Natural Resources Committee on May 10th, 2021

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

He's good at that. Understood.

Tim.

[Timothy Gardiner, Senior Director, Offshore Petroleum Management Division, Department of Natural Resources]

I'll do my best.

I guess what I would focus on is how we're assuring that worker safety continues to be [Technical difficulty—Editor] and applies these regulations back retroactively. The government's intent and the basic rules that employers are expected to follow are clearly understood and will be brought back to January 1 of this year.

Provincial regulations continue to be in effect. We have offshore boards that have the ability to attach conditions to any activity that's authorized in the offshore, including compliance with OHS regulations.

The legal framework for occupational health and safety under section 3.1 of the act is quite detailed. That continues to be in effect as well. It provides an avenue for criminal sanctions should there be an incident in this intervening period. When the federal regulations are reapplied retroactively, the ability to pursue administrative sanctions will then be in place. Administrative sanctions can be quite severe, up to and including withdrawing an activity authorization. It could be shutting down a platform, for instance.

All of that is to say—

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Thank you, sir. I think we saw it in the offshore before there were any regulations, that, “oh, we can enforce them; we can shut down the rig”. Of course, that never, ever, ever happened, and wouldn't happen under this regime right now.

Minister O'Regan, one of the other important points in the 2014 legislation was the appointment of offshore joint worker and employer and government advisory committees. They've had since 2014 to put those in place as well. There isn't one for the Newfoundland and Labrador offshore as of yet, although I'm told by you, of course, that the federal appointments have been made. There is one in Nova Scotia. That was put in place in 2019 and has been meeting.

Why has it taken since 2014 to put in place these advisory committees, and why have the unions not been consulted on the appointments?

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

As the honourable member acknowledged, we've been ready with our appointments and been ready to sit down at the table. The provinces had a heck of a lot going on. Maybe what I can do is tell the member that we will certainly be sitting down and approaching the provinces about this as quickly as possible to see how quickly we can form this up. There's a tremendous amount of goodwill, I believe, at the moment.

Mr. Mercer, who appeared previous to me, would be able to speak more accurately to this point, but from what I can see, since we put the additional $320 million towards the offshore in pandemic relief, with the objective of looking after workers, retraining workers and lowering emissions, they have had a seat at the table with industry and with the provincial government to determine what projects will get that $320 million. They've also been somewhat involved in the emissions reduction fund as well.

So there's a congeniality there. There are good relationships that exist. We want them to exist in an institutional way in exactly the groups that you're talking about. Now that we have this moving along fairly quickly, that will certainly be the next step. We're ready to sit down at the table.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Thank you, Minister and Mr. Harris. Unfortunately, that is all the time for both of you.

Minister, thank you on behalf of the committee. You are always generous in trying to accommodate us and appear before this committee to answer questions. For that we are very grateful, and today is no exception to that.

If you will forgive us, we will now move quickly to clause-by-clause on this bill. Thank you and good afternoon.

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

I'll leave it to you. Good afternoon, Jamie.

It is indeed the afternoon.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

I had to double-check the clock here.

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Take care. I thank you all very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

We are now moving on to clause-by-clause.

Thank you, everybody. I apologize for trying to move things so quickly, but I was trying to get both panels completed, which we managed to do.

Going on to the bill itself, everybody has it before them, I hope.

I will start by calling clause 1.

(Clause 1 agreed to)

Thank you.

Is there any debate on clause 2?

Mr. McLean, I see that your hand is up.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The version I have is talking about an expiry date of “eight years after the day on which this section comes into force”. I think that was sent by the committee.

Is that an amendment proposed by somebody on this committee, that we change the “seven years” to “eight years”?

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

The version I have says “seven years”.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

The version I have says “eight”. It's underlined. That's the latest version.

If we're seven, then yes....

[Yvonne Jones, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Mine has seven as well.

[An hon. member]

I have the same.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Okay.

Is this somebody's proposed amendment?

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

I have not received any amendments.

Clerk, you have not received any amendments.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

This definitely came from the clerk.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Okay.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Well, if we're agreeing on seven, I will yield.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

It's seven, as far as I'm aware.

Mr. Patzer and Mr. Harris, you both have your hands up.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

I have a simple clarification question, then.

Did the original text of the bill say “eight years”, but then the Senate amended it? They went from two years to one year, and that brought it from eight years to seven years. Is that the dynamic there, I wonder?

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

The bill I have has “eight” underlined in two places, and it's under “Repeal”.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Mr. Patzer, I believe what you just said is accurate. It is now seven, based on what happened in the Senate.

Mr. Harris.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Can I ask Mr. McLean to look at the front of his bill. Mine says Bill S-3, as passed by the Senate, February 16, 2021.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

You're right. That's my mistake. Mine says, first reading December 1, 2020.