Evidence of meeting #36 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was drones.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:40 a.m.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
It's very short. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Going back to Alain's comments earlier about those municipal bylaws, I think the biggest challenge is whether federal legislation or federal law supersedes a municipal bylaw.
10:40 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Safety and Security, Department of Transport
Without wanting to dive into that in depth, there is going to be a challenge as we work out which areas we are talking about that are being addressed. If a bylaw were to be addressing—and, again, I'm not a lawyer—those areas of federal jurisdiction, such as a safe operation, then there would be an issue. I think we need to work with communities on how they can look at the retail issues, because our jurisdiction doesn't necessarily go to business licences for someone who wants to deliver packages. I think there is a fairly complex area that needs more work.
10:40 a.m.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
That's a great point.
In effect, a discussion can be had, and the recommendation from that point is that we would embed in federal legislation that it would give the opportunity for municipalities to have that and have it be effective by being enforceable.
10:40 a.m.
Liberal
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I will finish what I was saying earlier.
Transport Canada will be presenting draft regulations that will appear in the Canada Gazette very soon. I think the committee would very much like to review them as soon as possible. We have made progress with various witnesses, but the regulations that the department wishes to establish are a very important topic of study for our committee.
Will you simultaneously make available the resources that will be needed to implement these draft regulations? How much will it cost Transport Canada to implement them?
10:40 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Safety and Security, Department of Transport
First of all, we are still in the development of the drafting of the regulations, and there are a number of sections. Based on what I understand of your timelines, they wouldn't be available even in a draft form within that timeline, but we would certainly be taking into consideration the comments and the report that is provided in the finalizing of those elements. That's one part.
The second part is that we still will need to refine what the costs will be, but we are highly committed to delivering a safe regulatory regime for this area. We'll need to look at how we manage to do that, and we will do that.
10:40 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Thank you very much.
Thank you to all of the witnesses. We have received very valuable information today that hopefully will find its way into our final report.
Thank you all very much.
The meeting is adjourned.