Environment committee  I would encourage this committee to look at the current practice at the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, which calls on departments to develop an annual action plan in response to the recommendations in all of our reports so that the committee may follow their progress.

Environment committee  We know that the departments have started to implement actions. The problem for us was an audit problem, in terms of the timing. It wasn't fitting into our audit time when we were there, so in each case we mention, all throughout the report, everywhere that the government had sta

Environment committee  What we can say is that we really didn't see a lot of action prior to those 12 whales being found dead, then there was a little bit of action, but not a lot. The 12 whales were found dead, and all of a sudden things kicked into gear. Remember that things kicked into gear for thre

Environment committee  I would say it's completely in line with that. That's what kicked in, but we can't audit that because it's too soon and it was at the end of our audit period.

Environment committee  We have seen actions being taken for three marine mammal species, yes.

Environment committee  Given that you were a member of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, I could give you an example related to that committee. It asks each department to come up with an action plan and to report back to the committee regarding that plan. I would strongly encourage this commi

Environment committee  My role is to verify whether your instructions have been shared with the departments and to hold you accountable for that. I also determine whether or not the departments followed your instructions and then report back to you. You really are the ones who demand accountability.

Environment committee  Absolutely. We've been looking at this issue of whether or not strategic environmental assessments have been done when proposals, plans or programs are presented either to ministers or to cabinet. We've been doing this since 2012, I believe, so it's been quite some time. We fou

Environment committee  That is really remarkable. One of the questions I got was, what accounts for this? We hope that it's because of our audit. I don't actually care what created the change; the fact is that cabinet now, in 93% of the cases for which it should have information about the environmental

Environment committee  That's really good. It's progress.

Environment committee  I'll do it word for word.

Environment committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I'm really happy to be here. I am here to discuss our fall 2018 reports, which were tabled in the House of Commons last Tuesday, along with our annual report on environmental petitions. I am joined by Kimberley Leach and James McKenzie, who are

Environment committee  Are you speaking specifically about research?

Environment committee  I'll be as quick as possible. I've already indicated that I think the department is at risk of people claiming that it might prioritize the industry over the protection of wild fish, and I've already explained why they are at risk of that. In terms of the research, to be very sp

Environment committee  I can tell you that we'll be auditing the implementation of the use of those funds after they've been dealt with.