2022-2023 Departmental Results Report
Response to parliamentary committees and external audits

From: Environment and Climate Change Canada

Response to parliamentary committees

List of committee reports

Report 1 of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development, The Road Ahead: Encouraging the production and purchase of zero-emission vehicles in Canada.

Report 2 of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development, The Impacts of a Ban on Certain Single-Use Plastic Items on Industry, Human Health and the Environment in Canada.

Report 4 of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development, Canada and Radioactive Waste Management: Important Decisions for the Future.

Report 7 - Bill S-5, An Act to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, to make related amendments to the Food and Drugs Act and to repeal the Perfluorooctane Sulfonate Virtual Elimination Act

Response to audits conducted by the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (including audits conducted by the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development)

List of titles and chapters of the audit reports

2022 Spring Reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development

• Hydrogen’s Potential to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
  • The audit objective was to determine whether ECCC and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) comprehensively assessed the role that hydrogen should play as a pathway to reach Canada’s climate commitments.
  • The audit concluded that ECCC and NRCan modelled the role that hydrogen could play as a pathway to reach Canada’s climate commitments. However, NRCan overestimated hydrogen’s decarbonization potential, and ECCC used an inadequate proxy to model it. In addition, the audit raised concerns that ECCC’s modelling of A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy used policies that had not yet been implemented. Finally, the audit noted the plan was based on some overly confident assumptions that called into question its credibility and its ability to achieve Canada’s 2030 emission reduction target, which was in effect at the beginning of the audit. ECCC would benefit from a stronger framework for peer review, public scrutiny, and quality assurance and control in its modelling exercises.
  • There were 4 recommendations addressed to ECCC. The Department agreed with all recommendations and prepared a management action plan to address them.
  • The report and ECCC’s response can be viewed on the Office of the Auditor General of Canada’s website — Report 3—Hydrogen’s Potential to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions (oag-bvg.gc.ca)
• Carbon Pricing-Environment and Climate Change Canada
  • The audit objective was to determine whether ECCC ensured that carbon pricing systems in Canada were applied effectively, fairly, and transparently (as defined in the Pan‑Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change).
  • The audit concluded that ECCC had some weaknesses in its initial standards, which allowed some less effective provincial carbon pricing systems to be accepted. The Department had since strengthened its approach to improving the effectiveness, fairness, and transparency of carbon pricing systems in Canada. However, more work remained to be done to ensure that large emitters support the achievement of Canada’s national emission‑reduction target, to alleviate the disproportionate burden felt by some groups, and to improve the transparency of reporting.
  • There were 4 recommendations addressed to ECCC. The Department agreed with all recommendations and prepared a management action plan to address them.
  • The report and ECCC’s response can be viewed on the Office of the Auditor General of Canada’s website — Report 5—Carbon Pricing—Environment and Climate Change Canada (oag-bvg.gc.ca)

2022 Fall Reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development

• Protecting Aquatic Species at Risk
  • The audit objective was to determine whether Fisheries and Oceans Canada, in collaboration with others, protected selected aquatic species assessed as at risk. To protect aquatic species assessed as at risk, the Department is required to collaborate with Environment and Climate Change Canada, and with provinces, territories, and stakeholders, as appropriate.
  • We concluded that Fisheries and Oceans Canada, in collaboration with others, did not adequately protect selected aquatic species assessed as at risk. For the areas we examined, Environment and Climate Change Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada did not adequately contribute to meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 14 (Life Below Water) and Goal 15 (Life on Land) as they relate to the protection of aquatic species at risk.
  • There was 1 recommendation addressed to ECCC. The Department agreed with the recommendation and prepared a management action plan to address it.
  • The report and ECCC’s response can be viewed on the Office of the Auditor General of Canada’s website — Report 7—Protecting Aquatic Species at Risk (oag-bvg.gc.ca)
• Review of the 2021 Progress Report on the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy
  • The review objective was to assess the fairness of the information in the 2021 Progress Report on the 2019 to 2022 Federal Sustainable Development Strategy
  • The review concluded that in Environment and Climate Change Canada’s 2021 Progress Report on the 2019 to 2022 Federal Sustainable Development Strategy, progress reporting information for 5 of the 8 targets under the goal of greening government was incomplete and untimely. The progress information for these targets was incomplete either because only a small number of the 26 departments in fact did report their progress or because they presented no results at all. The justification provided in the progress report for the absence of results is that those would only be available in 2023 or 2025, beyond the reporting period subject to this 2021 progress report. However, the progress report also points out that progress information for each of these targets was intended to be available yearly. In addition to these completeness and timeliness issues, the audit noted an inconsistency. Four targets mentioned that only “partial data” was available for them. However, information found elsewhere in the report on these same targets stated that there was “no new data,” wording that we find to be misleading.
  • There were no recommendations for ECCC.
  • The report and ECCC’s response can be viewed on the Office of the Auditor General of Canada’s website — Report 8—Review of the 2021 Progress Report on the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (oag-bvg.gc.ca)
• Departmental Progress in Implementing Sustainable Development Strategies – Species at Risk
  • The audit objective was to determine whether Environment and Climate Change Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Parks Canada contributed to meeting the species at risk target under the Healthy Wildlife Populations goal in the 2019–2022 Federal Sustainable Development Strategy and the related United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 15 of Life on Land, as applicable to each entity.
  • The audit concluded that Environment and Climate Change Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Parks Canada contributed to meeting the federal species at risk target under the Healthy Wildlife Populations goal in the 2019–2022 Federal Sustainable Development Strategy. In their departmental sustainable development strategies, the organizations identified actions to contribute to this target. However, the actions and performance indicators that they set out in their strategies missed incorporating some conservation and recovery activities that were needed to fully track and demonstrate progress toward meeting the target. Performance information was also either missing or incomplete for most of the actions that Environment and Climate Change Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada included in their strategies.
  • The audit noted that the 3 organizations reported progress toward meeting the objectives set out in their strategies related to conservation and recovery activities that are embedded within the species at risk target. However, consistent with the gaps in the design of these strategies, progress reporting missed some aspects of those conservation and recovery activities that were needed to provide a complete picture. The audit concluded that the organizations’ contributions to meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 15 were unclear because neither their departmental results reports nor any other corporate reporting for the 2020–21 fiscal year described how their actions and corresponding results made progress toward Goal 15 targets.
  • There were 5 recommendations addressed to ECCC. The Department agreed with all recommendations and prepared a management action plan to address them.
  • The report and ECCC’s response can be viewed on the Office of the Auditor General of Canada’s website — Report 9—Departmental Progress in Implementing Sustainable Development Strategies—Species at Risk (oag-bvg.gc.ca)

2022 Fall Reports of the Auditor General of Canada

• Arctic Waters Surveillance
  • The audit objective was to determine whether key federal organizations built the maritime domain awareness required to respond to safety and security risks and incidents associated with increased vessel traffic in Arctic waters.
  • The audit concluded that the federal organizations audited—Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard, Environment and Climate Change Canada, National Defence, and Transport Canada—had not taken the action required to build the maritime domain awareness they collectively needed to respond to safety and security risks associated with increasing vessel traffic in Arctic waters. While these organizations had identified gaps in maritime domain awareness, they had not taken sufficient measures to address them. Moreover, some measures taken had progressed slowly and, in the case of the Marine Security Operations Centres, were not efficient. Furthermore, the existing satellite services and infrastructure did not provide the capacity that the federal organizations needed to perform surveillance of Arctic waters. Delays in the renewal of satellites, ships, and aircraft risks compromising the presence of these organizations in Arctic waters.
  • There were no recommendations for ECCC.
  • The report and ECCC’s response can be viewed on the Office of the Auditor General of Canada’s website — Report 6—Arctic Waters Surveillance (oag-bvg.gc.ca)

Response to audits conducted by the Public Service Commission of Canada or the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages

There were no audits in 2022–23 requiring a response.