Evidence of meeting #39 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was forecasting.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Tatiana Auguste Liberal Terrebonne, QC
No. It isn't quite the same thing.
The goal would be to have a round table. A number of Quebeckers, including the researcher from UQAM, said that we should be able to not only share best practices, but also help the country. We don't live in a silo. If there are droughts or floods in other parts of Canada, we're all affected.
Bloc
Patrick Bonin Bloc Repentigny, QC
So there would be a round table.
Why do we need legislation if your government won't make a financial commitment or doesn't have the money?
Liberal
Tatiana Auguste Liberal Terrebonne, QC
I think that the first step is to have legislation. Then Parliament must decide whether and how to allocate funding. As you know, we can't ask for money through private members' bills.
Bloc
Bloc
Patrick Bonin Bloc Repentigny, QC
Why do we need a bill in order to have a flood strategy?
Why do you need a bill in order to do this?
Liberal
Tatiana Auguste Liberal Terrebonne, QC
The bill will really help to make progress on something that could be useful for everyone.
Bloc
Patrick Bonin Bloc Repentigny, QC
At this time, what can your bill do that the Meteorological Service of Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada can't?
Liberal
Tatiana Auguste Liberal Terrebonne, QC
Canada currently has 10 provinces and 3 territories. They all do things in silos—
Bloc
Patrick Bonin Bloc Repentigny, QC
What can your proposal do that Environment and Climate Change Canada can't?
Liberal
Tatiana Auguste Liberal Terrebonne, QC
The evidence lies in the fact that we have 13 entities working in silos. The goal would be to align—
Liberal
Tatiana Auguste Liberal Terrebonne, QC
It's about speaking the same data language. This would help to explain it. I also recommend talking to Dr. Pomeroy, who is an expert.
Liberal
Tatiana Auguste Liberal Terrebonne, QC
Exactly. However, he also worked on the bill. So he could answer your question, because he's a data expert.
Bloc
Patrick Bonin Bloc Repentigny, QC
Why do you need a bill? What can't we do right now? Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Meteorological Service of Canada have expertise in this area and qualified employees.
What wouldn't they be able to do? That's what I don't understand.
Liberal
Tatiana Auguste Liberal Terrebonne, QC
It isn't about what they wouldn't be able to do. It's about getting something done together to avoid having 13 entities working in silos, as is the case right now.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shannon Miedema
Thank you, Mr. Bonin.
We will now turn to Ms. Anstey for five minutes, please.
Conservative
Carol Anstey Conservative Long Range Mountains, NL
Thank you
Thank you, Ms. Auguste, for appearing today. We always want to strengthen legislation and to ask the important questions that Canadians might be asking of us.
I want to pick up from where my colleague left off and just ask specifically what is preventing ECCC from endeavouring to do this coordination process amongst the provinces right now. As my colleague rightly pointed out, it's within its mandate.
What do you see as the gap? Why is this work not happening, and why is this legislation required?
Liberal
Tatiana Auguste Liberal Terrebonne, QC
Right now, this legislation would be, in my opinion, the first step in the right direction to signal that we need this for flood and drought prevention. It would be great not to have 13 different ways of speaking to data and to be able to have one way for all of the provinces to communicate in order to really know what's going on.
Conservative
Carol Anstey Conservative Long Range Mountains, NL
I understand that, but is there a gap within ECCC that's not allowing that coordination to happen right now? If it's the priority of the government, why wouldn't it just use an existing federal department to make it a priority to coordinate amongst the provinces? That's the question.
Liberal
Tatiana Auguste Liberal Terrebonne, QC
Thank you for your question.
I couldn't speak to a gap at ECCC at the moment, but I know that for me this legislation is about directing the conversation and directing it in the right direction. It's about stepping in the right direction and into doing the right work to help Canadians.
Conservative
Carol Anstey Conservative Long Range Mountains, NL
Okay. It's just a signal. It's not actually concrete.
Liberal
Tatiana Auguste Liberal Terrebonne, QC
I think the strategy will be very concrete, but having the legislation is really signalling what we need to be doing.
Conservative
Carol Anstey Conservative Long Range Mountains, NL
It's a private member's bill, obviously, so you can't ask for costs. Are you open to putting some assurances in the legislation that this won't just lead to a bunch of new administration, and that, rather, any costs would go to frontline infrastructure and not to an expansion of existing government departments?