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2002 October Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development
Exhibit 5.8—Weaknesses in reporting
Confusing reporting
National Defence committed to a 5 percent per year reduction in the number of specified high-risk hazardous materials it uses. Although the Department's statistics showed reductions in the first two years of reporting, data in the 2001 Performance Report do not agree with the totals reported previously. The Department's report provides no explanation for this inconsistency. This contravenes one of the Treasury Board Secretariat's principles of effective performance reporting, which instructs departments that use comparative information to explain any differences.
In another department we found that the departmental performance report contradicted an earlier report. Justice Canada made a commitment to "reduce paper product use by 25 percent from 1997 to the end of 1999." In its 2001 Performance Report, it said it had achieved progress on its commitment by stabilizing paper product use. However, an appendix to the Department's second sustainable development strategy, describing achievements under the first strategy, reported the opposite. It noted that despite various efforts to reduce paper consumption, the amount of paper used had increased significantly.
In another case, Natural Resources Canada made a commitment, "From 1998-2000, possible participation of Canadian experts to the series of fora entitled World Forum on Forests (part of World Exposition 2000, Hanover, Germany)." In its status report for 2000-01, it indicated "status" with a tick (Ö) and added, "Unfortunately, the fora were not held."
The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) provides an additional example. The Agency has been in transition to make its second sustainable development strategy its business plan. While CIDA has indicated that this year's departmental performance report signals a change in reporting under this new approach, we believe that the Agency needs to devote greater efforts to ensure that its reporting on progress toward achieving its commitments in the second strategy is clear and understandable. In the future, we plan to look more closely at the extent to which the Agency's business-plan approach facilitates consistent, comprehensive reporting on its sustainable development commitments.
Vague reporting that focusses on activities
In one case, Canadian Heritage made a commitment to "sensitize all departmental employees to the concept, values and concrete applications of sustainable development by December 2000." Its performance report described progress to date, such as setting up information during Environment Week 2000, distributing an information sheet entitled The Green Office, and exploring with other interested departments the social and cultural dimensions of sustainable development. Although the Department stated its performance indicators, it did not discuss when or how it would measure the level of employee awareness and changes in understanding within the federal government. Until the Department measures the effects of its actions, it will not know (nor will parliamentarians and Canadians) how effective its efforts have been at sensitizing employees or whether it needs to take corrective action.
Invalid references
Of the departments that provided references to more detailed information, five (Correctional Service Canada, Environment Canada, Department of Finance Canada, Health Canada, and Department of Justice Canada) provided Web addresses that were invalid at the time of our audit. Last year we reported that two departments (again, one was Department of Justice Canada) provided invalid Web links. Invalid Web addresses limit access to information by members of Parliament or the public who want to review the detailed progress reports such links provide. It is notable that the guidance provided by the Treasury Board Secretariat advised departments that reports would be monitored to ensure that Internet links to supporting information were present and working.