Environment committee  I don't think I'm the appropriate person to address that.

Environment committee  It's clear that any discussion about oil sands development will have to be folded into a broader strategy on climate change/global warming that the Government of Canada and Canadians adopt. What we're trying to say is that rather than focus exclusively on a legitimate set of envi

Environment committee  My guess would be that in the short term they will be an increased component of that mix and over the long term a diminishing component. We will move toward more carbon-constrained, carbon-neutral energy sources. It's going to take a long time to get there, and we're not going to

Environment committee  You should take the statement with a very large grain of salt. This comes from my understanding of the technology. The general point is an important one. We are looking at oil sands operations now based on technologies and an understanding of the technologies that go back 10, 2

Environment committee  Certainly the oil sands development will bring these into question. I think what your committee is looking at shows the point I was trying to make, and that is that there's a strong interest by Canadians in the environment they can touch, feel, and smell. Water issues are theref

Environment committee  I certainly can, yes. Can you hear me?

Environment committee  I'm happy to do so. I should point out at the outset that I am not a David Schindler. As my in-laws pointed out, I'm not a real scientist; I'm a political scientist. But I've been fairly heavily involved in water policy work within Alberta, so I would like to take a few minutes

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  At the present time the Senate of Canada has an absolute veto on all forms of legislation, except constitutional amendments designed to change the Senate.

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  They've come close.

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  They came very close on the free trade legislation, the GST, and others. In the back of my mind is the danger of us getting into that confrontation with the existing Senate, because we have such different partisan distributions in the two houses. So I think there are some real r

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  My understanding of how this electoral system would work is that if you had a preferential ballot and all 24 Ontario senators were elected at once, you would be assured of election if you received just over 3% of the popular vote. That's a very low threshold, so it wouldn't squee

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  There is no question that in large-scale elections, which would be the case within the Senate, it will be relatively difficult for people from small communities to be elected. I think that's true. I'm not sure the person from Cold Lake is necessarily better positioned to be appoi

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  I'll be very quick. I realize we have a time limit. You have to keep in mind that representation in the Senate is complementary to representation through the House of Commons, so what we want to think about is what happens through the two houses. To think of the Senate in isolat

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  I think it's an issue that has to be sorted out, and perhaps sorted out more explicitly. You have to ask yourself if the province is the appropriate container. The hard test case on this becomes Ontario. You have to think that maybe we'd be better off if we could take that provin

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  That's a difficult question. Let me begin with the one I think is the most important--I'm not suggesting the others are not important--and that's figuring out what the appropriate size of the senatorial districts would be. My concern with districts that are represented by a sing