Public Accounts committee  No, it was not. The clauses that have been added to our contribution agreement have come as a result of the attention from and the recommendations of the Auditor General. It has just been in recent months that we've included the clauses that now stand as standardized language in each of our contribution agreements.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for that question. In fact, the prevention or avoidance of conflict of interest is contained in the code of values and ethics that all public servants adhere to. So it is very much part of the way we operate, and thus we have mechanisms now, and checklists, and oversight to ensure that situations of conflict of interest are prevented.

Public Accounts committee  We have had the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Service and now we have specific language that has been introduced right into the contribution agreement that is signed.

Public Accounts committee  We do have a system in place to record the meetings between officials, starting really at the assistant deputy minister level, and the lobbyists.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I believe the question relates to the obligations of lobbyists. The obligations rest with the lobbyists as opposed to the individual public servants.

Public Accounts committee  The obligation starts at a particular level in the public service. In our Lobbying Act, the primary responsibility is for the lobbyist to record any interactions. We do have a system at NRCan where we take note and ensure that anyone at the assistant deputy minister level or above is aware of the status of any stakeholder and whether or not they are on the list of official lobbyists.

Public Accounts committee  In my opening statement, what I was attempting to outline is some of the improved oversight we've put in place in terms of a conflict of interest situation that could arise from a relationship existing between one program official who in this case may have used a consultant who then later came back and used that expertise to secure a contribution agreement.

Public Accounts committee  There is one situation I am aware of that involves a perceived conflict of interest. It has certainly been brought to my attention and we are actively managing that at the present time. In terms of the overall work of our oversight committees, I believe since 2005-06 there has been such an elevated level of attention to contribution agreements that there is, in a way, a culture that would not allow this kind of conflict situation to repeat itself.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much for the question, and I appreciate your understanding of the context in which we operate. Just to go a little further on the statement that no money was misspent, I can tell you that NRCan's staff completed a detailed review back in 2006 of all of the dollars claimed by the CEEA Transport organization.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I would first like to introduce my colleagues at the table. Mr. Bill Merklinger is the assistant deputy minister of corporate management and services sector and the chief financial officer at Natural Resources Canada. My colleague Mr. Richard Fadden has already been introduced.

Natural Resources committee  On the question of whether there's a relationship between the $20 million we're requesting in supplementary estimates (B) for ecoENERGY retrofit, there is no connection. What we're looking to do is to advance funds that were dedicated to ecoENERGY retrofit into this year, as I mentioned, to meet the unprecedented demand for that program.

Natural Resources committee  I can give you some information on that program. We have allocated about one-third of the funding under our ecoENERGY renewables program at present. The program itself is not complete. We're right in the middle of doing the due diligence necessary on each application that comes in.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for the question. Just to clarify, the tax credit you're referring to is not part of my department's mandate. It comes under Environment Canada. But I will say that in terms of measurement we do have processes in place for measuring the impacts of the programs we are funding and investing in.

Natural Resources committee  I think it's a fair question. As I mentioned, we're in the process right now of just defining the parameters around this clean energy fund and the investments we've received in the budget. We could certainly come back, once those decisions are made, to discuss that with the committee.

Natural Resources committee  Congratulations on your election to Parliament. Let me first speak to the question you had about public relations. This funding that was made available in budget 2008 was really in response to the forest industry coming to government and asking for assistance to combat campaigns that were going on, particularly in Europe, against Canadian forest products on the basis of them not being sustainable.