Thank you for that.
My second question is to Mr. Vaughan directly.
Mr. Vaughan, in your opening remarks you really caught my attention, because in the third paragraph you said “the sustainable development strategies prepared by different agencies and departments are not working”. This committee has put a lot of energy and a lot of time into examining the role of the office you now occupy. It voted in favour of an independent commissioner. The government opposed the notion of an independent commissioner reporting directly to Parliament. And we're now really in the thick of Mr. Godfrey's bill, which the official opposition thinks will help strengthen the hands of the officers inside the federal structure who are responsible for delivering on sustainability strategies and so forth.
I know it's way too early to ask you to comment on either Mr. Godfrey's bill or the independence of the office you are now occupying, but I would say just as a point of introduction, it's an issue that's not gone away. There are many hundreds of Canadians who still write to me asking me the outcome of that motion that was passed here in this committee before the government prorogued Parliament. So there's a lot of appetite and a lot of interest in how the office is occupied and your legislative responsibilities and so on.
So I want to thank you for at least tackling this very forthrightly by simply coming out and saying these strategies aren't working, and I hope there will be other times to have a more detailed conversation.
I also really want to commend you for your overture to meet with us to have a conversation about how we can improve the situation in Canada.
Those are my remarks, Mr. Chair. I asked Mr. Regan to pick up for a few minutes.