Evidence of the Standing Committee on Environment And

43rd PARLIAMENT, 2nd SESSION Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development EVIDENCE NUMBER 022 Monday, March 29, 2021 Chair: Mr. Francis Scarpaleggia 1 Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development Monday, March 29, 2021 ● (1530) Once every clause has been voted on, the committee will vote on [English] the title and the bill itself, and an order to reprint the bill may be required if amendments are adopted so that the House has a proper The Chair (Mr. Francis Scarpaleggia (Lac-Saint-Louis, copy for use at report stage. Lib.)): I call the meeting to order. Finally, the committee will have to order the chair to report the Welcome, Mr. Viersen, to the environment committee. I hope bill to the House. That report contains only the text of any adopted you enjoy your experience here. amendments as well as an indication of any deleted clauses. Welcome to the 22nd meeting of the House of Commons Stand‐ I thank the members for their attention and wish everyone a pro‐ ing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development. Pur‐ ductive clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-204. suant to the order of reference of Wednesday, February 3, 2021, and the motion adopted by the committee on February 17, 2021, the Mr. Lloyd Longfield (Guelph, Lib.): Mr. Chair...? committee is resuming its study of Bill C-204, an act to amend the The Chair: Yes, Mr. Longfield, let me just get set up to see the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, regarding the final hands here. We have Mr. Longfield and Ms. Collins. disposal of plastic waste. Go ahead. We have government officials with us here today as requested. Mr. Lloyd Longfield: Thank you. They will be here to answer questions during the clause-by-clause. Just before we get going to the clause-by-clause, we've received As the name indicates, this is an examination of the clauses in a number of letters. Three of them have been translated, and there the order in which they appear in the bill. I will call each clause are seven more, to my count, that haven't been translated yet. How‐ successively, and each clause is subject to debate and a vote. If ever, they've been sent to us, and I've looked at them. there are amendments to the clause in question, I will recognize the member proposing the amendment, who may then explain the We have the president of the Alberta Plastics Recycling Associa‐ amendment. The amendment will then be open for debate. When no tion, the president of Merlin Plastics, Van WasteCo, P.E.T. Process‐ further members wish to intervene, the amendment will be voted ing out of Delta, B.C.— on. Amendments will be considered in the order in which they ap‐ ● (1535) pear in the bill or in the package each member received from the clerk. Members should note that amendments must be submitted in Mr. Dan Albas (Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, writing to the clerk of the committee, or by email for members par‐ CPC): I have a point of order. ticipating virtually. The Chair: Excuse me, Mr. Longfield— Since this is the committee's first clause-by-clause consideration Mr. Lloyd Longfield: I'm in the middle of a motion. I'm just of a bill in a hybrid meeting format, the chair will go slowly to al‐ giving you a short preamble to give you a motion. low members to follow the proceedings properly. Amendments Mr. Dan Albas: I have a point of order. have been given an alphanumeric number in the top right-hand cor‐ The Chair: I'll come back to you, Mr. Longfield. ner to indicate which party submitted them. There's no need for a seconder to move an amendment. Once an amendment is moved, Go ahead, Mr. Albas. you will need unanimous consent to withdraw the amendment. Mr. Dan Albas: Mr. Chair, this is not relevant to the subject of During the debate on an amendment, members are permitted to clause-by-clause. move subamendments. These subamendments must be submitted in Mr. Lloyd Longfield: No, it actually is. writing or by email for members participating virtually. They do Mr. Dan Albas: I came here specifically intending to do clause- not require the approval of the mover of the amendment. Only one by-clause. subamendment may be considered at a time, and that subamend‐ ment may not be amended. When a subamendment to an amend‐ Mr. Lloyd Longfield: It actually is. I have a motion that I'm in ment is moved, it is voted on first. Then another subamendment the middle of making. I was just listing the letters we've received, may be moved or the committee may consider the main amendment and then I was going to make a short motion, Mr. Chair. and vote on it. The Chair: Go ahead, Mr. Longfield. 2 ENVI-22 March 29, 2021 Mr. Lloyd Longfield: There are letters from the chief executive of a number of stakeholders whom I think he would like us to hear officer of Ontario Waste Management Association; the president of from. I think that makes a lot of sense. Waste Management Association of B.C.; the sustainability manager of Ice River Sustainable Solutions from Shelburne, Ontario; the di‐ I'd be surprised if there was push-back on this; I'll put it that way. rector of Rundel Eco Services out of Calgary; and of course the I hope there's not push-back. There are concerns from across the president and CEO of the Association of Plastic Recyclers. country, from British Columbia, from Alberta, and I think there are pretty significant and foundational concerns from industry groups. These are important stakeholders we haven't heard from. Three They are concerned about the loss of jobs, including in Alberta and of the letters have been translated for our consideration, and Bill B.C. C-204 is generating a lot of interest from industry that we haven't heard from. Some of the letters have been translated. Some of them have not. We should at least have time for those letters that haven't been We've had only three of these letters translated, Mr. Chair, so I'd translated to be translated so that we can all consider them. We've like to move that we defer consideration of Bill C-204 to consider had a number of discussions at this committee and at others about these submissions; that the remaining submissions be translated and the importance of making sure that materials that are brought to the distributed to members; that we have the steering committee con‐ committee are translated. Here we have several letters that haven't sider whether some of these individuals should be asked to appear yet been translated. That's not a criticism of anyone. I'm just trying as witnesses; and that the steering committee report back to the to underline how important it is that we take the time to get them committee on its recommendations. translated so that we can properly interpret them and consider them. Mr. Dan Albas: I have a point of order again, Mr. Chair. The Chair: Yes, Mr. Albas. My greatest concern, of course, is the substance of what's being said in these letters, which is that businesses could be destroyed and Mr. Dan Albas: We are here to do the business of clause-by- jobs could be lost. I just think that's something we should be con‐ clause, not to entertain other motions for committee business. I sidering before finalizing the bill and sending it back to the House. think you should find that the member is not being relevant to the subject at hand. I think you should rule this out of order, so that we ● (1540) can get on with the business we are here to do today. The Chair: We'll go to Mr. Bittle in a moment. Mr. Lloyd Longfield: I think this is in order, Mr. Chair. Ms. Collins, I'm told that after we deal with this motion, we The Chair: Give me a second. We're going to go slowly today, could go to yours. since this is our first experience with clause-by-clause. First of all, Mr. Longfield's motion relates to Bill C-204. It also Mr. Bittle relates to clause-by-clause in the sense that he wishes to delay Mr. Chris Bittle (St. Catharines, Lib.): If it's all right, Mr. clause-by-clause. I have to consider the motion in order. Chair, I see that Madam Pauzé and Mr. Albas have their hands up. Ms. Collins. I'd like to hear from them. I'm happy to go afterwards. Ms. Laurel Collins (Victoria, NDP): Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Chair: Okay. You can take your hand down then and put it back up again. This is not necessarily related to Mr. Longfield's motion, but it's potentially relevant. I was just having tech issues as we were log‐ Mr. Chris Bittle: Yes, certainly. ging in. I haven't done my audio check-in. Hopefully, this can serve The Chair: Okay. We'll go to Mr. Albas, and then Mr. Bittle is as that. back, after Madam Pauzé. The Chair: You sound fine. Yes, it's all good. Mr. Albas. Ms. Laurel Collins: Great. Mr. Dan Albas: Thank you, Mr. Chair. We had agreed at our last meeting to start off this meeting with a motion on the commissioner of the environment and sustainable de‐ I would simply point out that we went through this exercise be‐ velopment.

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