Evidence of meeting #123 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was fire.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Branden Leslie Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
Thank you, Mr. Campbell.
I'll pick up where I left off. I'll get into the quotes from the ATIP that was released publicly by your department to the public. This is not some sort of nefarious thing that we've unleashed; it was publicly released under ATIP under access to information, and it was regarding political purposes.
One participant in that debate disagreed. They said they hope we don't get into a blanket shutdown. Prescribed burns are important for both ecological and risk reduction reasons.
It gets better. That employee said that it is critical to continue those kinds of burns because when Parks Canada falls behind, it is very difficult to catch up.
I'll ask a very straightforward question: Did you ever inform the minister that one of your employees, or perhaps a group of you in a closed-door meeting without minutes or notes, was contemplating ending prescribed burns due to political perceptions, as per this ATIP?
Conservative
Branden Leslie Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
You did not inform the minister of that, so he had no chance of knowing that Parks Canada was unilaterally making these decisions.
Senior Vice-President, Operations, Parks Canada Agency
Again, there was a discussion, and it came up.
The question that I would love to answer is this: Did we cancel a single prescribed burn in that year? The answer is no.
Conservative
Branden Leslie Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
Here's a question I'd like to ask, then. Did you, in your view, do enough prescribed burns—
Senior Vice-President, Operations, Parks Canada Agency
So was I in any of those—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
You'll need to address your comments to the chair, Mrs. Chatel.
Liberal
Sophie Chatel Liberal Pontiac, QC
Mr. Chair, could my colleague, Mr. Leslie, take a deep breath and let the witness answer his question?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
Mr. Campbell answered the question. Mr. Leslie has the floor.
Mr. Leslie, go ahead.
Conservative
Branden Leslie Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
I will take a deep breath. Thank you to my colleague across the way.
I'll ask for a yes-or-no answer. Do you think it's appropriate that Parks Canada considered giving greater weight to political perceptions as opposed to the proven science when it comes to protecting communities from devastating burns like we saw in Jasper?
Conservative
Branden Leslie Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
It is not appropriate that you are weighing political decisions. Is that an accurate assessment?
Senior Vice-President, Operations, Parks Canada Agency
It is not appropriate that we would weigh a political decision more than science. That's the question you asked me.
Senior Vice-President, Operations, Parks Canada Agency
We didn't because we continued with all of the prescribed burns that we had planned, full stop.
Conservative
Branden Leslie Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
Did Parks Canada undertake an adequate number of prescribed burns in addition to the mechanical removal of dead wood that the department, Parks Canada, had been notified about for eight years as being a huge problem, a tinderbox waiting to explode—that it was not a matter of if but a matter of when? Do you think, honestly, with a straight face, that Parks Canada did enough in the lead-up to prevent this from happening?
Senior Vice-President, Operations, Parks Canada Agency
Did we take every prescribed burn in every year in every burn window that we had available to us since 2014? Absolutely.
Senior Vice-President, Operations, Parks Canada Agency
Did we do 6.4 million dollars' worth of mechanical removal in and around the cut blocks around Jasper prior to 2024? Yes, we did that.
Your next question was whether it was enough.