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Minutes of Proceedings

44th Parliament, 1st Session
Meeting 111
Wednesday, October 23, 2024, 4:34 p.m. to Wednesday, October 30, 2024, 6:32 p.m.
Presiding
George Chahal, Chair (Liberal)

• Parm Bains for Majid Jowhari (Liberal)
• Sukh Dhaliwal for Peter Schiefke (Liberal)
• Laila Goodridge for Jeremy Patzer (Conservative)
• Laila Goodridge for Shannon Stubbs (Conservative)
• Blaine Calkins (Conservative)
• Garnett Genuis (Conservative)
• Lianne Rood (Conservative)
Library of Parliament
• Aimée Belmore, Analyst
• Sarah Houle, Analyst
Business Council of Alberta
• Adam Legge, President
Calgary Chamber of Commerce
• Deborah Yedlin, President and Chief Executive Officer
Canada's Building Trades Unions
• Sean Strickland, Executive Director
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on Thursday, June 6, 2024, the committee resumed its study of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

The witnesses made statements and answered questions.

Motion

Mario Simard moved, — That the Committee invite the Parliamentary Budget Officer to appear before the end of the Trans Mountain Pipeline study to share the findings of his update.

After debate, the question was put on the motion and it was agreed to.

Questioning of the witnesses resumed.

Motion

Julie Dabrusin moved, —

That the committee resume consideration of her motion, as amended, moved on Monday, October 7, 2024, which read as follows:

Given that:

• There are 1,600 abandoned and orphaned oil wells in Alberta polluting farmland, waterways, and air;

• The number of abandoned wells in Alberta are set to increase by an additional 1,800 to 2,000;

• These additional abandoned wells will cost more than $200 million to clean up;

• The Government of Alberta sent back $137 million because they failed to use the funds provided by the Government of Canada to clean up abandoned wells and create jobs in the pandemic;

• The Government of Saskatchewan used their allocated funds in their entirety to clean abandoned wells and create jobs;

• Companies who abandon wells and fail to pay for their cleanup negatively impact provincial taxpayers and municipalities;

• Orphaned and abandoned wells present an economic opportunity to support energy solutions like geothermal energy.

The Standing Committee on Natural Resources begin a five-meeting study on the impact of this failure to clean these wells, the impacts of the pollution from not cleaning up abandoned and orphaned wells, the costs of cleaning up abandoned and orphaned wells, the federal regulations to hold companies to account for well cleanup, and the potential opportunities associated with cleaning up abandoned wells, and report its findings to the House of Commons.

The question was put on the motion and it was agreed to on the following recorded division:

YEAS: Charlie Angus, Julie Dabrusin, Yvonne Jones, Majid Jowhari, Viviane Lapointe, Peter Schiefke, Mario Simard — 7;

NAYS: Earl Dreeshen, Ted Falk, Jeremy Patzer, Shannon Stubbs — 4.

The committee resumed consideration of the motion, as amended, of Julie Dabrusin moved on Monday, October 7, 2024, which read as follows:

Given that:

• There are 1,600 abandoned and orphaned oil wells in Alberta polluting farmland, waterways, and air;

• The number of abandoned wells in Alberta are set to increase by an additional 1,800 to 2,000; • These additional abandoned wells will cost more than $200 million to clean up;

• The Government of Alberta sent back $137 million because they failed to use the funds provided by the Government of Canada to clean up abandoned wells and create jobs in the pandemic;

• The Government of Saskatchewan used their allocated funds in their entirety to clean abandoned wells and create jobs;

• Companies who abandon wells and fail to pay for their cleanup negatively impact provincial taxpayers and municipalities;

• Orphaned and abandoned wells present an economic opportunity to support energy solutions like geothermal energy.

The Standing Committee on Natural Resources begin a five-meeting study on the impact of this failure to clean these wells, the impacts of the pollution from not cleaning up abandoned and orphaned wells, the costs of cleaning up abandoned and orphaned wells, the federal regulations to hold companies to account for well cleanup, and the potential opportunities associated with cleaning up abandoned wells, and report its findings to the House of Commons.

The debate continued.

At 6:26 p.m., the meeting was suspended.

At 11:01 a.m., on Monday, October 28, 2024, the meeting resumed.

The debate continued.

At 12:49 p.m., the meeting was suspended.

At 12:51 p.m., the meeting resumed.

The debate continued.

At 1:00 p.m., the meeting was suspended.

At 4:34 p.m., on Wednesday, October 30, 2024, the meeting resumed.

The debate continued.

Amendment

Laila Goodridge moved, — That the motion be amended by replacing all the words after "Given that” with the following:

• The Chiefs of Treaty 6, 7, and 8 have all asked for an extension of time for First Nation communities to properly utilize federal funds allocated for orphan wells;

• The Chiefs asked the federal government to return the money to the Alberta government so it can be distributed back to First Nations for the use of cleaning up orphan wells;

• It is the legal and jurisdictional responsibility of the federal government to ensure the proper clean up of orphan wells on First Nations land;

• The federal government revoked the funds which would be used for remediation and reclamation of more than 3,000 orphan wells on First Nations lands and territories.

The Standing Committee on Natural Resources report to the House that the federal government should return the money allocated to Alberta for First Nations to use to clean up wells on reserves, which are the responsibility of the federal government.

At 4:57 p.m., the meeting was suspended.

At 5:26 p.m., the meeting resumed.

RULING BY THE CHAIR

The Chair ruled the proposed amendment inadmissible as it introduced a new proposition which should be the subject of a substantive motion.

The debate continued.

Amendment

Laila Goodridge moved, — That the motion be amended by replacing all the words before the words “the federal regulations to hold companies to account for well cleanup” with the following: "The Standing Committee on Natural Resources begin a three-meeting study on abandoned and orphaned wells in Canada,".

Debate arose thereon.

At 5:59 p.m., the meeting was suspended.

At 6:05 p.m., the meeting resumed.

The debate continued.

At 6:32 p.m., the committee adjourned to the call of the Chair.



Thomas Bigelow
Clerk of the committee