The Canadian federal government came under fire Thursday when Commissioner of Environment and Sustainable Development, Scott Vaughn, released a prepared document to the floor of the House of Commons.
“The government cannot demonstrate that the money it is spending on some important environmental programs is making a difference. The government needs to know what works, what doesn’t and why,” said the document, “However, our audit work for this report found gaps in the information.”

The report went on to find that provinces were not required to report how they spent the $1.5 billion dollars distributed between them to “fight climate change” at a provincial level and that the $635-million dollar public transit tax credit had “disappointing” results towards reducing greenhouse has emissions.

Additionally, the $370 million directed towards “reducing farm pollution” and protecting the environment by Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, has “little-to-no available data” on the results - this, highlighting the Commissioner’s primary complaint; money is being spent, but it’s unclear whether there are results in terms of environmental or sustainability strategies.

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