Evidence of meeting #29 for Natural Resources in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was biomass.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Stephen Kaufman  Suncor, ICON Group
David Layzell  Chief Executive Officer and Research Director, BIOCAP Canada Foundation
Wishart Robson  Nexen Inc., ICON Group

5:20 p.m.

Bloc

Christian Ouellet Bloc Brome—Missisquoi, QC

No one is talking about criticizing, Mr. Chair. All I am asking is for the people from the government to tell me, given that they have a better grasp of the facts than we do, whether there are any other subsidies waiting for renewal. If there is a chance that there are others, simply remove the term “BIOCAP Canada” and replace it with: “immediate short-term funding in order to be able to meet its commitments to research.” It must be more general.

5:20 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Lee Richardson

Are you proposing an amendment, Mr. Ouellet?

The question is not relevant to the motion at hand. If you want to raise an amendment, you're at liberty to do that, but your comments are otherwise out of order.

5:20 p.m.

Bloc

Christian Ouellet Bloc Brome—Missisquoi, QC

No, it would be too complicated. Just drop it.

5:20 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Lee Richardson

Mr. St. Amand, do you have something you want to add?

5:20 p.m.

Liberal

Lloyd St. Amand Liberal Brant, ON

I have just one brief question for Mr. Paradis.

Do you know whether BIOCAP has directly asked the minister for the funding, and whether the minister has made a decision yet?

5:20 p.m.

Conservative

Christian Paradis Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC

No. Three departments are involved as far as BIOCAP is concerned: Environment Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Natural Resources Canada. This is what is going on at the moment and what is in keeping with what Mr. Tonks was saying. So, for the current year, funding should be granted so that the foundation may honour its commitments. This is where we stand with regard to this issue.

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Lee Richardson

Yes. Again, it's a request from a committee.

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

Roy Cullen Liberal Etobicoke North, ON

I have one quick question, Mr. Chairman.

My understanding is that the BIOCAP agreement, the $10 million contribution agreement, expired in March 2006. Is that not the case?

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

Christian Paradis Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC

As far as I know.

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

Roy Cullen Liberal Etobicoke North, ON

Okay.

I think the motion is fair in the sense that it's silent about who did what to whom. This is in camera, this vote, but just for the record, we go through these debates that things were cut, or they weren't cut, or they weren't renewed, or they were frozen. We're here to say that BIOCAP needs some short-term funding. I take the parliamentary secretary's view on this, that we're not going to try to nickel and dime who did what to whom. I think the motion is silent on that, and I'm prepared to support it on that basis.

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Lee Richardson

Good.

If there is no further debate, then we'll just put the question.

(Motion agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings]

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Lee Richardson

Okay.

We have kind of run the clock, so I'll leave it to the committee. We have a couple of options. One is to spend a few minutes right now, or try to squeeze a meeting in tomorrow. If you'd like to discuss this before we go to the break....

Did we get an official word yet that we're not going to be here Thursday? Did anyone here?

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

Alan Tonks Liberal York South—Weston, ON

We thought you were the official--

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Lee Richardson

When I left the House, the House leaders were just.... It looked like three out of four were wanting to adjourn on Wednesday.

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

Roy Cullen Liberal Etobicoke North, ON

Could I make a suggestion, Mr. Chair?

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Lee Richardson

Yes.

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

Roy Cullen Liberal Etobicoke North, ON

My information is that tomorrow will be the end, so that doesn't leave us any time on Thursday, as we thought we would have, to brainstorm the report.

I'm having a quick look, and I was going through and making notes. I wasn't prepared to actually deal with a table of contents. On first review, I think the researchers have done a pretty good job of summarizing. I think a lot of it depends on the impact, how it's presented, and on what we agree as a committee should be done.

I think there's a case to be made that we need to look at what the federal government authority is in this area—I noticed that's part of the outline—and whether we think there's a strong case to be made to pause and refresh before we move forward.

It seems to me that the federal government can play a leadership role in this—clearly, there's a jurisdictional issue with the Alberta government—at some kind of formal meeting with the provinces and the stakeholders to really come up with a game plan, moving forward. That's my personal preference. What we need, I think, is time to go through and check off how this outline fits in with our own sense of what the issues are. I think it's pretty good, but I'd like a little more time to digest it.

One way to do it—and you have the outline here—would be if we could maybe send our comments. The idea of having a meeting tomorrow, is that realistic?

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

Bradley Trost Conservative Saskatoon—Humboldt, SK

We have caucus all morning.

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Lee Richardson

The only time would be probably 3:30 tomorrow afternoon, if we could find a room.

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

Roy Cullen Liberal Etobicoke North, ON

Maybe what we could do in the absence of that is go through it and maybe get our comments to the chair and the researcher about our views on how the report might be structured or on some of the issues that may not be covered as completely as they might be.

I'm just going through this concept of incremental impacts, and there is actually a better terminology for it. The witnesses talked about it.

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Lee Richardson

Collateral damage?

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

Roy Cullen Liberal Etobicoke North, ON

No. The incremental impacts of.... What's it called?

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

A voice Conservative Jim Abbott

Cumulative impacts.

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

Roy Cullen Liberal Etobicoke North, ON

Yes, cumulative. Is that covered in here?

I would like the chance, anyway, to go through it and check it off, and maybe.... I'm sure all colleagues on the committee would like to do that.

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Lee Richardson

Okay. Let's get the views, then.

Monsieur Ouellet.