Environment committee  Can you talk a bit more about what needs to happen, and how the government needs to act urgently with a plan for sustainable agriculture to support farmers and to help them reduce emissions and adapt to climate change?

Environment committee  They can work on both sides of the GHG ledger, if you want to call it that, in terms of both reducing emissions and sequestering and storing more carbon. They also directly benefit from measures to mitigate climate change for the reasons that you mentioned in terms of at least mitigating some of the extreme weather events and droughts and water shortages that would only increase if we allowed unmitigated climate change to proceed worldwide.

Environment committee  DeMarco with respect to oil and gas emissions. Like a lot of Canadians who care about fighting climate change, I've been poring over the reports, both the NIR and the report from the CESD, this week. One of my main reflections from the net-zero accelerator is that locally—at least in Halton where I'm from—we're seeing some investments making a huge impact on our air quality.

Environment committee  It's a sad state of affairs that our next target is simply to get back to the starting line. Everyone calls this fight against climate change in Canada a marathon, but we've been going the wrong way from the starting line for many years. We're now getting closer to the starting line, which, I guess, is positive from some people's point of view, but we should be ahead of the starting line, not behind it still.

Environment committee  It's very clear why the Liberals are refusing to release this information to Canadians. Their environmental record is a failure. In fact, Canada dropped four rankings in climate change performance last year despite this $8-billion slush fund and another carbon tax increase. Chair, I will remind this committee that just last year another Liberal slush fund was exposed, so I think it's imperative that we get to the bottom of this.

Environment committee  The answer is that we use the national inventory in a lot of the work we do on climate change. Have we audited the whole inventory? No. Have we audited bits and pieces? Yes. You'll see those in some of our past reports, including the report we did last year on the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act.

Environment committee  We are part of the international...or we see what other countries are doing in terms of their audits on climate change as well. I can't recall a case where the entire national inventory has been under audit. Of course, you can do sectors. You can do specific programs. Auditing the whole national inventory and everything that goes into that would be an enormous undertaking.

Environment committee  Also, as a very recent concern, there was a recent announcement from the Minister of Environment regarding the 2022 numbers that came out around noon today showing 708 megatonnes of emissions. As a reasonable person, I went to the website of Environment and Climate Change Canada and looked back at previous years, because they said that this was the lowest in the last 25 years outside of COVID. At that time, at around 1:30, the website indicated that there were actually lower emissions in 2009, 2010 and 2016—for sure in 2016; that I know.

Environment committee  I think the important highlighted quote for me was that Canada has “no strategy in place to guide its climate change mitigation programs and activities”. You mentioned the fact that the AAFC in no way consulted with farmers regarding the fertilizer piece. As somebody who used to work in that sector, I can assure you that this is very true.

Environment committee  Thank you, Commissioner, for being here with us today. I can see that you came here with a sizable team. Combatting climate change is an important issue. I'm truly pleased to see that you're taking it as seriously as we do. I'm going to start the discussion on the net zero accelerator initiative. In your report, which appears on the Office of the Auditor General's website, you say this: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s calculations of anticipated greenhouse gas reductions for projects funded by the initiative did not always follow international standards, affecting the credibility of the department’s calculations.

Environment committee  The last thing I wanted to ask about was the federal plastics registry that's going to standardize data around plastics. Are there existing data sources already in Environment and Climate Change Canada for this registry? How is that going to be produced?

Environment committee  The committee also ordered the production of all economic modelling associated with this model. Environment and Climate Change Canada failed to provide the complete information the committee ordered. Instead of providing the committee with the carbon tax emissions model, the government provided an 18-page draft paper that attempts to describe the model.

Environment committee  Another motion passed, because that was insufficient, which led to a document that was created by...I don't even know who it was created by. They don't work for Environment and Climate Change Canada. They don't represent Environment and Climate Change Canada. They're still seeking feedback on that nine-page document. The third motion had more or less the same intent to gather the information that was requested in the first motion and the second motion, and we dumbed it down, asking to just give us what we were looking for.

Environment committee  Views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not reflect those of Environment and Climate Change Canada or the Government of Canada. How can this be a response from the government when it's not even written by the government? That's my problem.

Environment committee  I think it's just that “the website of the Department of the Environment” isn't necessarily a thing. There's the Department of the Environment and Climate Change. I think this is just common practice, to be honest. We could ask the officials if they have a preference about which website it gets published on.