Sequence of events: appearance before the Standing Committee (March 10, 2021)

Zoom video conference

Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Time: 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. (EST) with likely delays (possibly one hour) due to votes in the House of Commons

Event description

The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change (ECCC), has been invited to appear before the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development (ENVI) to speak to the Environment Portfolio’s Supplementary Estimates C that were tabled in Parliament on February 16, 2021.

The Minister will appear for the first hour accompanied by:

• Christine Hogan, Deputy Minister, ECCC
• Stuart Parley - Director General, Financial Management, and Deputy Chief Financial Officer
• Ron Hallman, President and CEO, Parks Canada Agency
• Catherine Blanchard, Vice-President, Finance Directorate, Parks Canada Agency
• Other senior portfolio officials will be available to assist the Minister if requested.

The Minister will depart following completion of the first hour of the meeting leaving behind Christine Hogan, Stuart Parley, Ron Hallman, Catherine Blanchard, and the following senior portfolio officials to respond to questions from Committee Members during the second hour:

ECCC (Confirmed)

• Hilary Geller, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Branch
• Matt Jones, Assistant Deputy Minister, Pan-Canadian Framework Implementation Office
• John Moffet, Assistant Deputy Minister, Environmental Protection Branch
• Niall O'Dea, Assistant Deputy Minister, Canadian Wildlife Services
• Diane Campbell, Assistant Deputy Minister, Meteorological Service of Canada
• Helen Ryan, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Environmental Protection Branch
• Marc D’Iorio, Assistant Deputy Minister, Science and Technology Branch
• Anne-Marie Pelletier, Chief Enforcement Officer

PCA (Confirmed)

• Andrew Campbell, Senior Vice-President, Operations
• Michael Nadler, Vice-President, External Relations and Visitor Experience
• Darlene Upton, Vice-President, Protected Areas Establishment and Conservation
• Christine Loth-Bown, Vice-President, Indigenous Affairs & Cultural Heritage

Video Conference (Zoom) – The meeting will be conducted through Zoom. All Environment Portfolio officials including the Minister have already been provided with mandatory head-sets by ENVI prior to their previous appearances before the Standing Committee. Committee technicians will conduct tests with each participant prior to the meeting to ensure that all equipment is fully operational.

Log-in – Witnesses are encouraged to log onto Zoom a full half-hour prior to the meeting. The Clerk of ENVI will provide Parliamentary Affairs with contact information for those who wish to follow the proceedings in real time as observers.

Chat Lines – Michael O’Brien, Senior Parliamentary Affairs Officer, will create a chat line on MS Teams to link in all departmental officials who will be on standby to assist our ECCC witnesses.

Kyle Harrietha, Minister’s Director of Parliamentary Affairs, will create a What’s App link with the Minister and his senior officials so that he can transmit messages as required.

Official Invitation – Michael O’Brien will send out an official invitation to all our officials ensuring that all pertinent information is contained within their respective schedules.

Event timeline

3:30 p.m.

Francis Scarpaleggia, Chair of ENVI, will open the meeting by welcoming the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Christine Hogan, Deputy Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ron Hallman, President and CEO of the Parks Canada Agency along with their senior officials. (Note that Minister Wilkinson is committed to participating for a full hour even if this meeting is delayed by as much as a full hour due to votes in the House of Commons.)

3:35 p.m.

Minister Wilkinson delivers a 5-minute opening statement.

3:40 p.m.

The Chair of ENVI opens the floor to a round of 6 minutes of questions for the Minister and his colleagues beginning with Dan Albas, Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) critic for ECCC who will be followed by a representative of the Liberal Party, and ECCC critics Monique Pauzé, Bloc Québécois (BQ), and Laurel Collins of the New Democratic Party (NDP). Following completion of the first round of questions, Members will move on to a second round of 5-minute questions allotted to the CPC and Liberal Parties with 2.5 minutes going to the BQ and NDP parties.

4:30 p.m.

Minister Wilkinson departs the meeting leaving Deputy Heads and their senior officials behind to answer questions over the next hour in the same order as described above.

5:30 p.m.

Chair of ENVI thanks the witnesses putting an end to the meeting.

Video conference ends.

Logistics contact from ECCC

Michael O’Brien
Senior Parliamentary Affairs Officer
Parliamentary Affairs Unit
Mobile: 343-551-1850
Email: michael.obrien@canada.ca