Mr. Chair, before I bring forward my amendment, I would like to know where it would go in. Would it be at the end? Then it would become clause 1.5. So we would be adding a new point to the two-headed Conservative-Liberal amendment.
It would add the following:
(1.1) When developing the departmental sustainable development strategy, the responsible minister shall comply with The Cabinet Directive on the Environmental Assessment of Policy, Plan and Program Proposals, as amended from time to time, published by the Privy Council Office and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.
The aim of the amendment is to make sure that the directive from the Prime Minister's Office, which is almost 25 years old, is required by law. In broad terms, it requires departments to conduct an environmental assessment of their policies, plans and programs.
On several occasions, Canada's commissioner for the environment has indicated that a number of departments are not observing this directive. In one report, the commissioner indicated that the Department of Finance was dragging its feet on conducting the environmental assessment. This amendment is intended to make sure that the cabinet directive on strategic environmental assessment is followed.