Mr. Chairman, honourable committee members, thank you for inviting me to speak to you today. I'm here on behalf of the Green Budget Coalition, which as some of you know is unique in bringing together 21 of Canada's leading environmental and conservation organizations, representing over 600,000 Canadians, including Ducks Unlimited, the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Nature Canada, Équiterre, World Wildlife Fund Canada, as well as three of the groups speaking to you today: Ecojustice, CELA, and MiningWatch.
The Green Budget Coalition has been working cooperatively since 1999 to assist the federal government to develop and implement strategic budgetary and fiscal measures critical to achieving long-term environmental sustainability, with a particular emphasis on achieving a green economy by implementing a fair price on pollution and the consumption of non-renewable resources.
We make public statements on rare occasions. This is one instance when it was obvious to us there was a need to speak out. We issued a press release--which should be in front of you--on April 21 to that effect. We sent it to you that day as well.
The Green Budget Coalition essentially has two clear messages to convey to the committee regarding the proposed changes to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act in Bill C-9. Firstly, we feel it is not acceptable to use omnibus budget legislation to weaken Canada's environmental protection laws. Second, the Green Budget Coalition requests that you remove the amendments to CEAA from Bill C-9 in order that these proposed changes can receive full parliamentary review, including a thorough review by your esteemed colleagues on the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development.
Canada's environmental protection laws play a fundamental role in preserving and improving Canadians' enviable quality of life and in guiding us toward sustainability by reconciling the economic, social, and environmental elements of development projects. In the interest of transparency and accountability, any proposed changes to these laws deserve the full benefit of government review, including the consideration of the environment committee and a separate vote by parliamentarians without an election hanging in the balance.
As you know, the CEAA contains a statutory provision for review scheduled to begin in the next few months. By making amendments to the CEAA part of the budget bill and subject to a confidence vote, the important stakeholder consultation process involved in this review will essentially be pre-empted, as MPs will be forced to either accept these changes in CEAA or else trigger an election. This leaves little room outside of this 90-minute session for the full discussion, consultation, and debate that these amendments deserve and would otherwise receive.
I would also like to draw your attention to the Senate finance committee's report on the 2009 budget implementation act, dated June 2009. Among only nine recommendations that the Senate finance committee made, the majority of the Senate committee specifically recommended that the government cease the use of such omnibus legislation to introduce budget implementation measures. It also included four options as observations regarding how the Senate finance committee might respond to a future omnibus bill. These included dividing the bill into parts so that the relevant committee could address each component, deleting all non-budgetary provisions, and considering only those elements that are budgetary in nature.
You might be interested that a majority of those Senate finance committee members are still in place on that committee for both the government and the opposition, so they may not be so eager to receive the budget act as it stands right now, either.
In closing, I would like to reiterate the Green Budget Coalition's prime recommendations. In the interest of transparency and accountability, and given the great importance of environmental protection laws to Canadians' well-being now and for generations to come, please remove the amendments to CEAA from Bill C-9 in order that these proposed changes can receive full parliamentary review, including a thorough review by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development.
Thank you for your time. Merci.