Archived: Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy 2014-15 report, Environment and Climate Change Canada, chapter 5

Section 5: Sustainable Development Management System

Environment Canada’s Sustainable Development Vision

Environment Canada’s sustainable development vision is to improve Canadians’ standard of living by conserving the environment, protecting human health, using resources efficiently, and advancing long-term economic competitiveness.

Departmental Sustainable Development Practices

The concept of sustainable development rests at the core of the Department’s mandate and is an intrinsic part of the planning, decision making, and execution of departmental programming and initiatives. The Department must use flexible yet robust processes when considering the social, economic and environmental dimensions of its strategy, policy and program delivery to Canadians. In addition, along with other federal government departments, Environment Canada continues to incorporate environmentally sustainable best practices within its internal policies and operations.

Governance

Environment Canada’s planning and decision-making processes, as part of an established corporate governance structure, provide both formal and informal opportunities for considering issues, setting priorities and rendering decisions or making recommendations when necessary.

Sustainable Development Champion

The Assistant Deputy Minister of Environment Canada’s Strategic Policy Branch and Regional Directors General Offices is the Sustainable Development Champion, providing overall leadership for departmental responsibilities related to sustainable development. That includes heading the Sustainable Development Office which supports a whole-of-government approach to the implementation of the Federal Sustainable Development Act. In 2014-15, the Champion:

• Maintained effective partnerships with 33 federal departments and agencies in implementing the Federal Sustainable Development Act;
• Coordinated an engagement strategy and discussions with 30 external FSDS partners and stakeholder organizations to help inform the development of the next Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS);
• Provided leadership for the Department on strategic environmental assessment (SEA); and,
• Provided additional and updated environmental sustainability indicators through the Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators (CESI) program, to convey the state of Canada’s environment in a straightforward and transparent manner and provide data and information to track Canada’s performance on key environmental issues (including climate change and air quality, water quality and availability, and protecting nature).

The Executive Management Committee

The Executive Management Committee (EMC), chaired by the Deputy Minister, is the collective senior executive body of the Department, where decisions are made by the Deputy Minister on various issues through consensus building. Sustainable development issues, along with implementation of the Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy, are monitored and reported to EMC on an ongoing basis.

Policy Forum

The Policy Forum, chaired by the Deputy Minister, is a focal point for engaging managers, scientists and subject matter experts from across Environment Canada to discuss policy files and potential policy responses to environmental challenges. These discussions inform departmental decision making on various issues including sustainable development.

Intergovernmental Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement

Environment Canada's sustainable development decisions and actions require collaboration, partnership and information exchanges with key partners and stakeholders, including other levels of government, Aboriginal peoples, industry, environmental non-governmental organizations, and Canadian citizens. Environment Canada aims to foster positive, long-term relationships with these key constituencies in all of its activities.

For example, relationships with provincial and territorial partners are advanced through bilateral agreements, as well as through multilateral participation in the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. In addition, the Department consults and engages with Aboriginal peoples and stakeholders to deliver on core priorities such as protecting and conserving air, water, wildlife and natural areas.

Decision-Making Tools

Strategic Environmental Assessment

As required by the Cabinet Directive on the Environmental Assessment of Policy, Plan and Program Proposals, Environment Canada - as well as all federal departments and agencies - is expected by Cabinet, to consider the potential positive and negative environmental impacts of its policy, plan and program proposals submitted to the Minister or Cabinet for approval.

This assessment process, known as Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) assures the public and stakeholders that decisions are made in full awareness of potential environmental impacts and opportunities for greater sustainability. SEA is a key tool for supporting decision-making that is more environmentally sustainable by identifying and proposing measures to mitigate negative impacts such as impacts on habitat or air quality. Similarly, SEA also supports the identification of opportunities to enhance positive environmental effects (e.g. through such measures as collaboration, improved communication, and public consultation).

SEA informs the public of the impacts of new initiatives through the requirement to post public statement of environmental effects when an SEA has been completed. This includes reporting on both potential impacts and contributions to the FSDS goals and targets.

See below for more information on EC’s progress in applying SEA.

Regulatory Impact Analysis Statements

Environment Canada uses regulatory impact analysis statements (RIAS) to summarize the expected impacts of the regulatory initiatives that address each of the requirements of the federal government’s regulatory policy, namely the Cabinet Directive on Regulatory Management. The use of RIAS has long been recognized as an international best practice, and RIAS have been used in Canada for over 20 years.

RIAS provide a comprehensive, non-technical synthesis of information that enables various audiences to understand the environmental issue being regulated, as well as the federal government’s objectives, and the costs and benefits of a regulatory initiative. RIAS also indicate who will be affected, who was consulted in developing the regulatory initiative, and how the federal government will evaluate and measure the performance of the regulatory initiative against its stated objectives. RIAS function as a key decision-making tool by estimating and raising awareness of the environmental, economic and societal impact of Environment Canada’s regulatory initiatives, and they enable the federal government to explain to the public the need for each regulatory initiative and its associated trade-off.

In 2014-15, Environment Canada has worked on or completed more than 20 RIAS on different regulatory initiatives related to transportation, energy, air quality, industrial sectors, chemical management, and species at risk in line with the Department’s sustainable development mandate. Specifically, these RIAS examined: the Multi-Sector Air Pollutants Regulations (MSAPR), equivalency agreements with provinces for the wastewater and GHG regulations; amendments to Metal Mining Effluent Regulations, prohibition of certain toxic substances, the protection of 3 bat species and the establishment and modification of trade controls for species listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Ongoing Environmental Monitoring

Environment Canada provides regular indicator updates (data and information) through the Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators (CESI) program. CESI is the primary vehicle for measuring the progress of the FSDS^Footnote 1 and Canada’s performance on key environmental sustainability issues. The environmental indicators are based on objective and comprehensive information and convey environmental trends in a straightforward and transparent manner.

CESI indicators are prepared by Environment Canada with the support of other federal government departments--such as Health Canada, Statistics Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada--and provincial and territorial government departments. Designed to be relevant to government environmental policy priorities, the indicators rely on rigorous methodology and high-quality data from a variety of sources including surveys, monitoring networks, and other research initiatives.

In 2014-15, four new indicators were added and included in the CESI suite and 25 existing indicators were updated with the latest available data and, where appropriate, were improved by taking into account new information.

National, regional, local and international trends are readily accessible to all Canadians on the CESI website, which includes graphics, explanatory text, interactive maps and downloadable data. Each indicator is accompanied by a technical explanation of how it is calculated and links to related socio-economic issues and information.

Audit and Evaluation

The Department’s activities in support of the FSDS will be included as part of the evaluation of Environment Canada’s Sustainability Reporting and Indicators Program, scheduled to be completed in 2015-16. The evaluation will examine both the secretariat function which Environment Canada holds as well as Environment Canada-specific elements within the FSDS. The evaluation will address issues related to relevance and performance in compliance with the Treasury Board’s Policy on Evaluation (2009).

Environment Canada conducts internal audits based on an annual risk-based planning exercise. In this context, the Department may examine the FSDS or DSDS.

In addition, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development (CESD) is required to regularly assess the fairness of the information contained in the government’s progress report on implementation of the FSDS, as well as monitor and report on individual departments’ progress in implementing their own sustainable development strategies.

Environment Canada regularly monitors and reports on the status of management commitments made in response to previous audit and evaluation recommendations, including those of the CESD. Doing so provides the senior management in the Department with timely information on how well the Department is addressing issues or opportunities raised in previous audits and evaluations, including any that would pertain to the FSDS.

Internal Operations and Practices

Environment Canada has and continues to take steps to integrate sustainable development into its internal policies and operations. For instance, as part of its performance management program, which is designed to promote a culture of high performance among employees, contributions to greening government operations may be considered in assessing performance of certain occupation groups (e.g., Economics and Social Science group) relative to a core competency of “Integrity and Respect”. Guidance has been made available to managers on expected behaviours for demonstrating responsible use of government assets and resources. Another example is the establishment of and support for Green Teams, a network of volunteer employees who devote time to "greening" the Department through various activities and campaigns.