Environment Committee on March 24th, 2022

[Christine Hogan]

I may refer this to John Moffet, but what I can say off the top is that this is a very important part of Environment Canada's—

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Could you respond to this question in writing to the committee?

[Christine Hogan]

I could if you like. The work we do on cumulative effects related to these projects is a really core part of Environment Canada's contribution to the science and to the health and safety issues around these projects.

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Thank you so much. I just want to get an answer as to whether, if the data shows these cumulative effects are increasing, it will be changed.

Oh, Mr. Moffet is online. I'm so sorry.

[John Moffet, Assistant Deputy Minister, Environmental Protection Branch, Department of the Environment]

I could answer very briefly, if you want.

[Laurel Hogan]

Yes, please.

[John Moffet]

The answer is yes, the funding is absolutely focused on capacity development, and, yes, the program is designed to be adaptive so that it evolves over time based on the data input.

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Thank you so much.

I'm sorry, Mr. Moffet. I didn't realize you were there online.

I'm also particularly interested in the horizontal initiative funding for wildfire and flood preparedness and response capacity, given the climate fires in B.C. and the devastating flooding this past fall. What specific preparedness and response activities are being funded, and how is that money being distributed across the country?

[Andrew Campbell]

In supplementary estimates (C), there was the additional $7.5 million, as I said when the minister was here, to wildfire protection. A great amount of that wildfire protection goes toward, as I said, the reduction of fuels, but also toward the type of modelling work that goes on across the country.

Parks Canada is the federal organization that has actual firefighters on the ground, and we take that expertise all around the world as well. We were in the California fires and down in the Australian fires. That's a big piece of the work and the science work that we do.

I don't know whether Darlene wants to add anything.

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

My next question is about the climate lens initiative. What are the anticipated activities that will be funded through the approximately $1.9 million allocated to this?

[Christine Hogan]

The climate lens is actually a really interesting new area for us. What we're starting out on with these initial resources is piloting the work across several departments to try to better embed both mitigation and climate adaptation considerations as proposals and policies are being developed across those departments.

It's very much a work in progress. We're in that pilot stage. We'll see how things progress over the course of the coming year or two and figure out how to institutionalize it more fully.

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Okay.

The department is requesting a total of $9.8 million in funding to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation and methane waste sectors.

Given the environment commissioner's recent report on the emissions reduction fund, which wasn't actually designed to reduce emissions, necessarily, but amounted to a subsidy for fossil fuel producers and didn't actually follow key greenhouse gas accounting principles—forgive me for being a bit skeptical about this—how will the government ensure credible and sustainable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as a result of this $9.8 million in funding?

[Christine Hogan]

Thank you very much for that question.

On the waste and transportation—the minister referred to that in an earlier question—particularly on the waste in landfill, this is a major challenge in terms of Canada's methane emissions. The goal here is twofold. One is to increase the number of landfills that are collecting and treating their methane, and the second is around ensuring that existing landfill operations are meeting systematic requirements.

We've been consulting with Canadians on those new regulations. There's a discussion paper out right now, I believe, that John Moffet's team is working on and, similarly, there's the regulatory work that goes on related to the transportation sector that was referenced earlier.

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Last, just very quickly, the peer review with Argentina on fossil fuel subsidies is years behind schedule. Do you have a date? When do we expect to see that review complete?

[Christine Hogan]

I'm going to ask my colleague Hilary Geller if maybe she has an update. I think our own timeline around 2023 obviously creates some importance of completing that work.

I'll turn to Hilary.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

We have 20 seconds, please.

[Hilary Geller, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Branch, Department of the Environment]

Thank you.

I'll just note that Finance Canada is leading the peer review with Argentina. The first step is a self-review report that gets submitted for peer review, and then there's the peer review itself. My understanding is that the self-review report is on track to be finalized towards the end of the year.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you.

We'll go now to the five-minute round, starting with Mr. Mazier.

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

Good afternoon. Thanks for coming out.

Since I represent rural Canadians, I'm going to talk about rural Canada. In today's PBO report, there was I guess a lot of speculation. We know that rural Canadians pay a disproportionate amount of carbon tax, basically, but the government always comes back to us and says, “Well, here, you're getting 10% more than any other Canadian because you live in rural Canada.” I just want to know how that tax, the 10%, was calculated for rural Canada.

[Christine Hogan]

Thank you.

These are very important questions, and I think we've worked hard, both we and the Department of Finance, to ensure these questions of rural Canadians, farmers and a number of northern communities are all factored into our work.

John Moffet leads our team on carbon pricing—the carbon markets bureau—and does a lot of the collaborative work with the Department of Finance. I'm going to ask that maybe John respond.

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

I'll ask John, then.

Was there a study done to come to the 10% number?

[John Moffet]

The 10% was not based on a study.

There are a couple of points. First, the PBO report continues to confirm that the average Canadian who receives—

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

That's average, not rural. Rural is my point.

The answer is that no study was done on the 10%, then.

[John Moffet]

No, the 10% is a top-up to what other Canadians receive.

We've done studies on the impact of carbon pricing in the territories. We commissioned a study on the impact of carbon pricing in indigenous communities and the RIAS that we prepared—

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

Where's rural? Because I just—