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 p.m.
Liberal
Jonathan Wilkinson Liberal North Vancouver, BC
I'm certainly happy to have Mr. Jones go back through that if you'd like that.
5 p.m.
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
I'm wondering more about why you aren't concerned that only 1% of this money that has been allocated has—
5 p.m.
Liberal
Jonathan Wilkinson Liberal North Vancouver, BC
MP Collins, you can repeat it all you want, but it's not true. At the end of the day, the money is being fully expended through the federal-provincial process that exists under these programs. Again, I'm happy to have the fellow who's responsible for the administration of the program, who's on here, explain that.
5 p.m.
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
Absolutely, but the order paper answer to the question showed that it was only $550,000 out the $127 million. You do the math. That's less than 1%.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Jonathan Wilkinson Liberal North Vancouver, BC
Again, first, I would ask the expert, but second, if it was really true that we were not fulfilling our obligations under federal-provincial agreements, George Heyman would be the first person to phone me, and he has not done so.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
Your time is up, Mr. Wilkinson.
I'm told that Mr. Godin wishes to share his time with Mr. Schmale.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
Mr. Godin, you have the floor. I will let you know when we have reached three minutes.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Mr. Minister, we are currently studying the supplementary estimates. As I read them, I see no concrete measures specific to what Canadians are currently experiencing, the COVID-19 pandemic, a public health issue.
Instead, the department is working on regulations to ban plastic products in 2021. You made an announcement to that effect in October. I have trouble seeing how this can be the priority when many businesses, including those in the food service sector, are using packaging that allows them to survive in the current environment.
Based on the documents I have here, once again, you have done nothing to help the Department of Environment and Climate Change adapt to the current situation to assist Canadians.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Jonathan Wilkinson Liberal North Vancouver, BC
The government certainly has done a lot to address the challenges of COVID-19.
The Fall Economic Statement outlines a number of measures, some of which are designed to support Canadians and Canadian businesses in coping with their challenges. The role of Environment and Climate Change Canada is to assure Canadians that we are protecting the environment, and Canadians—
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Mr. Minister, I fully agree with you that the department and the government must work to protect the environment. However, we are in a unique situation, and the government is hiding behind the COVID-19 pandemic to justify action, or rather, inaction.
I'm having trouble understanding. Used masks and personal protective equipment will be thrown away, but no measures are in place to recover that garbage.
In my constituency of Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, a company called Logard produces asbestos pipes. Unfortunately, using asbestos is now prohibited, and Logard can no longer sell off its inventory. This example shows that nothing is being done to help our businesses. Logard is a business that complies with standards and wants to continue to do so, but is not eligible for any assistance.
It is more important to help businesses dealing with this kind of situation than to worry about stir sticks and straws, because banning them will have no tangible effect. If you had planted trees, it would have been more positive. Unfortunately, you have not yet planted a single tree.
Mr. Minister, you must strike a balance between the economy and the environment. I am not sure your government is capable of doing that.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
That was more of a comment, I gather, Mr. Godin.
Your three minutes are up. Would you like to give the floor to Mr. Schmale?
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Jamie Schmale Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON
My thanks to my friend from Quebec for allowing me to take some of his time. I appreciate the opportunity, Chair.
Minister, I don't know whether you're aware of this or not, but for the last eight weeks or so I've been trying to get a meeting with you to go over some local issues that I've been dealing with, specifically on the Trent-Severn Waterway, which comes under the jurisdiction of Parks Canada.
I have issues on lakes such as Long Lake, Pigeon Lake and Canal Lake and at Moore Falls, all under the purview of Parks Canada and specifically the Trent-Severn Waterway. What I want to ask you here.... I'd love to talk to you about this at a meeting, either on Zoom or socially distanced in the same room, but I'll get to a few of my questions.
Specifically, we have a campaign called Save the Walleye. It's a pilot project that we are proposing. It has the support of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. Minister Yakabuski wrote about it to you in your former capacity as minister of fisheries and oceans and also in your capacity as Minister of the Environment, clearly supporting this project, yet we have had no movement or even acknowledgement—we're rarely acknowledged—by the Trent-Severn Waterway. This is something that's been going on for five years under my staff and me and previously under my predecessor, Barry Devolin.
Sir, is the ministry of the environment or Parks Canada willing to have a conversation about this? Can we have a conversation face to face about it?
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
Be very brief, Minister, because then we have to go on to Mr. Saini.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Jonathan Wilkinson Liberal North Vancouver, BC
Absolutely, the Department of the Environment and I and/or my parliamentary secretary are happy to have a conversation. I have to tell you that I don't know a lot about the project, but I'm certainly happy to look into it.
December 2nd, 2020 / 5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
Thank you, Chair, and thank you very much, Minister, for coming today. It's always a pleasure to have you.
I have three very specific questions. The first concerns one of the commitments we made in our platform. That commitment was to protect the lands to 25% by 2025.
The majority of Canadians live in urban areas, so we don't get a chance, really, to visit these parks. My colleague MP O'Connell mentioned Rouge park. What is our strategy in creating new urban parks to help factor them into the target of 25%?
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Jonathan Wilkinson Liberal North Vancouver, BC
The idea of a network of national urban parks is something we are actively looking at. Rouge has been a tremendous success in terms of how popular it is with people who live proximate to it by providing the opportunity to get out to experience nature. During COVID-19, that's been particularly important.
We're looking at opportunities like that across the country in major urban centres. Of course, it requires that the urban centres themselves be interested in exploring that kind of opportunity. It's partly about green spaces and partly about moving towards our target of protecting 25% of lands, but it's also, in my mind, partly about connecting Canadians with nature.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
The second question I have—and this is important to me just because of the region I come from—is about biodiversity loss, which sometimes gets lost in the climate change conversation.
As you know, we're living through the sixth mass extinction event. My home area of southwestern Ontario is particularly at risk, being home to the largest number of species at risk in Canada.
What's the government planning to do to reverse this alarming trend in southwestern Ontario and throughout Canada?
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Jonathan Wilkinson Liberal North Vancouver, BC
I'm glad you raised that question. We don't just have a climate crisis; we have a nature crisis. A nature crisis is partly about climate, partly about the biodiversity loss and partly about pollution in our environment. Certainly the biodiversity piece is alarming. We have almost 700 species in this country that are either listed as at risk or are in the process of being listed.
We need to take action. Certainly we have done an enormous amount to try to stem that and to adopt a strategy focusing on priority spaces and priority species.
One of the areas is southwestern Ontario, where we're looking at what's called the pan-Canadian approach to transforming species at risk conservation and looking at how we can turn this around in a manner that Canadians will want. They don't want to see this continue. Part of that's about addressing climate change, but part of it is also about habitat.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
My third question is this. We're setting ambitious goals for carbon neutrality by 2050. It's pretty clear that this is going to have to be a pan-Canadian approach and that we'll all have to come together to make this happen. In the pursuit of this goal, the federal government has a duty to lead by example, and greening government operations gives us this opportunity to lead. How is the government working to lead by example and get government operations down to net zero?
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Jonathan Wilkinson Liberal North Vancouver, BC
Again that is a very important question, and I agree with you. The government needs to show leadership if it expects others to take similar kinds of action. As I said before, an approach to addressing climate change that's a comprehensive one is as much an economic plan as it is an environmental one. That holds as true for the government as it does everybody else.
On November 26, with respect to the government's operations, the President of the Treasury Board announced the greening government strategy, which sets new targets for net zero, for green and climate-resilient government operations. The focus very much is ensuring that we are walking the walk as we talk the talk.
Within my own department, Environment Canada and Parks Canada, as I mentioned earlier in the discussion, we have undertaken a number of initiatives that were funded by Treasury Board to start that process internally. We are committed to moving very rapidly forward.