Environment Committee on March 24th, 2022

[John Moffet]

I'm trying to answer your question, sir. The RIAS—

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

Well, I have other questions here, so that's okay. There's no study.

An associate deputy minister from the Department of Finance testified at this committee on this matter. He stated, “It is not based on any scientific assessment.”

Is this true? Was there a scientific assessment done, yes or no?

[John Moffet]

No, not to determine the 10%.

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

There was no scientific study done.

[John Moffet]

That's correct.

The RIAS we did for the output-based pricing does include an analysis of impacts on rural Canadians.

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

There was no assessment. Okay.

I notice there's a line item for funding from Agriculture to support the greening growth in the agriculture and agri-food sector.

What was that money used for?

[Linda Drainville, Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services and Finance Branch, Department of the Environment]

Thank you for your question.

We are working in collaboration with Agriculture Canada. We are doing work with them to ensure that we have a good understanding of the impacts of some of the work they are doing from an environmental perspective. Through an agreement we have in place with them—

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

What's the wanted outcome of spending that money, for agriculture?

[Linda Drainville]

I'll turn to my colleague who is responsible for the program.

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

I have more questions, so if you could table that, that would be good. What's the purpose of spending that money for agriculture and what is the expected outcome?

I want to continue on to talk about the climate action incentive fund, specifically with the MUSH retrofit stream. MUSH stands for municipal, universities, schools and hospitals. How much money from this stream has been returned to municipalities or hospitals in Manitoba?

[Christine Hogan]

Climate programs are led out of our climate change branch, so Douglas Nevison, who's our ADM there, can maybe respond to how the CAIF looks from a Manitoba point of view.

[Douglas Nevison, Assistant Deputy Minister, Climate Change Branch, Department of the Environment]

Yes, thank you very much, Deputy.

Not breaking down the money that's flowed at this point, of the CAIF money for 2019-20, $60 million has flowed to the MUSH sector across the four backstop provinces. We could certainly provide you with the—

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

They've only announced $5 million. Why haven't they announced the whole $60 million? What's the holdup? You seem to be taxing quite nicely.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Answer very briefly, please, because we have to go on to Mr. Weiler.

[Douglas Nevison]

As you noted, in the report that just came out this week, the Manitoba-committed funding was $5.4 million as of March 31, 2021.

The money is still flowing. It's a specification from the 2019-20 fuel charge. I would just make the point that all money collected and attributed to CAIF will eventually flow to the provinces.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Mr. Weiler, go ahead.

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

At this point, I'd like to move a motion that was circulated about three hours ago. This is based on the routine motions that we talked about in our last committee meeting.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Mr. Weiler, could we do it at the end? We're not in committee business at the moment.

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Okay, we'll do it at the end. Scratch that.

I'd like to ask a question.

In the supplementaries, there are $3.2 million to support wildfire and flood resilience. It would help produce flood plain data and maps for communities across Canada that are most at risk of flooding. Of course, this is top of mind in my province of B.C., given the events of last year.

I was hoping we could get an update on this funding and how it factors into the national adaptation strategy that we've committed to putting out before the end of this year.

[Christine Hogan]

The first point is that this work links very directly to the work we're doing related to a national adaptation strategy. This is building that capability and capacity to better understand what is happening out there in the world, so the flood mapping work has been ongoing for a number of years, with NRCan, Public Safety and Parks Canada. This is a major part of that equation.

I expect that, as the national adaptation strategy takes shape over the course of the year and the consultations continue, along with the very deep engagements that we're doing, we're going to hear more about what more needs to happen in Canada to make sure that preparedness is a very large part of our resilience planning going forward, given the change in climate we are all living with.

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

As part of this national adaptation strategy, I mentioned flooding and wildfires, but I'm wondering what other natural disasters.... What other impacts of climate change are being modelled as part of this strategy? Are there opportunities for the individual Canadian to be able to participate in part of these consultations?

[Christine Hogan]

I'm going to ask Doug Nevison to reply again. His team is leading the work.

There are absolutely a lot of opportunities for Canadians to engage. We are working extremely closely with provinces, territories and, importantly, with indigenous partners—Métis, first nations, Inuit—on the development of the strategy, but we also really need to hear from Canadians. There will be a lot of opportunities for that, and we will be committed to facilitating it.

Doug, do you want to comment on anything else related to adaptation?

[Douglas Nevison]

I will, Deputy, just to add that the next phase of the engagement process for the national adaptation strategy will be starting in the next few weeks. The key element of that is that there have been a lot of consultations—as the deputy mentioned—with provinces, territories, national indigenous partners, municipalities and business.

The next phase of the engagement process will be with interested Canadians. It will be a public engagement process to help develop the national adaptation strategy, which we hope to have developed for the fall of this year.

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you.

I want to pick up on a line of questioning that MP Collins brought up earlier about the funding in the Department of Environment to look at terrestrial cumulative effects. Last year, there was a seminal court case decided in B.C. with the Blueberry River First Nations that looked at the cumulative impacts of oil and gas development within the traditional territory as being such that it impacted their treaty rights.

Is this a case that has been analyzed and incorporated into the work of the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada? How is this going to change the way cumulative effects are assessed with respect to projects on first nations traditional territory?

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Answer very briefly please. You have 15 seconds.