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2006 September Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development

September 2006 Report—Chapter 1

Exhibit 1.5—Federal government's response to a parliamentarian's question on climate change expenditures

Between 1997 and 2003, the federal government announced $3.7 billion in climate change funding. In March 2005, a parliamentarian asked how much of this money had been spent on Canada's preparations to meet its Kyoto Protocol commitments. The Treasury Board Secretariat prepared summary and contextual information for the interdepartmental response to the question, and individual departments provided details of the departmental expenditures.

According to the reported response, by the end of fiscal year 2003–04, federal departments had disbursed $1.6 billion of the $3.7 billion allocated (including $710 million transferred to foundations such as Sustainable Development Technology Canada).

We reviewed the detailed expenditures reported by departments and recorded by the Secretariat in its database and were unable to reconcile them to the total that was reported. The Secretariat informed us that it had used a combination of financial information from its database, updated financial information reported by departments, and funds allocated to foundations to prepare the summary of climate change expenditures. However, it was unable to provide us with documentation to fully substantiate the total it had reported. The detailed departmental figures included in the response were about $250 million less than the $1.6 billion reported. The Secretariat explained that these differences were the result of a double-counting error made during the preparation of the summary.