Certainly.
Mr. Bachrach's motion makes recommendations for one province, British Columbia. We recently had an energy regulator from another province, Alberta, and the question was raised by some members of the Conservative Party as to whether or not we ought to even be in the business of making recommendations to provincial authorities. I think we ought to be.
We ought to recognize that every province is quite different with respect to how it does this work. I gave some examples about Ontario. I apologize if my stories were a little bit long. I went for a nice long run this morning. I'm quite relaxed and feeling very zen, so perhaps I'll try to tighten up my comments a little bit.
I do think it is pertinent to really consider that Canada is basically 13 countries. It tries really hard to be one, and we achieve that—Canada's a great country—but we're very unique in the context that there really isn't that much connecting maybe the economy of the Yukon to the economy of Prince Edward Island.
By the same token, with respect to Mr. Bachrach's motion, we are, through this motion, making recommendations or considering one province above all others, above all 12 of the other provinces and territories. In the previous work we've undertaken with respect to the Alberta Energy Regulator, it was proposed that perhaps if we want to be making recommendations to one specific province, we should get involved in provincial or territorial politics.
I don't think that's necessary, for the following reasons. Federal subject matters can include public property, which means federally owned property, which could include parkland or Crown land; fisheries, both marine and fresh water; navigation and shipping; anything with respect to criminal law; or any issue that impacts first nations people.
In this very old document—I should read it verbatim, although it uses old language that we've updated. It says, “Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians.” Of course, we recognize that's outdated language that we don't use anymore.
In addition to that, the opening words of section 91 of the Constitution Act of 1867 set out federal residual power, which numerous legal decisions have interpreted to mean that various subject matters not explicitly listed in the Constitution, such as marine pollution and interprovincial water pollution, are nevertheless all within federal jurisdiction. Therefore, it's very clear that we have the jurisdiction, that we have the actual authority and that we, as a federal government but also as a committee of this government, have an obligation to look at marine pollution and interprovincial water pollution.
That, to me, means that—