Sustainable Development Organization

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.

To date, the CRA has not had the need to complete a detailed SEA as its operations generally do not have important environmental effects. However, the CRA remains committed to the process and is prepared to conduct a SEA when necessary.