Environment committee  That makes perfect sense, and that's a great job for the Auditor General.

Environment committee  New Zealand is not a federal state as is Canada, but the mandate of the New Zealand Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, as I said, is very broad and it addresses local as well as central government. It makes recommendations to the Government of New Zealand but also to

Environment committee  I haven't looked at it specifically, but I do believe that the commissioner for the environment could in his, hopefully newly expanded role, do the kind of outreach that Madame Le Quéré was highlighting the importance of, which would include stakeholders across Canadian society.

Environment committee  I fully agree with Ms. Le Quéré, but allow me to add something. Of course, the decision to either keep the commissioner within the Office of the Auditor General or make him an officer of Parliament is not the most important element that will influence Canada's image international

Environment committee  The answer is sadly no, because the commissioner of the environment has suffered from what I mentioned is the chronic underfunding that has been afflicting the Auditor General for the last 10 years. In the same way that the number of audits per year has gone from 27 to 14, resour

Environment committee  I'm happy to have a first crack at that. As Madame Le Quéré indicated, there is a great challenge ahead of Canada to basically reverse the current trend from emissions increase to emissions decrease. In that context, I think the contribution that could be made by an independent

Environment committee  Well, it's really part of the solution. First and foremost is independence: taking the commissioner for the environment out of the Auditor General's office, giving him autonomy, giving him the same kind of reporting relationship that the Auditor General has towards Parliament; th

Environment committee  I might point again to the example of New Zealand, which I think has a lot of interesting lessons for Canada. Madam Pauzé referred to Bill C-12, which would be Canada's first climate law. New Zealand has had such a law in place for a number of years. It was initially recommended

Environment committee  I will not comment on the way the auditor general does his job, especially in the exercise of his role of the commissioner's supervisor. I will rather say that experience shows that the commissioner would be much more effective and would contribute much better to that climate gov

Environment committee  I would certainly agree that you can do both, and to harken back to Mr. Albas' concerns about democratic deficit, I don't think, and certainly I haven't heard any suggestion by any of the three panellists today, that the power of decision-making should be given to the commissione

Environment committee  Thank you for the question, Ms. Pauzé. The mandate should be very broad, given how much catching up Canada has to do after decades of climate inaction. By the way, the first international climate conference was held in Toronto in 1988. So the Government of Canada should have ta

Environment committee  Very well, Mr. Chair.

Environment committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you for this opportunity to contribute to the committee's work. I served the Government of Canada as a diplomat and senior executive from 1980 to 2010. I have since been practising law, mediation and arbitration with CMKZ. International en