Government Operations Committee on Oct. 8th, 2024

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Gentlemen, thank you for being with us and taking the time to answer our questions. I have many more, but I have a debate to finish right now with my colleagues.

Members of Parliament, I'd like to bring back to the table the debate on the report to the House on the Governor General's expenses for her French courses. I'll read my motion again, since some of you weren't here last time.

The media reported on Wednesday, September 25, 2024, that the Governor General of Canada, Mary Simon, was still unable to converse in French during a visit to a community organization in Lévis, Quebec, and that she had to forego certain activities planned during her stay in Quebec for this reason. In addition, the Governor General had made a firm commitment to learn French by 2021, when she was appointed, and again told Radio-Canada in an interview in 2023 that she wanted to be able to speak to francophones by the end of 2024. Moreover, tens of thousands of dollars in public funds have been spent on French courses for little result since 2021.

Therefore, the motion proposes that the committee express concern that the Governor General cannot adequately address Quebec francophones and francophones from francophone communities in other provinces in their mother tongue. The motion also asks the committee to express its deep disappointment that after three years since her appointment, the Governor General of Canada cannot sustain a basic level of conversation in French in the exercise—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Madame?

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I have to interrupt you.

Are you looking to reintroduce your motion that was adjourned?

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

The debate was adjourned and there was no vote on the motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

We have to get—

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I want us to start the debate on this motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

We will go to a dilatory vote on it. You can't speak to it. You have to move to reintroduce it.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

All right.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

That causes a dilatory vote on whether we will resume the debate. You can't speak to it first.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I can't speak—

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Shouldn't we vote to put it back on the table?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Yes, we have to put it back on the table first, before we actually continue the debate.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I see.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

We can consider that you're moving it in order to have a vote on whether we will resume the debate on it, but we need to have the vote first.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

If that's the procedure, let's go with the procedure. We have no choice, it seems.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Yes, that's what I'm trying to get at.

I'll have the clerk do a vote on a dilatory motion to resume the debate on Mrs. Vignola's motion.

Go ahead, sir.

(Motion negatived: nays 8; yeas 2 [See Minutes of Proceedings])

We will not be resuming that debate right now.

We will now turn to Mr. Bachrach for his final two and a half minutes.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mr. DeMarco, the leader of the Conservative Party has said that if his party were to form government, he would not pull Canada out of the Paris Agreement, which comes with certain emissions reduction commitments that have already been made and can't be watered down, as I understand it. However, we know very little about his actual climate plans. There are many policies that he has opposed but few he has supported. The main one we hear about repeatedly is this idea of meeting our emissions reduction target by exporting fossil fuels to other parts of the world.

Could you comment on the efficacy of that approach, whether it's consistent with the Paris Agreement, and whether other countries are meeting their emissions reduction targets using that approach?

[Jerry V. DeMarco]

The choice of measures is a decision to be made by government, and Parliament itself, to the extent any of those measures are reflected in legislation. What I have said before in previous committee hearings and with other committees is that if we remove any big-ticket items from the current suite of measures—and we have in our net-zero act report a list of 80 measures that are ongoing and another 37 that are proposed—another replacement measure needs to be put in place to compensate for that, so that it still adds up.

Having said that, even if you look at all the measures now, they still don't add up to 40%-45%. If we're to meet the Paris Agreement target that Canada has set for itself in its NDC, a 40%-45% reduction from 2005 levels by 2030, we're actually still in need of more measures or ratcheted-up existing measures.

We're not even at the point where we're meeting the target or on track to meet the target, so I'm hesitant to have a view on a specific measure and how one could be replaced. We're looking at the global 40%-45%, and we don't even have an emissions reduction plan yet that has bankable measures that will get to the lowest part of that range of 40%-45%.

We still have work to be done. What the government chooses to do in terms of the measures is up to the government.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Are you seeing any other countries employing the policy approach that he suggested?

[Jerry V. DeMarco]

I don't think I've done a deep dive into that particular issue in any of the audits so far.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thanks.

Next, we have Mrs. Block, please.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I'm going to follow up on a line of questioning by my colleague, Mr. Mazier.

I want to go back and ask, who would have written the programming rules stating that one could fast-track approvals to the Prime Minister? Who would be responsible for that rule?

[Jerry V. DeMarco]

Are you looking at exhibit 4.2, again, in terms of the process?