Evidence of meeting #9 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was trees.
A video is available from Parliament.
5:30 p.m.
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My question is going back to Mr. Jones.
The minister seemed to suggest that the information I referenced might not be true, but Environment Canada is the source of that information. If there is an issue getting the money out the door through the low-carbon economy fund, isn't there a problem with the program? This is an important part of the pan-Canadian framework, and it doesn't seem to be working.
5:30 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Pan-Canadian Framework Implementation Office, Department of the Environment
I apologize if I didn't provide all of the information that I should have the last time around. I did describe the nature of the process, but an important point to note is that the numbers reflected in the documentation that you're referencing shouldn't be taken as an indicator of the work being done.
There is a problem with a delay in receiving the invoices from our partners in the Government of British Columbia. The work has been happening, but there has been a lag on their end in submitting the invoices. Very soon I will be following up with them again on this. It will jump up as soon as we get those—
5:30 p.m.
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
Even if you include the lag numbers.... There was $974,000 to UBC recently. Even if you include the projects that would be included in that lag, that only brings it up from 0.4% to 1.2%. That's still quite concerningly low.
5:30 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Pan-Canadian Framework Implementation Office, Department of the Environment
That project was under one of the challenge funds. I agree that it isn't represented in the numbers yet, but on the leadership fund, we are co-funding a number of initiatives in partnership with the B.C. government. Those are ongoing programs that they are implementing, and costs are being—
5:30 p.m.
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
Just because I have a a very short amount of time, do you expect that to bring it up to 100% of the funding, or is it going to be similar to last year, when it was only 50% of the funding?
5:30 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Pan-Canadian Framework Implementation Office, Department of the Environment
I won't know until I see the invoices from them, but I can say it will be quite a significant jump. As I say, it's been quite a long time since they've submitted their bills.
5:35 p.m.
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
You would hope so, given that it's 1%.
Even looking back on last year, where it is 50%—you must have all of those invoices—do you see that there is a problem getting money out the door if only 50% of the allocated money is spent?
5:35 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Pan-Canadian Framework Implementation Office, Department of the Environment
Not necessarily. It's really typical for these kinds of programs to take a little bit of time to get established, for the proposals to come in and be evaluated, for agreements to be signed, and then for them to start the implementation process. There tends to be a bit of a lag—
5:35 p.m.
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
I only have 15 seconds, but I would say that this is an important part of our emissions reduction plan. It is concerning that we're only getting 50% out. This right now looks like only 1.2%. I do hope that we can follow up about this. If there is more information, can you please submit it to the committee in writing?
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
Before we go to Mr. Jeneroux, given that we started late, I was wondering if the committee members would be agreeable to continuing until 6:10.
5:35 p.m.
Conservative
Dan Albas Conservative Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC
Mr. Chair, I've already been informed by my members that we won't be giving consent to continue on. I'm really disappointed with how this meeting has shaped up, with no offence to the officials who have spoken. You're all doing great work, but I'm really disappointed how this has worked out.
We have other members who have planned their schedules. That's my personal objection.
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
5:35 p.m.
Conservative
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
Yvan Baker Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
I have a point of order.
Are we ending the meeting now? Is that correct?
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
Yvan Baker Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
On a point of order to Mr. Albas' concern, I want to express that I share his concern that it is typical that the deputy minister is available to speak to issues of financial accountability at these types of meetings. It was also very clear to me at our last meeting that Mr. Albas requested the presence of the deputy minister and we all agreed that would be the case. I want to express support for Mr. Albas' concern on this issue.
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
I have a very quick question for the committee regarding future meetings, but I'd like to thank the witnesses for their presence and for their responses. I had a question I wanted to ask Parks Canada, but I'll have to let it go.
In terms of Monday's meeting, members, we have votes, and I suspect that if we're lucky we'll get to start late again, but I have a feeling that the votes could go on for quite a while.
In the interests of getting as much work done as possible before we break for the holidays, what we wanted to do Monday was discuss the outline of the report on ZEVs. I've seen the outline and it's very good, but we should still discuss it.
Also, we wanted to talk about witnesses for Ms. Collins's study on enforcement. I would propose, if members are in agreement, that I try to organize a meeting of the steering committee to discuss these two issues, such that even if we skip the meeting on Monday, we could start with Ms. Collins's study on the Wednesday with some initial witnesses, probably from the department.
Would members be agreeable to proceeding in this way and that I try to get a steering committee meeting going? It might be tomorrow or it might be Tuesday, but I think we can probably get the analysts started on their work and we can probably organize some witnesses for next Wednesday if we proceed in this manner.
Are there any objections?
Go ahead, Madame Pauzé.
5:35 p.m.
Bloc
Monique Pauzé Bloc Repentigny, QC
This is not an objection. I just want to make sure that we could say, before the holiday break, what we want to see in the report on the federal legislation on zero-emission vehicles and the electrification of transportation.
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
Perhaps I misspoke. I saw the overview of the report that was to be created, and I wanted to discuss it with the steering committee to at least get its approval and enable analysts to begin working on it.
Normally, we would have done this together, in committee, but we probably will not meet on Monday, so I wanted to do this in a steering committee meeting.
5:40 p.m.
Conservative
Dan Albas Conservative Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I have a question about capacity. Will there be enough time for you to be able to hold the steering committee meeting so we can plan this? I'm afraid that if capacity is not currently built into the calendar, there will be no steering committee meeting and then we will not be able to proceed with Ms. Collins' study on Wednesday as you suggested.
I need some assurances that we do have the system capacity for that, or else we will have nothing next week and everything gets wiped.
We still do have the supplementaries to decide what we're going to be doing with that.