Environment Committee on March 12th, 2026

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Newspapers can say whatever they want. I'm saying that negotiations are going on right now, and their content isn't public. However, we're working with the provinces and territories.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Okay. In 2026‑27, your department's expenditures are $1.4 billion lower than this year. How do you explain that figure of $1.4 billion?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Part of it comes from the fact that we eliminated the consumer carbon tax. Funds generated by that tax were included in our budget and were expended on the other side. Money was also invested in a project in the Northwest Territories, Our Land for the Future. That was a major expenditure for us.

It's a one-time expense.

That changed what we have in our budget.

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

Thank you, Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Bonin.

Ms. Anstey, the floor is yours for five minutes.

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Minister, thank you for appearing.

Canadians have watched your department reverse course or walk back decisions made by earlier Liberal environment ministers. Is fixing those mistakes now a regular part of your job?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

I actually take issue with the framing of that question. I don't think there were mistakes, and I think I am—

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

For context, though, we invited you here a while back to talk about your mandate specifically. You didn't appear on that premise. Canadians are curious and we're curious as to whether your mandate is actually to reverse those policies that previous ministers put in place.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

I have been here several times. That's a matter of record, just to be clear. I don't know how many times I've been here. That's the point: I've lost count.

On the next piece, my job is to make sure that we build the strongest economy for our country, and that we do that while protecting the environment. That means fighting climate change. I'm hoping that the Conservatives are going to help us with that fight, because every day I fight to keep even an industrial carbon price, which is actually what industry is asking for.

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Thank you, Minister.

Canadians keep hearing about billions—in fact, $2.1 billion—in climate spending, but emissions are not falling at the pace that you've promised. This is a simple question. At what point does your department start measuring success by actual reductions rather than the amount of money that the government is spending?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

I measure success by looking at how we are changing the way we heat and cool our homes and the way we get around. We were just talking about high-speed rail. That is actually an opportunity to get people to travel in a way that reduces emissions. We're talking about building—

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

On emissions, is the actual number not a part of the success, though?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

This is about reducing emissions. It's about changing, domestically, how we heat and cool our homes, how we get around and how we're reducing emissions. We have so many success stories to tell. Methane alone—

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

You're still not reaching the targets that your own government promised. It's a simple question: At what point does the conversation start to change to success actually being at the targets you've promised?

It's a very simple question.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

The success is in reducing emissions, which we are doing. By the way, the previous Conservative government left us with emissions tracking upward and no path to bringing them down.

Emissions are going down. We are actually taking action. What we're doing is making sure that we're embedding it in our industrial policies and building the infrastructure to support the regulations to make it last.

That is what's happening in our country. Canadians want us to build our country. They want to see us build it strong. They want to see us build it well.

Again, I'm going to put it to Conservatives. Why can't they join it? It's always negative from your side. Why don't you be part of the positive building forward of our country?

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Thank you, Minister.

The net-zero accelerator and the zero-emissions vehicle infrastructure program together receive more than $500 million in those estimates. The Auditor General has already warned about the overlap between federal climate programs.

Before you spend another half a billion of taxpayer dollars, can you guarantee Canadians that none of the funding duplicates programs that already exist?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

The funding that we put in place helps support businesses and Canadians in reducing emissions and saving on their energy bills.

I'll give you an example. Down at the Redpath Sugar factory, in my home city, with the Government of Ontario we went and helped to support them in changing the way they light their buildings. That made it safer for workers, which is important. At the same time, it reduced their energy bills and it reduced their emissions. These are the kinds of things we do.

I don't know why you would be talking down our making those kinds of investments.

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Minister, we're in a cost of living crisis. Inflation is rising. People are concerned about the amount of money the government spends. I don't think it's an unreasonable question to ask if there's duplication in funding pots. This is an important question. That's the question that I put to you: Is there duplication among these programs, or is there a risk of that to Canadians?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

There is no risk to Canadians.

I'm really happy you raised the part about bills and the like, because I would like to be able to remind people that I know you have raised the cost of heating and cooling in your community.

There's an oil-to-heat-pump program that's available to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians right now, on which the federal government and the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador have joined together. They can look it up. I am happy to provide that information. That will help them to actually reduce their heat bills right now.

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Quickly, because I'm running out of time, you diverted to Newfoundland and Labrador, and I wanted to ask about something specific to my riding.

Gros Morne National Park, as you know, is in my riding. I have had a lot of people within the park reach out to me with respect to fire risk. We submitted an Order Paper question, and the information that came back was that Gros Morne National Park allocates $5,000 annually for wildfire prevention.

Of course, Newfoundland and Labrador is highly sensitive to this. Given the risks, how can $5,000 a year sufficiently and meaningfully reduce wildfire risk in this massive national park?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

I'll pass it to Andrew Campbell to answer specifically how that's used.

[Andrew Campbell]

Again, as with every park, there is a park fire management plan that is done for Gros Morne National Park.

I know the member is aware, but for those who aren't aware, it's a wet, coastal balsam fir forest in the area. Since 1973, and before 1973, there has not been a fire in the park.

We do work with the province, and there is an MOU between us and the province on fire reduction. We are happy to share the plan with the member from Gros Morne.

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

Thank you very much.

The floor is yours, Mrs. Miedema, for five minutes.

[Shannon Miedema, Liberal, Halifax, NS]

Thank you very much.

Good morning, Minister. Thank you for being here.

As a reminder to colleagues, if we don't spend money to invest in climate action, then we're going to be in a more expensive and worse situation with more and more wildfires going forward, so I think it's really important that we remember that and invest now to save later.

I'm really interested in this replacement of the high-performance computing solution for the Meteorological Service of Canada. The supplementary estimates for budget 2025 pledge to provide funding for the replacement of this solution.

Minister, can you please talk a little about what this is going to do to ensure Canada's weather forecasting capabilities remain up to date and how it will support long-term projections on climate change for Canada?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Thank you.

The high-performance computer is an exciting opportunity for us, because it does go to how we have the most advanced computing to be able to provide that meteorological information.

I'll also point out that it has a dual use. It can work to support defence as well. It's important for the Canadian Armed Forces to have the most up-to-date information.

When people think of meteorology, they might think about how we get our weather from day to day, but there are actually other implications for aviation, transportation and our armed forces, so this is going to make sure we can better protect in all of these ways.

I was recently in Dorval, Quebec, where some meteorological services are based. They were able to run through with me how they use this information. When we're talking about predicting, as we were talking about wildfires and being able to predict what weather will be and whether there are going to be droughts or floods and these kinds of things, they can give predictions that can help us with emergency management.

As I said, when it comes to aviation, they can actually predict and are responsible for providing information to pilots as they get into our airspace about what they can expect and how to make sure they keep passengers safe.

Having this high-performance computer increases our capacity as an international partner in these areas. It helps us to keep Canadians safe, and it helps to support our Canadian Armed Forces at the same time.

[Shannon Miedema, Liberal, Halifax, NS]

That sounds like great news.

In the estimates, there is also a transfer from Natural Resources Canada to ECCC for the federal contaminated sites action plan. I spent the early days of my career cleaning up spills from old buried oil tanks in Nova Scotia, so I'd like to talk a bit about this.

Can you give some context to the committee on this action plan and how it's going to help us to manage and remediate sites across the country?