Environment committee  I'm not sure I agree with that. The independence of a committee relates to its ability to conduct studies and provide whatever information and advice it collectively deems appropriate. A committee always has terms of reference.

Environment committee  I think the objective of the amendment is to emphasize that there is an expectation that the committee's advice will be independent.

Environment committee  Again, you're essentially asking a legal question. I don't think there's anything in subclause 20(1) that indicates that the committee's advice will not be independent, and there's certainly nothing in the bill that indicates that the minister can influence or dictate what advice

Environment committee  I don't think the amendment changes the minister's obligations in any way.

Environment committee  That's correct.

Environment committee  I'm seeing that Madam Pauzé wants to jump in here. I think the answer to that likely depends on other amendments that would determine what is meant by “expert”. In other words, an expert in what?

Environment committee  The expert body that exists does not.... It is something that the minister has set up. What we're talking about now is what would need to be established under the act.

Environment committee  The minister will have to establish an advisory body. What that body will constitute will be determined after the act is passed.

Environment committee  I can't comment as to whether that's a good thing or not. That's for you to determine. It's not unusual for this to happen.

Environment committee  That's correct. This in no way infringes on provincial jurisdiction or requires provinces to do anything.

Environment committee  That's correct, but the reference to other governments could be interpreted to include municipalities. We have agreements with municipalities. It can also be interpreted to include agreements with indigenous governments.

Environment committee  That's correct; it's not. The bill will be interpreted broadly if a plan does not need to include such a co-operative agreement, but it may include a co-operative agreement. What this says is that, as Mr. Ngan has explained, the assessment report basically asks, once we get to a

Environment committee  You're asking a legal question. I can say, in a general sense, that this does provide some discretion to the minister to determine which co-operative measures are key. I don't think it would allow the minister to ignore measures with some provinces and to privilege others. The fe

Environment committee  What I explained previously, or tried to explain, was not so much that it's different in form from a target, but that a target in this bill comes with various obligations with respect to reporting, etc.

Environment committee  With this amendment, there would be an obligation to report on progress toward the interim objective. At the time that we had the previous discussion, there was no such amendment on the table, so the objective was simply an objective without any reporting obligations. This comm