Evidence of meeting #55 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 million.
A video is available from Parliament.
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
I am new to this position. I have received a lot of letters from companies or non-governmental organizations.
Bloc
Monique Pauzé Bloc Repentigny, QC
Yes, that is certainly the case.
I would like to talk about the Canada Water Agency.
We are going to be studying everything relating to water at the committee. However, probably starting in the fall, the Canada Water Agency is going to be created. Money has already been spent to create that agency.
Are we not putting the cart before the horse?
How does that work?
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
We are creating something new, and it takes time to prepare. Yes, we have started working on it, but we don't know exactly what form it will take.
Liberal
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Just quickly, this is for Environment and Climate Change Canada.
I asked the minister what the 2026 interim emissions reduction objective was. I'm just wondering if you folks had the answer to that.
NDP
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
I could not tell you that right now.
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
Maybe I can explain a little.
We set the main target, obviously, of 40% to 45%. If you think about a pathway or a signal that we would be on track, 20% by 2026 would be, I think.... I don't have any modelling to back it up, but that's kind of the story.
We'll update that when we do the emissions reduction plan update. We will have that.
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
Do you anticipate that Canada's going to surpass or fall short of that target? Do you have a trajectory for this moment in terms of whether we're on track or off track?
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
Through the UNFCCC in December, we published our report, in which the modelling showed we were still on track for the 40%.
We will update that as part of this progress report. Until that work is done, I'll just say that we probably need to engage with provinces—
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
I'm sorry. More in terms of looking ahead at whether or not we're going to meet the 2026 objective, do you have a sense so far of whether we are on track to meet that?
If we're not going to meet it, what would the difference be—I'd love to know concretely—especially in tonnes of CO2?
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
I would say, based on the last round of modelling we did, that we think it's on track for 2026 and 2030, but we'll be updating that modelling over the course of the spring and summer and into the fall. That'll give us a clear idea, with budgets and other things.
I'm sorry for the long-winded response.
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
Thanks.
I have a quick question for Parks Canada.
The contributions in support of the national historic site cost-sharing program in the 2022-23 main estimates were about $1 million. The 2023-24 main estimates show that it's decreased to $700,000.
In 2017, this committee had witnesses come to explain that the contributions in the cost-sharing program are simply not enough, so I'm curious.
Can you give an explanation for why the amount has decreased?
Vice-President, Finance Directorate, Parks Canada Agency
Yes, absolutely.
The amount hasn't decreased. What you see is $700,000 for contributions, but you'll see in a different section of the mains that it's $300,000 for grants. We now have the authority to issue grants, as opposed to contributions.
It's $1 million in the main estimates. Internally, we allocate $1 million additionally, because there is such high demand for the program. It is a $2-million annual budget.
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
Thank you so much for that explanation.
When it comes to Parks Canada, Mr. Turnbull asked about some of the impacts of climate change on parks. I know Parks Canada is also looking at how it engages with indigenous communities. Indigenous communities are often hardest hit by climate change.
I'm just curious about that interaction around climate change, indigenous communities and how Parks Canada is addressing this.
Vice-President, Finance Directorate, Parks Canada Agency
I'd have to say that with Parks Canada, almost everything we do is in active engagement and collaboration with our indigenous partners, from the establishment of new sites, national parks and national marine conservation areas.... We're also working on an indigenous stewardship framework for our cultural assets.
We bring our indigenous partners to the table for all that we do. Sometimes it takes a bit longer, because we really try to drive to consensus and bring indigenous knowledge systems, indigenous science and their culture into how we administer Parks Canada places and how we establish new sites going forward.
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
Thank you so much.
I'll go back to ECCC and the question around the emissions reduction objective for 2026.
When it comes to the largest emissions reduction pieces to meet those targets and to be on track, can you name a couple and what the funding is for programs that are currently happening?
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
We've talked about the big sectors. Obviously they are going to be oil and gas, transportation, buildings and other things. We have a range of....
Do you want me to go through all the programming we have?
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
It's more just those three in particular.
There was a report just released by the Canadian Climate Institute, showing that those three, in particular, have gone up since 2005. Other areas have decreased, but in oil and gas, it's an increase of 10% since 2005. Transportation is up, and buildings are as well.
I'm just curious if there is...ensuring that the oil and gas sector, especially, is doing its share when it comes to emissions reduction.
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
I think the government has laid out some existing and some proposed pieces. The minister talked about a potential oil and gas cap and a discussion paper that was out last year as part of the way to work on that.
We also have other programming tools with transportation. There's extensive work on zero-emitting vehicles. Regulation is out on that. There are requirements around the share of market. I think there is also a commitment from the Minister of Natural Resources around moving to no emissions in buildings.
All of those pieces together tackle those individual sectors.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
We have to go to our second round now. It's the five-minute round, starting with Mr. McLean.
Conservative
Greg McLean Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
Thank you, officials.
Mr. Forbes, I recognize you're new in the job—it's been one month—so I don't mind if you defer some of these questions to your colleagues, who might have more detail, which I'm asking for here.
Grants and contributions from ECCC, in particular, are up to $1.23 billion in this year's estimates versus $577 million in 2021. That's more than double as far as grants and contributions go.
Would you say this is a lot of overspending going into a lot of new programming?