Environment committee  As the assistant deputy minister within Finance Canada responsible for federal environmental departments and agencies, including Environment and Climate Change Canada, Parks Canada, and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, I am also the departmental champion of sustainable development. My branch coordinates the preparation of the Department of Finance’s sustainable development strategy under the Federal Sustainable Development Act, as well as the reporting of Finance’s contributions and activities.

Environment committee  I come from a bit of a different angle as well. It's wonderful that we're finally taking climate change seriously and wanting to deal with carbon, which is what we see as the main instigator of climate change. The elephant in the room that many don't talk about is consumption. Consumption, to me, is the cause of climate change and the cause of a lot of other things we have to deal with in our society, in that it's unsustainable at the levels where it is today.

Environment committee  Madam Chair, to try to frame my thoughts on this, I also went to the minister's mandate letter. Like many of you, I share a lot of things coming out as well, the whole climate change agenda and being part of that is very important. There are items in the mandate letter on freshwater protection. There are pieces on climate change related to infrastructure. There's the endangered species act.

Environment committee  I am the chief executive of GLOBE International, which is the world's largest network of national legislators devoted to legislative leadership on climate change and sustainable development. I am, however, speaking today in a personal capacity, drawing on almost three decades of experience in working on sustainable development in different sectors and in different countries, including my home country of India.

Environment committee  It also sets out a requirement for public bodies at a local level to come together to form public service boards, which can collaborate more effectively to provide integrated solutions to some of those more difficult long-term problems that we face in tackling poverty, inequalities, and climate change, and in improving biodiversity. There are common objectives now across those public bodies and a requirement for them to operate collaboratively at the local level. We want to ensure that future generations are given the best possible start in life.

Environment committee  Shields brought up around water, migratory birds, and conservation. There are issues that you brought up on climate change and we wondered about the best way to address these issues. But climate change legislation will likely be referred to committee, so why would we go down that path right now when it may come back to us later on?

Environment committee  Indeed, it mandates a wide range of research on the parts of both Health Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada. It also gives us various tools to gather information. In some cases, of course, a producer of a particular substance will be in a much better place to actually conduct a test to enable us to get the information to determine whether there's a problem.

Environment committee  Before I go through that, we have very recently, just a couple of weeks ago, published with the United Nations our “Second Biennial Report on Climate Change” for Canada.

Environment committee  How do we do that? How do we examine this? Maybe this committee will look at raising awareness of how climate change is affecting our different ecosystems. How do we manage that? I mean, it's coming. What do we do and how do we help communities deal with those changes that are coming? That is something I will put in the climate change bucket there.

Environment committee  But we continued, and we still worked on the fish. We have helped MOECC, now our Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to do some of the best fish monitoring in the St. Lawrence River in our area for contaminants, mercury, and those others. We found that the models that were used—and I don't know who to addresses this—to establish and to look at the impacts of these compounds on human beings were using standardized methods.

Environment committee  My second point is that I would really like to commend the scientists and staff at Environment and Climate Change Canada and Health Canada for working hard and diligently and using the best science to bring forward sound judgments for protecting Canada's environment. Next, I'd like to raise four points that reiterate or emphasize those raised by my colleagues, Professor Dayna Scott from York University, and Joe Castrilli and Fe de Leon from the Canadian Environmental Law Association.

Environment committee  Ultimately, regardless of whatever is deferred to the provinces or other bodies such as the CFIA or the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, if there's trouble, it will roll back up to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Canada. I've been serving with Mr. Doyle for more than 18 months now. I recognize that the only way we're going to reach these targets and achieve these solutions is through systemic answers.

Environment committee  I have the mandate letter in front of me, and I want to read it because I think it might help in the discussion. As Minister of Environment and Climate Change, your overarching goal will be to take the lead in implementing the government’s plan for a clean environment and a sustainable economy. Your key priority will be to ensure that our government provides national leadership to reduce emissions, combat climate change and price carbon.

Environment committee  If there's a way—and I think this is where this eventually comes to—some of these motions or a coupling together of ideas would be very helpful, but for the environment and climate change committee not to take on some type of climate change assessment.... As we heard from officials just last week, how do you bend the curve? The previous government had a target over there, but the line is pointing up over here.

Environment committee  The consultative parts have been completed. We're waiting with bated breath to hear where Environment and Climate Change Canada landed. The current MMER is underpinned by environmental effects monitoring, so the impact on a particular ecosystem is actually.... At least we are gathering data. There is analysis of that data, and compared to a lot of other sources, there is probably a lot more.