Let me ask you a follow-up question to that. As a lawyer, I'm always looking for clarity, and the act supposedly is set out to provide clarity in how the government is to be accountable for delivering on sustainable development.
I would presume, and I would appreciate your response on this, that one of the measures you would look for to determine if the government were living up to its responsibilities would perhaps be the mandates that are actually given to a department or agency under legislation. For example, the mandate for the Minister of Environment is given under the Department of Environment Act. Very few people look to that, but go to the substantive laws, such as the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and CEPA, but the actual powers of mandate, more or less, for the minister are under that act.
Interestingly, but not surprisingly, that act mandates the minister to take a variety of actions to protect the environment. That act does not include any provision requiring the minister to balance environmental protection measures with economic interests. Yet that is what the minister espouses daily in and outside the House as his mandate.
I guess my question to you would be, what do you use to measure what the mandates of the department are in delivering on its responsibilities for sustainable development?