Environment committee  As I say, if you look at the original draft bill from Suzuki, they didn't really talk about climate change; they only talked about CO2 as one of the substances that was listed. As political priorities and public priorities change, you need the flexibility to be able to put a greater emphasis on things.

Environment committee  The second part of the order was that the City of Montreal was obligated to participate with Environment and Climate Change Canada and the affected first nations in a comprehensive review of the circumstances that led to the cause of the release, with the intention of avoiding those circumstances in the future.

Environment committee  Our experience in reviewing previous federal strategies supports this characterization. In 2013, we recommended—it was probably Scott who did it—that Environment and Climate Change Canada should lead work aimed at integrating the social and economic dimensions of sustainable development into the federal strategy. Practically speaking, sustainable development means thinking about how decisions can affect the economy, society, the environment, and the well-being of future generations.

Environment committee  Then I would like to suggest to the committee how they might want to use this occasion to review the act and the federal sustainable development strategy as an opportunity to support and strengthen the new government's actions on climate change. The first lesson to be learned by my experience in sponsoring the private member's bill that eventually became this act is that an individual backbencher through a private member's bill can create a powerful piece of legislation whose effects can be felt long after he or she leaves Parliament.

Environment committee  Andrew Hayes is principal. James McKenzie is also principal. Thank you for joining us. From Environment and Climate Change Canada we have Dan McDougall, assistant deputy minister, strategic policy branch, and Paula Brand, director general, sustainability directorate, strategic policy branch as well. Thank you very much for joining us this morning.

Environment committee  It hopefully coincides with the February letter that the environment commissioner sent to us. There were some things she recommended that the committee undertake: climate change, sustainable development strategy, pesticides safety, and some other things that we're not addressing yet, but maybe we'll get to later. My point, Chair, is that we reordered the motion that we had originally in terms of dates and allocations.

Environment committee  What the chair sent forward to us was helpful and so we've reorganized this to deal with the sustainable development as well as getting to climate change and clean technology before we wrap up for the summertime.

Environment committee  The greenhouse gas provisions of part 4—correct me if I'm wrong—give the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change broad sweeping regulatory authority for advanced planning for control of greenhouse gases. Is that a correct statement?

Environment committee  I'll try to respond briefly, but I might suggest that if there is interest on the part of the committee in enforcement, that you might want to invite the chief enforcement officer to come and explain. Very briefly, however, within Environment and Climate Change Canada, we distinguish compliance promotion activities from enforcement activities. We develop compliance promotion strategies for every regulation and every instrument and then go out and talk to affected parties about what they need to do to comply.

Environment committee  Environment and Climate Change Canada has a separate enforcement branch specifically organized to be separate from the program so as to give it as much marge de manoeuvre as possible, and it does indeed use the various tools in the way you describe.

Environment committee  Going to the next slide on water, I mentioned that in terms of regulating or restricting water pollution, section 36 of the Fisheries Act, which is a broad prohibition, is a powerful tool and is indeed the main tool that Environment and Climate Change Canada uses to restrict discharges into water. We enforce the prohibition, and we have regulations dealing with municipal waste water, effluents from metal mining, and effluents from pulp and paper.

Environment committee  However, no subsequent Parliamentary reviews and no comprehensive set of reforms have been made to the act since it was introduced in 1999. Environment and Climate Change Canada has two primary pollution statutes. One is the Fisheries Act, which contains a prohibition on depositing deleterious substances in the water. That's the primary statutory authority for addressing water pollution.

Environment committee  No, climate change is the fourth.

Environment committee  Well, climate change, clean tech, and innovation, yes.

Environment committee  We could work concurrently or as closely as possible on what was our number one, so we could get those two out of the gate. We would put our number three third, and then have Mr. Cullen's climate change piece as the fourth, knowing that we want to get to that as quickly as we can move these other ones through. Essentially it's doing CEPA first, but recognizing, as Mr. Fast suggested, that there will be times when we won't be able to get witnesses, so we will be able to get that one started right away.