Transport Committee on March 21st, 2024

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

No, I take responsibility for not being clear enough in that statement. I've admitted that several times in public, and I'm admitting it once again in this committee today.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

I'm going to move on.

You've clearly walked back your comments, just like you've walked back many of the policies you've had to put forward—or, frankly, the Prime Minister walked them back for you.

On that, most Canadians are against a carbon tax increase and are even more against the April 1 carbon tax increase.

In the case that the Prime Minister doesn't make a carve-out against your own signature policy and your raison d’être here, is there any case...?

You do a lot of analysis and you do a lot of polling, so you must be seeing exactly what the public polls are seeing, which is that 70% of Canadians are against it and 70% of premiers have now come out against it. Different party leaders and different legislators have all come against your April 1 23% tax increase.

[Annie Koutrakis, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Is there anything you personally would do to change your approach?

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Excuse me, Ms. Lantsman. We have a point of order. I've stopped your time.

Go ahead, Ms. Koutrakis.

[Annie Koutrakis, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

Several of us have pointed out relevance issues, even with witnesses who have been here earlier today.

We're here to discuss the comments that Minister Guilbeault made several months ago. He's here before this committee to clarify what he meant. I don't see the relevance of where my honourable colleague is going with this line of questioning.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Ms. Koutrakis.

Ms. Lantsman, you weren't here for the previous ministers who appeared—

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

I watched.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

We did have a lot of questions. Could we stay focused on the reason the minister is here?

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Minister, the gas tax is levied, and of course all Canadians pay into the carbon tax at the pumps, which is going to be 23% more. If you don't understand how the carbon tax affects road infrastructure, I can't help you.

I have a question for you. Is there anything you personally would do to walk back, in any case, the 23% carbon tax increase in April?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

First of all, I would point out that the Supreme Court of Canada held that it wasn't a tax because it doesn't return to the government's general revenues. It's more of a regulatory charge, and all of that charge returns to Canadians in one form or another.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

That's not true either.

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

You're referring to the April 1 increase, and your party and leader also talk about it without mentioning that the rebate will increase too.

If you go to the Environment and Climate Change Canada website, you'll see, province by province, that, where the federal system applies, people are getting back more than they pay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Minister.

Thank you very much, Ms. Lantsman.

Next we have Ms. Murray.

The floor is yours. You have six minutes.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Thank you.

Welcome to our committee, Minister Guilbeault.

I have some questions that are associated with infrastructure.

You talked earlier about keeping wildlife safe. One of the challenges with roads and highways is the erosion of tires, which release tiny particles of a preservative called 6PPD, which then acts with ozone to create a compound that's toxic to aquatic life—for example, coho salmon.

I am aware that the EPA in the United States has started to tackle this problem in order to protect ecosystem diversity and wildlife. Has Environment Canada or Parks Canada taken up the baton on this issue of rubber tire particles that affect fish?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Thank you for the question.

I don't have that information in front of me, but maybe Ron or Andrew does. If not, we would be happy to provide that to the committee.

I don't think we have this information.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Thank you. I'd really appreciate that.

I'm also very interested in infrastructure in terms of our natural infrastructure.

As you know, our government committed to invest in improving the state of natural infrastructure, such as wetlands, coastal ecosystems, agriculture lands, forest lands and so on. I'm interested in whether Environment Canada or Parks Canada has a role in those investments. What kind of natural infrastructure...?

We know that natural infrastructure, when it's healthy, stores and maintains carbon so that it's not going into the atmosphere. This is directly a climate issue.

Are there any investments that you can talk to us about in terms of natural infrastructure?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Yes. We are in the process of investing north of $5 billion since budget 2018 in different conservation and restoration projects across the country.

As you rightly pointed out, a healthy ecosystem can help store more carbon. A healthy ecosystem can also be more resilient in the face of some of the climate impacts we're seeing, like forest fires, for example. We are investing through different programs that are under the Department of the Environment or other departments such as Natural Resources Canada. The ministry of infrastructure is also involved. The $5 billion that is specifically to Environment and Climate Change Canada is about conservation and restoration.

To give you an example, just before Christmas we signed an agreement with the Government of Northwest Territories and the indigenous governments in the Northwest Territories to protect one million square kilometres of a new conservation area. That project alone is four times the size of the United Kingdom.

We're doing that in the north, but we're also doing conservation efforts in the south of the country as well.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Thank you.

I'm also interested in some of the existing infrastructure that may be orphaned, such as dikes and dams. There are a number in British Columbia and right across the country, and the provinces struggle with the funding to remove these orphaned structures, including dikes or dams that may have been abandoned and are a risk. They also compromise the natural landscape and natural infrastructure.

Has the federal government, through Environment and Climate Change Canada or Parks Canada, considered partnering with the provinces to address orphaned dikes or dams?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Through Parks Canada, we already manage an impressive amount of infrastructure, which can include dams and dikes. I spoke a lot in my presentation and in my earlier comments about roads. I'm not aware....

Mr. Hallman, do we have ongoing conversations with provinces about orphaned provincial infrastructure?

[Ron Hallman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Parks Canada Agency]

We would have conversations with provinces about water management with the dams and dikes that we manage, but I will turn to Andrew Campbell to speak about orphaned infrastructure.

[Andrew Campbell, Senior Vice-President, Operations, Parks Canada Agency]

Probably the largest one that we're doing right now is in the Peace–Athabasca delta. There was a lot of infrastructure that had been built over a long period of time. We have been working there with the Government of Northwest Territories and the 11 indigenous partners.

We also worked on a joint management board to continue to look at water management in the entire Peace–Athabasca delta and downstream and upstream infrastructure that has either been placed there in the past or could go in to help the revitalization and the annual flood process in the Peace–Athabasca delta.

That's probably the largest one that we are doing across the country, but there are others.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Campbell.

Thank you, Ms. Murray.

Mr. Barsalou‑Duval, the floor is yours for six minutes.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks as well to the minister for being with us today.

Minister, do you know what the towns of La Romaine, Chevery, Harrington Harbour, Tête-à-la-Baleine, Baie-des-Moutons, La Tabatière, Pakuashipi, Saint-Augustin, Vieux-Fort, Rivière-Saint-Paul, Middle Bay, Brador and Blanc-Sablon have in common?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

You'd be very surprised if my answer was yes, but I won't be surprising you: The answer is no.