Government Operations committee  It is those departments and about a dozen others. We focused our efforts on clarifying roles and responsibilities among those departments that have the most significant environmental footprint themselves, such as the Department of National Defence, Correctional Services, Parks Ca

Government Operations committee  I can speak for Public Works activity in that regard. We're not waiting. We have an active program aimed at energy efficiency related to control systems in buildings, lighting, and other things. Also, as we go through our normal repairs and maintenance of buildings, as windows an

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I can't speak to the existence or non-existence. To the best of my knowledge, there is no directive to use more asbestos, certainly in Public Works. Public Works represents about a quarter of the federal inventory of buildings. I would be surprised if ot

Government Operations committee  I'd be happy to provide material that the Canada Green Building Council has about the LEED rating system, and platinum in particular. I wouldn't be able to speak in too much technical detail. I can say that from an energy use perspective, building to a LEED platinum standard gets

Government Operations committee  We'll send them to you.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chairman, I'm quite confident that the Canada Green Building Council themselves have the documents in both languages, since a lot of construction is in locations where that would be required, so we'll provide the appropriate links to the committee.

Government Operations committee  To the best of my knowledge, that is not being looked at, but I would like to be able to check on that and get back to you, with the caveat that as that wouldn't be specifically a green-driven initiative, then it's entirely possible it's something someone is thinking about but ha

Government Operations committee  I understand. I didn't mean to discount the potential environmental benefits of the approach you're describing. If it is under way, it's not under way in your green push. So I would have to ask some questions to learn whether that's something anyone is considering.

Government Operations committee  Obviously, Mr. Chairman, I can't speak to this specific example, and I know the member doesn't expect that. Our standards are not unreasonably high. They are leadership, but they are not outside what is possible. Canadian firms compete and are successful across the country for t

Government Operations committee  That is one aspect of the greening of operations. We have put together fairly recently a strategic framework to help us think about greening government operations. For that, we've identified four domains of activity: land, because we have a lot of land, as the federal governmen

Government Operations committee  Yes, I understand. In the context of our framework, the things that we consider relative to land are not necessarily the purchase of land, which I think was your direct question, but they are relative to land contamination. We have a contaminated sites program in which we deal wi

Government Operations committee  I can speak to that a little bit, and Berny may have something to add. In the policy on green procurement in particular, there is very consciously not an effort to identify a green product versus a non-green product. The policy aims to integrate environmental considerations into

Government Operations committee  I will try to answer your question and my colleagues can then add to it if need be. My predecessor was here about two years ago with a number of colleagues from the partner departments. And you're right that the office of greening government operations, and Public Works more gen

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to introduce my colleagues. Shirley Jen is from Treasury Board Secretariat, and Berny Latreille is from Environment Canada. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity to appear before you to discuss the gre