Public Accounts committee  On the first part, there's no obligation on the part of the provinces to report back on what they're doing within their provinces. There are a lot of climate change programs at the provincial level, and these are serious programs, but there's no mechanism for the provinces, under

Public Accounts committee  That's absolutely correct.

Public Accounts committee  The only relationship is that they are two important measures that the government has identified in their climate change plan of 2007-08. They are two separate plans dealing with a similar issue of how to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. They're not working in tandem, if

Public Accounts committee  For most of those questions, I will have to defer to the Auditor General. What I can answer would be your question about how the program is working. To our knowledge, the program comes within the overall context of trust funds—there is a transfer from the federal government to

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Sheila. Mr. Chair, I am pleased to be here today to present my first report. Let me begin with three general observations drawn from the report. First, the government cannot demonstrate that the money it is spending on some important environmental programs is making

Environment committee  Just very briefly, in relation to the petitions, there are two very quick answers. First, on how to increase the efficiency, we've sent it to all the members' offices as well as to your constituency offices. We're trying to help petitioners have more focused questions. We reall

Environment committee  Perhaps I can get back to the member with a more detailed answer.

Environment committee  No. That's why we said it was unlikely for Environment Canada. Parliament could imagine different ways in which you could look at, for example, voluntary ways for reporting between the provinces and Ottawa. I think there have been some instances of this. But this is something abo

Environment committee  As you said, it is a new law. Environment Canada is working on a plan. I have a legal obligation to study the draft plan by 2010. We are in the process of preparing to audit the federal government's overall sustainable development strategy. After that date, each department must s

Environment committee  As I mentioned just now, the incidence of denial of access because of cabinet confidence is extremely rare. I wouldn't say this is by any means a trend--rare means it happens exceptionally. And it is when documents go before cabinet; then, cabinet has that right, in the sense tha

Environment committee  I think it may be both. You might want to ask Finance Canada about the methodologies they're assuming to figure this out.

Environment committee  I'll ask my colleague Mr. Maxwell.

Environment committee  Thank you. I would like to ask my colleague Mr. Arseneault to answer your question. I am new to the Auditor General's Office, but I would think that it is quite rare that we would not have access to government documents, to analyses. I think that the Department of Finance, and th

Environment committee  We only looked at the two measures on the trust fund and the tax credit. Those were two measures identified in the government's national climate change plan that was submitted to Parliament in 2007-08.

Environment committee  Thank you for the question. To reiterate, last week the Auditor General gave an overall study on the nature of the trust. I think this one is different because, as you say, there's no obligation for the provinces to report. However, the government set a target on what they expec