Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
You've introduced my colleague Richard Arsenault. I also have with me Mr. Bob Pelland, who can help us if we need him.
As you know, the commissioner's group that I lead conducts performance audits of the implementation of the government's policies and commitments in the area of the environment and sustainable development. In commenting on what has happened in the past, we make recommendations to help point the way to make things better in the future. In all of our work for Parliament, we are strong advocates for sound management of environment and sustainable development by government departments, agencies, and corporations.
As you know, I have been in the post of interim Commissioner for about a month, although I have been involved with the Commissioner’s group for some time. Allow me to make an overall observation with respect to an important challenge faced by government in the area of environmental sustainable development.
With respect to climate change, it seems to me that the task is somehow to encourage and support government officials to work as if there was no tomorrow, day in and day out, for weeks, months, and years at a time, to bring about change, much of which only our children and perhaps grandchildren will see. When you think about it, this is an incredibly difficult but absolutely essential management challenge that must be addressed. That's where the commissioner's group can play a significant role.
Frankly, we are experts at auditing the quality of environment and sustainable development management and in reporting what we find to Parliament. Our findings and recommendations are carefully crafted to help parliamentarians understand what has happened and what may need to change in the future.
For example, last September, after 18 months of detailed audit work in federal departments and agencies, we tabled a report on the management of climate change by the federal government.
In a nutshell, we said that Canada was not on track to meet its international obligations to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions; that Canada was not prepared to adapt to the effects of climate change; and that the federal government’s efforts were not well organized and not well managed.
On the positive side, we also said that the government had a foundation to build on. There are several positive programs and practices and there are many motivated and talented public servants committed to success.
In our report, we made a series of recommendations to address the deficiencies that we had identified. When we were finalizing our 2006 report on climate change, the current government stated that it accepted our recommendations and would address them in its climate change approach, the development of which was then under way. As we understand it, the Clean Air Act is seen by the government as an integral component of its climate change plan, which is still being developed. As we have done for the previous government's plans, we will eventually audit the implementation of this new plan once it is in place.
Furthermore, in future reports to Parliament, we intend to examine the status of actions by the government to address the deficiencies that we have identified and the recommendations that we have made with respect to the management of climate change programs.
Mr. Chair, it is my understanding that your committee is also interested in exploring tax system opportunities in relation to Bill C-30. We did some work in this area in 2004. Back then, we conducted an audit of the implementation by Finance Canada of three commitments it had made in its sustainable development strategy of 2001, on using the tax system to achieve the integration of the economy and the environment.
It's well known that the tax system can have an important influence on the environment, directly or indirectly, by encouraging environmentally positive activities through tax credits, for example, and by discouraging environmentally negative activities.
As part of the 2002 plan of implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Government of Canada and other countries agreed to pursue certain issues related to fiscal aspects of sustainable development. These could include issues such as restructuring taxation and phasing out harmful subsidies where they exist.
During our 2004 audit, we found that Finance Canada had analysed a range of issues associated with the tax-related commitments, made in its 2001 sustainable development strategy. However, we found that Finance Canada’s approach to implementing these commitments had been piecemeal and fragmented. We also found four cases that led us to question whether the department had the appropriate capacity for environmental analysis. Consequently, Finance Canada was not in a position to tell Parliament and Canadians the extent to which it had analysed how the tax system impedes or favours the attainment of sustainable development.
We recommended that in order to meet the intent of its 2001 SDS commitments, the department should conduct a systematic review, based on risk, of key opportunities for using the tax system to better integrate the economy and the environment. In our view this would be an important step toward using the tax system as a tool for sustainable development.
I'd like to conclude my remarks this morning with two final observations.
First, with respect to commenting on the Clean Air Act directly, our long-standing practice in the commissioner's group and within the Office of the Auditor General more generally is to avoid commenting on a bill that is before the House of Commons unless the bill directly affects the work of our office.
Second, my group of 40 dedicated environmental audit professionals is working very hard on a good dozen audits to be reported in October of this year and February of next year. They deal with issues such as toxic substances, pesticides, and contaminated sites. We have scoped out additional audits and studies that will be slotted into future reports once our consultation process with parliamentarians and others is complete.
Mr. Chair, this ends my opening statement. We would be very pleased to answer questions that members may have to the extent that we are able. Thank you.