Public Accounts committee  I can answer that. There are other jurisdictions, commonwealth jurisdictions and provincial jurisdictions, in which the Auditor General does have a measure of independent funding mechanism. It can involve the participation of a parliamentary committee, such as this one, or there can be other models that achieve that independence.

Public Accounts committee  We are completing our audit work right now and working with the departments. I can tell you that within the scope of our audit work, it is the Department of Transport and also the Canada Energy Regulator. We are looking at transportation of dangerous goods by all manners, including rail, air, road and pipeline.

Public Accounts committee  Our recommendations will be focused on the actions of the departments and agencies. It will not make policy recommendations on what should or could happen.

Public Accounts committee  When the audit comes out, you'll see that we were talking about the role of the Canada Energy Regulator from start to finish in the process vis-à-vis the rigour and due diligence that they carry out throughout the process. We reviewed files, and once we have settled the audit findings we'll be able to speak specifically about how both the Department of Transport and the CER managed the files that we've looked at.

Public Accounts committee  I'll just maybe add one point. The difference in our request this year was that we did submit, along with our request, the letter that the public accounts committee wrote to support our request last year. We haven't increased our request from the year before, but the support of the committee was emphasized in our submission.

Public Accounts committee  In past Parliaments, we actually haven't had to make funding requests as we do right now. If we rewind the clock further—and I'm going to be ballparking here—there was a discussion about an independent funding mechanism in the mid-2000s. There was a blue ribbon panel struck at that time intending to deal with all agents of Parliament and their requests for funding, and also with the application of central agency policies that might impair their independence.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. Indeed, we've made the request in response to the call that departments get for funding requests. We made the request in January. I will mention that one reason why an independent funding mechanism is important to us is that it is awkward to work our funding through a department that we audit regularly.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, we did.

Public Accounts committee  We don't have a requirement to audit against them. However, our office has been a leader with the international supreme audit institutions in building capacity to audit against the sustainable development goals. Our former commissioner, Julie Gelfand, led some work internationally on how to audit preparedness.

Public Accounts committee  There was what we would consider to be a significant change in the last Parliament. There were amendments made to the Federal Sustainable Development Act that expanded the requirement of departments and agencies to prepare sustainable development strategies in support of the federal sustainable development strategy.

Public Accounts committee  It's not from the environment angle. I can answer it quickly, and then maybe Mr. Ricard will want to add something. We have requested $10.8 million over the last couple of years in the budget process. The predecessor of this committee wrote a letter last year to recommend that we receive that $10.8 million and that there be an independent funding mechanism to deal with future budget requests.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. The commissioner role was established in the Auditor General Act in 1995. Since that time, I would say that we have regularly presented reports to Parliament on environmental and sustainable development matters. In the early years, the reports were largely about environmental matters.