Environment Committee on May 28th, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Shannon Miedema]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bonin.

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

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister, do you believe any of the decisions you've made as Minister of the Environment led to, or at least contributed to, the high-profile resignation of former environment minister Steven Guilbeault?

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

I believe the work our government is doing is very important to protect nature and fight climate change. I cannot speak to—

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

Have you not thought about whether, if things had been done differently since you became minister, you would be losing a member of your caucus?

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

What I will say again—as I said at the beginning—is that I worked directly with Steven Guilbeault for many years as his parliamentary secretary. I have tremendous respect for him and the work he has done. He—

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

Did he come to you before he resigned and say, “This is going to happen if you don't change course”, Minister?

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

I'm not going to speak for Steven Guilbeault. He can answer questions about his decisions on his own and do so well.

If you want to ask me about the work I am doing, I am happy—

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

I'd love to talk about the consultation paper proposing changes to Canada's project approval process.

There's legislation coming at some point. I'm curious about whether you have a date as to when that could be expected. Is it going to be before summer? Is it going to be in the fall? Is it going to be in 2027? Before it's tabled, will you commit to allowing Parliament to do its job and fully review that legislation, as well as not using time allocation to push it through when it does come?

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

I'm glad you pointed out that it's open for consultation right now. I think it's very important that Canadians have a say. I would like to make sure every community knows this is happening and the consultation is there.

There will be legislation following consultations. I don't have a date because we're in consultations right now.

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

What about time allocation? Are you planning on using time allocation when the time comes, or will you commit, today, to not doing that and to letting Parliament do its job?

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

You are several steps ahead. We are in consultations right now about regulatory efficiency. It's important—

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

We were supposed to move with unimaginable speed, so I suspect you are going to want to have time allocation for such legislation.

Realistically, for years, your government defended Bill C-69 to the nth degree. Now you're choosing to rewrite it again.

Is that not an admission that Bill C-69 was an absolute, unmitigated failure?

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

Let me be clear that the Impact Assessment Agency has done very important work, including regional assessments, by the way, which are sought after as a way of making sure we understand the cumulative impacts of projects, so we can create economic zones and do the work.

Actually, Newfoundland and Labrador is a great example of where we did, through the Impact Assessment Agency—

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

I appreciate that, but I'm from Manitoba, so it's a little less relevant to me. The consultation paper states, “federal laws have rules that can make regulatory processes slow”.

Since you helped write it, what specific rules did you support that have made it slow to build pipelines and mines in this country?

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

If we want to talk about slow, the assessment that was set up in the Harper years was actually the slowest. We still—

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

What a deflection that is, Minister. Let's focus on now. You wrote the rules. You've been in government for 10 years. Your discussion paper says, “federal laws have rules that can make regulatory processes slow”.

I'm asking, what are those rules? You've clearly identified them. You put them in place. What are they?

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

I'm telling you that we are still reviewing projects under the Harper—

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

Do you mean Stephen Harper? What year is it?

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

If you want to talk about—

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

What year is it, Minister?

I'm going to transition over to something that maybe you'll have some answers for. Your department is cutting the radar research program that's needed to support Canada's $180-million radar network.

What is the total cost savings to your department for that cut?

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

When we're talking about the services through weather radar, I want to begin with how we're modernizing the systems using hybrid models so that we can deliver better services. That is going to help with predictions and weather predictions—

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

We're hearing external experts, such as Jenny Hagan, who's a severe weather expert, say that these cuts will hold back the very information Canadians rely on to protect themselves, their families and the public during severe weather. Is she wrong? Is Dr. David Sills wrong? He is one of the leading severe weather scientists, and he warned that the gutting of this program is going to be a severe problem for measuring and putting out warnings about tornadoes, hail, flash floods and other dangerous storms.

Is it that they're wrong and you're right?

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

I'm saying that science and radar science remain fundamental to the work we're doing in meteorology. We have, as a priority, making sure that—

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

Will you personally guarantee, Minister, that there will be no impact on tornado detection, hail detection, flash flood warnings, blizzard warnings or severe storm warnings due to these cuts? Will you guarantee that, as minister?

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

I will absolutely say that we have been improving our warning systems and, in fact, increasing funds to our national alert system for Canadians.