One of the questions I put to the senior departmental officials when they were here presenting their initial cut on the response was.... I found it peculiar that the very purpose of this Federal Sustainable Development Act—and this is a laudable purpose—is “to provide the legal framework for developing and implementing a Federal Sustainable Development Strategy that will make environmental decision-making more transparent and accountable”. So it's very much intended that it's going to be a legally prescribed framework.
Unlike the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, which allows the Department of Environment to use a whole range of tools, like codes of practice, guidelines, and so forth, this law provides only one measure to guide the government in formulating that framework, and that is the promulgation of regulations under subsection 11(4). Yet those regulations have not been promulgated, and I was led to understand there was no immediate intent to promulgate any regulations.
I was wondering if you thought it might be somewhat helpful to have a more detailed regulatory framework setting the boundaries for some of the things the various agencies have to report under here.