Evidence of meeting #29 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was waterways.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Merv Tweed
Thank you, Mr. Watson.
I have only one person left on my list, and that's you, Mr. Jean. Because of the time, you have only a couple of minutes.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thanks, Ms. Tully, for coming today. It's always refreshing to hear your testimony.
As an avid whitewater canoeist in northern Alberta, I can tell you that when I received some of these letters from some citizens of Canada worried about navigation, I was worried as well, so I went back and took another look. I want to reassure those people who are listening today that in no way at all is the Canadian government considering reducing navigation rights through changes to the Navigable Waters Protection Act. We are not at all looking at doing that.
This is not what the Canadian government is doing. I don't know if you're aware of what we're doing, but let's take aerodromes as an example. That's an airport on water. Anybody can build one. There's nobody stopping anybody from building one in Canada. That's because planes didn't exist 100 years ago, when this act was made. We need to do something to make sure local municipalities and local governments can have some authority to deal with issues like this for safety reasons, and navigation of water, of course, is one of those.
You commented in relation to contamination and pollution. They have nothing to do with this act. This act is about navigation. Clearly we do not want to have happen here what's happened in the Hudson River or in other rivers in the U.S. This is not what we're doing. That's why we want to look at this act to make sure we make positive changes.
I want to get back to what Mr. Fast asked. I looked at your website, and it talks about licensed members of Waterkeeper Alliance. How many licensed members do you have in Canada?
May 29th, 2008 / 12:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper
Waterkeeper Alliance is based in the United States, but there are nine licensed members of Waterkeeper Alliance in Canada. Does that make sense?
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Okay, that's what I was wondering. I understand.
Now, I have a very short period of time, but I do notice that your group is about safe drinking water for Canadians. Do you have a position on our national water strategy? We are the first government to ever come forward with one in Canada. What is your position on that?
12:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper
I personally haven't taken a look at that legislation in detail. That's not the research I've been doing. We were consulted, and our president, Mark Mattson, is part of the Canadian Water Issues Council; they've been heavily involved in source water protection--keeping water in its basin--and the development of the model act that's come out of the Munk Centre at the University of Toronto.
In terms of safe drinking water, as the other members have indicated, we are an environmental organization, so we look at the protection that goes into the source water. Certainly we know from experience and from learning from our other Riverkeeper brother and sister organizations in the U.S. that New York City has some of the greatest and cleanest urban drinking water on the planet because they protected water at its source. I think every environmental organization and every citizen would be supportive of legislation that truly protects clean drinking water for every community.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
So as far as the national water strategy...obviously it goes along with your organization's mantra but as well with the aboriginal strategy, reducing the at-risk aboriginal communities by more than half in the last two years. Has your association taken any position on that? Obviously these are amazing positions to take for a government. It's the first time in Canada's history, and we're getting the job done on water.
12:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper
Typically we don't take positions on legislation. We wouldn't, generally, unless it's a particular area of expertise that we would want to bring to the attention of the public. And I certainly wouldn't want to say that I speak for the first nations community.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Merv Tweed
With that, Ms. Tully, I thank you for your patience with our committee today in terms of the interruptions. I do appreciate your comments. I can assure you that if this committee makes recommendations to the government, it will go out for public consumption and public comment.
Thank you very much.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Merv Tweed
For the information of the committee, on Tuesday, June 3, three of the four guests that we've invited are confirmed: Transport Canada, Infrastructure Canada, and the Environmental Assessment Agency.
I would also remind members that in order to help us prepare the documents that we're going to forward to the department, members should get them in by Monday, if possible. I would appreciate that. We'll get them translated, and then we can make comment afterwards.
Other than that, the meeting is adjourned.