In our audits, we've been looking at this for several years. We are going through every department to see how well they're doing on this, so you'll hear about another four or five departments next year until we've done all of them.
Generally, we have found that this cabinet directive is not being followed when proposals go to ministers, even when there's good news. There have been some “good news” stories. The Canada Revenue Agency, through changing something in the tax code, has saved 18 million pieces of paper a year, and nobody even celebrates that. There are positive environmental effects that are not being communicated as well as negative environmental effects.
I would absolutely agree that the tool is really important. I bring up the example of trying to decide whether you should put solar panels up on your house. Most people, when they're making that decision, are looking at the economics. What's the payback and how long will I live in this house? The second thing they're going to think of is what to do when it's not sunny. How is my family going to get on the Internet or use the fridge if there's no sun? What's the social impact? You also hope that everybody is thinking about their carbon footprint and what it means, and including that when they're trying to make that decision.
In the past, most decisions have been made looking at social and economic aspects and not thinking about environmental aspects. The whole purpose of environment and sustainable development is to bring in that environmental lens. It doesn't mean you make the decision based on environmental aspects, but they are given the same weight as the social, environmental, and economic aspects.
We will continue to look at this year after year.