Environment committee  Again, I prefer to defer or look within Canada for some good best practices first, and both Quebec's and Manitoba's SD strategies are interesting because they do, first and foremost, take this broad view on SD and they look into where they're going and why. Globally, we found a

Environment committee  Coordination with the provinces is a difficult one given jurisdiction and shared jurisdiction. Certainly on the climate file right now, with the federal government moving towards equivalency and basically working with the provinces to recognize existing programs, there is a coo

Environment committee  I'm sorry, I thought it was for someone else.

Environment committee  Yes, I have a really quick answer. A World Bank report just came out which said that 60 countries are pursuing carbon pricing globally. Within Canada, some provinces are pursuing carbon pricing. There are elements of compliance flexibility in the current federal regulations that

Environment committee  Thank you for the question. To me it's unclear whether we have the tools and whether we are achieving the result. From the document, it's unclear. That indicates an opportunity, perhaps, to make it more clear or to improve systems and practices, to fill the gap, as it were. Look

Environment committee  I think we could look to Canada for all kinds of interesting examples of cases in which we have used innovative ways to protect wetlands. In Ontario there has been phosphorus trading. Work on Lake Winnipeg is going on right now around the bioeconomy, basically helping with eutr

Environment committee  We think that four or five major priorities in the SDS would help to focus beyond the thematic areas. Pick four or five action items that are priorities and then add budget items, line items, the resources being spent, and indicate results. You should actually indicate results. L

Environment committee  In the context of this SDS, I would pick up on two points. One is transparency. It is really hard to figure out what's going on in the current document. Besides echoing long-standing observations from the commissioner's office, we need to indicate performance a little more clea

Environment committee  So you're asking me to go back to grad school. I will pass on a definition from the Brundtland commission, if I may. It's been a while. SD is a simple concept with a really poor track record in implementation, and there has been a real problem with taking this notion, the gener

Environment committee  Economic growth, human capital, environmental performance, there are all kinds of labels we can put on the outcomes that flow from that three-legged stool. What I'm saying is the fourth leg, governance, is where we fall down, and perhaps the definition is lacking in a nod to good

Environment committee  I think the assertion that our emissions have gone down is not quite right. That's a snapshot in time in 2010, sort of mirroring the cratering of economic performance after the financial crisis of 2008-09. I think even the government's trends report shows increases in emissions.

Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to be here today to reflect on the draft federal SDS. Our CEO, Scott Vaughan, extends his regrets. He's in China working with decision-makers on new programs basically to help China improve i