Opening Statement to the Standing Committee on Natural Resources

Briefing from the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development

20 June 2006

Johanne Gélinas,
Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development

Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members. Thank you for inviting us here today. Joining me are Neil Maxwell, John Affleck, John Reed, and Richard Arseneault, my senior management team who has led the audit work of the Office of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development for several years.

We are part of the Office of the Auditor General of Canada. We audit the operations of the federal government and report to Parliament on significant environmental and sustainable development issues.

While some of you may be familiar with our work, others on this new standing committee may not be. You have given us this opportunity to inform you of our mandate, to review some of our work to date, and to inform you of some of our upcoming audits.

We have three business lines:

• performance audits,
• monitoring and reporting on departmental sustainable development strategies, and
• the environmental petitions process.

Each year in our annual report to Parliament, we conduct between three and six performance audits of government programming to see that such programs are well managed and that they are environmentally appropriate and meet the environmental standards and sustainable development objectives set by the government.

Recent performance audits relevant to the subject matter covered by this committee include, in 2000, Government Support for Energy Investments, and in 2001, a major report on the Great Lakes. In 2002, we produced the chapter Abandoned Mines in the North, and in 2004, we audited the strategic environmental assessment process that assesses the environmental impact of policies, plans, and programs.

As you may know, each department produces and tables a sustainable development strategy in the House every three years. We review these strategies and audit selected commitments made in them. For example, Finance Canada established the objective of examining ways to better integrate the economy and the environment through use of the tax system, and we audited this commitment in 2004.

The sustainable development strategy of NRCan will be of particular interest to this committee as it sets forth departmental commitments and objectives, against which any natural resources issue or concern that comes before the Committee can be assessed.

Also of potential interest to this committee is work we have done to document 41 commitments in sustainable development strategies, related to climate change and energy efficiency. If the Committee is interested, I have with me the full documentation of those commitments in both official languages. A copy was also provided to your Clerk yesterday.

The Auditor General Act established the environmental petitions process in 1995. Since then, over 200 petitions have been received from Canadians and Canadian organizations concerned about global, national, and local environmental and sustainable development issues. By law, each petitioner receives a response directly from the minister or ministers concerned. Of course, many of these issues relate to natural resources, and with a quick look at our Web site and use of the search tools, you can find petitions and responses of interest.

Several current petitions that may interest the Committee include Petition 158 related to subsidies to the oil and gas industry and federal efforts to address climate change, Petition 159 concerning Canada's policy on ethanol, petitions 95B and 164 concerning the federal environmental assessment of a mine and road project in northern B.C., and finally, Petition 60B related to the Nuclear Liability Act.

Depending on how broadly the Committee wishes to consider its natural resources mandate, there is considerable work in our past reports that could interest the Committee. In particular, this includes three chapters in my 2005 Report—Canada's Oceans Management Strategy, Ecological Integrity in Canada's National Parks, and the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy: A Follow-Up Audit. These chapters all represent aspects of natural capital.

I would like now to turn from our past work to our present work. My report for the fall of 2006 is wholly devoted to climate change. I cannot yet tell you about our audit findings, but I can tell you that we have examined how the federal government is organized to deal with climate change, whether it is able to report on the costs and results of its efforts, and how it develops key targets for greenhouse gas reductions.

Further, we are examining whether the government has strategies and action plans in place for adapting to and managing the impacts of climate change. We are also examining NRCan programs targeted at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, such as The Wind Power Production Incentive and the Ethanol Expansion Program.

Finally, our 2006 Environmental Petitions chapter audits a petition response concerning government purchase of green power—power derived from low-impact, renewable sources of energy.

Since the Commissioner of Environment and Sustainable Development was established in 1995, we have worked closely with several parliamentary committees, providing them with objective and fact-based information on the management of government programs, along with recommendations for improving the government's environmental and sustainable development performance.

As servants of Parliament, our work is most effective when committees such as yours take up issues and follow up on our audit work. I have seen many times how recommendations in committee reports, because of the necessity for a government response, have had significant effects on departmental performance. Parliamentary committees can hold departments and ministers accountable for their commitments and for the environmental and sustainable development effects of their programs. This is especially powerful when the committees require regular reporting by departments on their actions in response to committee recommendations.

In summary, the oversight of committees, armed with audits, sustainable development strategies, and petitions can be a formidable means for Canada to achieve its environmental and sustainable development goals.

Mr. Chairman, this concludes my opening statement. We welcome any questions that the Committee may have.