Transport committee  Absolutely, and in many regards it may provide more transparency if reasons were required. Simply publishing the order in the Canada Gazette would not require reasons for that order, but what you're suggesting would effectively be a requirement for public reasons for the order, w

Transport committee  No.

Transport committee  This connects in part to Mr. Hardie's question. With regard to the 12,500-tonne threshold, we're recommending that the committee seek further information from Transport Canada about why the 12,500-tonne threshold was selected, when the study released by Transport Canada in Octob

Transport committee  Although Minister Garneau has been very clear that the provision would be used for emergencies, the concern is that there is no requirement that the provision be used for emergencies only in the future. It could potentially be used for indefinite exemptions. That creates a risk a

Transport committee  Hypothetically, let's say an existing industry on the coast wanted to expand its operations such that it would require tanker shipments. It's possible that the exemption provision could be used by a minister to allow those industrial resupply exemptions. Obviously, many groups wo

Transport committee  Minister Garneau raised an issue, which is how we have understood the intention of the bill to be to respond to a natural disaster or some other sudden, urgent, unexpected event that might require emergency supplies for communities. From our perspective, that would be the intenti

Transport committee  I would add maybe just one point. About a month ago I had the honour of travelling to the territories of Saik'uz first nation, which is around what is now known as Vanderhoof in British Columbia. Saik'uz was a member of the Yinka Dene Alliance of first nations who were opposed t

Transport committee  I suppose there are two potential approaches to that. One is simply the provision that in the minister's opinion there are emergency circumstances, and it would be part of the minister's discretion to determine whether there are indeed circumstances. It would be possible to actua

Transport committee  Certainly. The brief has been submitted; it's just waiting for translation. It has that referenced in the footnotes.

Transport committee  No. The key issue would be that there be a relatively short-term expiry period in order to ensure that exemption orders aren't used for purposes other than emergency circumstances. There's no magic in the number of one year, and there may be reasons that a different time period i

Transport committee  I'm not aware of any downside.

Transport committee  Certainly, we would very much be open to other requirements for the posting of that information in other places. In fact, in our brief, we talk about suggesting a regulation-making power to enable cabinet to publicize enforcement and monitoring information, as well as other infor

Transport committee  I would just add one point to that. There have been materials filed with regard to Pacific Future Energy and Kitimat Clean Ltd., in which they have suggested that very large crude carriers would be carrying their products. Those are, again, preliminary materials.

Transport committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to speak before the committee. The West Coast Environmental Law Association also strongly supports Bill C-48, the oil tanker moratorium act. We've prepared a written brief, which I understand has yet to be translated. In that