Public Accounts committee  We'd be very happy to report on our leadership on this issue. Mr. Chair, with respect, I'd have to say that it's not an area where we haven't made progress. We've made enormous progress. A 26% reduction in GHG emissions in our federal buildings over 14 years, I would argue, is

Public Accounts committee  That would mean they might adopt a building target we had or the fleet target, but not the greening of procurement target, so they would be fine in some ways and not in others. If I speak to my own department as an example, we put as a target in that guidance that a department s

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question. We feel we've crossed a hurdle by just having acknowledgement of our leadership among departments. That wasn't the case during the commissioner's review. That's one important bridge crossed. That then gives us the leverage to be more assertive in ca

Public Accounts committee  I think that is the essence of the issue as we see it and why we think there are some drawbacks to having a one-size-fits-all, top-down-driven approach: that you're in danger of being insensitive to individual circumstances. We know that departments have different circumstances.

Public Accounts committee  Do you mean the other government departments? In the case of ours—

Public Accounts committee  Well, of course, we are interested in what other jurisdictions are doing and we're open to taking on good suggestions. I think we have, in fact, and Ellen has spent some time in conversation with counterparts in the U.K. Their system is outlined briefly in the commissioner's re

Public Accounts committee  Between 1995 and 2005, departments were doing their sustainable development strategies. They were doing them independently, I suppose, perhaps more independently than is productive. There was certainly a will to green operations and to green other aspects of their activity. My o

Public Accounts committee  I'm not prepared today to talk chapter and verse about the progress made by individual departments during that period. My focus, Mr. Chair, is really on the commissioner's more recent report and responding to his comments there. I would be happy to help in follow-up to answer th

Public Accounts committee  The clear line would be for us to be accountable in our leadership role in supporting departments. At the end of the day, they're accountable for greening their operations. That being said, the way the government is constructed is that, in our case, Public Works is responsible f

Public Accounts committee  It's voluntary. It's something for which, in terms of compliance, we would hope, with proper reporting of both their commitments and their progress in meeting their commitments, there is some accountability on their part. The model is one whereby we're providing leadership throu

Public Accounts committee  What that achieved was that they acknowledge our leadership, the role of Public Works. They can expect, therefore, that we will be after them to engage on their strategies and their plans, their targets. They would acknowledge, of course, Treasury Board and Environment Canada and

Public Accounts committee  This is the beginning of an engagement strategy that would result in their sustainable development strategies for the period 2009 to 2012. The way we see it, we have a window of perhaps 18 months to work with those deputy ministers. It was a group of deputy ministers that acknowl

Public Accounts committee  Yes, they have signed on to our leadership. That was one of our commitments in our management response to the audit, and we got their approval just last month.

Public Accounts committee  No, they have not signed a document. We tabled a deck laying out our respective responsibilities, including theirs, and it met with their satisfaction.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. We have the guidance that we issued in 2006, prior to the departments and agencies developing their sustainable development strategies. It was somewhat specific in the case of their treatment of buildings and treatment of fleets. In regar