Government has a piecemeal approach to environmental protection, says Commissioner
Ottawa, 3 November 2009—The government cannot say whether, taken together, federal programs are contributing to the protection of Canada’s major ecosystems, says Scott Vaughan, Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, in his Report tabled today in the House of Commons. He says the government’s monitoring and other data systems are not connected strategically.
“Until data programs are woven together to track major changes over time in the quality of Canada’s environment, we are left with piecemeal approaches to protecting the environment,” said Mr. Vaughan.
Mr. Vaughan says there are some environmental monitoring and science-based programs that are working as intended, including Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory and the Air Quality Health Index. The Index is among the first of its kind in the world, and it demonstrates the practical value of federal leadership in applied environmental research.
Other systems, however, are incomplete, out-of-date, or non-existent. For example, the government has no systematic approach to monitoring whether mitigation measures required in environmental assessment reports have been implemented to reduce pollution or protect habitats and species threatened by development projects. The report also notes the limited information available for assessing the cumulative environmental impact of projects. This becomes particularly important where there are multiple projects in the same vicinity or where past development may have already compromised ecological integrity.
“Informed decision-making is at the heart of sound policy-making,” said Mr. Vaughan. “The federal government needs science-based environmental information that is timely, robust, and accessible in ways that both identify patterns of environmental degradation and help programs concentrate on the most urgent environmental problems.”
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