Natural Resources Committee on March 3rd, 2011

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

I will give you the answer that the government is going to give. I understand that you have concerns, Ms. Brunelle, but I told the Minister of Natural Resources of Quebec that there were no programs at Natural Resources Canada that could subsidize this kind of project in any way.

That being said, what goes on at the Department of Finance is up to the Department of Finance. You should perhaps direct your question to the Minister of Finance.

[Paule Brunelle, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

As Minister of Natural Resources, do you not think, though, that there would be unfair competition if it were paid for by PPP Canada with Canadian taxpayers' money?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

I'm not in a position to state an opinion on that. As I said, I have not seen a plan and it does not come under our Department. However, our Department has to carry out projects like the ones announced in relation to renewable energies. In Carleton and Anse-à-Valleau, for example, $65 million will be invested over 10 years to produce 109 MW of electricity from windmills. In Baie-des-Sables, $31 million will be spent over 10 years. In Varennes, we will be putting $79.75 million into the GreenField Ethanol plant over seven years. In Cité Verte, in Quebec City, $4.7 million will be provided to support the SSQ Immobilier project.

So I could give you a whole list of projects. This is the kind of initiatives we are proposing at Natural Resources Canada...

[Paule Brunelle, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

These are programs that you have all across Canada, but as a member of Cabinet...

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

...and that produce economic effects in Quebec, as they do all across Canada.

[Paule Brunelle, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

...but as a member of Cabinet and a Quebecker, I would hope you would be able to stand up for Quebec, to state your position and tell us whether you think there might be inequitable programs that are going to favour competitors of Hydro-Québec and Quebec.

We will be counting on you to speak for us in Cabinet, Minister.

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

You can count on me to ensure that the energy mix in Quebec is constantly improved. We are blessed by the gods with so much hydroelectricity, but there is also enormous gas and oil potential. That is why we are in negotiations with Quebec—you were talking earlier about the Old Harry field—and we hope to achieve a result.

I think this offers amazing possibilities for the province, particularly since energy knows no borders. The northeastern United States could become a potential customer, if they ultimately abandoned coal in favour of natural gas, for example. If we sign agreements, we will be in a position to add to the Canadian and Quebec energy mix.

[Paule Brunelle, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Because we are talking about green energy, where are you in the evaluation of your ecoEnergy program? Are we going to get the results of that evaluation? You say we will see in the next budget. Have you done a positive evaluation of the projects that have been completed? The public was very pleased with the program, but what do you think about it yourself?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

The Minister of Finance will be presenting his budget. Our responsibility as managers of public funds is to make sure that the programs announced are designed to provide the best quality return for the price for Canadian taxpayers.

As I said earlier, $745 million has been invested in the home renovation program. That program had some success and a lot of applications were submitted. That is why there were four different investments in the Canadian economy totalling $745 million.

[Paule Brunelle, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Certainly there were investments...

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Merci, Madame Brunelle. Your time is up.

Monsieur Coderre, do you have one very narrow, small question?

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Minister, next week, in committee, we are going to be spending two days talking with representatives of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission about an extremely important matter. We mustn't panic, as some parties have done, but when the issue is nuclear waste, it is important that we be serious. Something concerns me about the Main Estimates. What is important in that budget, and I'm talking as a former minister, is the Compliance Program and the Licensing and Certification Program. That is what protects the independence of a commission from an applicant. If it is as important as that, can you explain why that budget has been cut? If there is one important budget, it is certainly the compliance, licensing and certification programs. That budget was cut by more than 10% between 2010-2011 and 2011-2012. If you want proper work to be done at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, don't you think you have to invest in it? All the mayors and authorities in the Great Lakes region and the Aboriginal people have an interest in this. What justification is there fore this cut, Minister?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

The funds are granted based on the Commission's needs. Because its representatives will be appearing before this committee next week, it would be much more appropriate to ask them the question, to ascertain how their operating fund is doing.

However, there is a point on which I agree with you, which is that this is in fact an independent, expert commission. We have confidence in this regulatory body, which is composed of a group of experts who know what they're talking about. The last thing that should be done is to panic as some people have done, exactly.

However, legitimate questions that have been asked and they should be answered. That is why I started by asking the Commission to be as proactive as possible so that information can be distributed to the public. When the opinions of independent experts are paid for out of public funds, my responsibility as the Minister is to make sure that all of the information needed is available to the public. That is what the members of the Commission have done and will continue to do.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

But you understand that the municipalities are worried.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Mr. Coderre...

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

They have access to briefings by the Commission. They can ask for that at any time.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Minister and Monsieur Dupont, for being here today. The information, I think, is helpful for us in looking at the supplementary estimates (C) 2010-11.

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

We look forward to having you here in the future, Mr. Minister.

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Yes. Apparently Alan misses me.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

He does. He misses you dearly.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

We'll suspend the meeting to change witnesses for the second panel.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Wewill resume the meeting with our second panel of witnesses.

From Atomic Energy of Canada Limited we have Hugh MacDiarmid, the president and chief executive officer, and Kent Harris, senior vice-president and chief financial officer.

Gentlemen, if you would like to make a presentation for up to 10 minutes, I would welcome that.

Go ahead, please.