Environment Committee on Oct. 26th, 2023

[Greg Carreau]

No, the right to a healthy environment is in the confines of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act; however, in the administration of the protection of health and the environment from chemicals, it is very much a whole-of-government approach, using the authorities under the Pest Control Products Act, the Food and Drugs Act or the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, which provide a whole-of-government approach to the management of chemicals that may be of concern for the Canadian environment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you.

Mr. Kram is next.

[Michael Kram, Conservative, Regina—Wascana, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to come back to Mr. Barbosa about the boil water advisories.

Mr. Barbosa, in your opening statement, I believe you said that the Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act, which came into force in 2013, was repealed in June 2022 due to first nations' concerns. The Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act sounds like a pretty good act to me. Could you elaborate on what some of those concerns were that you mentioned in your opening statement?

[Nelson Barbosa]

Thank you for the question.

While the act was passed, there were never any regulations brought into place to bring that legislation into regulatory force.

The concerns raised by first nations were multivaried. I would say the two primary ones were the lack of adequate consultation with first nations on the establishment of that act in that period and also the lack of a robust understanding of how first nations rights, and management of source water protection, would be codified as part of that legislation.

[Michael Kram, Conservative, Regina—Wascana, SK]

It was also my understanding that one of the provisions of that act was that if a first nation was not providing clean, safe drinking water to its residents, then the federal government could intervene and authorize a third party to set up a water treatment plant and to provide the water on its own. Is that one of the concerns that were raised as well?

[Nelson Barbosa]

I wouldn't say that was a paramount concern. I would say certainly consultation on source water protection and rights were the first and foremost. I would also note that, as per a previous question, one element of the settlement agreement on safe drinking water was to repeal the previous legislation and to bring into place new legislation based on co-developed principles.

[Michael Kram, Conservative, Regina—Wascana, SK]

Okay, but the new legislation is not in place yet, correct?

[Nelson Barbosa]

The engagement is ongoing, and we hope to bring that forward soon. The engagement process on potential new legislation is under way.

[Michael Kram, Conservative, Regina—Wascana, SK]

If we had finalized the regulations for the Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act a decade ago, is it safe to say that some of the 28 long-term drinking water advisories might be eliminated by now, instead of losing a decade by reinventing the wheel, so to speak?

[Nelson Barbosa]

That's a hypothetical question. I couldn't answer that question.

I could say that legislation, particularly as it impacts first nations on their lands, should be co-developed, and also that we should recognize first nations voices in the development of legislation now and in the future.

[Michael Kram, Conservative, Regina—Wascana, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to give the rest of my time to Mr. Mazier.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Norris, the Prime Minister stated that the government will be updating the water act and that this could have significant impacts on agriculture in general all across Canada. Does the department have any indications of how these proposed changes would impact agriculture?

[Kevin Norris]

Not at this point. I would defer comment on the water act to Environment Canada, but we do work closely with them on a lot of agri-environmental issues, including water.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

How many provincial agriculture ministers has your minister and the department met with to talk specifically about the water agency?

[Kevin Norris]

I would have to get back to you on that.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Can you table that, please?

[Kevin Norris]

Yes.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

I might also, on the chair's comments, follow up on what departments actually reported so that we could prepare for this meeting. Eight departments provided responses, which totalled 110 pages to look through. Agriculture provided one page, and it didn't even answer the questions.

I would beg of you, please, to go back to the minister, answer the questions and provide those answers to the committee, because it really does speak volumes to just how much disregard the minister has for this committee and for this important subject of water in agriculture, which is appalling to say the least.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you.

We'll finish with Madame Chatel.

[Sophie Chatel, Liberal, Pontiac, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I'll be sharing my speaking time with my colleague Mr. van Koeverden, if possible.

As chair of the Liberal rural caucus, I talk to a lot of farmers in Canada, and I know that climate change has a huge impact on agricultural production and projections. In fact, I found what Ms. Champagne was saying earlier about drought projections and the agreements with the United States and Mexico on the subject very interesting.

Water shortages are a major concern for farmers, but there are various other phenomena that affect their productivity. These include heat waves and droughts, of course, but also the emergence of new diseases and insects, deteriorating soil quality, depleted water tables and increased competition for water supplies.

As we know, Canadian households rely heavily on farming done in the southwestern United States. I was reading some very worrying studies about the level of drought there for the next decade. So we won't be able to rely on U.S. agricultural production to fill our grocery baskets. I'm very concerned about that.

Ms. Champagne and Mr. Cronin, in the face of these significant challenges, how do your departments intend to address climate risks impacting agriculture and food security, plan accordingly and ensure that Canada is well positioned to deal with them?

[Dr. Catherine Champagne]

Just to address a couple of things that you mentioned, we work very closely with the United States Department of Agriculture on collaborating on the monitoring and forecasting of drought and on ensuring that we're using consistent techniques to have good projections of food quantity.

We also work with the global agricultural monitoring community and the Food and Agriculture Organization to ensure that food price volatility is based on scientific information and projections and that food speculation prices are put in to minimize the risk.

As a department, we also focus heavily on developing practices to advise farmers on how they can protect crop yields going forward and, as you mentioned, soil quality and groundwater as well. Our new strategic plan for science has a specific focus on soil and water quality and their linkages with the long-term impacts of climate change and extreme weather.

I would say, from a programming point of view, that we have a number of business risk management programs that are also in place to support farmers when there are no other mechanisms for adaptation in maintaining food supply.

[Sophie Chatel, Liberal, Pontiac, QC]

Thank you very much.

I'd like to leave some of my time to my colleague, but first, Ms. Champagne, I'd like to ask you to explain in writing the work you're doing with Mexico and the United States. I'm very interested.

Mr. Cronin, we're going to live in a world where several regions of the planet will run out of water, which will lead to conflict. From your department's perspective, how can we better position and protect Canada against these risks? I'd appreciate a written response.

I now leave the rest of my speaking time to my colleague.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

Thank you to my colleague.

Just very briefly, Mr. Barbosa, we did a little checking, and it turns out that 17 of the remaining 28 boil water advisories in first nations communities are novel, so they are continuing to rise. Does that sound about right?

[Curtis Bergeron, Director, Strategic Water Management Directorate, Department of Indigenous Services]

There are seven long-term drinking water advisories that have reoccurred, yes.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

They get solved, but then they break again.

Very briefly, Mr. Carreau, I'm interested in this research that I've seen about the content of lithium in our drinking water and the impact it has on people's moods and their mental health and the incidences of other things that you'd like to prevent in society.

I don't want to inflame the conversation here, but there is all this interesting research out there about how how much lithium is in our drinking water in various communities—and it's in nature; it's not spurious—and the incidence of things like murder in those communities. There's a really stiff relationship between those two things. Is that something that your department has ever looked into?