Mr. Chair, the term “independence” of the Commissioner is used, but, as I said earlier, the Office of the Auditor General is very independent, and as a result, the Commissioner should be independent from the rest of the machinery of government.
We especially talk about the Commissioner's independence from the Auditor General and from the Auditor General's organization. I think we can ask ourselves certain questions on that subject here today.
You could explore with the Auditor General ways of giving the Commissioner of the Environment the greatest possible independence with regard to the reports prepared by the Commissioner. That person would essentially be responsible for them and would prepare separate reports, apart from those produced by the Auditor General.
So if the Commissioner remains within the office, he or she can be given powers like that in order to have greater independence than currently exists.