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House Hansard - 234

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 18, 2023 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 234 - Oct/18/23
Hon. François-Philippe Champagne (Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Lib.)
  • Oct/18/23 3:35:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians watching at home should remember what the facts are in the House. The moment that we heard about allegations of misconduct, we immediately commissioned a third-party independent expert to investigate these allegations, who reported back to me. We have suspended, in good governance, the funds that would be disbursed to protect the interests of Canadians. I can assure the member that we will take all measures required to make sure that proper governance is applied in all agencies of the Government of Canada.
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Context: House Hansard - 234 - Oct/18/23
Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)
  • Oct/18/23 7:39:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise this evening in Adjournment Proceedings to discuss the question that I first raised on May 18 of this year. It was a question for the Minister of Environment on the topic of the Ontario Greenbelt and the potential for water policy and water governance to provide assistance and additional tools to the minister. As many members in this place will know, since I asked that question in May, Premier Doug Ford of the province of Ontario has admitted he made a mistake. That is putting it mildly, but the point of my question remains relevant; it is not moot. I am afraid the point of my question was missed by the hon. Minister of Environment when he responded to me. I was suggesting to him that water governance and water law and policy present an opportunity for usable tools. The Minister of Environment has not been looking at water governance very much and keeping it up to date, so I pointed the Minister of Environment in the direction of the Great Lakes annex, which is a legally binding agreement between Canada and the United States, as well as eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. It is an extraordinary and robust document that actually gives us legally binding tools. At the time, the Minister of Environment raised other ways that he might be prepared to protect the Greenbelt, so in general we agreed, but I think it is appropriate now, in October, to raise issues about where we are in water governance and water policy, particularly the long-promised Canada water agency. We have made progress. We have heard a number of announcements and they have gotten increasingly specific. We now know that the Canada water agency will be based in Winnipeg, but after double-checking the Government of Canada website before our debate tonight, I found the same language: “Legislation will be introduced in 2023 to establish the Canada Water Agency as a stand-alone Agency.” Months have passed and we still do not have that stand-alone legislation before this place. We are still in 2023, so the Liberal government has part of October, all of November and part of December to table that legislation. I would like to remind the government of its importance. When we look at water governance and water policy, what we should look at, which has been referenced through all manner of expert reports and blue ribbon panels, is the need to engage federal, provincial and municipal orders of government. As I said before, we need to look at them in terms of the basins in Canada and the U.S., the shared basins. We have to look at international law. We also have to really engage, which we have not yet done, indigenous nations and peoples in water policy and water governance. We have to do all of this with a climate lens. We are the only country in the G7, I was surprised to find out the other day, that does not have any water agency to predict water events such as floods and droughts. This is about being aware that the climate crisis has a specific and immediate impact on water. In the time remaining, I would like to use this opportunity, as I tried to do back in May in question period, to remind the government that water policy, water governance and the engagement of different orders of government are critical for moving forward. We have opportunities to coordinate and to ensure that we update our existing set of international agreements in order to take more into account of the climate and indigenous roles in the protection of healthy waterways, which is in all of our interests as we try to adapt to an increasingly warming world. I imagine I will have a lot to discuss with the hon. parliamentary secretary.
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