Environment Committee on March 24th, 2022

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

On climate change, I would disagree with your characterization of what is happening. I have been speaking with my counterparts, both from southern and northern countries, European ministers—Germany, France, the United Kingdom—and Special Envoy Kerry this weekend, and everybody is saying that we need to continue and even accelerate the transition towards the green economy.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Certainly, and I appreciate that. I've also spoken with European leaders, and they are also looking at the practicality in the situation that is occurring right now. With Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, we recognize the reasons for why that was shut down.

This is a case of our not being prepared. We've taken the natural resources that we have in this country, which have built our hospitals, our schools and everything else, and given us the ability to have a safety net, and here we are. We are now not prepared, because we have put all of these roadblocks in place.

As we work our way through this, when you speak about an emission reduction plan, I'm wondering whether there is a recognition of what has actually helped us move forward. I think that's something that's critical in our conversation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

You have 20 seconds, please, Minister.

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

I think Canada is very well positioned when it comes to energy security. We're probably one of the best countries in the world when it comes to our energy security. Frankly, as other countries are seeing the impacts of the war in Ukraine, and certainly an increase in crude oil prices, for example, Canada is very well positioned on energy security.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you.

We'll go now to Mr. Longfield for five minutes.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's so nice to not have to look at whether I'm muted or unmuted. We're here face to face.

Minister, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

My first question has to do with the Canada water agency. Our committee, in the last Parliament, worked on the Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act. A big part of our discussions and, in fact, recommendations was that this agency would be created and that it would be outside of government. Then this week, on World Water Day on Tuesday, we had elder Claudette Commanda talking about the connection between water and climate change, that the crisis is really about the life of the planet and that the water is the lifeblood of the planet.

In the supplementary estimates, votes 1c and 10c talk about—and you mentioned it in your presentation, Minister—$7,855,539 for the creation of this agency. When are we going to hear from them? When is the first report coming from them? What's the status of that agency, if you don't mind?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

In many ways, I suspect that Member Duguid would be better at answering this question than I would, from all the work he's done on that. That's probably why he is leading this file for us.

I think you're going to see significant progress in the coming months. COVID slowed the work of the implementation of the water agency somewhat. We wanted to be further ahead than we are now, but I think you're going to see significant progress in the coming months.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

We'll be watching. We would be very interested in hearing from it.

I want to build on a question from Madame Pauzé.

We were just studying nuclear waste. In your presentation, you talked about the increased funding going towards the Impact Assessment Agency. There's a $1-million transfer looking at the Ottawa River watershed, which was something we talked about during our committee. We have a report that is being drafted and that we will be working on and presenting in the House, hopefully soon.

Could you maybe give us a little more detail on how the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada is interfacing with nuclear waste?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

I think Terence would be ideally placed to do that.

[Terence Hubbard, President, Impact Assessment Agency of Canada]

Thank you for the question.

The Impact Assessment Agency is implementing a new framework for impact assessment. As part of that new framework, we'll be working with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and other federal expert departments to assess not only the environmental impacts but the environmental, economic, social and health impacts associated with proposed projects.

A key aspect of that is meaningful consultations, both with the local communities that are involved in it and the indigenous communities, to ensure that those perspectives are well heard and understood, and to develop a comprehensive set of mitigation measures and proposals to inform the minister or the GIC, as the case may be, to take an inclusive public interest position on whether or not those development proposals are in the public interest.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Hubbard. It will be interesting to see how that aligns with recommendations that our committee will be coming forward with from our study, and to see whether we're on the same page.

In vote 1c of the supplementary estimates, there is $678,000 going toward the Sustainable Finance Action Council. MP Collins has also talked about the Sustainable Finance Action Council. My interest is in how that aligns with the United Nations sustainable developments goals. Sometimes we focus only on environmental goals, but when we talk about sustainable development, we have 17 SDGs and a 2030 time frame looking at us right now that's coming quickly.

How does the work of the Sustainable Finance Action Council align with the United Nations sustainable goals?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

It's a good question.

Obviously, its mandate is very specific to sustainable finance, but it is up to us, as a government, to ensure that it is part of our larger commitments on SDGs. We will be coming out with our new sustainable development strategy in the very near future. It's for 2022-26, if memory serves. We are looking at the various elements of the sustainable development goals, which include climate change, sustainable finance—

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Water.

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

—and water, as part of that package.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

That's great.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you.

Ms. Pauzé will now have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Our committee is moving from one study to the next. We are now starting a study on Canadian subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. As we know, the G20 countries have committed to eliminating what are called inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. That is to be the subject of a peer review process, and Canada has been paired with Argentina. The review process has been in the hands of that member of the G20 since 2019, and we still have no news.

Do we have any news about this? The report was to have been submitted within 12 to 24 months, but it has now been more than 24 months. Where are we on this?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

That's an excellent question.

I would remind you that in our platform, we proposed to eliminate the subsidies that the G20 defined as inefficient by 2023. That is two years earlier than our G20 partners. We also committed to eliminating all of these subsidies. So the first commitment is the G20's and the second commitment is about everything else that might resemble a fossil fuel subsidy.

On that point, you will see major progress over the next few months. We are going to be consulting the public and stakeholders on this subject.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

What about Argentina's report?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

On the report, I am going to have to follow up with you directly.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Right. That's good.

I would like to ask another question.

The Sustainable Finance Action Council was created by your department and the Department of Finance in the summer of 2021. Is it possible to know how the Council's work is progressing?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Yes, we can certainly send the committee information about what the Council has done to date. I could also invite representatives of the Council to come and talk to you about how the work is progressing.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Good.

Mr. Chair, I have no other questions. don't know whether Ms. May would like to ask any.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Ms. May, you have 30 seconds.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

In 30 seconds, I'm going to ask a very short question, and maybe the Minister can answer it when he is speaking later.

This is my question. I want to stay at a very high level. The emissions reduction plan is for the current targets, which are inadequate to meet our Paris goal of staying below 2°C and holding the 1.5°C. At the end of COP26, the secretariat of the UNFCCC said that, right now, we've succeeded in going from 16% above 2010 by 2030 to 13.7% below. That's the world.

My question, for when you have time to answer—which I don't think will be now, but maybe—is when Canada will seriously consider updating our NDCs. We really need to do it before COP27.