Environment committee  In the report I published last October, we considered the fast-start financing the federal government had provided to third parties. As Mr. McKenzie told you, we looked at whether the federal government had set objectives, whether it could receive reports and whether it was reaching its objectives.

Environment committee  According to the study we carried out in 2013, the former commissioner did look into chapter 2 to determine whether or not Canada had reached the targets. That was chapter 2 of our 2013 report. I don't have all the information on hand, but I see that Environment Canada did set targets.

Environment committee  As the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development, I'm really interested in the concept of sustainable development. When I look at the work that the commissioner's office has done in the past, I feel it's very much focused on the environment part of the three Venn diagram and less so on the other two parts, and how they integrate really well.

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, thank you for this opportunity to discuss chapter 3, Conservation of Migratory Birds, of the commissioner's 2013 fall report. Joining me at the table is James McKenzie, the principal who was responsible for the audit. Although we have not done an audit specifically on licensed hunting and trapping in Canada, our 2013 audit is relevant to this topic, given the important relationship between hunting and the conservation of waterfowl.

Environment committee  I can get back to you on that. I don't have that information. I don't know if the revegetated sites are one of the monitoring sites, but there are quite a lot...there are maps of all the various sites for the water monitoring, the air monitoring, and the biodiversity monitoring.They're very detailed, and they're probably available in the report.

Environment committee  We didn't look at the scientific part of that. We looked at whether there were work plans. Environment Canada was responsible for all the biodiversity monitoring. As I said, Environment Canada was responsible for 38 projects. We looked at nine of the biggest ones. We did not assess the scientific accuracy.

Environment committee  Part of the program was that the information coming from all these different monitoring sites and these three component areas was an integration strategy and was supposed to be developed. We see the very beginning of an integration strategy. We make a recommendation that this integration strategy be fully fleshed out.

Environment committee  It's two different things. It's a different timeframe. It's also a different thing—thing one and thing two—in terms of what was audited. They looked at what was contained in the report. We looked at Environment Canada and the work plans, the projects on the ground, and how well Environment Canada was doing in implementing its share of the monitoring projects.

Environment committee  The information that I got was from a recent report from Natural Resources Canada. I don't have the level of detail in that question off the top of my head, but we could get back to you on that. It would be in the NRCan report, I'm pretty sure.

Environment committee  That's probably basic science, but I—

Environment committee  It is, but I'm an auditor, and I can only do what I do.

Environment committee  Not in this report, no, we did not.

Environment committee  In terms of the monitoring?

Environment committee  We looked at the monitoring projects under air, water, and biodiversity. These are very specific sites. I got to see some. I watched them dig up soil samples along one of the rivers, I watched a canoe go by with some young scientists who were going into the bush to set up the cameras to look at the wildlife.

Environment committee  But we did look at 45 of them. We found that in two-thirds, the cabinet directive was being properly applied. In one-third of the cases, there was information, as I say, with positive environmental impact that was not getting to the ministers, as well as some with negative impacts.