If I may, I think we need to separate out the Federal Sustainable Development Act from the cabinet directive on strategic environmental assessment.
I've reported to you that in my last chapter on the strategic environmental assessment tool cabinet directive, we found that five out of 1,700 proposals that went to ministers in four departments had received a preliminary scan. We also found that 110 out of 250 memorandums to cabinet had gotten that scan. So we know that this tool, which has been around for a long time, is not particularly well used in those four departments.
A few years back, we audited the Department of Finance. They did a better job, so they as a department were using the tool better. Last year, when we issued our report, Privy Council Office issued a memorandum to analysts to ask them to be sure to follow the strategic environmental assessment and implement it. We then audited it a year later—so this was probably in 2014—and we found that proposals that went to ministers were still not being utilized.
Privy Council Office, with all due respect, has a big role in enforcing the strategic environmental assessment directive to make sure that everything that goes, particularly to cabinet, has been vetted through a strategic environmental assessment. That is a separate tool from the Federal Sustainable Development Act. We are looking at two different things. I want to make that really clear.
The proposals that Mr. Boyd brought forward are very specific things that you can change in the act, and he indicated in his presentation that his idea was to make the strategic environmental assessment tool—this thing—a legal obligation under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.
If you recall, when I presented I simply suggested that we make the strategic environmental assessment tool a legal part of something. I didn't tell you which act. Technically, you might be able to put it in the Federal Sustainable Development Act. I'm not sure. I'm not a lawyer and Mr. Amos is nodding his head.
Basically Mr. Boyd and I are saying take that strategic environmental assessment directive and make it an obligation. Whether you do that through the Environmental Assessment Act or through your recommendations on the Federal Sustainable Development Act, that is up to you.