Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses. We do appreciate you guys coming here.
Specifically to the witnesses from Environment Canada, it's a pleasure to have this opportunity. I think it's really important for the Canadian public to better understand what it is you do. I think your initial statement really does lay it out quite simply, because it's not really all about being out there with a stick. There's a whole lot more to it, and oftentimes federal enforcement, whatever administration it happens to be under, comes under fire, including my own in the past.
For this first section, I want to focus on an article, criticisms that I voiced publicly through the McGill International Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy. I figured you guys would have prepared, knowing that I had written this kind of thing years back. I want to go specifically to the report from the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development from 2009, where the commissioner was, I would say, fairly withering in his criticism with respect to reporting obligations required under CEPA. The Commissioner also indicated that the quality of publicly available enforcement data was inadequate, in terms of accuracy, completeness and accessibility.
I want to linger on that last point and get your thoughts on where Environment Canada is and where the federal government is on enforcement data, accessibility, and completeness, and whether there is a vision for where we can go next. If we're a committee that thinks we can go to the next level, can we get a sense of where you guys would like us to go?