Megan Leslie

[Business of Supply, May 16th, 2012]

Mr. Chair, it is great that the minister was able to answer my question. I applaud him for that.

Moving on, the changes in part 3, division 1 of the budget implementation bill hand over the decision on who is an interested party to the National Energy Board, or whoever is carrying out the assessment. It says in new paragraph 2, “a person is an interested party if, in its opinion, the person is directly affected by the carrying out of the designated project,” et cetera. How does the minister define “directly affected”?

[Business of Supply, May 16th, 2012]

Mr. Chair, can the minister even confirm that there will be money spent on public consultation this coming year?

[Business of Supply, May 16th, 2012]

Mr. Chair, surely the Minister of the Environment could tell us how much of the budget is dedicated to public consultation. It is a very straightforward question.

[Business of Supply, May 16th, 2012]

Mr. Chair, on all of these questions about the estimates, so far we have had zero answers on dollars.

I am going to switch to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. The environment commissioner is seriously concerned about provisions that restrict public participation and decision making. He said that public consultation has always been a bedrock of environmental policy in Canada and that there will be a significant narrowing of public participation in the budget bill. I would like to know how much of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency's budget for 2012-13 is dedicated to public consultation.

[Business of Supply, May 16th, 2012]

Mr. Chair, well, the budget does have dollar numbers in it, so how much is budgeted for industry consultations for the coming fiscal year?

[Business of Supply, May 16th, 2012]

Mr. Chair, my next question is, how much did the ministry spend on consultations in the last fiscal year? The minister has several binders of information in front of him. I am sure he can find the answer.

[Business of Supply, May 16th, 2012]

Mr. Chair, on a point of order, I asked a simple question and it was very short. I would expect that the minister would follow the timelines as were set out at the beginning of committee of the whole.

[Business of Supply, May 16th, 2012]

Mr. Chair, I would like to know from the minister how much the department has spent on industry consultations in the past five years.

[Business of Supply, May 16th, 2012]

Mr. Chair, consultations have been going on since 2007. Could the minister just answer the question, when will we actually see these regulations?

[Business of Supply, May 16th, 2012]

Mr. Chair, regarding greenhouse gas limits for oil and gas, the minister has repeated that he is consulting with industry in advance of introducing regulations for the oil and gas sector, and before him, minister Prentice said the same thing. We still have no regulations.

When will the minister announce regulations for this sector?