Environment committee  Frankly, I don't see any disagreement between Mr. Sadik's position and my own. When I spoke of federal institutions, organizations, and crown corporations and the like, clearly that applies to the federal institutions. It applies to their activities. That's the whole point. It

Environment committee  A strategy cannot be used to create a criminal law provision. It is up to Parliament to draft a criminal law provision that imposes a penalty. Even then, the penalty might be along the lines of a prohibition against dealing with agencies or corporations that do not comply with th

Environment committee  Basically, yes. Of course, while I did read through the bill fairly carefully, it is not up to me to issue a legal opinion.

Environment committee  In my opinion, by virtue of its pith and substance, this bill applies to federal institutions. Of course, there could be some spin-off effects that will require some adjustments in the way the act is applied.

Environment committee  I do not want to speculate because I have not looked at the implementation process as such. I still do not know the strategy that will be employed. I do not know if it will spill over or not into other jurisdictions.

Environment committee  Any time an institution is given a mandate...

Environment committee  Any mandate must take into account the fact that we live in a federation made up of provinces and that municipalities fall under provincial jurisdiction. Even federal documents must sometimes refer to the country as a whole. Nevertheless, I do not think we can go beyond the scope

Environment committee  The key ruling on such matters is the 1975 Jones decision handed down around the time of the passage of Canada's Official Languages Act which specifically applied to federal institutions and the Government of Canada. Mindful of the residual power under the Constitution to enact l

Environment committee  There may be a passing reference to them, but neither the bill nor the regulations create any prohibitions or impose any penalties.

Environment committee  No, it does not, but that does not mean that a federal act cannot contain a reference to urban land. The bill can refer to cooperation with municipalities or some other initiative to oversee spending power, for example. It is not unusual to mention items that do not fall under fe

Environment committee  That is correct.

Environment committee  Yes, based on my initial reading of the bill.

Environment committee  As I said, I cannot speak to the wisdom of this bill, the scope of which appears to be quite broad. That being said, given its pith and substance, so to speak, the bill primarily applies to federal institutions. Having read through the bill, my view—and again I am not giving a le

Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a brief statement to make. As I understand it, it may have been distributed. Mr. Chairman, it is a pleasure for me to appear today before your committee and to respond to questions from members of the committee with regard to the constitutionality

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  The minister would certainly be competent to answer that, but yes, it would require a constitutional amendment to abolish the Senate.