I'll be really brief. I want to get across my perspective on what I was thinking in doing this.
I really believe it's fundamental for the legislature to hold the executive to account, to hold the departments to account. Based on my own personal experience in litigating over many years and also having previously worked within the executive and administration, I'm not convinced that we're at a point right now where we have the confidence of all Canadians that the whole of government is rowing in the direction of sustainable development, and we need to get there.
That's why I think it's our role as an independent committee to evaluate, beyond what the Minister of Environment may be doing to improve the environment for Canadians, what we can do separately as legislators to evaluate the federal government system as a whole and provide recommendations to change laws and regulations such that we can improve the system.
In looking at the third suggestion here, around the sustainable development act, I think it's fundamental in the broader question of how we're going to tackle climate change that we make sure we have the federal government's own house in order. Sustainable development strategies, which according to the commissioner are being either produced poorly or implemented poorly.... We need to work at that, and we need to make sure that the way they're doing them, pursuant to the law, is appropriate.
With these motions I'm looking to push government, and I'm hoping the committee seizes this opportunity. In a way it's a rejoinder to Mr. Cullen. I really feel that this is the most effective thing we could possibly be doing, looking at how the government is behaving as a result of laws and regulations that previous governments—not just Conservative governments—have put in place, and how we can improve those. That's not something that the minister would be necessarily focusing on.