Environment committee  Mr. Chairman, a lot of the debate in 1995 was around that, and we made the point quite clearly that if we were to assume the role of commissioner, we would not be able to get into the policy area and be proactive on the policy front, and other organizations would have to be put i

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, I believe that, if Parliament decided to create an independent Office of the Commissioner of the Environment, it would be relatively easy to transfer certain experts permanently from the present office to the new structure. It would also be possible to enter into certa

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, it might be that the two don't have the same agenda, depending on the audits they've conducted in one year or another. However, I don't think that's as big a problem. Based on my experience, when I was Auditor General, we had good discussions, of course. Ultimately, I

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, the term “independence” of the Commissioner is used, but, as I said earlier, the Office of the Auditor General is very independent, and as a result, the Commissioner should be independent from the rest of the machinery of government. We especially talk about the Commi

Environment committee  Mr. Chairman, as I said in my opening comments, I think you'll be making a very important decision, and I think once you make it, it's going to have an impact for years to come. It has to be taken with all the right information, and I'm not sure you have it yet. As I said, certai

Environment committee  Mr. Chairman, yes, I agree. I've been gone from the office for five or six years. When I left, Canada was very much at the front end of environmental auditing, worldwide. And I believe this position has just been reconfirmed and reaffirmed. I would like to make one other little

Environment committee  My answer to that, Mr. Chairman, is that yes, because you're talking here about how well a government has been delivering---

Environment committee  I think you're bringing in another dimension. If you're saying that as the government is making an announcement or laying out plans of what it's going to do down the road, I don't think it would be proper for an auditor or, I would say, even a stand-alone commissioner to get invo

Environment committee  Yes.

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, as regards disadvantages, there would simply be the loss of certain economies of scale and a certain degree of efficiency. That stems from the fact that that role is now played within an entity that already covers pretty much the universe of government. In my view, in

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, I agree with Mr. Bigras: creating these positions, whether it be that of Commissioner of the Environment or that of Privacy Commissioner, immediately indicates and sends the message that these are important and fundamental questions for the Parliament of Canada. That

Environment committee  That's a tough question. Mr. Chair, in most cases — and this may be the case in other areas as well — some parliamentary officials have a fairly clear, precise and specific mandate. Whether it concerns access to information, privacy or elections, generally these are very specific

Environment committee  On the opposition in 1995 to the creation of a separate office, there probably was some of that. But I recall that even more important than any internal opposition was the desire on the part of the government to not create a new organization. In 1995 we were in the middle of prog

Environment committee  I'm going to try that. First of all, let me say that back in 1995 there were good reasons for asking the Office of the Auditor General to take this on. I think those reasons are quite well laid out in the testimony that came out back then, but if I may just refresh our minds on

Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Bon après-midi à tous. I'll be rather brief, Mr. Chairman. I have, in preparation for this afternoon's meeting, reviewed fairly carefully the proceedings of this committee that led to the creation of the function of Commissioner of the Environment back i