Environment groups still waiting for federal government policies to tackle catastrophic climate change.

PUBLISHED July 4, 2011, THE HILL TIMES

Environment Minister Peter Kent, who was appointed to the job in January, has met more in that time with environmental groups than previous environment ministers in this government, but there are still no signs the government will take a stronger lead to fight catastrophic climate change, environment critics say.

According to Mr. Kent’s (Thornhill, Ont.) briefing binder, which The Hill Times obtained under Access to Information, the Environment Department recommended Mr. Kent meet with various stakeholders, noting that environmental non-governmental organizations, industry associations and national aboriginal organizations would likely send “letters of congratulations and request introductory face-to-face meetings.” The department also recommended that Mr. Kent “respond positively to requests for teleconferences or meetings … listed in the attached package (as [his] schedule permits in the next three months). The department recommended meeting with organizations simultaneously “for efficiency purposes.”

Earnscliffe Strategy Group principal Geoff Norquay said that three months is a “nominal amount of time” to meet with stakeholders, but also said there’s no “perfect set time.”

“When a new minister is appointed, for the bigger departments, there are scores, if not hundreds of stakeholders who want to have an initial meeting with the minister and press their claims on a minister,” he said. “There’s no set time or perfect time to which that has to take place. I would expect for some of the larger departments with hundreds or thousands of stakeholders the first year would be a more reasonable time.”

The Hill Times contacted all 28 organizations listed in Mr. Kent’s “transition binder.” Of the 22 organizations that returned calls and emails, eight said they had met formally with Mr. Kent since his appointment, and 13 said they had not met with him. Of those he did meet with, one was an aboriginal group (the Assembly of First Nations) two were energy groups (Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and Canadian Petroleum Products Institute) and six were environmental groups (Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Nature Canada, Nature Conservancy of Canada, Pembina Institute, Pollution Probe and World Wildlife Fund Canada). The Sierra Club of Canada did not return a call, but in a previous interview with The Hill Times, executive director John Bennett said his group had met with Mr. Kent shortly after he was appointed on Jan. 4, 2011. The Canadian Electricity Association told The Hill Times last week that the organization did not meet with Mr. Kent, but according to the monthly communications filings with the Commissioner of Lobbying, the CEA met with him on Feb. 14.

The government has been criticized previously for a lack of an environment and climate change plan, and for not meeting with environmental groups as much as it meets with industry associations or energy businesses. Of the organizations listed in the briefing package, Mr. Kent has met with more environmental groups than industry groups; but a search of monthly communications on the lobbying commissioner’s website shows that’s he’s met more with individual businesses such as Imperial Oil, car companies and Saskatchewan Power Corporation and numerous other groups which were not recommended in the briefing binder.

“It’s good to see that Minister Kent has met with more environmental groups than energy industry groups so far. Some of his predecessors did the opposite, so it’s good to see some balance. However, it remains to be seen if the environmental community’s perspectives will be reflected in the government’s climate and energy policies,” said Ed Whittingham, executive director of Pembina Institute. “Now that the government has announced its intention to set some kind of regulation on the oil and gas sector, I’m confident that energy industry lobbying will ramp up. We hope that Minister Kent, and Environment Canada, will make sure that environmental perspectives are also part of the discussion in setting those regulations.”

Summa Strategies vice-president and Conservative pundit Tim Powers told The Hill Times last week that it’s not unusual to have officials recommend new ministers meet with stakeholders. “Equally, a suggestion of who those stakeholders might be would be expected. Where there would probably be points of difference, though not automatically or always, would be on the stakeholders recommended by officials, the priority placed on them and where that fits in terms of the officials’ agenda versus the minister’s,” Mr. Powers said, when asked if the list of stakeholders is an indication of the status or influence of organizations on government.

Mr. Norquay said it wasn’t a sign of anything, other than “reality” and that’s it’s important to meet with stakeholders because governments don’t exist in a vacuum.

“They have stakeholders that are impacted by their legislation and their regulation and their policies and their programs. Therefore, I would think it’s a pretty good idea for a minister in the early days of his or her appointment to do the rounds of the various sectors and stakeholders that he or she is going to be dealing with,” he told The Hill Times.

Mr. Powers agreed. “Concerns should arise if officials weren’t recommending people to talk with and suggesting that the minister live in some kind of bunkered environment. Ministers, their staff and officials need to constantly have the fresh outside air blowing in or they’ll get stale pretty quickly.”

Some of the groups have met Mr. Kent informally at events or in other meetings with other people. For instance, Mark Nantais from the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturer’s Association told The Hill Times last week that his association met the minister at a roundtable discussion on regulatory cooperation with the United States, but has not yet had a one-on-one.

“Sure, we’d love one, but we haven’t sent an invitation to meet him yet,” Mr. Nantais said, noting he intends to do so.

Similarly, the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada’s Richard Paton said his organization wrote him a congratulatory letter and would like to meet him at his earliest convenience, but said he didn’t expect a meeting because there was no pressing issue at the time.

Mr. Norquay said this is also a regular occurrence. “I think certainly when I advise clients on meetings with ministers or their staff, I guess my view is that meetings should have a purpose. So they may be very brief and introductory at the beginning of a minister’s mandate but they generally should have a purpose,” he said. “Ministers are busy people and if you don’t have anything more to say than, ‘Hi, how are you, good luck with your job,’ that can be done in a letter. It depends on whether the stakeholder has a lot of hot issues or whether the government is about to take some action that’s going to impact on a particular industrial sector.”

The Forest Products Association of Canada also got through the hurdles of scheduling a meeting and Mr. Kent agreed to one, but the two did not meet before the election happened. Other groups, such as the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, said they have met him unofficially at events, but have met more often with senior department officials.

Meanwhile, the department, in the briefing binder, also recommended Mr. Kent “proactively call each one of [his] provincial and territorial counterparts during [the] first week.”

The briefing binder also identified the minister’s “100 day communications rollout.” The first two weeks’ objective was to “propose opportunities to contact key stakeholders and partners to introduce and establish key relationships as well as pursue opportunities to show commitment to working cooperatively.” This included calls to provincial and territorial counterparts and calls and meetings with key stakeholders.

This also includes “engagement with Environment Canada staff.” The briefing binder said he could do this in a number of ways, including an email to staff or a video message on the department’s intranet, a townhall in the lobby of the department’s headquarters in Gatineau with a video conference for regional employees and “walkabouts and visits.”

The briefing binder also said that “a list of possible events and announcements has been included for consideration,” but the list was not made available in response to The Hill Times‘ access to information request.

There’s also a recommendation that Mr. Kent “take the opportunity before Parliament resumes to travel across Canada to engage stakeholders in all [major] regions. … If you agree, scenarios will be developed for each trip that will include meetings with provincial/territorial counterparts; tours of facilities, laboratories/research centres, weather offices; opportunities to meet employees, such as meetings and townhalls; meetings with industry and NGO stakeholders; meetings with medias as required/useful.”

According to the briefing binder, the first month’s objective was to “continue to liaise with key stakeholders to establish or develop broader presence and early opportunities to affirm policy and discuss a path forward.”

The rest of the communications rollout was redacted under section 21(1)a of the Access to Information Act because the information contained “advice or recommendations developed by or for a government institution or a minister of the Crown.”

 

Organizations Environment Canada recommended Minister Peter Kent Meet With

Organization	Meeting with Kent?
Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers	YES
Canadian Energy Pipeline Association	DID NOT RETURN CALL
Canadian Electricity Association	NO
Canadian Petroleum Products Institute	YES
Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association	NO
Chemistry Industry Association of Canada	NO
Forest Products Association of Canada	NO
Mining Association of Canada	NO
Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society	YES
Canadian Wildlife Federation	DID NOT RETURN CALL
David Suzuki Foundation	NO
Ducks Unlimited Canada	NO
Ecojustice	NO
Environmental Defence	NO
Equiterre	NO
Greenpeace	DID NOT RETURN CALL
International Institute for Sustainable Development	NO
Nature Canada	YES
Nature Conservancy of Canada	YES
Pembina Institute	YES
Pollution Probe	YES
Sierra Club of Canada	DID NOT RETURN CALL
World Wildlife Fund Canada	YES
Assembly of First Nations	YES
ITK	NO
Métis National Council	DID NOT RETURN CALL
Congress of Aboriginal Peoples	NO
Native Womens Association of Canada	DID NOT RETURN EMAIL

Lobbyist meetings with Environment Minister Peter Kent

June 14 Wildlife Habitat Canada

May 26 Saskatchewan Power Corporation

March 24 Irving Oil

March 21 Ultramar Ltée, Nature Canada, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society

March 19 Canadian National Railway

March 10 Pembina Institute

March 1 Tourism Industry Association of Canada

Feb. 28 Nova Scotia Power Incorporated

Feb. 25 Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, Sustainable Development Technology Canada

Feb. 24 Chrysler Canada Inc., Alliance of Manufacturers and Exporters Canada

Feb. 16 Canadian Cattlemens’ Association

Feb. 15 Canadian Petroleum Products Institute, Mary Granskou and Larry Innes for the Canadian Boreal Initiative, Engineers Canada, Imperial Oil Limited

Feb. 14 Canadian Electricity Association

Feb. 9 Canadian National Railway

Feb. 8 Chrysler Canada Inc., Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, General Motors of Canada Limited

Jan. 31 Imperial Oil Limited

Jan. 27 Hydro-Quebec

Jan. 24 BIOX Corporation, Canadian Renewable Fuels Association

Jan. 19 TransCanada Corporation

Jan. 13 Canadian Labour Congress