Evidence of meeting #76 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 tankers.
A video is available from Parliament.
NDP
Richard Cannings NDP South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
Is there any reason it wasn't included in Bill C-48 since it seems to have been working and everybody's fine with it?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Transformation, Department of Transport
It's a voluntary agreement with the United States that is working very well.
NDP
Richard Cannings NDP South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
Do we have the power to include a ban on big tankers coming through there from the United States?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Transformation, Department of Transport
No, not under international law.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Transformation, Department of Transport
Just to explain it maybe more simply, the voluntary exclusion zone has existed for over 30 years and is functioning very well. In addition and complementary to it, the government has enacted its commitment to formalize this moratorium and the two are seen as acting in tandem.
NDP
Richard Cannings NDP South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
Yes, and I understand that. Could we have included the force of that voluntary exclusion in Bill C-48? If we hadn't, why didn't we?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Transformation, Department of Transport
Our international law expert can comment on that.
Team Leader and Senior Counsel, Maritime Law, Department of Transport
I would say that there are certain international law limitations to outright preventing tankers from transiting our coasts, which is what effectively these tankers would be doing.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
The bells have started. With the permission of the committee, we could continue for 15 more minutes. We have some committee business to do and a discussion.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Is everybody okay that we continue on for 15 more minutes so that we can have a discussion, as well as adopt the budget?
You have another half a minute if you have another question. You're all right? Okay.
To the witnesses, thank you very much for being here. You can slip out if you like, and we will deal with some of the committee discussion that we need to deal with.
We have a budget before you for the beginning of this study. We may have to come back for additional funds, but this is what we're putting forth now, a request for $37,300. Are there any questions or comments?
(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
In these few minutes that we have, I believe Ms. Block wanted to make a suggestion.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Yes. With all due respect to the witnesses who we had for this last 45 minutes, I think it was obvious that they could not answer a number of the questions that we had in regard to this study. I think there's a good reason for that, obviously. In the minister's mandate letter he is charged to work with a number of other ministers and departments to formalize this moratorium.
I would be happy to suggest that we look at inviting some of the departmental officials from other departments to come and appear before us. However, I know that we've already submitted our witness lists, so our seven days may already be full. I'm just not sure how we want to manage that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Which departments are we thinking about? That would be helpful.
Mr. Hardie, go ahead.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
I think definitely the DFO and the Coast Guard, because they'll have a much greater fix on the nature of the traffic that's there, which is starting to bubble up as a concern for me.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Okay. We've agreed to seven meetings. Possibly the clerk has an opening at this particular time that we could try to fit them into within our existing structure of seven meetings.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
When you talk about what our clerk has already done and where there are openings, is that because we've already contacted all the witnesses on the list and are still trying to see how to make it work and how to schedule it?
I would suggest Natural Resources Canada, perhaps. If we didn't have to do that transition, it would have been good to hear from them. Even INAC would have been one that we would want to have some conversation with about the consultation process. I just put that out there.
It also says that the minister was to work with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. I'm not suggesting that we have panels with each department, but if we had a panel with somebody from each department who has been tasked with working on this legislation or on this issue with the Minister of Transport, it might just be an hour where we have the four or five ministries represented so that any questions that couldn't be answered by Transport Canada would be answered by those other departmental officials.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
The idea would be for the clerk to try to find a meeting, an hour of one meeting or whatever, in order to invite a variety of folks from these different departments. We have to try to work it into the schedule as soon as we can. We are going to find a meeting block, at least for an hour, where we could have folks from these various departments who could be here to give the committee additional information.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
I'm good with that, as long as we are not removing some of the other suggested witnesses from the list to do that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
We may have to add an extra half-hour one night, if that's all right. I'll make sure to talk to you about that before I add the extra half-hour. We'll try to accommodate the desires.
Mr. Fraser, go ahead.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
If it proves to be an impossible task for the clerk to schedule it, adding an hour to the end of one of the meetings would be fine from my perspective. I want to be sensitive to people's schedules, and I don't want to speak for everybody else, but I think that's a sensible solution if we need it.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
In deference to what I've picked up along the way, Tuesday would probably be better, because there are a lot of folks who are getting out of Dodge as soon as this one is over on Thursday.