Evidence of meeting #131 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 chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
November 6th, 2024 / 4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB
Well, it's a point of clarification, actually.
Mr. van Koeverden seemed to be a bit confused about what we're actually debating here today, so I will repeat the motion. He actually has the paper copy right in front of him. We distributed it right at the first—
Liberal
Conservative
Branden Leslie Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
Thank you. I think we could have had this wrapped up a little bit quicker if we hadn't had some members from the government side shut down and adjourn debate on this. I think we could have wrapped this up long ago, and perhaps we could have gotten Minister Boissonnault here much earlier. I think that would have been a fantastic opportunity for us to show cordiality and really come together and understand that we want to have the best.
Importantly, the second reason I am moving this subamendment is that, broadly speaking, I do have serious concerns about the prestudy of Bill C-73. I understand that there are certain stakeholder groups that want us to conduct a prestudy as a priority to them. I also understand that we don't know when the next election is going to be, and people want to have legislation that they care about dealt with prior to that.
Listen, I understand that, Mr. Chair, but the reality around this table is that none of us knows when that next election is going to come. There are rumours circulating around this place, around Parliament Hill and on social media that the Prime Minister may prorogue Parliament at any time, and all of our committee's work will be thrown out.
In the House of Commons, you can move a motion to bring back to the House of Commons all of the legislative agenda of the government and potentially a private member's bill if they so choose, but all of the work that we have done as a committee is lost; it's gone.
What worries me is the idea of doing a prestudy on Bill C-73. In my view, it's frankly absurd. Also, in my view, and I think reasonably in the view of anybody who's an observer of this committee or of politics broadly, it appears to be an effort to put on the back burner the many other ongoing and important pieces of work this committee has been undertaking for the past many months in the hope that they may never have to be dealt with.
Now, Mr. Chair, I'd like to quickly outline some of the work that is outstanding at this committee.
We had a meeting that we debated a lot about afterwards on how we deal with reports or a letter from the five, I believe it was, oil and gas CEOs. Whether we like their appearance or not, they came, and we should, in some way, at the request of the committee, as previously done, highlight what that appearance meant and what they said, and then report that back to the House, which I believe was the motion previously passed.
Towards the end of the summer, we all flew back from our respective ridings a bit early, for one or two meetings, I believe. That carried on at the start of our session here into September, following the federal government's edict and egregious government overreach, which would put mills and entire communities out of business when logging is prevented from happening in the vast—
Conservative
Branden Leslie Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
I understand that, but I'm just recapping all of what this committee would be losing if we do not allow the work we have undertaken to continue. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chair, how many meetings did we do on the freshwater study?
Conservative
Branden Leslie Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
I know, Mr. Chair, that you have advocated for this particular topic of study for a long time—far longer than I've been a member of Parliament. I appreciate that. I really enjoyed that study, because it's very important to me. In many meetings with my municipalities and stakeholders, I joke that I'm a water MP. I'm from Manitoba. We're at the basin. I'm a water MP, so I appreciate that particular study. I fear that 19 meetings and the analysts' work behind it will be lost if we delay that study altogether, among many others, in lieu of something else.
We also have, of course, the net zero study, which includes billions of dollars—$8 billion, I believe. It's probably going to dwarf the investigation being done by another committee—it's currently before the House of Commons—relating to the Sustainable Development Technology Canada investigation, which is on massive amounts of money.
We have the ongoing climate finance study for my Bloc Québécois colleague, which I think has two hours remaining on it.
More recently, for my NDP colleague, there is the Fort Chipewyan port dock contamination study. I'm not sure about its exact status, but it sounds to me as though Transport Canada may not be taking the issue with the seriousness—I don't want to put words in the mouth of my NDP colleague—it deserves. Apparently, Transport Canada is ignoring the requirement to share with the transport committee—
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
I will remind you, Mr. Leslie, to drift back to the subject of the amendment.
Conservative
Branden Leslie Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
That's perfect, Mr. Chair. I would be happy to.
My statement is simple as it relates to that: I cannot support the original amendment without adding the subamendment I proposed. What it does is simply hasten the pace of Liberal efforts to sweep all of this under the rug and push back all of the work I just outlined. There's a study for pretty much every party, except the governing party, perhaps, which wants to take advantage of the opposition and push back the work we have already done.
Of course, I didn't even mention that this includes, as it relates to Jasper—
Liberal
Adam van Koeverden Liberal Milton, ON
I have a point of order, Mr. Chair. Could I see the clock? How many minutes into the meeting are we now?
Liberal
Adam van Koeverden Liberal Milton, ON
Thank you.
Is that a quarter of the meeting? How long do we have resources for today?
Liberal
Adam van Koeverden Liberal Milton, ON
For clarity, has this speech taken a little more than a quarter of the meeting so far?
