Mr. Speaker, on page 64 of the red book of the Liberal Party published in 1993 we find the following promise:
Our first task will be to conduct a comprehensive baseline study of federal taxes, grants, and subsidies, in order to identify barriers and disincentives to sound environmental practices.
Last December when we reported to the House, the Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development did hold hearings in keeping this promise and made numerous recommendations to the government for the 1996 budget.
One positive result was that the budget contains measures for beginning the process of putting renewable and non-renewable energy sources on equal footing. That is a good step in the right direction.
At the time of the committee's hearings experts in the field of sustainable development told us one year would be sufficient for completion of such a study and warned against stretching it over a longer time.
Another reason for the year timeframe is that soon we will have in place a commissioner of the environment and sustainable development in the auditor general's department. In 1998 the job of this person will be to review each department's sustainable development strategy.
If this baseline work is done now departments would be able to incorporate the relevant findings into their sustainable development strategies. In addition, this work would provide a benchmark to judge progress toward sustainable development objectives in individual departments.
The environment committee recommended the finance minister appoint a small group of outside experts, supported by senior federal officials taken from the departments of the environment, finance, natural resources, agriculture and transport, among others. This working group would be chaired by a recognized and credible expert in sustainable development matters charged with the authority to make definitive recommendations on behalf of the working group. This approach to the baseline work would provide substantive proposals plus transparency and legitimacy in the eyes of the public.
I ask the distinguished Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance if the government will launch the comprehensive baseline study now so as to be completed by September of this year, as recommended by the environment committee, or will it be the turn of the century before we see any results?