Environment Committee on Nov. 27th, 2024

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

You realize that you did nothing for five consecutive years to help prevent—

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

For five years—

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

—forest fires in Jasper—nothing. Nothing....

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

If the Conservative government did nothing for the years you're talking about—

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

You're absolutely right. The Conservative government did nothing.

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

—and then from 2015 to 2024 is nine years, can you explain what you have done that has protected Jasper?

[An hon. member]

[Inaudible—Editor]

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Absolutely. We would be happy to—

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Excuse me, Minister.

Mr. van Koeverden, it's hard enough to follow this two-person exchange without the intervention of other members.

I stopped the clock. You have 30 seconds, Mr. Soroka.

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

To go back to what I was saying, then, do you have a lead as to who is going to help Jasper? The municipality is suffering substantially because of the fire that was started in Jasper National Park and affected their municipality.

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

A fire that was likely, according to scientists, a result of climate change, something that your own party denies as being real....

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Okay. We're out of time.

We'll go now to Mr. Longfield, who is online.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the minister for being with us for two full hours and for showing us your commitment to our committee, as well as for the fine work you're doing on climate change and the exciting legislation that we're going to be discussing today and, hopefully, in future meetings sequentially, so that we can get to the crux of the legislation before us.

Thanks to Mr. van Koeverden for introducing his motion several weeks ago. We've been trying to have this conversation. The Conservatives are blocking. The NDP are putting other motions on the table.

It's great that we're finally starting the conversation together, because halting and reversing biodiversity loss is one of the great challenges we face, on top of climate change. This is a parallel challenge. If we get it right, we can transition to a nature-positive Canada in working with indigenous people, knowing that their knowledge will contribute to our solution together.

We have some profound impacts happening on our collective well-being. The University of Guelph looks at “one health” and says that the one health initiative is important. On biodiversity loss, through the Biodiversity Institute, we're tracking the results of that loss, but we have to start recovering from the loss that we have in front of us.

Can you tell the members why Bill C-73 is so crucial, so that our committee can really grab hold of this study?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Longfield.

I could certainly answer this question, but we have with us today Basile van Havre, who was instrumental in helping the world secure the agreement in Montreal in 2022. He was one of the main architects and negotiated this agreement for years, years and years. I was thinking that, with your permission, I would ask him why this bill is so important.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

While we have him here, let's do that.

Thank you.

[Basile van Havre, Director General, Canadian Wildlife Service, Department of the Environment]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's an honour to be able to address you.

The world got together in Montreal two years ago and signed a historic agreement, setting itself four goals and 23 targets.

Coming back to Canada, it is now time to implement them. Minister Guilbeault spoke about the action plan and, together, this project that we have here. This is an important way to see how we're going to be translating those commitments into actions and how those actions will be seen by all of you.

I'm actually very pleased to see, after having spent four years of my life coordinating for the global community and being seated in front of you, how this is going to come to the ground and be put into action.

Thank you.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

That's great. Thank you.

Thank you for your passion to get us here and for all the work you've done to support the efforts of the minister and the department.

This is very similar to a study we did a few years ago, during the pandemic, on the net-zero accountability act. This is a nature accountability act: having audits built into the act so that future governments will continue the work we're doing, and future Liberal governments, for sure, will be working on this.

We have about eight months or so before our next election, and I'm hoping we can see this across the line so that we can talk about how we can build in the same types of protections on nature as we have on climate change.

Minister, in the first panel, you talked about Canada's emissions reduction plan and the results from the net-zero accountability act. Can you talk about the parallels or maybe the positive impacts on the net-zero act?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Longfield.

I think it is correct to make a parallel between Bill C-73 and the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act, in the sense that the act imposes a certain number of things on our government and future governments. We have to produce action plans like the emissions reduction plan produced in 2022. We have to update those plans. They have to be tabled in the House of Commons. They have to be made public. We have to do consultations in the lead-up to that. We already have targets for 2022, but we have to set targets for future commitment periods, whether it's for nature or climate.

I think it's about accountability towards Canadians. It's about transparency. It's about ensuring the government puts in place the necessary measures to achieve the targets we set for ourselves.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Great. Thank you.

I was part of the committee then. I'm part of the committee now. The NDP was a very important part of our discussions. Taylor Bachrach was very good at helping us work together. We always need dance partners. The Bloc Québécois, for sure, is always with us on sustainability issues. We know we will struggle with Conservatives. However, it is democracy. We need to have alternate views at the committee.

Could you say how important it is to try to finish this legislation in this Parliament?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

I think it is essential to ensure we are on the right track to meet our 2030 targets when it comes to nature protection and restoration.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you, Minister.

Thank you, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you, Mr. Longfield.

We now go to Ms. Pauzé.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, thank you for being here.

In your presentation, you said that every government had to assume its responsibilities and that everyone had to work together. I think the Bloc Québécois fully agrees with that. Quebec and the provinces take care of the land, and the federal government takes care of the oceans.

Oceans come under federal jurisdiction, so I'll take you back in time and talk about the Bay du Nord project. All the environmental groups had asked that this project not be approved, but you approved it. Of course, environmental groups were disappointed and criticized you. However, this project may not come to fruition because of a lack of investors and a lack of financial viability.

Basically, Bill C-73, under our consideration, is sort of a framework bill that involves the government's participation in what was signed in the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. However, if this bill were turned into framework legislation, but public policies were different and oil development was promoted, would this bill prevent the development of a project similar to the one in Bay du Nord?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

You're talking about ocean protection. I want to remind you that, when our party came to power in 2015, Canada was not protecting even 1% of our oceans, of our coastal areas. We're at about 16% now. If all goes well, that protection will be at about 20% in 2025. Therefore, we are well on our way to achieving our goal of protecting at least 30% of our lands and oceans by 2030.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Figures on paper are all well and good, but what about drilling being allowed?