Environment committee  It's Treasury Board, I think.

Environment committee  Unfortunately, I can't answer that specific question, but I do want to indicate that it's not all countries that put their sustainable development work in central agencies. Some of them put it in the department of finance, for example. Many put it in the environment department. I

Environment committee  Thank you. My apologies, I forgot my shoes.

Environment committee  I am a former biologist.

Environment committee  Whenever you evaluate a project in Canada, and whenever it goes to cabinet, there's usually a socio-economic lens that's put on almost every project that is brought forward. The whole purpose of the strategic environmental assessment tool is to include a third lens. I would argue

Environment committee  Certain ecosystems require fire, for example, to continue to grow, so environmental change is not necessarily a negative impact.

Environment committee  In terms of the federal sustainable development strategy, my understanding, and you'd have to ask the department this specifically, is that it will be the coordinator of the development of the federal sustainable development strategy. You're asking me about specific projects and

Environment committee  I believe I did say something in my opening statement about the principles. We support these new principles. We will audit against them. We are concerned that, without more clarity on what exactly they mean, they can be open to interpretation. I can tell you that when we review b

Environment committee  Absolutely, and if you look at the sustainable development goals, good jobs, innovation, and strong infrastructure are all within the SDGs.

Environment committee  I mentioned in my opening statement about expanding the definition of exactly that, that it's not just about the environment. If we're going to achieve sustainability, it's about social and economic issues. We mention that, and that's one of the reasons we mentioned that you migh

Environment committee  According to the SDGs, that's correct.

Environment committee  You'd have to ask the department that. I can't answer that, but obviously, according to the act, the Minister of Environment will be the one who brings together the federal sustainable development strategy. I don't know if that puts them on top of everybody else. However, I belie

Environment committee  That's a great question. I don't even know if we have assessed that yet. Right now, over a five-year period, we assess 26 entities. Over five years, we're looking at around five different entities and some aspect of their departmental sustainable development strategy. If we have

Environment committee  Absolutely. Right now, the way it's written in the proposed bill is that entities can report any time in the year, so it's going to be really difficult for us to be able to capture all that and present an overview of the results to Parliament. One of the standardization items i

Environment committee  Okay. Madam Chair, it is a pleasure for us to be here today to share our views on the Federal Sustainable Development Act. As you indicated, I am joined by senior colleagues from the Office of the Auditor General, Andrew Hayes, James McKenzie and Andrew Ferguson. Mr. McKenzie a