Environment committee  Mr. Chair, I would say, as the honourable member has indicated, that a number of provinces have laid out a number of targets. The interpretation of how they align and their consistency is actually a matter of policy, which I believe the minister spoke to in his opening remarks.

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, in terms of how provincial targets add up, if you go across the country they add up to a number that would differ from the Canadian number. I don't have the actual megatonnes here. In some cases, they're quite close; in some cases, they vary significantly. For exampl

Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. As my colleague indicated, a portion of the resources has been transferred to NRCan, and a small portion to Foreign Affairs. There are three main project areas in the clean energy dialogue that were established by President Obama and Prime Minister Harper

Environment committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I would like to begin by describing the proposed approach we are taking to the implementation of the Federal Sustainable Development Act. I will then respond to your questions and comments. The draft strategy released last week represents focused

Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think there were four questions, and I have four minutes. I'll go quite quickly through the issue you raise in terms of environmental indicators. I think, Mr. Chair, the honourable member is absolutely right that the Canadian environmental sustainabil

Environment committee  The environmental analysis directorate is running at about 40-some people. They do a wide range of economic analysis. The core group that does econometric modelling probably runs to around a dozen. We commit significant resources, and I would submit that our ability to model the

Environment committee  The short answer to these questions is yes, and yes. As the member has accurately described, the legislation requires the appointment of 25 members to the sustainable development advisory committee. All 25 have been appointed by the minister. My office has connected with each

Environment committee  Yes, all of the provinces appoint at least one representative to the council.

Environment committee  I'd be happy to provide you with the list of names. As a matter of fact, we are just now handing the clerk copies of the membership list.

Environment committee  I will answer the question in English. Mr. Chair, the honourable member is right, there is a cabinet directive on strategic environmental assessment that has been in place for a number of years. The proposed changes are a very important element of the decision-making in the Gov

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, I'll respond to that question in two ways. One is to say that while the strategy does not change the application of the cabinet directive on strategic environmental assessments and does not change the roles—for example, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency ha

Environment committee  Thank you for the question. I'll respond in two parts. I don't mean to quibble, but in terms of the purpose of the act—and this has been important for us, because we've been very much guided by section 3 of the act—is to make environmental decision-making more transparent and a

Environment committee  It does.

Environment committee  Our view in developing this is that the act itself gives us a very clear legal framework, and we have been proceeding to working across the government to establish a system of planning on goals, targets, and implementation strategies, and of tracking our results-based progress.

Environment committee  That's an interesting point. I would say it may not be jumping off the page, but where we talk about linking sustainable development to core planning, on pages 5 and 6, underneath that there is.... We have asked, and Treasury Board has responded positively, in terms of working th