Absolutely. We were busy cleaning up the financial mess left by the last Conservative government and delivered up a $13 billion surplus to this government--before it so acutely and so competently squandered it.
To the witnesses, I'd like to pose a theoretical question. If there were a new PCO-driven implementation strategy that set caps on emissions by sector and region and that instructed departments on which economic instruments to use preferably, based on evidence--not ideology but evidence--and if there were real penalties for non-compliance, if there were an ecosystem-based management approach designed for the departments and full-cost accounting with timelines for meeting each target, and if there were a clear indication of which person was responsible for implementing the strategy, can you tell me, would that not help Canadians achieve their green procurement objectives?
I don't understand how the environment department can take the lead on this, Mr. Shugart. I think what we're doing here is setting up the environment department to become the “enviro-cop”. Frankly, I don't know if the environment department, as a science-based department, has the suasion--moral suasion or any other instrument or power at its disposal--to convince other much larger departments, central agencies, and others to actually achieve these targets.