Sustainable Development Organization – Public Statements

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)

As part of the CRA's sustainable development commitments and as a general best practice, employees are responsible for considering the environmental impacts of their policy, plan and program proposals.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) developed the Cabinet Directive on the Environmental Assessment of Policy, Plan and Program Proposals to provide guidance on how to conduct this analysis and standardize the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process across the federal government.

The Cabinet Directive represents the Government of Canada's official policy on SEA, sets out the expectations of ministers and Cabinet on when a SEA should be conducted, and outlines what a SEA should consider. It requires that the environmental analysis be fully integrated into the proposal development process and specifies that ministers expect a SEA to be conducted when the following two conditions are met:

• The proposal is submitted to an individual minister or Cabinet for approval.
• The implementation of the proposal may result in important environmental effects, either positive or negative.

The SEA process at the CRA consists of two steps, a preliminary scan and a detailed strategic environmental assessment. The preliminary scan is a quick initial assessment to determine if the proposal may have important environmental effects, either positive or negative. If important potential environmental effects are identified, the proposal must undergo a detailed SEA in order to properly analyse the risks, and this information is provided to the Minister or Cabinet, accordingly.

Public Statements

The Cabinet Directive requires that departments and agencies prepare a public statement of environmental effects when an assessment of environmental effects has been conducted through a Detailed SEA. The purpose of the statement is to demonstrate that environmental factors have been integrated into the decision-making process. Departments determine the content and extent of the public statement according to the circumstances of each case.

Upon the official announcement of the initiative, the CRA will post a public statement summarizing the Detailed SEA results.