Environment Committee on Dec. 5th, 2017

[Nick Xenos]

Sure, we can send a link to the committee of the exact website, if that would be helpful.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

I think what he's getting at is that unless you have insider trading, how would you be able to find it? How do you make it easily accessible?

[Darren Fisher, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

We never do a great job of disseminating information.

An environmental lawyer can go in and find this stuff very easily, but for someone who's surfing Facebook, what's the easiest way to keep tabs on the government to see the successes?

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Or failures.

[Nick Xenos]

Ultimately you can just google “Government of Canada greenhouse gas inventory”, and it will lead you right there.

I agree with you that dissemination is a key area in which we can always do better. We have put up infographics to make it simpler and clearer on summarizing the data. We've done very clear infographics at a high level, and then we've tweeted the results and used social media. We've also posted the actual data—the inventory of data by department, by province, by year—so that Canadians who wish to can go even deeper into the data and find out exactly how departments are doing and where.

We've tried to span that communication side from high-level infographics to the data sheets of the data, if you will, and used social media to get it out.

Of course, I'm happy to take ideas on how to do better.

[Darren Fisher, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Well, I think it's great to say 19%, but I think Canadians want to know whether we are retrofitting our older buildings, putting on solar panels, those types of things, “this is what the Government of Canada is doing to green government services.” It's sending a message to industry that this is what we're doing, starting at the top and showing some corporate leadership.

I'll pass any remaining time on to Mike.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

You're out of time. There is no time to pass on to Mike.

I'm looking at the clock on the wall over there and it's quarter to, unless the committee is willing to go for another minute to let him have a question.

Okay, I see acceptance here.

Go ahead, Mike, but make it quick, please.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

I just want to get a confirmation.

I discussed with you earlier about proposed section 10.1 and the environment, and whether there are other mechanisms and instruments within the purview that TB can use to ensure we're meeting our commitments.

On the FSDA, in a sense does this enable a central agency department to be able to hold departments accountable to ensure that we meet those sustainable development goals outlined in that FSDA, those international commitments?

[Nick Xenos]

I think it's a very useful tool for Treasury Board to use, as collectively departments will create it, report on it, and report on it individually. I think it's very helpful for Treasury Board to see those reports and to cross-reference that with Treasury Board submissions, or other expenditure reviews or expenditure authorities and things like that.

To me, it's a very helpful and useful information tool for Treasury Board.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

We're going to have to stop it at that. I know we have a lot more questions, but we're out of time.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

That's good. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

We are going to go to clause-by-clause on Thursday.

Everybody has to have their recommended amendments in by four o'clock tonight. I had hoped we would have more of them in earlier so that we could all have a look at them ahead of time, but it looks like we're down to the wire.

On Thursday we start at 8:45 on clause-by-clause. Please get your amendments in by four o'clock tonight. Thank you.

The meeting is adjourned.