Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks, Mr. Minister, for being here. I want to pick up with you on a question I raised yesterday in the House of Commons with your colleague, the President of the Treasury Board. In my view, and in our view as the official opposition, it has a direct bearing on both the main estimates and the supplementary estimates (C) that we're discussing here today, particularly supplementary estimates (C), which are due back next week in the House of Commons.
I asked the President of the Treasury Board yesterday if he could explain to Canadians how much is being spent by your government on its national advertising campaign. I put to him yesterday that the estimates are now somewhere between $200 million and $250 million, which media and advertising experts have confirmed is the largest single media buy from the private or public sector in Canadian history.
In my riding of Ottawa South, I'm not convinced that my constituents have to see a bonanza of advertising on the six o'clock or eleven o'clock news, or for that matter roughly every nine minutes during the entire Olympics. Whether it's on the Internet or TV or radio or print, Canadians are being bombarded with what is now arguably--approximately, according to experts in the media--a quarter of a billion dollars of advertising.
As the minister responsible for the Department of the Environment, which needs more and more support all the time, does this square with you? As a member of a cabinet that's approved this advertising, number one, does it square with you? Number two, can you help Canadians who are watching understand how much of this money has been spent, for example, on climate change and climate change measures in order to prepare this country for the climate change crisis that lies ahead?