Environment Committee on Sept. 25th, 2025

[Éric Landry]

Typically, we will work with our partners during the process. I'll use the case of B.C.—the substituted process, with one process and one assessment. My team will participate and support the B.C. EAO as part of that process. We coordinate federal participation in that process. We use the process to identify key issues early and resolve them.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

With all due respect, there's a hierarchy. There needs to be a hierarchy. Who is above?

[Éric Landry]

Yes. Ultimately, through that process, the provincial ministries will make their own decision, and the federal minister will make their own decision.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

It goes back to the minister.

[Éric Landry]

Yes, it does for predecision.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

That's the short answer.

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

Thank you very much. The time is up. I'm sorry about that.

Next, we will go to Mrs. Miedema.

[Shannon Miedema, Liberal, Halifax, NS]

Thank you very much for your presentations.

I am representing Halifax. That's my riding.

I have a couple of questions for the Canada Water Agency.

You mentioned those really big, strategic projects that you're focused on, of which there are maybe eight. Do they go further east than New Brunswick? In the Halifax regional municipality, there are over 1,000 lakes. Most of them are highly stressed urban lakes. I'm wondering how you decide on those strategic initiatives.

[Véronique Hiriart-Baer]

Thank you for the question.

The furthest east in our ecosystem initiative is the Wolastoq/Saint John River, which starts in Quebec and goes into New Brunswick.

In terms of support to address freshwater challenges further east or outside of our eight freshwater ecosystem initiatives, we do have the EcoAction program, which supports community-led projects to address local challenges that communities might be facing with their waters. EcoAction also supports innovation and sustainability projects that may have broader applications.

[Shannon Miedema, Liberal, Halifax, NS]

Thanks.

How well funded is this EcoAction program? How do you allocate dollars across the country? Is it a granting role that you play in that?

[Véronique Hiriart-Baer]

The EcoAction program has been around for a very long time. It has sustained funding. It goes through a competitive call for applications process where we often receive hundreds of applications from across Canada. We go through a rigorous review process and then look at the different allocations for different projects across the country.

[Shannon Miedema, Liberal, Halifax, NS]

Thank you.

Are municipal governments eligible for this EcoAction funding?

I was formerly the director of environment and climate change for the municipality of Halifax. A lot fell to us locally in terms of monitoring blue-green algae and addressing it in a lot of our stressed urban lakes with high bacteria counts. We did all of the testing for all of our lifeguard-supervised beaches. The Province of Nova Scotia was largely absent from all of that work. It all came at a cost to the local taxpayer.

I'm wondering if there's support for local-level governments, which are actually doing a lot of this work across Canada.

[Véronique Hiriart-Baer]

Yes, municipalities are eligible for funding through the EcoAction program.

[Shannon Miedema, Liberal, Halifax, NS]

Okay, that's perfect.

I will move on to impact assessment. I used to actually study this. I was always really interested in cumulative effects and how they are treated. I've been out of touch with the federal work for a while.

Could you speak for a bit on how you manage cumulative effects and whether that thinking has evolved? I know there was a lot of work being done back when I was a student. How will cumulative effects be considered in these “one project, one review” scenarios with these fast-tracked nation-building projects? Thank you.

[Éric Landry]

Under the act, we have the ability to conduct regional assessments. That is a major tool that we've started using to gather data and address cumulative effects, because when we're doing individual project assessments, it is more of a challenge to look at cumulative effects. The idea behind regional assessments is that you get there before you start individual project assessments. You get the lay of the land, and then you assess the potential impacts of past, current and potential future development.

We've used that tool on multiple occasions. We did an offshore exploratory well regional assessment in Newfoundland. We recently finalized two offshore wind regional assessments, one in Nova Scotia and one in Newfoundland. As well, we have one that is ongoing in the Ring of Fire regional assessment area in Ontario, and we are about to provide the minister with the terms of reference for a St. Lawrence regional assessment for her approval.

The idea here is that you take a holistic view and, through the regional assessment, you're able to then develop conditions that would apply to future projects. The idea with the regional assessment is that it will make future individual project assessments more—

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

Thank you, Mr. Landry.

I have a proposition for the committee. As time stands, we're supposed to end in five minutes or so, with only one member speaking. Would it be the will of the committee to have all members given more time to speak? That would be three minutes to the Conservatives and the Liberals, and two minutes to the Bloc for the last round, or it would be one Conservative member for five minutes.

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

I like the latter.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

It should be five minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

There are five minutes left.

In principle, a member of the Conservative Party will have the floor for five minutes.

To give all parties a chance to ask one or two final questions of the witnesses, I propose that we divide those five minutes so that the Conservatives and Liberals have three minutes each and the Bloc Québécois two minutes.

Is it the will of the committee to do that?

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Personally, I prefer that we stick to five minutes to keep it as short as possible.

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

Good.

We have five minutes left.

[Bruce Fanjoy, Liberal, Carleton, ON]

I have a point of order.

I haven't had an opportunity to speak.

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

I'm sorry. We have five minutes left, and the next party to speak is the Conservative Party. From what I hear, there's no consent to break up the five minutes, so I will proceed to Mr. Leslie.

You have exactly five minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to start with the IAA.

You outlined that the process seems to be working incredibly well; the efficiencies that have been gained are seemingly quite staggering. Given that this all sounds so great, can you explain to me why the government would feel the need to pass Bill C-5, enact the Building Canada Act and create the major projects office at all?