House of Commons CANADA Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development ENVI Ï NUMBER 023 Ï 1st SESSION Ï 38th PARLIAMENT EVIDENCE Monday, March 7, 2005 Chair Mr. Alan Tonks All parliamentary publications are available on the ``Parliamentary Internet Parlementaire´´ at the following address: http://www.parl.gc.ca 1 Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development Monday, March 7, 2005 Ï (1235) [English] [English] It's a great pleasure and honour for me to be present here. I'm glad The Chair (Mr. Alan Tonks (York South—Weston, Lib.)): this is, if not a first for you, then nearly a first, because it's a first for Good afternoon, members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen. me. I sort of feel like the guinea pig in the process, in some senses. The orders of the day, pursuant to Standing Orders 110 and 111, concern the certificate of nomination of Glen Murray tothe position What I'd like to do is perhaps take a couple of minutes to tell you a of chairperson of the National Round Table on the Environment and little bit about who I am. I think that probably will be useful. Then the Economy, referred to the committee on Thursday, February 17, I'll spend a little bit of time talking about some of the priorities that I 2005. see as being important, while understanding two things as the pretext of this. One, there's a very significant mandate given to the National Members of the committee, just prior to my requesting that Mr. Round Table on the Environment and the Economy by the Murray address the committee, you have before you I guess the Government of Canada that I think will be the central if not the budget for this year. If there are no questions with respect to the complete task we'll be charged with in the coming years. And two, budget—that is, what we agreed upon in terms of deputants, how I'm simply the chair of the organization, so the ideas you'll hear from much we set aside for travel, and that kind of thing—I'd entertain a me are ones that I will be pitching to the new plenary, a significantly motion to approve the budget. skilled group of people from different walks of life. I can't speak for a plenary that hasn't met, so I can only really give you my personal An hon. member: I so move. perspective at this point. (Motion agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings] Currently I'm employed by the University of Toronto, where I'm a The Chair: Thank you very much. I wanted to do that because visiting scholar. I'm cross-appointed right now in four different some members may have to exit the meeting for a while and return, faculties. I'm teaching in law, at the Rotman School of Management, and so on. Merci. and in the faculties of both arts and science and architecture. I teach parts of courses on public policy, looking mostly at creative capital, Mr. Murray, welcome to the committee. This is actually the first regional economic development, sustainability, and urban public time we'll be going through this process with respect to nominations. policy. The clerk has just pointed out to me that the last time the committee did deal in this fashion with a nomination was with regard to Mr. David McGuinty, who at that time had been nominated to the round I am currently engaged by the Organization of American States on table on the economy and sustainable development. a technical committee representing seven countries, the federalist countries of the Americas, looking at decentralization and the You continue in that tradition, and the committee continues in the importance of local governments and local capacity in a new global tradition of having an opportunity to talk about the position and to economy, confronting economic, environmental, and cultural issues. hear your perspectives on it. I think I've indicated what the procedure is. We'll just take the same procedure. If you would take ten minutes to address the committee, then we'll go in our usual question format. As well, I've just been invited by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to give a paper on these issues in Thank you very much, Mr. Murray. The floor is yours Paris this June. Mr. Glen Murray (Chairperson, National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy): Thank you very much, Mr. I'm also a columnist with the Toronto Star, and a partner in a Chairman, honourable members. public affairs company. Just this past year I was a guest of Ambassador Cellucci's on the VIP program, in an exchange with [Translation] mayors and civic leaders in urban regions, looking at some of the stresses of urban regions post-NAFTA. I was invited to provide some It's a great pleasure for me to take part in this meeting today. expertise in the development of those cities. 2 ENVI-23 March 7, 2005 Domestically here in Canada, I was the Mayor of Winnipeg. I was There are two more quick things I'd like to touch on before I wrap one of the founders of the C-5, a group of business, labour, up. One of them is that sustainable development is not the purview community, and environmental leaders, trying try to take on a of any one walk of life in society. When Parliament engaged the discussion of the challenges facing urban regions in Canada. I think national round table, there was an attempt to realize that this is as that I and the five mayors, or the group of 25 of us, from Montreal, much an economic as a cultural issue; it is as much an environmental Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Toronto, were trying to start to issue as it is an infrastructure issue. They involve everything from see a more integrated approach between the infrastructure and the our social values on, and we have to engage business leaders, fiscal challenges of cities, challenges of immigration and housing, community leaders, people in the non-profit sector, labour, the environment, and what's generally viewed as the retention and academia, municipal and provincial government. This is something attraction of creative people and creative capital. We realized that all that really touches the decisions we all make, institutionally in our of these aspects were very integrated, and we needed to try to engage lives and privately. both the provincial and national governments on a policy dialogue in this country that could address those things. I also worked very actively with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, with which my friend the Honourable Bryon Wilfert is very familiar, having been the president of that organization. I was unanimously elected by the big city mayors as their first national representative. I worked with then Mayor Al Duerr and Jack Layton to form the big city mayors' caucus, which I think has been a very What the national round table does, as a plenary of 24 people, is significant part of public policy. I think with this Parliament and this this. You can tap on that group of leading expertise and people of government it has had a great deal of cachet in the development of great accomplishment who have contributed significantly to one of partnerships and public policy to start to deal with some of the crises. those areas and many others. Some people there are CEOs of major energy corporations, from General Electric to Suncor; there are Previous to that, I worked in AIDS and HIV. I was one of the experts and academics such as David Bell; and there are people who founders of the Canadian AIDS Society. I'm the parent of an HIV- have had experience in territorial and local government, such as positive child. It's a very personal issue for me. I worked for the former Premier Kakfwi and me. What you have now is a healthy lens establishment of the global program of AIDS of the World Health of people such as Audrey McLaughlin, an experienced parliamen- Organization as well as the establishment of the Village Clinic. tarian and former party leader who brings some understanding of the That's probably particularly important, because I think you start to parliamentary process to that, but I think it touches on it in many understand with a pandemic that these issues are both local ways. You have Richard Drouin from Montreal—again, a dynamic neighbourhood issues, which impact on our families and on our corporate leader who has had a lifetime of experience and brings a walks of life, and global in nature. mature understanding of corporate decision-making. It is a very exciting group that we bring together. One of the first challenges that I think faces us with the mandate on climate change is that one of the important roles the national round table brings, as predominantly the federal government's catalyst organization, is really to try to get the federal government more engaged with local communities and local government, from the massive infrastructure, to landfills that give off methane, to transportation systems, and to try to engage local communities, neighbourhoods, and local governments and develop policies that The final thing is that if I were looking for a major change in make sense through the national and international lens. It is to direction, I would like, if I could, to erase the line in a non-partisan localize more of our public policy-making so that the objectives of way between Parliament and the national round table.