Ottawa, 7 March 2013—The Auditor General of Canada, Michael Ferguson, has appointed Neil Maxwell as Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development (CESD) on an interim basis, effective 2 April 2013. He will be replacing Scott Vaughan, who is leaving the position to pursue other opportunities at the International Institute for Sustainable Development.
Mr. Maxwell joined the Office in 1982 and was appointed as an Assistant Auditor General in 2007. He is the Office of the Auditor General of Canada’s Product Leader for Performance Audit Practice, providing leadership and oversight of the Office’s performance audits. As a performance auditor, Mr. Maxwell has worked with a wide range of federal organizations in many different program areas. He has led many audits in areas relating to the environment and sustainable development including: fish habitat and oceans management; climate change impacts and adaptation; sustainable technologies, green procurement; federal sustainable development strategies; pesticides management and regulation; chemical regulation; public access to environmental assessments; contaminated sites; invasive species; and environmentally sustainable agriculture.
Mr. Vaughan was appointed Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development in May 2008. Before joining the Office, he was Director of the Department of Sustainable Development of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, D.C., where he worked with countries in the hemisphere of the Americas on trans-boundary freshwater management, biodiversity, renewable energy, chemicals management, and environmental law.
Mr. Ferguson thanks the outgoing Commissioner for his service to the Office of the Auditor General, to Parliament and to Canadians.
The position of Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development was established in December 1995 by amendments to the Auditor General Act. Appointed by the Auditor General, the Commissioner leads a group of auditors specialized in environment and sustainable development. The Commissioner is responsible for assessing whether federal government departments are meeting their sustainable development objectives, and for overseeing the environmental petitions process, and reports to Parliament on behalf of the Auditor General.
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