Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for the indulgence of the committee.
I'd like to very quickly speak to a notice of motion, which I hope we can debate Monday, Mr. Chair. It speaks to the question of making the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development a fully independent officer of Parliament, reporting directly to Parliament. It clearly affirms and appropriately circumscribes the duty of that office, of that commissioner, which would include the role of advocacy on environmental and sustainable development issues, making sure that this office was properly funded at arm's length and had the right kind of staff and auditing function without government influence, and so on.
I raise this, Mr. Chair, because of the original intent that created this position. It flowed from the 1992 Earth Summit at which governments of that time—Prime Minister Mulroney's government—signed the Rio Declaration. One of the undertakings at the time by states that signed was to do two things: to strengthen and create a council for sustainable development in their respective countries—in our case, Prime Minister Mulroney created the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy—and to strengthen the follow-up and monitoring of.... There is no debate.