Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you for allowing Ms. Soucy to attend our committee. I really do appreciate that. That was an important gesture.
I'm very heartened to hear that our federal government has increased federal grants and contributions by $650 million since 2016.
Last week, I had a chance to join about 50 local community stakeholders in Windsor to announce $76 million. It was the largest freshwater restoration investment in the history of Canada in my community. It will benefit areas of concern. It will reduce phosphorus loading, which will help mitigate and prevent dangerous and toxic algae blooms. I can tell you that local organizations, like the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Windsor, the Essex Region Conservation Authority, the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, Caldwell First Nation and Friends of Ojibway Prairie, were ecstatic about receiving that funding and being able to partner with the federal government to protect our precious Great Lakes. Not only are the Great Lakes vital to our economy and our agricultural sector, but they are absolutely part of our very identity as residents of our wonderful community. I can tell you that the partners in that community called that investment generational.
I want to contrast that with the previous Harper Conservative government, and it's important to make that contrast. They slashed funding to Environment Canada—we're talking hundreds of millions of dollars—and muzzled government scientists, especially scientists working on the environment and climate change. This is what the Information Commissioner reported on.
The CRA was tasked by the previous government with going after environmental charities and attacking them. In addition to that, in 2013, there was the elimination of the budget for the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, a critical round table that brought in experts from all across the country. It was eliminated for the sin of actually testifying and bearing witness to the fact that we have a climate crisis and we need to do more.
A Conservative member of Parliament, MP Bob Mills from Alberta, a long-standing member who was very much pro-market, stated that this was a mistake: “Stephen Harper puts other priorities...ahead of the environment and I think that's a mistake. Obviously, I wouldn't be here if I didn't really strongly believe that the round table was doing an excellent job”. That's what Bob Mills, a former Alberta Conservative MP, said at a press conference.
All of those things were cut. It's important that we understand the context of what we are talking about here today: a government that believes in fighting climate change, a government that believes in environmental work and a government that is putting money into those initiatives.
Having said that, we can always do better, and that's why we're here today. That's what we're trying to do: build trust for Canadians in these investments and in these programs.
The audit report stated, as you mentioned, that there are inconsistencies. Basically, the audit report stated you're relying on two separate systems to administer grants and contributions. I'm not an expert, Ms. Soucy, but I imagine that presents a challenge in terms of consistency and being able to verify funding and measure it. Can you speak a little bit about the troubles that the dual system represents and what we're doing to actually fix it to create that consistency across that system?
