Environment Committee on Sept. 22nd, 2025

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

Thank you, Ms. McDermott. Your time is up.

Mr. Lemire, you have two and a half minutes.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I come from a mining region, Abitibi-Témiscamingue, where social licence is particularly important. Years of mining development obviously left significant marks because the environmental laws were not strict enough. There was a lot of laxity, but the Quebec government has largely rectified this.

Bill C‑5 forces us to understand that a small coterie at the Privy Council can decide that a project is in the national interest and therefore justify circumventing a series of laws and regulations. Unfortunately, I see that many of these laws or regulations that can now be circumvented fall under your department, despite the best of intentions. In my opinion, the Government of Quebec should act as a bulwark—but the Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement, or BAPE, also seems to be quite easy to circumvent under Bill C‑5.

So what safeguards do we have as citizens to ensure compliance with environmental laws? I agree with the exploration and development of strategic critical minerals. That is part of the solution and we want to contribute to it. On the other hand, the environmental aspect is, to me, fundamental. It's all well and good if everyone agrees on the principle of speeding up the process, but that shouldn't come at the expense of strong legislation. As far as I'm concerned, one would suffice—Quebec's legislation—but I get the impression that both federal and provincial legislation can now be circumvented. Is that correct?

[Megan Nichols]

I can only offer a few comments based on what I know about the new legislation, but I would note that responsibility for the new legislation lies with the Privy Council. Perhaps the Privy Council can provide a more detailed answer.

What I can say is that, certainly, before a project is designated under the new act, it will be necessary to consult the provinces, certainly including Quebec, and possibly the BAPE. I don't know exactly which process will be followed, but there will also be consultations with indigenous peoples. So I think it is necessary.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

As for indigenous peoples, I must admit that I am particularly proud of the fact that it was in this chamber that the Bloc Québécois, with the support of the Conservatives, was able to remove the Indian Act from the schedule, which will make it harder to circumvent indigenous peoples under the circumstances. So I think that was an important step.

For now, however, I think I will not abuse my time and will resume in the third round.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

Mr. Ross, you have five minutes.

[Ellis Ross, Conservative, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thank you.

Can you tell me, on average, given the engagement of first nations and provincial entities, how long it takes to acquire a federal environmental certificate for a linear major project?

[Megan Nichols]

I believe that question would probably be more appropriate for the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada. I would defer to them.

[Ellis Ross, Conservative, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Okay.

It was mentioned that with these new regulations and the legislation, the climate for investment is going to be huge, and you have evidence to back that up, but our major competitors—China, the United States and Russia—have no carbon tax and no emissions cap, and they're doing more with their oil and gas production, as opposed to Canada, where it's stalled. No new projects have been approved, so the economy is not going to improve.

Has there been analysis done to study the competitiveness between Canada and our major competitors, namely Russia, the United States and China?

[Alison McDermott]

I would say that in general, international comparisons and consideration of competitiveness issues inform all the advice that is provided, so yes, implicitly those kinds of factors are taken into account.

I think each of those countries has unique factors and circumstances in how their climate policies are set, but there's been actually quite a bit of action on the part of some of these other countries as well.

[Ellis Ross, Conservative, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

I understand that, but the talk around China's emissions doesn't relate to oil and gas.

The United States has no oil and gas cap. They have no carbon tax, the same as Russia. They're doing great, and whether or not you're talking about primary markets or secondary markets, their production is actually increasing, including all the coal plants that are being built in China.

I heard the conversation around coal as well, but the specific question was whether there is an analysis within your departments—or in government, for that matter—of the competitiveness of oil and gas, or even the coal industry, in relation to these three major competitors?

[Michael Bonser]

As Alison mentioned, it's not a specific study per se, but we factor that kind of analysis into all of the work and all of the advice we give government, be it on China, India, Russia or the United States. We do it for all major economies. We look very hard at their trajectory. We also look very hard at the emissions they produce.

From an Environment Canada perspective, when we engage internationally, it's around what elements of their objective are around emissions reduction over time, and energy transition as well. Where are they also making those commitments in energy—

[Ellis Ross, Conservative, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

You're talking about specific data. Is that for public consumption? Is that on your website?

[Michael Bonser]

I'd have to check the website to see what specific data is there. I'm talking about the analysis and advice that are provided to ministers.

[Ellis Ross, Conservative, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

I understand the advice side and the recommendation side, but are they transparent? There's no way to hold the government accountable unless that kind of information is transparent.

Is that information there for public consumption?

[Alison McDermott]

A lot of the information would be available. There's also a lot of the advice with respect to an analysis of the oil and gas sector—

[Ellis Ross, Conservative, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Can we get an example of that?

[Alison McDermott]

—which would come from our colleagues at Natural Resources Canada.

[Bruce Fanjoy, Liberal, Carleton, ON]

I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

Ms. McDermott, wait one second, please.

Mr. Ross, ask a question of the witnesses and give them time to respond. You can't just jump into another question, because translation will have difficulty following.

[Ellis Ross, Conservative, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

I'm trying to get a specific answer to a specific question. Can I ask the question again?

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

Sure.

[Ellis Ross, Conservative, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Can we get an example of that information about the recommendations or advice to the government about a competitive analysis of countries like China, the United States or Russia?

[Alison McDermott]

I'll just note that China is the highest emitter of GHG emissions in the entire world. Russia is number four.

[Ellis Ross, Conservative, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

That's not the question.

You talked about a recommendation or advice to government on competitiveness and an analysis of other policies coming from our competitor countries. I'm asking if there is an example of that so that we can be transparent and hold the government accountable in terms of competitiveness and Canada becoming an energy superpower.

[Alison McDermott]

As I said, a lot of the advice and analysis being done on the oil and gas sector would be performed at Natural Resources Canada.

I will note, as I did earlier, that the government is planning to release a climate competitiveness strategy, which very much gets at many of those same issues, so hopefully that will help to satisfy some of that interest on your part.