(Chapter 8-International Environmental Agreements)
(Chapter 9-Strategic Environmental Assessment)
(Chapter 10-Greening of Government Operations)
Ottawa, 6 March 2008-The government is still not complying with a Cabinet directive on the environmental assessment of policy, plan, and program proposals, says the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Ron Thompson, in his Status Report tabled today in the House of Commons.
"The 1990 Cabinet directive on strategic environmental assessment was to ensure that the government would assess the potential environmental impacts of its policies, plans, and programs before approving them," said Mr. Thompson. "This is our fourth look at the issue, and we found that the government is still not complying with the directive."
Chapter 9 of the Report notes that federal proposals with potential for important environmental effects were not subjected to detailed assessment. When departments did complete strategic environmental assessments, most did not publicly report the results as required.
Chapter 8 reports that the government is still not providing Parliament and Canadians with a clear picture of where it stands in meeting its international environmental agreements. Very often, lead departments do not make complete and understandable information available on how they intend to meet the obligations or what results are expected and achieved.
On the issue of greening government's operations (Chapter 10), the follow-up audit found that the government's guidance and targets for departments to use in preparing their sustainable development strategies were left open to interpretation and were optional. The Report also notes that the government does not know how well it is doing overall at greening its operations.
"The government has made a commitment to lead by example in greening its operations. But as Canada's largest employer, purchaser, and landowner, it has a long way to go before it can claim to be a leader on this issue," said Mr. Thompson.
The Status Report follows up on the government's progress in addressing issues identified in previous reports. In most cases, the government agreed with the recommendations in the original audit and made a commitment to take action on them. In each chapter of this report, the government's progress is deemed either satisfactory or unsatisfactory, taking into account the complexity of the issue and the amount of time that has passed since the original audit.
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The 2008 Status Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development is available on the Office of the Auditor General of Canada website.
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