Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Certainly, as my colleague said, the three departments and others all play a role in this. In terms of some of the things that Environment and Climate Change Canada is doing, we spoke about weather forecasts, and that is indeed very critical. One of the things we have done under the oceans protection plan is bolster our ability to provide marine weather forecasts to ensure that mariners have the most up-to-date information possible so they can avoid situations of extreme weather, which could lead to accidents and mishaps.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Unfortunately, I'm not prepared to speak to the oceans protection plan, but I can tell you about one of the things we are doing in meteorological services. Because we are responsible for monitoring the environment and the atmosphere, it is very important that we continue to use the most up-do-date equipment to monitor atmospheric conditions, ice conditions and other conditions like that so we can provide the data that is needed to engineers and others so that some of this construction can be done in a way that is more sustainable and future-looking.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to present before you today to inform the committee's study of critical northern infrastructure projects and regional strategies from the perspective of environmental observations and monitoring. My name is Dilhari Fernando, and I'm a Director General with the Meteorological Service of Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Government Operations committee  Some have been approved by Treasury Board and some have not.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely. The first piece, protecting nature, is creating a fund, and the federal portion of that fund is contained in that amount you see there. The fund is to be partnered with NGOs and provinces and territories to purchase land and carry out conservation activities on that land.

Government Operations committee  The second item is with regard to weather and water services, two different items. The first piece relates to modernization of Environment Canada's ability to forecast and disseminate information on weather. The second piece relates to hydrological services, which is a partner program we carry out with the provinces and territories, and the ability to rebuild a lot of the infrastructure that is rusting, particularly in western Canada.

Government Operations committee  I think Mr. Pagan can address that, but—

Government Operations committee  My understanding is that due to the process we have to undertake, which requires cabinet approval for the policy authority and then Treasury Board approval for the spending and the other authorities, some of these elements have already been through the Treasury Board approval process and others have not.

Government Operations committee  Yes, it has.

Government Operations committee  The other items are in the process of being developed for Treasury Board consideration.

Government Operations committee  To be precise, I believe there are three different elements of vote 40. I can really only speak to one element, and that is with regard to weather and water services, which is really about modernizing Canada's weather forecasting system, improving the backbone to how we forecast weather and how we disseminate weather, and ensuring that Canadians have access to the best possible products, that is, the most precise and accurate information with the most lead times in terms of weather forecasting.

Government Operations committee  Of that, to my knowledge, the only piece that has been approved by Treasury Board is the revitalization of Canada's weather services.