Evidence of meeting #40 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 work.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shannon Miedema
That ends our hour, colleagues. I'd like to thank the minister and the witnesses very much for their time today.
I will briefly suspend so we can switch over to the next set of witnesses.
Thank you very much.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shannon Miedema
Colleagues, we are going to commence our second hour on the main estimates. If everyone could please quiet down and take their seats, it would be much appreciated.
I'd like to begin by welcoming our witnesses. We have many a witness today on the main estimates.
From the Canada Water Agency, we have Mark Fisher and Gemma Boag here with us, and Carmelle Barnabe is online.
From the Department of the Environment, we have Mollie Johnson, Judy Meltzer, Kurt Chin Quee, Alison McDermott, Tara Shannon and Cecile Siewe.
From the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, we have Terence Hubbard, Patricia Brady, Charles Vigneault and Bram Sepers.
From the Parks Canada Agency, we have Andrew Campbell and Andrew Francis.
Welcome, everybody. Thank you for spending time with us today.
We will go directly into our line of questioning.
We will begin with Ms. Anstey for six minutes.
Conservative
Carol Anstey Conservative Long Range Mountains, NL
Thank you.
Thank you to all the witnesses for appearing.
I know the officials are following up with some information in relation to my previous line of questioning, so I wanted to follow up with a couple of other things.
In the response, the travel costs are still being reviewed for compliance and are still subject to reconciliation. It's been six months now. November 2025 was when the conference happened.
Is there a chance that these costs will exceed $1.1 million?
Kurt Chin Quee Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Financial Officer, Department of the Environment
I apologize. I don't have those details. We'll have to confirm them with you.
Conservative
Carol Anstey Conservative Long Range Mountains, NL
Okay.
Can you table those final expenses with the committee?
Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Financial Officer, Department of the Environment
Yes, absolutely.
Conservative
Carol Anstey Conservative Long Range Mountains, NL
Okay. Thank you.
I wanted to ask some further questions of Parks Canada.
As you know, I have a large park in my riding. I had some questions for you previously when you appeared with respect to ATV access within the park.
We've done a considerable amount of work on this file since we've met with the municipality, as well as Parks Canada officials, and we've come to a standstill. One thing that often happens within the communications is a circular conversation. It just keeps going. We don't get anywhere in terms of a solution.
Currently, the proposal that we've been discussing is that the RCMP does not issue tickets for ATV use on this 1.3-kilometre section of road. We're wondering if the park wardens would follow the RCMP's decision on that and allow ATV use in this section of the park.
Andrew Campbell Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Parks Canada Agency
That's a very specific question, Madam Chair. We will certainly get back to you with the response to that.
The last time that I was talking to the superintendent about this item, we were also looking for the provincial ministry of transport to weigh in about ATV use on the road.
Conservative
Carol Anstey Conservative Long Range Mountains, NL
Okay, thank you.
I wanted to follow up, because you gave your commitment, and you said you were very familiar with the park.
Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Parks Canada Agency
I am familiar with the park.
Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Parks Canada Agency
There's $7.2 million we're investing in the road that was announced yesterday.
Conservative
Carol Anstey Conservative Long Range Mountains, NL
Sure.
Also, we talked about the spruce budworm, and you were going to give us more information with respect to how much deadwood was in the park. We have constituents asking, with respect to communities that are directly in the park, if they will be able to go in, get this deadwood and use it for firewood.
Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Parks Canada Agency
As you know, there is an agreement with residents in the area to take firewood and do some forest thinning. We are looking at how we can extend that. Those discussions are under way. Certainly, we will get back to you as we conclude those.
Conservative
Carol Anstey Conservative Long Range Mountains, NL
Okay, you'll follow up with me. That's great.
I also have a question with respect to a road that's been cut off for residents to use within the community of Port au Choix. It's Barbace road. It's an area in which residents like to go out and spend time in their vehicles. Some of the seniors talk about being able to access it, as they did for many years. Currently, they aren't allowed to have any access in this area. I'm just curious about whether this is something we can look at.
Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Parks Canada Agency
I'll need to get back to you on that one. Public safety and health always come first in all the decision-making that we do, so if there is some reason that we don't have it open at this moment.... Obviously, as you know, there were affected areas from the previous storms, and I know some of the roads have deteriorated in that area. I don't know for a fact that this is one of them, but we will get back to you with that information.
Conservative
Carol Anstey Conservative Long Range Mountains, NL
Okay, that's great.
The other thing that I get asked a lot about is the opening and closing dates of Parks Canada, and I guess this would probably apply nationally as well. As you know, our area depends heavily...from a tourism perspective. We have multiple stakeholders reaching out to the office on a regular basis with respect to.... They come to see the icebergs, and those often are there much earlier than the park is opened. We're curious about whether there are discussions or whether there is any way to extend these dates so that we can maximize the number of people we can bring into the park.
Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Parks Canada Agency
Gros Morne National Park, of course, is open access all the time. It's some of the other facilities that we would have.... From a facilities perspective, we try to do it when we have the most visitors. If there are visitation changes, as we've seen in some other parks, we will set hours and make seasonal changes based on that.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shannon Miedema
Thank you very much.
You have the floor for six minutes, Mr. St‑Pierre.
Liberal
Eric St-Pierre Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I find this obsession by the Conservatives on costs to be fascinating. It raises a question or makes me wonder about how much it costs to fly MPs from Newfoundland, Manitoba or Alberta to Ottawa every week. I also think of Poilievre's Stornoway residence when he wasn't even leader or wasn't even an MP.
Anyway, I'll start talking about real issues instead of focusing on distractions.
I will be sharing my time with my colleague Bruce Fanjoy.
I have a question for Ms. Mollie Johnson.
Some of the concrete tools that our government can put forward under the national electricity strategy include investment tax credits for clean electricity.
Could you speak to the role of these tools and tell us whether they will result in reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the country and build up Canada's economic sovereignty vis-à-vis the United States?
Deputy Minister, Department of the Environment
Thanks for the question, and thank you for not embarrassing me too much when I dumped water all over my colleague. It was a great start for the day.
There are a lot of things, as we look at our opportunity to move forward as we build Canada, and electrification is going to be critically important. There are the regulatory tools that we have, but then there's thinking about what is going to incentivize people to build more, to make energy more affordable for Canadians.
The first thing is about building the energy infrastructure in place and across Canada so that Canadians and businesses have access to more clean, low-cost energy. Let's talk about small modular reactors, interties and a number of those big infrastructure pieces. That doesn't happen on its own. It happens in partnership with different jurisdictions, and that's been a big focus of the work that's been happening.
It also happens because businesses decide to make those decisions and because of the big suite of measures and investments that have been happening, the investment tax credits for electricity and a number of other pieces, ensuring that Canada has the right corporate tax rate in place to incentivize direct investment. Those are all part of the big package that is going to get people to move.
The other part of the equation, as well, is this: What is going to help consumers get to where they need to get in order to make the choices to connect to a clean electricity and clean energy system? When we think about that, there is the approach to ensuring that there are more zero-emission vehicles. We want to have the clean electricity system that people plug into and drive clean electric vehicles. It's the same thing for retrofits. Retrofits are about what the house looks like, how it is plugged into an energy system and, equally, what the envelope looks like so that we have the right kind of energy system as well.
It all comes together into a suite, and it's structural. My hope is that we look at all of these measures together. It's sort of what sets the baseline rule, and it also asks this: What are the things that we're building together to get us to that next step?
