Environment committee  Welcome to the witnesses. Thank you for your testimony. Five minutes is barely enough time for me to clear my throat, so I'm going to talk really fast. I'll begin by simply saying, in response to Monsieur Choquette's comments about what environmental groups support what you're doing, that I quite frankly can't imagine anybody, even an environmental group, not supporting the kind of cutting-edge work that you're doing.

Environment committee  I think it's very relevant if this organization believes that the environment and the economy are inextricably linked, and it's clear they do. Now we've seen major changes to the environment, and I would like to know how they feel about that. Also, as a member of Parliament, we do have the right to question as we see fit.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Okay. Just to be clear about this, even though in theory, under the FNLMA first nations can assert their authority with regard to environmental regulations, they can't do it because these agreements aren't signed.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The trouble arises when there is no process to create or negotiate replacement agreements. I think you were probably more clear in using legal nomenclature; no instruments available, is what you said. I can't help but think, based on your discussion today, that you might have a couple of solutions that are floating around in your work on the management public policy side.

Safer Railways Act  Without voice recorders, we have a hard time knowing exactly what went wrong. The TSB has been clear about this since 2003 and it is now 2012. Did we leave this out of the rail safety bill because the United States does not have this regulation? That is what we heard in the committee.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Under this new legislation, Bill C-31, we're talking about the potential for a detention for up to a year, and then over the next five years people not being able to have travel documents or to apply. That's very clear in the legislation at face value. If there is something else in the works, we certainly don't know about it. Recently, you might have heard some announcements. It seems we have a government that has got into the habit of making proclamations, because those are ministerial orders or announcements.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  With respect to the environmental piece, I was part of the delegation that travelled last week to some of the first nations communities. What was interesting was that one of them made it very clear that they certainly were not looking at moving forward on the First Nations Land Management Act until there was a cleanup of their environmental sites—the land that was impacted by the environment.

Finance committee  I believe there was a review of the demutualization of the life companies at the time. It's not clear to me if I have that information available here, but we can review our records and assess if that was done.

Safer Railways Act  To the issue of voice recorders, and I know the member has raised the issue, unions have been clear that they have some difficulties with the idea of voice recorder technology being implemented on trains precisely because the issue has not been settled at this point about who would have access to the voice recorders.

Environment committee  Just to summarize, based on the nature of the mandate that you've just clarified, the need to have a senior environmental scientist at the helm of COSIA in order to achieve positive environmental outcomes, the true nature of Dr. Wicklum's appointment, and the selection process that you've just made clear for us, would you characterize the following statement made in the House of Commons by an NDP member on March 5 as accurate: “When a senior Environment Canada regulator suddenly becomes the head of a pro-industry oil sands group, there is a pretty obvious conflict there.”

Safer Railways Act  Railways are used every single day by thousands of people and it has been this way for hundreds of years now. The benefit of railways are clear. Trains are substantially more fuel efficient than motor vehicles when it comes to moving passengers, and especially cargo, over great distances. Of course, by potentially electrifying rail lines, greenhouse gas emissions could also be reduced in the coming years.

Finance committee  Just to be clear, the value is an accumulative amount of money that through the years has.... So you actually have stocks and bonds that you've bought.

Safer Railways Act  It is also important to talk about this bill on safer railways at a time when we have so many issues facing railways in Canada. It is clear that if we look at the simple test for whether government has vision, whether government understands the issue of infrastructure, whether government has a forward-looking vision, we look no further than rail.

Finance committee  And a clear question—sorry, I was just getting into constitutional politics. Monsieur Lafrenière from CAMIC has laid out some conditions, as well. Mr. Rudin, have you had an opportunity at Finance to consider some of these recommendations for any proposed regulation in terms of them being appropriate, enforceable, and realistic?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Mr. Johnson, I'm not sure everybody is clear. When you're talking about fee simple lands on reserve, you're taking about the formula under which the first nations, instead of the crown, would own the reserve land in fee simple. We're not talking about fee simple where, for example, Nisga'a and Tsawwassen fee simple lands could theoretically be sold to non-first nations.