adds words after line 2 on page 9. It inserts the following:

(1.1) When providing its advice and preparing its report, the advisory body must take into account a range of factors, to the extent they are relevant to the purpose of this Act including environmental, economic, social and technological and the best available scientific information and knowledge, including Indigenous knowledge, respecting climate change.

Again, this reflects much of the testimony we heard from various witnesses related to the importance of the best available science and the importance of indigenous knowledge.

I hope the committee sees fit to support the amendment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you.

Mr. Albas.

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

Is Mr. Bachrach [Technical difficulty—Editor], or is he including the updated name of the committee, as he has pointed out on other occasions? That could be an issue.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

I'm not quite sure how to answer that.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

I can speak to that, Mr. Chair, if you'd like.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Yes, go ahead.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

We heard from the official earlier about the fact there are two versions—a short version and a longer version—of the name of the advisory body. In both cases, the words “advisory body” appear. The way I interpret this is that when simply “advisory body” is used, it refers to the longer form of the same name. My issue with calling it an “expert committee” is that it's entirely different, and that could result in confusion. Often in cases like this there's a shorter version that uses some of the words but not others, so I think it's clear enough. I did not intend to replace it with the longer version.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Go ahead, Mr. Albas.

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

I appreciate MP Bachrach for weighing in on that. If he had wanted to take a more charitable viewpoint, we would have simply said to include the new term in it. That probably would provide some consistency. Again, the Conservatives believe that when a good idea comes forward and it's worthy of support, we should support it. In this case, because we've raised a number of concerns about this particular government's tendency to reject anyone else's ideas, especially when we're talking about a subject that this advisory panel will be engaging on, which by its very nature may be very divisive, we do need them to consider things like social, economic and technological factors, the best scientific information available and indigenous knowledge.

This is one of the amendments we're going to support and are glad to support, because quite honestly, Bill C-12 would be lesser without having some reference to the social, economic and other factors that are included in this amendment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you.

(Amendment agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0)

We're now on NDP-7.

Mr. Bachrach.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

NDP-7 amends lines 3 and 4 on page 9 with the following:

Minister's response

(2) The Minister must make the annual report available to the public within 30 days of receiving it and then, within 120 days of receiving that report, the Minister must publicly respond to the advice that the advisory body includes in it with respect to matters referred in paragraphs 20(1)(a) to (c), including any national greenhouse gas emissions target that is recommended by the advisory body if the Minister has set a target that is different from it.

As Mr. Longfield indicated earlier, this is a more elaborate and robust version of what Ms. May was suggesting. An important component is the requirement that if the minister chooses to set a greenhouse gas emissions target that is different from that which the advisory body recommended, he or she should provide a rationale for why this was done.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you, Mr. Bachrach.

(Amendment agreed to on division)

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

PV-33 was withdrawn.

(Clause 22 as amended agreed to on division)

(On clause 23)

Shall clause 23 carry?

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

I'm opposed.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Excuse me, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Clause 22 carried.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

I heard “clause 33”, Mr. Chair. We are on clause 23, aren't we?

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

No, we were talking about amendment PV‑33

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

I am sorry, I was confused.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Now we are on clause 23.