:
Good morning, I want to welcome everybody and let you know that we're going to have four witnesses today. We have a full slate to answer questions.
There were a lot of members who asked me if we could put everybody together rather than have two separate panels. It would give us a little bit more time for questions and make it more pertinent, and so we've done that. I want to thank the departments and the commissioner for respecting that wish. It's very nice of you to do that, and I think it will make it a better meeting.
I'm going to introduce everyone here with us today. We have a very large contingent, so hold on.
We have, from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, Julie Gelfand, the commissioner of environment and sustainable development. We also have Kimberley Leach, Andrew Ferguson, and Frank Barrett, some of whom we have seen before.
From the Department of the Environment, we Diane Campbell, director general of the meteorological service of Canada; and Eric Gagné, director general of the science and technology branch.
We have, from the National Research Council of Canada, Philip Rizcallah, the director of building regulations.
From Infrastructure Canada, we have Marc Fortin, assistant deputy minister; Bogdan Makuc, director of program operations and program integration; and Sonya Read, director of strategic policy and priorities initiatives, environmental initiatives.
From the Department of Health we have Hilary Geller, assistant deputy minister, healthy environments and consumer safety branch; and James Van Loon, acting director general, and Christine Norman, director, healthy environments and consumer safety branch.
We have, from the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Lori MacDonald, assistant deputy minister.
We have a full house of support here to answer all our questions.
Our procedure for those who haven't joined us before—I know Ms. Gelfand is very familiar with this—is that I will tell you when one minute is left, just to give you a chance to know where you're at.
We'll open the floor to Ms. Gelfand. Thank you.
:
I am pleased to be here today to discuss the results of our recently completed audits. The full reports were tabled in the House of Commons last Tuesday.
I am accompanied by Andrew Ferguson, Kimberley Leach, and Frank Barrett, who were the principals responsible for our audits.
Whether it's about consumers deciding which product to buy or municipal planners determining where to build hospitals and schools, the federal government directly and indirectly provides funding, programs, and tools to many different stakeholders to support them in the decisions they must make.
In the first of our three audits that we are reporting on today, we looked at how Health Canada manages risks to human health and safety posed by chemical substances used in cosmetics and household consumer products. These products range from makeup and skin creams to baby bottles, children's jewellery, and toys.
In short, we found that Health Canada is not in a position to fully assure Canadians that its product safety program is working to protect consumers.
[Translation]
Since the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act came into force in 2011, Health Canada has improved its oversight activities, but it is still falling short on detecting and assessing health risks. For example, we found that the department did not assess the scope and magnitude of the risks associated with imported products purchased online or those related to counterfeit products and cosmetics.
It’s important to understand that it is not Health Canada’s role to ensure the safety of cosmetics or consumer products before they enter the market. Health Canada works primarily to detect and respond to health or safety risks after problems arise. Companies are responsible for following the regulations put in place by the government. Companies are required to report health and safety incidents involving consumer products to Health Canada, but there is no requirement to report incidents involving cosmetics.
[English]
We found that Health Canada did not regularly test cosmetics to ensure that labels were correct or to check for the presence of prohibited substances. This is a problem, because labels do not disclose what's in “parfum”, “aroma”, “fragrance”, or “flavour”. Those catch-all terms can conceal a range of potentially hazardous chemicals, and this information is not readily available to consumers.
Health Canada also told us that marketing terms such as “preservative-free”, “fragrance-free”, and “unscented” are outside its mandate. In our view, these terms suggest health and safety benefits and may be misleading. For example, a product labelled fragrance-free or unscented may in fact contain chemicals to mask the scent. Where consumers are expected to make informed choices and use products appropriately, reliable product information is critical. Frequently this information is not available.
[Translation]
Let me now turn from our households to our communities.
Our second audit looked at federal programs that are intended to support the sustainability of Canadian communities. Overall, it is not clear to what extent a decade of federal funding programs in excess of $13 billion have produced the environmental benefits they were supposed to bring.
[English]
When we looked at infrastructure projects that Infrastructure Canada has funded, under the gas tax fund, for example, we found that the department did not have indicators in place to assess to what extent the money spent had resulted in cleaner air, cleaner water, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
When it comes to considering infrastructure projects for funding, we found that Infrastructure Canada had not adequately identified or managed environmental risks. The department expected proposals for major projects to include information on environmental risks, but it did not use this information to analyze the risks of climate change, for example.
[Translation]
When environmental risks are not considered, projects may not be designed to minimize environmental effects or withstand the impacts of future weather events. This means that municipalities could be left facing significant unexpected costs down the road. Infrastructure Canada informed us that it does not have a mandate to encourage innovative infrastructure projects through its project selection. This means that there is a risk that new, greener approaches may not be considered.
[English]
In our final audit, we looked at what the federal government is doing to support efforts to mitigate the effects of severe weather. Overall, the federal government has not adequately supported long-term efforts to make Canada's infrastructure more resilient to a changing climate. Severe weather is expensive. The federal government has spent more on recovering from large-scale natural disasters over the past six years than in the preceding 39 years combined. Scientists are predicting that severe weather events will become more frequent and more intense. We found that the federal government has not been successful in its efforts to encourage provinces and territories to invest in projects designed to mitigate the impacts of severe weather.
[Translation]
None of the existing funding programs is specifically designed to improve the resilience of Canada’s infrastructure. For example, the new building Canada fund supports infrastructure improvements in 14 priority areas, including disaster mitigation. The fund is not designed to encourage provinces and territories to make disaster mitigation a priority.
The federal government could also better support the planning of resilient infrastructure through the information and tools it makes available to decision-makers. We found that some data was incomplete and some tools were obsolete. For example, engineers rely on tools to predict the probability of extreme rainfall amounts and the duration of storms when planning and designing municipal water infrastructure. Yet the data used to inform these tools has not been consistently produced since 2006.
[English]
Similarly, flood-plain maps allow municipalities to better plan for future growth in areas of low flood risk and compensate for areas of high flood risk. National guidelines for flood hazard assessment and mapping have not been updated in 20 years. This has left the provinces and territories to manage and update their own maps. With no federal standards or guidelines, there is no consistency between jurisdictions.
With significant and ongoing investments in infrastructure across the country, resilience means a focus on building and rebuilding better. When resiliency is built into infrastructure, it is built into communities. Those communities are then better able to meet the needs of future generations, withstand the impacts of climate change, and recover more quickly when a disaster does strike.
Madam Chair, this concludes my opening statement. I am now ready to answer your questions.
Merci.
:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
[Translation]
Thank you for inviting me to speak before you.
I’ve been invited here today to speak to you about Chapter 1: Federal Support for Environmentally Sustainable Infrastructure.
[English]
This chapter of the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development's 2016 spring report examines federal and municipal infrastructure programs that are intended, among other objectives, to improve the environmental performance and sustainability of Canadian communities.
Specifically, the chapter assesses whether the environmental objectives of the gas tax fund, which is managed federally by Infrastructure Canada, were being achieved and whether Infrastructure Canada had adequately coordinated its program with its partners.
The GTF is an important program, providing over $2 billion annually for municipalities across Canada. It is a stable source of funding that gives communities the flexibility they need to plan, build, and revitalize key infrastructure and address their priorities. A 2015 evaluation of the GTF found that it is viewed by municipalities as one of the most efficient federal programs, due to minimal administrative overhead costs, effective governance, and jurisdictional flexibility.
The commissioner's report identifies areas where we can make further improvements to the GTF. It also proposes improvements to our coordination with partners and data collection. The report also highlights the importance of investing in infrastructure that is sustainable over the long term and meets the real needs of Canadian communities.
Infrastructure Canada agrees with all the recommendations made by the commissioner and is taking action to improve our programming to demonstrate clear results of our initiatives to Canadians. With respect to the GTF, Infrastructure Canada will continue to work with partners to develop an appropriate and effective performance measurement strategy to better inform Canadians of the outcomes of these investments.
As you know, the Government of Canada committed to investing $120 billion in infrastructure over 10 years, including $20 billion in new funding for green infrastructure. Phase one of this long-term plan includes $5 billion toward investments in infrastructure that protect communities and support Canada's ongoing transition to a clean growth economy. Infrastructure Canada is responsible for approximately $2 billion, while other federal departments will manage the remaining funds.
[Translation]
The department is also working with other partners on various fronts to ensure evidence-based decision-making. For instance, Infrastructure Canada is providing $50 million to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for a new asset management fund, which is designed help communities develop infrastructure asset management practices and improve data collection.
[English]
We are working with Statistics Canada and other stakeholders to provide a baseline of information on the state and performance of the core public infrastructure. We are also working to address the issue of ensuring our public infrastructure is climate resilient. The department is also currently working with the National Research Council on the development of codes and guides for climate-resilient buildings and infrastructure, including a revised national building code by 2020 for residential, institutional, commercial, and industrial buildings. In budget 2016, $40 million was announced to support this initiative.
As identified in budget 2016, our department is actively engaging stakeholders and Canadians regarding phase two of the federal government's infrastructure plan. This will ensure that Canadians have their say as we develop our long-term programming.
Infrastructure is the backbone of our communities, big or small, and our department is committed to implementing the Government of Canada's long-term plan to support the resilient and sustainable infrastructure that is at their core.
Thank you for your time.
My colleagues and I will be available to answer any questions later.
:
Good morning. I'm pleased to be here to speak on behalf of Public Safety Canada and my colleagues from Environment and Climate Change Canada, Infrastructure Canada, and the National Research Council of Canada on chapter 2, on federal support to mitigate the effects of severe weather, of the spring 2016 reports of the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development.
[Translation]
Mr. Chair, we welcome the Auditor General's report, which included a number of important recommendations on how the federal government can be better positioned to support Canada’s long-term mitigation efforts related to the effects of severe weather.
[English]
Canada has adopted an all-hazards approach to emergency management, based on the premise that many emergency management activities are common across all types of hazards and threats.
[Translation]
There are two elements that I want to emphasize relating to emergency management.
[English]
First is Canada’s evolving risk landscape.
To illustrate this, in the past 20 years there has been a pronounced shift in Canada’s risk profile, characterized by the increasing frequency and costs of disasters. Available data indicate that prior to 1995 there were only three disasters that exceeded $500 million in losses. However, from 1996 to 2009, there has been one disaster each year exceeding $500 million. This trend has increased since 2010, with at least a $1-billion disaster annually. Extreme weather and climate change in particular are seen as risk multipliers and are raising concerns regarding the ability of the current EM approach to managing events of differing scale and complexity.
[Translation]
Addressing the escalation of disaster frequency and costs is a collective challenge that will no doubt require strengthening current practices and strategies, as well as developing new approaches, to advance emergency management in Canada.
[English]
This particular audit focused on the federal government’s actions that support Canada’s long-term mitigation efforts. It examined key federal organizations’ data, tools, expertise, and funding that can help decision-makers mitigate the effects of severe weather.
Mr. Chair, Public Safety Canada, as the Government of Canada lead for this chapter, is in a strong position to respond to the recommendations outlined in the report. In fact, work is already under way to address them. Public Safety Canada and Natural Resources Canada are already working with provinces and territories and other key stakeholders to develop national flood-plain mapping guidelines.
The Government of Canada will also work to further align federal mitigation programming. This will include robust stakeholder outreach in all provinces and territories to review draft guidelines, strengthen relationships, enhance knowledge of federal mitigation programming, and bolster subscription. Furthermore, the Government of Canada will build on its relationships with other government departments, provinces, territories, and other stakeholders to understand changing requirements for climatological data, extreme precipitation statistics, and other tools.
We will also continue to work with partners who are engaged in the development of guidelines, codes, and standards for infrastructure, including Infrastructure Canada and the National Research Council of Canada, which have advised that they have already begun work to address report recommendations that the national building code take climate change trends into account. Forty million dollars was announced in budget 2016 to support this initiative.
Madam Chair, emergency management is a shared responsibility. The Government of Canada is committed to continue consulting and collaborating with government departments, provinces and territories, indigenous peoples, municipalities, and other stakeholders to mitigate the impacts of severe weather events.
[Translation]
Together, we can build community resilience to mitigate the impacts of natural disasters and other emergencies before they happen.
[English]
With that, I thank you for your time. I look forward to your questions.
:
Thank you, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to appear today.
[Translation]
I'd also like to thank Ms. Gelfand and her team for their report. Health Canada agrees with the recommendations and has already begun work to address them.
[English]
This report addresses various issues related to the consumer product safety program, but focuses on the management of chemicals of concern in consumer products and in cosmetics.
When it comes to the potential risks of chemicals in consumer products or cosmetics—what the report terms “chemicals of concern”—it is the chemicals management plan that allows Health Canada to identify precisely what a chemical of concern is. The recently renewed CMP is a world-leading approach to the risk assessment and the risk management of chemicals. It uses scientific information to identify those chemicals that may have health effects and, importantly, whether Canadians may be exposed to them at levels that may pose actual risks to their health. It is through the CMP that Health Canada has identified certain substances of concern, for example BPA, which we banned in baby bottles; or the flame retardant TCEP, which we have prohibited in foam products for children.
Health Canada thanks the commissioner for her constructive suggestions concerning improving our management of risks from chemicals of concern in consumer products and for the more general suggestions for improving the effectiveness of this now five-year-old consumer product safety program. As I've said, we have already begun to implement the recommendations, and we will continue in this work.
[Translation]
I plan to focus the rest of my time on our cosmetics program, where the bulk of the attention in this report is focused.
[English]
Cosmetics are regulated under the Food and Drugs Act which, like the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, contains a general prohibition making it illegal to sell dangerous products. The same basic principles of shared responsibility apply to both the consumer product and the cosmetic regimes. Generally, industry is responsible for ensuring the safety of the products they bring to market, consumers are responsible for making informed choices about the products they purchase and for using them safely, and government has responsibility for regulatory oversight and for risk communications.
As it is for consumer products, the CMP is key to our management of chemicals in cosmetics. Through the CMP, 26 substances have been identified as problematic when used in cosmetics. These have been added to the cosmetics hotlist, meaning they are prohibited or restricted for use.
Health Canada has the ability to rapidly screen cosmetics for chemicals on the hotlist. When industry begins sale of a new product, or changes the formulation of an existing cosmetic, they must notify Health Canada within 10 days and provide the list of ingredients and their concentrations. We receive roughly 30,000 such notifications each year.
The commissioner's report noted 50 cases over a two-year period where a prohibited substance was notified in a cosmetic. The commissioner indicated—and we agree—that some of these cases were too slow in being resolved. While implementation of an online notification system in 2013 has greatly reduced our response time, we will be taking additional actions to make sure we can respond in a more timely manner.
[Translation]
The commissioner has also suggested that more needs to be done to verify that cosmetics do not contain substances that are not on the label or notified to Health Canada.
[English]
Where evidence indicates this may be an issue, as in the case of formaldehyde in hair straighteners in 2011, we do conduct sampling, but we have agreed with the suggestion that we can do more.
Supporting consumers in making wise choices is an important part of our job. Our regulations require cosmetics to disclose all ingredients on the label, thereby making it easier for consumers to make informed decisions. The one exception, as the report points out, is that in line with international standards, the sub-ingredients of fragrances or perfumes don't have to be individually listed—although it is interesting to note that some leading companies do disclose this information, either on the label or online. Beyond that, Health Canada agrees with the commissioner's recommendation to both encourage voluntary disclosure by industry to the department, which will allow us to check these ingredients against the hotlist, and to undertake to test for prohibited substances that may be included as part of a fragrance or perfume.
We will also further support consumers by communicating more about how cosmetics are regulated in Canada.
[Translation]
In conclusion, in all the areas that Health Canada regulates, we endeavour to take an approach commensurate to the risks posed by the products. This is based on a system that works to prevent problems before they occur, respond when they do, and provide the appropriate level of oversight.
[English]
We are confident that implementing the recommendations in this report will help us in our ongoing efforts to continuously improve the implementation of our program.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
:
That's an awesome question and it makes me think it might be an awesome audit to do. We did not look at the issue of whether or not we were investing in low-emission infrastructure. We had two audits that dealt with infrastructure. One was on the gas tax fund.
The reason I got interested in the gas tax fund was that round one had clear objectives related to cleaner air, cleaner water, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, $13 billion. I wanted to go and find out, did we get that or not? What happened with all that funding? So that was one area we looked at.
Furthermore, we then looked at mitigating against severe weather. We looked at the tools the federal government provides, and then the mitigation funding. In terms of mitigation funding, what we found was that a lot of it is actually left on the table.
To answer your specific question, we didn't look at low-emission infrastructure. We can tell you that at the time of our audit, Infrastructure Canada did not have a mandate to consider climate change or innovation. Low-emission infrastructure would be both climate-related and innovation-related. At the time they didn't have that mandate. Perhaps they have it now, but at the time they didn't have it.
:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Other than making one other comment, I'm going to focus my comments and questions solely on the gas tax fund. First, I appreciate Ms. Geller's comments on the product safety report. I did find that this part of your report really under-valued the role that the chemical management plan plays in protecting Canadians. I'll leave it at that, as my focus is on the gas tax fund.
The original gas tax agreement with the municipalities, of course, included a very clear statement about environmental sustainability objectives. However, I believe that Ms. Gelfand as well as our officials from Infrastructure Canada will acknowledge that the 2014 gas tax agreement did three things that were different.
One, there was the elimination of principle number 6 on reporting. I understand that would have been driven at least in part by the fact that reporting already does take place at the provincial and municipal level.
Second, there was the elimination of the purpose that focused these projects exclusively on environmentally sustainable projects.
Third, it expanded the eligibility criteria significantly beyond simply environmentally focused projects, for example, short-line rail, short sea shipping, regional and local airports, broadband connectivity, brownfield redevelopments, sports infrastructure, recreational infrastructure, and culture infrastructure. My understanding of the context here is that the original agreement was causing significant grief at the provincial level, and even more so at the municipal level.
I was a municipal councillor at the time, as was my colleague Ms. Watts. There was incredible frustration because this was to be a program, the gas tax fund, where the federal government simply supported municipalities in building their critical infrastructure, some of which was environmentally focused, but some of which didn't have explicit environmental objectives. The 2014 agreement reflected that, reflected the frustration, and as a new agreement was broadly accepted and welcomed by the municipal community across Canada.
When I look at the report, I see that it is almost exclusively focused on reporting on whether the gas tax fund transfers were delivering on environmental objectives. As a former municipal councillor, I always understood that projects are focused firstly upon the priorities of the municipalities themselves. The more the federal government sought to interfere in the setting of those priorities by manipulating things in one direction or another, the more frustration there was at the municipal level.
Our Conservative government understood that. We revised the agreement. It was embraced by municipalities, and from what I understand, is working very well. We obviously also doubled the amount to about $2 billion a year. We actually put an inflation factor into it, and we made the program permanent, all of which responded—
:
In each of these cases it's slightly different.
In the case of flood-plain maps, Environment and Climate Change Canada has not been producing them since 1996. The national guidelines are obsolete, and we've made a recommendation that Public Safety Canada develop guidelines and standards for flood-plain maps. Public Safety Canada did a study and indicated that it would take about five to 10 years to update the current maps, costing about $365 million.
It's important for people to know that about 35% of Canadian residences are not flood-plain mapped. Of the 65% that are mapped, 50% of those maps are out of date. These maps are important, particularly if you want to try to get flood-plain insurance.
In the case of the intensity duration of frequency curves, Environment and Climate Change Canada produces a few. They're not done consistently and systematically, but they do provide some methodology. Because it's such an important tool, what we've suggested is that they figure out, with the provinces and territories, and any other partner, how to get that information produced.
The bottom line is that we did not see an overall strategy. Have they gone out and asked decision-makers what information they need, and then tried to figure out how to meet those needs? What we found instead was that departments did what their mandate was and decided “yes” or “no”, we'll provide it, but there was no overall strategy to find out what decision-makers needed at the municipal level, what we can produce, and how we can provide that.
:
That's a great question.
Cosmetics and most consumer products are not tested prior to being put on the shelves. Consumers need to understand that. That's the important part. I am not aware of any government that can or does test potentially 30,000 new products ahead of time, so what Health Canada operates is a post-market system. What is important to Health Canada, or what kicks their product safety system into gear, is safety incidents. I had one myself, and the more people I talk to, particularly women, the more I find out they've had a problem with their mascara, or their foundation, or their lipstick. Nobody realizes that Health Canada never gets that information.
We've been encouraging consumers to please call Health Canada if they do have a reaction to their shampoo or their mascara. Call Health Canada because it's with those safety incident reports that their system kicks into gear and they start looking at the risk. It would be virtually impossible, I think, for any government to pretest these products before they are put on the market.
:
I appreciate being here today. The reason I am here is that I took great interest in the gas tax. I've been a former mayor and city councillor and worked with the FCM on the mayors' caucus for the implementation of this tax. In 2005 it was brought in under Paul Martin.
I want to put some context to this. I was at the table when we were developing this and advocating for it. In 2007, it was doubled and we worked with the FCM and all of the municipal organizations across the country. It was stimulus funding. We were in a global recession. We wanted to make sure there were shovel-ready projects.
The environment was part of it, but looking at it from a climate change perspective was not. Of course, we wanted to make sure that it was good for the environment. There were communities, however, especially in the north, that had to build roads. With the permafrost, the roads were sinking. Looking at what happened in 2014, especially to the northern communities, I can tell you that we broadened the possibilities .
I have seen some comments that Canadians don't know what results have been achieved for the money spent. With respect, the Minister of Infrastructure was out in B.C. announcing 57 projects under the gas tax. Let's look at what came out of that. Halifax was able to improve public transit and buses. In B.C., we had a wastewater supply upgrade, a new water treatment facility, a bioenergy district heating system, a recycling plant, improved asset management, sanitary sewer, environmental flow, stormwater management, and closing a landfill. I don't know how these things aren't seen as positive.
I don't know that we're looking at this through the proper lens. There were significant environmental elements in these projects. It was never supposed to be the role of the federal government to oversee every single project. That's why we had the provincial organizations. That's why we worked very closely with the FCM, which was monitoring all of these things. All projects went through an environmental assessment by the province, the city, and the region. So there's every single layer. These are the facts—this is how it happened.
I'm wondering why none of this was included in your audit.
:
The whole issue around cosmetics and consumer products really gets to the heart of the multiple discussions we've been having around CEPA with regard to the chemicals management plan and the virtual elimination of toxic chemicals, these bioaccumulative chemicals. One of the key aspects of that is this whole notion we have today that everything is based on risk-based analysis rather than hazard-based analysis.
I couldn't agree more that as a government we can't afford to test every single product out there that comes onto the market, but if we took a hazard-based approach, then we would put it on the industry to do that, whether it was the chemical industry that is creating these chemicals that the consumer products companies are then utilizing or the consumer products companies did it themselves or ensured that it was being done.
The federal government's duty includes protection of the environment and human health through the application of the precautionary principle. Ms. Gelfand once again is highlighting that this is not being done today. From a Health Canada standpoint, what tools do you need to ensure that we are following the precautionary principle?
I'll use the example of 1,4-dioxane. This is a chemical that exists in cosmetics and that has been shown to be a toxic carcinogen. Not only is it on the consumer products side but these products also end up in landfills and contaminate surrounding water that ends up contaminating residential wells.
Many people have heard me talk about this many times, but I've spent the last 20 years fighting the expansion of a landfill, because the old landfill was leaking 1,4-dioxane into the environment. There's no drinking water standard for 1,4-dioxane, and therefore, the company has no need to report that this is actually contaminating people's wells.
What tools do you need to make sure this kind of stuff doesn't happen and so that we can virtually eliminate these chemicals not just from drinking water but also from consumer products?
:
Okay, I get it. Thank you.
Going to Ms. Gelfand, we're glad to have you here.
Having been an executive of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association, representing cities, our mantra was, “That's our money; it's not yours. It comes from our taxpayers; give it back”.
So when we look at this, we look at it as our money, not yours. We established the priorities and we know what they are. When you say that Canadians don't know, I really object to that because the people in my community are Canadians and they know, so I have a problem when you say that because we do know. You say that gas tax is very flexible; we know the priorities and our residents know, and we do all those environmental studies. When you say that Canadians don't know, do you want to justify that to me because I know Canadians who do?
:
I'm looking at the time and I think there are still a lot of questions that people would like to ask. If you're willing to stay with us, I'm willing to extend it for another quick round of questioning, but I wanted to have us think about something while we're doing that. We didn't do this last time.
We now have these reports in front of us, and we're listening and asking questions, and then you leave. What do we do with this? Last time we kind of embedded some of it in our work. There's a thought here that maybe we might make a motion that these departments come back, and the commissioner comes back, to give us an update in a year. I want you to consider whether that's something we want to do. We have heard from all the departments. Everybody says, “Yes, we're going to implement these recommendations”. Maybe we can ask you guys to come back in a year and give us an update on where we are with this.
Secondly, I know we are the committee on sustainable development, and I know the gas tax was changed a bit of change over time, and maybe we do want to focus it back on sustainable development. I'm not sure. This is something that the committee can consider. Maybe we need to make a motion, then table that in the House. That's something we could consider.
We'll move on for another round. I'm looking at the time. We do need some committee time for some work that we have to do at the end, so I'll give us three minutes each on a round, and we'll start with the Liberals, if that's okay with you.
Mr. Bossio, you have three minutes.
:
Again, I want to go Ms. Gelfand on the gas tax. I think you know that we're not being combative, but that we're just trying to get to the root of some of these issues.
In 2005, that agreement was exclusively focused on environmentally oriented projects. The Conservative government in 2014 decided to expand the projects to reflect additional priorities that the municipalities had. It's not to the discredit of the Conservative government that this was done. In fact, it's a credit to that government that indeed it listened to 4,000 municipalities across this country and said, you've got priorities that may not fall into that very narrow group of projects.
The 2014 agreement doesn't carry the reporting requirement and doesn't carry a singular focus on environmentally sustainable projects, yet your report still suggests that reporting and collection of data should continue going forward. You do understand that when you collect data and try to determine greenhouse gas emissions, whether at the municipal, federal, or provincial level, that's an expensive undertaking, especially if you're talking about upstream and downstream impacts?
Are you suggesting that the federal government carry on based on the report that you've issued?