Natural Resources committee  The commissioner handles the petitions on behalf of the Auditor General of Canada, so the petitions actually go to the Auditor General. We have 15 days to process the petition, during which time we have to ascertain the departments involved and then send out the petition. As the

Natural Resources committee  I was just going to add a supplemental point for Mr. Cullen. If you're interested in that petition on the subsidies to the oil and gas industry, it is Petition No. 158, and it is available through searching on our Internet site.

Natural Resources committee  We haven't done any work yet. I could point out, though, that we did receive a petition related directly to the subsidies to the oil and gas industry and the federal efforts to address climate change. This petition came from the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, Mr. Caccia, Friends of t

Natural Resources committee  Again, this is not something we undertook for the 2006 report, but as the commissioner pointed out, we have recently received a petition on this subject. The petitioner basically asked for justification on the Canadian government's policy on ethanol related to the environment and

Natural Resources committee  I could add another example, if you wish. In 2005 we also looked at the implementation of the Canadian biodiversity strategy. This was first endorsed in 1996 by the federal, territorial, and provincial governments. We first audited that in 1998. We called the audit off because

Natural Resources committee  As the commissioner pointed out, we're not really at liberty to release those findings, because we have yet to table that report in Parliament. The ethanol expansion program at Natural Resources Canada was in fact one of the programs that we examined. Of the programs we examine

Natural Resources committee  No, that was not part of the scope of the piece of work that will be tabled in September.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, similar to my colleague, I have responsibilities for performance audits. I have responsibilities for two of the climate change reports upcoming in the commissioner's report. I oversee the petition process on behalf of the commissioner, and I handle the human resources in the