I could, Mr. Chairman.
I would say that there are benefits to policy-making if an evaluation shows that a program is not performing well in some of its objectives. That is relevant for ourselves and for central agencies in the process of determining whether a program is renewed. It may also tell us that part of the program is working very well but another part isn't.
Sometimes this may be due to capacity at the federal level vis-à-vis the provincial level. For example, a province may be able to do better than the federal government with respect to one aspect of a program.
Another area of benefit is in the management of programs. We posted an audit on environmental emergencies, where one of the details that came out in the audit had to do with the roles of our environmental emergency officers. On the ground, in the case of an emergency where we're providing support, it's very important to have a very clear delineation between the responsibility of environmental emergency officers and enforcement officers. This was an area that the evaluation showed was not entirely clear. That allowed us to issue policy guidance and an actual statement of responsibilities for our environmental emergency officers, as opposed to our enforcement personnel, so that on the ground there's no confusion and there are no legal problems about who is authorized to do what. It's a small point, but it allowed us to improve the delivery of the program on the ground.
These are a couple of examples where evaluations actually do make a difference, sometimes in the continuation of the whole program, at other times in the improvement of its delivery.