Evidence of meeting #33 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was ncc.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Executive Office, National Capital Commission
That's why it's so important. The plan is to have them in there, and that way it has an endorsement.
In terms of the policing part, aside from not liking the word, I don't know what you had in mind in terms of enforcing that. But definitely, in the plan for Canada's capital, having employment nodes would be a good thing.
4:40 p.m.
Chair, National Capital Commission
I would just add that how the 75-25 is calculated is way beyond our authority.
4:40 p.m.
Chair, National Capital Commission
As far as employment planning goes, we rely quite heavily on an excellent advisory committee the NCC has, containing some of Canada's leading land planners, architects, and so on. The emerging view is that people should live and work in the same place, that we shouldn't force people to live a long distance from where they're working. So as the capital evolves, I'm sure that will be a driving principle, that jobs be located where people work, to minimize commuting and the carbon footprint of the area.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
You just made my point of why I want the NCC to look after this, sir.
Ms. Lemay, clause 3(1) and clause 8 confirm the abolition of the steering committee, which could be called an executive committee, if you prefer. I think that this will result, Madam CEO, in your giving yourself more powers with respect to these board meetings.
Do you agree with my interpretation? Do you agree that you will have more authority?
4:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Executive Office, National Capital Commission
I had read that you thought this was the case. I will let Mr. Mills answer after me, but in my opinion, my powers have nothing to do with the number of meetings or committee structures. I either have the powers or I don't. That's the way it works. I have the powers that have been delegated to me, and the rest does not depend on the number of meetings or committees.
However, as I was saying earlier, since I have been here and since Mr. Mills has been here, the executive committee has never met for the simple reason that our meetings involve the entire board of directors. Indeed, this is possible thanks to technology. Meetings are held by telephone. Last year we had more than 10 board meetings instead of having executive committee meetings. I would say that this is an example of good governance practices. You will see that, more and more, executive committees are disappearing because instead of having two management levels—an executive committee and a board of directors—, the entire board of directors participates in the decision making on a more frequent basis.
4:45 p.m.
Bloc
Mario Laframboise Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Lemay, one witness told us that since 1992, 8.52 km of the park have been sliced off so that 119 new residences, a Loblaw's, a Tim Horton's, a fire station and five new roads could be built. Is that true?
4:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Executive Office, National Capital Commission
I do not know how they came up with these figures. We do not have the same figures or the same maps. As far as we are concerned, since 1990, the boundaries of the park have been increased to include 700 more hectares compared with the 1960 boundaries. It is clear that, since 1997, there have been no land sales to the private sector. If I go back to 1990, there was a process to rationalize the park boundaries, which resulted in the boundaries established in 1997. We are talking about 700 additional hectares if we compare the boundaries established in 1960 and these ones.
4:45 p.m.
Bloc
Mario Laframboise Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
I am rather in favour of this right of first refusal, which simply means that if somebody wants to sell, he has to send you his offer to sell or, if he receives an offer, he has to submit it to you so that you can exercise your right of first refusal. You have the right to either accept it or offer the same amount.
You mentioned that there have been only two properties that you have not managed to purchase. Did you still receive offers from these people?
4:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Executive Office, National Capital Commission
Thank you for this question. In accordance with the process that we implemented two years ago, we contacted all of the owners of relatively large vacant lots, lots that could potentially be subdivided and built on, in order to advise them of our interest. So people do know about this. In the case of these two properties, we did communicate with them and we even made offers. I am not sure if this pertains to one or two properties; I would have to confirm that.
4:45 p.m.
Bloc
Mario Laframboise Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
So there have been no sales transactions under your watch without you having an opportunity to acquire the land.
4:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Executive Office, National Capital Commission
I was going to say “to my knowledge” because, obviously, if I did not see them...
No, not to my knowledge.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Lois Brown Conservative Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I understand that 31 recommendations have come forward so far. Can you tell us who was involved in those? Who were the organizations that were consulted?
October 28th, 2009 / 4:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Executive Office, National Capital Commission
This started with Minister Cannon back in April 2006, when he appointed a panel to review the mandate of the National Capital Commission. He asked them to receive submissions and to meet witnesses, and there's a report on that we could give you, if you want. There were a significant number of briefs; I think there were over some 30 briefs presented and 34 meetings held. They did a phenomenal job in a very short period of time, because they only had about six months to do it. There were three members on the panel, presided over by Monsieur Gilles Paquet, and they came up with 31 or 32 recommendations.
What the NCC did at that time was it decided to try to enact everything we could without having to make a change to the legislation. So in the spirit of the recommendations and listening to what people had said about openness and transparency, collaboration and partnerships, and municipal government involvement, it was a matter of getting all of these things going. There was even a recommendation on an ombudsman. All of that was put into place.
That's why I was saying that Bill C-37 is like closing the loop, because for us it's a missing link, the things that we couldn't do without the legislation being changed. This bill will allow us to just wrap it up with a nice bow and then we're ready to go.
4:50 p.m.
Chair, National Capital Commission
They worked for six or seven months on their consultations, and I have never run into anyone around here who didn't feel they had an opportunity to make their views known through the mandate review. It was a very thorough process.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Merv Tweed
Thank you very much to our guests for being here today. We appreciate your input and comments, and hopefully you'll see a finished product in the very near future.
For the committee's sake, we are going to break now. We're going to resume in about five minutes with the subcommittee to discuss future business. At that point, I would ask everyone who isn't involved to clear the room.
Thank you very much.
[Proceedings continue in camera]