Environment Commissioner Jerry DeMarco says the federal government doesn't know how well its regulations are working to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
One of his spring audits issued today looks at five regulations intent on reducing emissions from cars and trucks, power plants and oil and gas production.
DeMarco says while Environment and Climate Change Canada used scientific modelling to estimate how many emissions each of the regulations would eliminate, it did not measure or report whether it was actually happening.
DeMarco says that means the government simply doesn't know if the policies it's enforcing are actually working.
Canada's overall emissions have fallen in recent years, but the department told him it is difficult to determine how much can be attributed to individual policies because some of them overlap.
While emissions from electricity generation have fallen in recent years, those coming from vehicles and the oil and gas industry have both increased.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2023.
The Canadian Press
