Christian Paradis

[Business of Supply, May 31st, 2010]

Madam Chair, everyone agrees that we must keep the softwood lumber agreement. Everyone knows that, including my colleague. The industry has said so and continues to say so. That is why we sat down with Quebec and with industry stakeholders to find out where investments could make a difference.

We invested $200 million in Quebec to support silviculture work through agreements in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Nord-du-Québec, Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Saguenay-Côte-Nord. Then, we invested $34.7 million to repair bridges and culverts on multipurpose routes.

My colleague, the Minister of State for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, recently announced $100 million in assistance for forestry communities. I must point out that all of these commitments by the federal government have helped maintain or create 8,300 jobs in Quebec. That is significant.

[Business of Supply, May 31st, 2010]

Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for his question, but not for his jeers. That party jeers at the government far too often. It does not matter; we will have a constructive dialogue.

Indeed, part of my riding is an RCM that depends on the forestry industry. There are border mills in my region, and I am well aware of the problems facing that industry at this time.

Clearly, it is a question of markets. We need to both consolidate what we have and give the industry the boost it needs to advance into the economy of the future. That is why the latest investment announced in our budget—$100 million over the next four years—says a great deal. The Forest Products Association of Canada welcomed this investment, which it described as the boost it needed to develop new markets for bioproducts. When a sawmill has logs to cut, they must be cut. However, we must use all the byproducts to create bioproducts in order to bring in additional revenue, instead of treating byproducts as waste.

We are also providing industries with support to deal with the market downturn. We are in the midst of a global economic crisis. I would remind my colleague that through EDC, nearly $14 billion has gone towards financially supporting hundreds of forestry companies in Quebec. Between January 2009 and March 31, 2010, we invested $14 billion. That is an enormous amount, representing significant support. Yes, we need to continue. We announced this new measure in budget 2010, in order to make even greater progress and better position ourselves in the economy of the future.

[Business of Supply, May 31st, 2010]

Madam Chair, the Government of Canada is moving its main materials research facility from Ottawa to Hamilton, the hub of the automobile and manufacturing industries. I am referring to the Materials Technology Centre of the Canada Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology, known as CANMET-MTL.

The proximity of the companies and universities that are very involved in leading-edge research on materials and their development, as well as their marketing, will stimulate innovation in Canada's manufacturing sector. It will also stimulate economic activity and ensure that high-quality jobs are maintained as well as created.

We know that our government recently launched the science and technology strategy, which recognizes the need to create synergies between industry, universities and government in order to promote innovation in science and technology.

[Business of Supply, May 31st, 2010]

Madam Chair, NRCan has made great strides in the north through work with leading edge science to help Canada exercise our Arctic sovereignty, protect the north's environmental heritage and promote social and economic development.

Through NRCan, we have invested $100 million in the geo-mapping for energy and minerals program, or GEM, to better understand the potential for new energy and mineral deposits in the north. Northerners can expect to see the benefits of more economic opportunities and jobs as industry works to explore and develop oil, gas and mineral deposits. A key activity of the GEM program is collecting new field data and introducing innovative concepts that help improve our understanding of the resource potential.

As well, budget 2010 provided $80 million to create the Canadian high Arctic research station. NRCan has provided significant technical advice on the science and technology goals, location analysis and logistical requirements, and $85 million has been provided to maintain and upgrade key Arctic research facilities.

NRCan's polar continental shelf program will use $11 million to better support more than 1,000 researchers from Canada and around the world. This funding will significantly boost the capacity of the polar continental shelf program in Resolute Bay and facilities to support field research throughout Canada's Arctic.

[Business of Supply, May 31st, 2010]

Madam Chair, once again I thank my colleague for his question.

Improving the regulatory system is a priority for our government and we are doing several things to make it better. There is the Major Projects Management Office. Federal departments and regulatory agencies work closely together to identify basic ways of improving the environmental assessment process and our methods of consulting aboriginals. This will improve the results thanks to changes to various aspects of the way in which projects are reviewed.

As a first key step, the 2010 budget introduced some targeted changes to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act that will improve environmental assessments in Canada by letting them start earlier, reducing delay and duplication, and getting better assessments in general.

The budget also announced the participant funding program for the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and the National Energy Board to support the more active, selective participation of all Canadians, the intent being to build on these activities while the Government of Canada explores other ways of heading toward a process of reviewing every project.

The government obviously cannot do it all on its own, and in order to achieve the mutual objective of providing regulatory assessments in a foreseeable way, the federal framework must work as effectively as possible with the processes of the provinces and territories. I am looking forward to working with my counterparts to advance our common commitment to making basic improvements to the regulatory framework for major mining and energy projects in Canada. I want to emphasize, though, that we will not allow our efforts to improve effectiveness to compromise environmental protection. Quite to the contrary, environmental protection will be improved under the new process.

[Business of Supply, May 31st, 2010]

Madam Chair, I would like to thank the member for his excellent question.

The Vancouver Pavilion is a collaboration of the Government of Canada, the province of British Columbia and the City of Vancouver. The Government of Canada has invested $2.5 million in the construction and operation of the Vancouver Pavilion.

This funding is part of a $170 million economic action plan investment. As part of this investment, $10 million has been allocated to projects that showcase Canadian wood products overseas, such as the Vancouver Pavilion.

China has rapidly emerged as one of Canada’s most important lumber export markets. Canada’s wood product exports to China are up eleven-fold from $32 million in 2001 to $385 million in 2009.

An estimated 70 million visitors, including several million international visitors, will attend Shanghai Expo 2010. Widespread media attention and access to prominent builders and large buyers of construction materials make Shanghai Expo 2010 the most important trade marketing event of the year in China.

With this investment, the government is helping the Canadian forestry sector benefit from these new opportunities and improve its long-term competitiveness.

[Business of Supply, May 31st, 2010]

Madam Chair, we have a three-pronged approach to supporting the recovery of Canada's wood industry.

The first is technology and innovation. We are investing $120 million in the transformative technologies program. That funding will go directly to developing, commercializing and implementing cutting-edge technologies in fields such as bioenergy and next-generation building systems.

The second is value added products. Our economic action plan allocated $8 million over two years to support research and technology transfer associated with value added projects. This initiative involves developing and enhancing our products to make them more competitive in Canada and abroad.

The third is expanding markets for wood products. We have set up three initiatives to stimulate market expansion for wood products.

The first is $20 million over two years for the Canada wood program, which helps wood producers grow and diversify their export markets. The second is $12 million over two years for the North American wood first initiative to promote the use of wood in non-residential construction in Canada and the United States. The third is $10 million to support large-scale demonstrations of the use of Canadian wood in construction.

Taken together, these measures are thoroughly transforming the sector, which will now be ready to take advantage of new opportunities and conquer new markets.

Our actions are creating a world-class competitive industry that will perform very well in tomorrow's economy.

[Business of Supply, May 31st, 2010]

Madam Chair, again, the email in question has nothing to do with Natural Resources Canada. As I have been saying since I became Minister of Natural Resources, it was the department that handled the access to information request. There was no meeting with Mr. Glémaud and Mr. Jaffer. What is more, no funding was granted.

As I was saying earlier, as far as the clean energy fund is concerned, in the statement of intent we signed with the United States in April, we talked about carbon capture and storage. Nonetheless, a working group will be set up in the coming year to assess the possibility of developing renewable energy, such as biomass-based energy produced from algae. This is an innovative approach. We are having this dialogue with our neighbours to the south.

[Business of Supply, May 31st, 2010]

Madam Chair, as I said, our government is focusing heavily on the clean energy fund. Encouraging carbon capture and storage will greatly reduce our impact on the environment. As I said earlier, we have three large projects worth $466 million, which has made Canada a leader in this area.

We can now exchange information with the United States through the clean energy dialogue. We are already seeing results. Our neighbours are interested in this technology. In April, we signed a declaration of intent with our American counterparts to continue these discussions.

[Business of Supply, May 31st, 2010]

Madam Chair, I cannot speak for Mr. Glémaud. I a not familiar with what my colleague is asking me here. What I can say in regard to the access to information request—and I will say it again—is that the department informed me because it is responsible for the application of the act. Powers were delegated to the department to administer the Access to Information Act. I was informed, therefore, that the documents in the access to information request concerned only Mr. Patrick Glémaud’s role as legal counsel to the justice department. That is what he was doing as a public official, employed by the justice minister, working closely with the Department of Natural Resources.

Frankly, I would be happy to talk about the clean energy fund. As I was also saying, part of the envelope was invested in research and development. Some good demonstration projects were implemented and once again, at no time—