Archived: Departmental Results Report 2017 to 2018: Department of Environment, chapter 4
Operating context and key risks
Environmental issues have wide ranging implications for Canadians’ society, economy, and health. The protection and conservation of the environment requires the commitment of not only Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), but of all of its partners among federal, provincial, and territorial governments, Indigenous peoples, stakeholders and Canadians. Ensuring effective engagement helps to advance policies, regulations and services, and provides for a coordinated approach that considers all interests to achieve results. ECCC is also the authoritative source for science-based environmental information and services to support Canadians in making informed decisions relating to their health and safety.
There are few major environmental issues for which the causes or solutions lie solely within Canada’s borders. For this reason, ECCC must engage both domestic and international partners to develop effective solutions to global environmental challenges. The department seeks to be flexible in order to respond to these challenges and changing circumstances.
The risks and management challenges presented here are not those published in the 2017–18 Departmental Plan. In 2017–18, following completion of the Plan, ECCC completed a risk review and updated its corporate risks to better align them to its operating context. The original risks, however, are generally captured by the new risks.
The updated corporate risks and management challenges are linked to all of the department’s programs and strategic outcomes:
| Risks | Mitigating strategy and effectiveness |
|---|---|
| Delivery of results in the short-term in areas of shared responsibility could be limited by partner efforts. | Effective partnership enhances the delivery of results. However, in the short term, external dependencies can limit ECCC's ability to deliver on its commitments, particularly in areas of shared responsibility, such as:
|
| Attainment of environmental and climate change objectives could be impacted by external factors beyond ECCC’s control. | ECCC’s domestic and international operations occur in a complex, ever-changing environment, such that the attainment of departmental objectives is always at risk of being impacted by external factors that are beyond ECCC's control. For example:
The department seeks to be flexible in order to respond to these challenges and changing circumstances. ECCC continued to monitor them and develop appropriate mitigating actions. These included regular risk analyses to inform priority setting and decision making. |
In addition to these two risks, as with many other departments, ECCC has to manage ongoing operational issues. The department identified two specific management challenges that could have an impact on the attainment of its environmental objectives.
The first challenge concerns ECCC’s ability to respond quickly to new priorities and expectations to deliver timely results. In order to respond to this challenge, ECCC continued actions to:
- Build a capable workforce, especially in the area of highly specialized staff to deliver its key scientific outcomes. One strategy was to maintain partnerships with academic institutions to recruit talented Canadians and ensure the departmental workforce has the knowledge, expertise and skills to meet current and future challenges.
- Instill a culture of experimentation and innovation to respond to new priorities. To this end, ECCC continued to implement experimentation initiatives which provide data and information to help find effective solutions in response to ECCC’s complex environmental challenges.
- Strengthen its governance structure to support internal collaboration, build consensus and contribute to decision making in the department. ECCC’s governance reflects the complex, diverse nature of the programs and challenges managed by the department.
The second challenge concerns the department’s capacity to keep pace with technological advancements and meet departmental Information Management and Information Technology needs. To respond to this challenge and ensure risks associated with the delivery of its services were managed, the department continued to:
- Support Canada’s Open Government Agenda by ensuring that strong systems are in place to gather, collect, communicate, and disseminate information to Canadians.
- Utilize its Strategic Emergency Management Plan as the framework for the Business Continuity Plan, which was disseminated to various operational areas, including branch, site (e.g., buildings) and critical services.
- Count on established channels, protocols and agreements (e.g., Memoranda of Understanding) within the department and with its key stakeholders such as Shared Services Canada to minimize risks to program and service delivery.
In 2017–18, risk management continued to be a key activity for the department that supports and informs departmental priority setting, business and resource planning, and decision making.
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