Environment Committee on April 27th, 2023

[Michael McLeod, Liberal, Northwest Territories, NT]

I am having a hard time following, because sometimes the French is on the English channel and the English is on the French channel, and then it reverses back. I've been trying to switch, but I can't keep up.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Okay.

Can you hear me on the English channel?

Mr. McLeod isn't hearing me.

[Michael McLeod, Liberal, Northwest Territories, NT]

I'm on the English channel and you're speaking French—

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Well, you should put.... That's what you need to do, yes.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

On a point of order, with respect, I think the translator said that it's confusing when individual people are switching from English to French. That's what is causing the problem.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

All right. We'll stick with French, since we're talking about the French version of the motion.

Mr. McLeod, can you hear me on the English channel?

[Michael McLeod, Liberal, Northwest Territories, NT]

Yes, it's fine now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Great.

Let's go to paragraph (b) of the motion:

b. Qu'au cours de ces réunions, la Compagnie Pétrolière Impériale Ltée et l'Alberta Energy Regulator fournissent au Comité les documents qui appuient les mesures qu'ils ont prises;

I believe paragraph (c) was where you wanted to make a change, Mr. Deltell, was it not? Instead of “qu'elles soient télévisées”, it would say….

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

I propose keeping the same wording that's used in the other two paragraphs of the motion. Accordingly, it would say “que ces réunions soient télévisées”.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Paragraph (c) of the motion would read as follows, then:

c. Que ces réunions soient télévisées et que les témoignages recueillis lors de ces réunions soient pris en considération lors de l'étude sur les eaux douces.

We'll send out a new version of the motion shortly. Then, we can adopt the motion unanimously and move on.

[Damien Kurek, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

Chair, in light of all of that, I think we've got to the point where we are comfortable with it. It can be distributed, but I would certainly be comfortable with moving forward.

(Motion as amended agreed to)

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Mr. Longfield, if I'm not mistaken, you have another motion you'd like to propose.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Yes.

Now that we've done that motion, I have a second one. It's following up on the gracious invitation of the member for Fort McMurray-Cold Lake. She was asking each one of us if we'd like to come up.

I had circulated this motion before the meeting, but maybe we can circulate it now, so that we have it in both official languages.

I'd like to move that the committee book travel to Fort McMurray to witness the environmental damage caused by the Kearl tailings pond leak, that the committee and its analysts use the evidence gathered on this expedition to be part of the study on fresh water and any future study on tailings ponds leaks, that the clerk of the committee be empowered to draft a travel budget and present it to the committee, and that the committee review this travel budget no later than May 15.

I think we have a May 1 deadline to get things in front of the Liaison Committee. That's why I thought I would get this motion on the floor.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Logistically speaking, I believe we would have to get it in front of the liaison committee by May 12. You would have to modify the date of your motion so that the committee could look at it by.... I don't know what May 12 is.

[A voice]

May 11 is our Thursday meeting.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

We would look at it on May 11.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Wasn't there a deadline for that, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Yes, the deadline is May 19, but practically speaking, we need to submit our request by May 12.

[Damien Kurek, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

Thanks to Mr. Longfield for moving this. I certainly encourage all Canadians to visit Fort McMurray, Canada's oil sands and some of the incredible landscapes. It'll take your breath away. I can assure you all of that.

I would note, however, that this is very specific. In some of our previous discussions related to the upcoming freshwater study, we had specified a few deadlines to get recommended locations that the committee would be able to travel to.

I believe—maybe the chair or Madam Clerk would be able to correct me—that the deadline for those was a few weeks ago. We had submitted that. We actually had put Fort McMurray on the list as a great stop. My question is.... This is very specific, but it's related to the freshwater study.

With that upcoming deadline and some of the conversations that we had about proposed committee travel in relation to some of the other locations that may be valuable across the country, I'm curious as to where that's at.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

We've agreed to go to Fort McMurray. The same deadline would apply, as far as I know. We'd have to get in any other travel recommendations by May 12.

Has anyone submitted anything in writing? Is that what you're saying, Mr. Kurek? Have you submitted something in writing for travel for the freshwater study?

[Damien Kurek, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

Yes, we have. I canvassed our members and had—

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Did you send something in?

[Damien Kurek, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Okay. I'm sorry. I'm not aware of it. It might have been distributed and then I didn't seen it.

[Damien Kurek, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

I'm sorry, Chair.

I'd have to go back and look, but the conversation we had was in camera, I believe, so I won't go into details to protect that. It was that we would have until prior to Easter—that was the expected timeline—to submit a list of prospective travel locations.

I'm concerned.... If we're moving a motion to travel to Fort McMurray, I would suggest that there is more than just the area that's been impacted by this. There is some tremendous.... In fact, the mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo had a bit of time to share how they have developed incredible clean-water partnerships with indigenous communities.

If we're limiting the travel to just the leak, that's one thing, but in terms of the larger travel, we expect—certainly from the conversations we've had—that this freshwater study is going to be a big study. To ensure that we can get, before the deadline, some of the suggested locations and figure out if we're going to hold hearings as well....

That was an outstanding question that I had. Would we be travelling for committee members to view locations? Would we be ensuring that we could hear from indigenous communities or other affected areas?

My comment, and I think the larger question, is that instead of adopting one motion—and I haven't had a chance to speak with my colleagues—my personal preference would be for us to look at the larger committee travel proposal and include Fort McMurray, the Kearl site and the tailings pond. I think that's entirely reasonable. To have the tailings pond as well is very reasonable.

We would have to have that larger committee proposal in before the May 19 deadline in order to get it to the Liaison Committee so that we can go through the process. The study will start in the fall.

I encourage the committee. Maybe a motion is the right way, but just to have some of these conversations would be valuable, I think.