Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate the comments made around the table. I tend to lean in the direction of the comments made by Mr. Bigras. The Office of the Commissioner of the Environment is a very important office to keep the government accountable on environmental issues. At present the commissioner is under the Office of the Auditor General. We at the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development dealt with a motion of how we should be dealing with that office—should that office of the commissioner be separate from the Auditor General? That is the direction that the committee is recommending.
For us to be dealing with that office in Bill C-30, I believe, will slow down Bill C-30. We need to move forward on Bill C-30. I don't believe it's the best place. I believe it should be dealt with separately from Bill C-30. I think it will be dealt with in an efficient and effective way. We're not opposed to considering a separate independent Office of the Commissioner of the Environment, but we are opposed to slowing down the processing in clause-by-clause of Bill C-30. I would hope that it would be considered not relevant and necessary to Bill C-30.