Environment Committee on May 5th, 2026

[Andrew Campbell]

Yes.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Will you provide that information to the committee, if you haven't already?

[Andrew Campbell]

Yes.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

In the Montreal area, people would like to turn former golf courses into natural spaces, into urban parks. The Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal is asking for $100 million to help purchase these lands.

What would be the benefit of having the federal government manage urban parks rather than municipalities or provinces, the local governments with the expertise?

Why wouldn't we want to send funds to the municipalities or provinces to help them?

[The Chair, Liberal, Shannon Miedema]

I would ask you to keep your answer short, please.

[Andrew Campbell]

In terms of urban parks, different levels of government have their own land within an urban park and they work together. The strategy is the different levels of government work together.

You're right to say it's better to have all levels of government at the table.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shannon Miedema]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bonin.

We'll now move to Mr. Leslie for five minutes.

[Branden Leslie, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Recognizing that this is our second and last round for the hour, I'm hoping that we can have you submit your answer in writing, Mr. Campbell. Is that okay?

[Andrew Campbell]

I think we can do that.

[Branden Leslie, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

I just have one question, and then I'll hand it over to Mr. Stevenson.

The government obviously is talking about 10 new parks as part of the nature strategy.

We all recognize when we go to parks that, as beautiful as they are, they have very much aging infrastructure in many different facets. I'm sure this has been brought to light for the government. In some places, it's crumbling infrastructure.

My concern is how we trust Parks Canada with the existing budget to manage more land, 10 new parks, while it is struggling to maintain and enhance what it already has. What is that budgetary ask on behalf of Parks Canada to achieve that objective? Is that part of the $3.8 billion allocated in the announcement?

[Andrew Campbell]

It is not part of the $3.8 billion as part of the announcement. There are very limited asset dollars within that $3.8 billion. We can certainly share with the committee studies that we have done saying what our annual deficit is for asset repair and maintenance. We're happy to do so.

[Branden Leslie, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Thank you.

I will hand my remaining time to Mr. Stevenson.

[William Stevenson, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Thank you.

This is my first time at the environment committee. I'm going to brag that I have absolutely the most beautiful riding in the country, with Yellowhead, Banff and Jasper taking up a good chunk of my riding.

The first question I have and, actually, all my questions are regarding Jasper and the wildfires that we had in 2024. The first one is specifically about the Grande Yellowhead Public School Division, which has had much correspondence with the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change regarding that 2024 wildfire. It indicated that it had not yet received any formal response to its requests about reimbursement of the $500,000 insurance deductible incurred from the wildfire contamination. Are you aware of this request?

[Andrew Campbell]

Yes.

[William Stevenson, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Okay, so you are aware of it. Can you tell us when they might get a response to that? They have not yet gotten one.

[Andrew Campbell]

I'm not sure with whom you have been discussing it, but we are happy to share with you the response that we sent back to them if you would like that.

[William Stevenson, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Okay, I guess maybe I'm a week or two out from your responses, and that's fine. I want to make sure that we get back to those guys.

I had a question with regard to the Minister of the Environment. They said that $187 million was allocated for critical infrastructure, yet only $44.6 million has been spent. I'm hoping that it would fit into critical infrastructure, but can you explain why progress on that core infrastructure rebuilding has been lagging? When will the key infrastructure be completed, and when will they be spending more?

[Andrew Campbell]

A large piece of the infrastructure is in housing and temporary housing. There's probably somebody here with a binder who can tell you, but it is over 600 spots that we have created from a temporary housing perspective. For most of the other projects, the first year and a half of those projects—and we are on schedule with those projects—was doing the design and engineering that was required, as well as the cleanup. From those perspectives, we are on track for what our expenditure was to be in what year.

[William Stevenson, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Okay, I guess I've done a bunch of questions for the minister and ministry about the housing, and I guess your numbers are not equalling the same numbers that I'm getting back on what they were talking about, like 240 additional homes that were supposed to be built for $9.4 million through the accelerator fund and then also part of the 40 units they were trying to do at $4.3 million, which was around $357,000 apiece. Some of those numbers, I guess, are not quite the same.

I have one other question, which is completely unrelated, with regard to the avalanche control, which they were going to change. Who's going to do it? I believe that it's no longer going to be the military. Was there a plan for Parks Canada? What's their plan to deal with avalanches, considering that there were over 20-some days that highway 93 between Banff and Jasper was closed this year? This is fairly important for planning and going forward, and people in the Jasper—

[The Chair, Liberal, Shannon Miedema]

Mr. Stevenson, I'm sorry. Your time is up.

Please give a short answer.

[Andrew Campbell]

I can give a very short answer to that. We are in discussions with the Canadian Armed Forces for a transitional plan for the services that they will no longer be able to provide.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shannon Miedema]

Thank you very much.

We will now turn to Mr. Watchorn for five minutes.

[Tim Watchorn, Liberal, Les Pays-d'en-Haut, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I will be splitting my time with the member for Victoria.

Just to add to what Mr. Stevenson, my honourable colleague, was saying before, I was a ski instructor at Lake Louise for a year in 1990, and we made friends with the avalanche patrol because that was the best skiing we could ever have. I have to give him that.

With regard to parks in Quebec, I know for a fact the provincial government also wants municipalities to protect 30% of their territory. A number of municipalities have submitted projects under a program, which should be unveiled by 2028.

Some municipalities have submitted projects that include public lands currently used for recreational tourism, but that the provincial government keeps as potential logging lands.

How could you help municipalities convince the Quebec government to protect these lands?

[Andrew Campbell]

Some of our programs, such as Parks Canada's national program for ecological corridors, involve co-operation between municipalities, the Quebec Government and the federal government. This is one of the best ways to reassure the Quebec Government.

We also have excellent agreements, particularly with the Saguenay—St. Lawrence Marine Park, for projects co-managed with the Province of Quebec and all the municipalities along the St. Lawrence River.

I think that gives municipalities opportunities to be successful on that front. As I always say, this is one of the preconditions for future success.

[Tim Watchorn, Liberal, Les Pays-d'en-Haut, QC]

Before turning the floor over to my colleague, I'd like to talk about working with Sépaq.

Do you have a good relationship with Sépaq?