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2008 December Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development

Introduction

I am pleased to present my first Report to the House of Commons since being appointed Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development in May 2008. Work for this report began under my predecessor Ron Thompson, to whom I am grateful for his invaluable assistance.

Science indicates that we are not on an environmentally sustainable path

Four decades after national environmental laws and departments were created to clean up Canada's air and water and to safeguard biodiversity, wetlands, and habitats, Canadians still face mounting environmental problems. Despite progress in tackling such problems as lead pollution, acid rain, and ozone-depleting substances, too many smog alerts, respiratory illnesses, and days with high UV-radiation still occur. Few if any of the problems that led to the advent of the environmental protection agenda have been fully resolved.

Since the early days of the environmental agenda, remarkable progress has been made in our understanding of the complexity, fragility, and inter-connectivity of ecosystems. Advances in scientific research, applied satellite sensing, and computer modelling, together with observations from field testing, confirm that the scale and pace of environmental change is unprecedented and accelerating. The UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report (2005) warns that our planet has been transformed by environmental change more extensively in the past 50 years than in any comparable period of time in human history. The quickening pace of species extinction is largely driven by the degradation and destruction of natural habitats such as forests, wetlands, and grasslands.

Advances in medical research also uncover risks to human health from environmental contamination, including long-term, low-dose exposure to industrial and household chemicals. Some of these exposures have been linked to thyroid cancer, as well as neuro-behavioural disorders and birth defects. According to the Canadian Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute of Canada, based on current incidence rates almost 40 percent of Canadian women and almost 45 percent of Canadian men will develop cancer during their lifetimes, and one in four Canadians will die from cancer (Canadian Cancer Statistics 2008). Improved diagnosis, aging populations, smoking, lack of exercise, and poor diet are known to contribute to these trends. Exposure to many toxic substances also contributes to cancer, and this is an area where the federal government has a clear regulatory mandate.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its Fourth Assessment of 2007, confirms that climate change is underway. A recent federal report, From Impacts to Adaptation: Canada in a Changing Climate (2007), examines some of the national effects of global climate change, including shortages of fresh water in southern Ontario and the Prairie provinces that may become more frequent, and violent storms and flooding in the Maritimes that also may become more frequent and severe. The effects of climate change are already being observed in the North—warmer winters are weakening permafrost and putting infrastructure at risk, ice roads are closing earlier, large areas of land are sinking even as sea levels rise, and some species—notably polar bears—are becoming increasingly at risk.

A second important federal report, Human Health in a Changing Climate (2008), similarly warns that climate change is likely to increase some respiratory illnesses and some infectious diseases.

These are not forecasts for a distant future. These are serious problems that governments and the public must face today. As noted in From Impacts to Adaptation, "We have options, but the past is not one of them."

The Work of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development

As part of the Office of the Auditor General, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development promotes sustainable development and good environmental management by the federal government. Our work involves the following activities:

Auditing for results

Our performance audits look at whether activities designed to respond to federal environmental and sustainable development policies are well-managed, with a focus on results. We select audit topics based on a range of considerations and input. We also monitor departmental progress on recommendations from past audits, and we conduct follow-up audits of activities reported previously.

Monitoring sustainable development strategies

Departmental sustainable development strategies—Since 1995, designated departments and agencies have been required by law to prepare sustainable development strategies, and then update and present them to Parliament every three years. These strategies are meant to be the main vehicle to drive responsible management, from an environmental and sustainable development perspective, throughout the federal government.

A new Federal Sustainable Development Strategy—In 2008, the Federal Sustainable Development Act was passed, which requires the Minister of the Environment to develop an overarching Federal Sustainable Development Strategy with sustainable development goals and targets as well as an implementation plan for meeting each target. The Strategy will also identify the minister responsible for meeting each target.

Departments' and agencies' sustainable development strategies must now have plans and objectives that comply with and contribute to the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy.

The Commissioner's monitoring responsibilities—We assess the quality of the departmental strategies and whether the plans set out in these sustainable development strategies have been implemented. We will now monitor and report on the extent to which federal departments have contributed to meeting the targets and goals that will be set out in the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy.

The Commissioner will provide comments to the Minister of the Environment on whether the targets and goals in the draft Federal Sustainable Development Strategy can be assessed. He will also report to Parliament on the fairness of the information in the federal government's progress report on the implementation of its federal strategy.

Managing the petitions process for Canadians

The petitions process was established by Parliament to make sure Canadians get timely answers from federal ministers on specific environmental and sustainable development issues that involve federal jurisdiction. Petitions have prompted action by federal departments on topics such as new environmental projects, follow-up on alleged violations, and changes or clarifications in policies and practices. A catalogue of petitions and responses is available at www.oag-bvg.gc.ca.

Monitoring progress in implementing the climate change plans

Under the terms of the 2007 Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development must report at least once every two years up to 2012 on Canada's progress in implementing climate change plans, and in meeting its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.

Providing better information and encouraging changes in environmental behaviour are steps in the right direction

A challenge for governments is bridging science-based evidence of environmental degradation with risk assessments and management programs and systems designed to deliver concrete results. One part of this challenge is getting the right information at the right time in order to make informed decisions. Two examples from this Report illustrate how the federal government is moving in the right direction with some of its programs to integrate new information delivery systems aimed at better supporting decision making:

  • Environment Canada's weather prediction and severe weather warning systems are moving toward advanced workstations that will allow forecasters to visualize and assess weather conditions more efficiently, helping them to better forecast severe weather.
  • Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's National Land and Water Information Service is planning to make use of information technology to generate up-to-date and consistent data on land use, soil, water, and biodiversity—data to which land-use managers and farmers could have immediate access to help them make environmentally responsible decisions.

Addressing environmental concerns will also mean encouraging sound environmental behaviour by Canadians, including rewarding them for translating environmental concerns into green action. To succeed, Canadians need to have choices that are available and affordable, from public transportation and more recycling to renewable and green electricity.

The government is not ensuring that tools to limit harmful emissions are working

The first chapter in this report, Managing Air Emissions, examines four federal tools—regulations, economic measures, pollution prevention plans, and voluntary agreements with the private sector—intended to limit emissions of harmful substances into the air. We found flaws in their implementation, particularly with regard to providing Parliament with assurance that the results reported by the federal government have actually been achieved.

Benzene, a component of gasoline, is known to cause cancers such as leukemia. The government introduced regulations in 2001 to protect Canadians from exposure to benzene when they fill up at the gas pump. In the seven years since then, Environment Canada has still not completely identified the community to whom the regulations apply. Nationally known companies and major independent retailers are probably aware of the regulations but other retailers and wholesalers in Canada may not know about them. The regulations have not been a priority for Environment Canada, and it has done little to enforce them.

Acrylonitrile, a substance used to manufacture synthetic rubber, structural foam, and other products, was declared toxic because of its cancer-causing potential and the probability of causing harm at any level of exposure. Environment Canada published a notice in 2003 requiring a company that was emitting acrylonitrile to produce a pollution prevention plan. The Department later indicated that the measure had been successful based on results reported by the company. However, the Department did not validate the results.

Total air emissions of acrylonitrile saw a rapid increase from 2003 to 2006. While activities by Environment Canada contributed to a reduction in emissions between 2006 and 2007, total national emissions are still almost three times higher than in 2000 when the substance was declared toxic.

Chapter 1 also looked at two economic measures intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Both are included in the government's Climate Change Plans issued in response to the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act.

In 2007, the government estimated that the Public Transit Tax Credit, at a cost of $635 million, would result in annual reductions of 220,000 tonnes in greenhouse gas emissions. In 2008, Environment Canada lowered that estimate of expected emissions reductions to 35,000 tonnes per year. The program will have a negligible impact on Canada's greenhouse gas emissions, despite the reported cost.

The Clean Air and Climate Change Trust Fund, a key plank in the government's approach to addressing climate change, comprises $1.519 billion in federal funds transferred to the provinces and territories. Environment Canada used flawed analyses and assumptions in establishing the 16 million tonnes per year it expected the provinces to achieve in greenhouse gas emission reductions as a result of the Trust Fund (or 80 megatonnes for the 2008–2012 duration of the program).

Given that the Trust Fund has no conditions that allow the federal government to monitor the provinces' results by requiring them to report to it on how they use the funds, Environment Canada has made a claim of expected results even though it is very unlikely that it will be able to report real, measurable, and verifiable results.

The government cannot demonstrate that environmental programs are achieving intended results

The test of any environmental law, regulation, program, or tool is whether it leads to either reductions in the rate of environmental degradation, and/or measurable improvements in environmental quality.

The findings in this report confirm that there are gaps in the information and verification needed for Parliament to know whether the programs we examined are working well or whether they should be adjusted. For example, as noted in Chapter 2 of this report, Managing Severe Weather Warnings, Environment Canada reports that it issues over 10,000 warnings every year, providing an important service to protect Canadians from a range of events from tornadoes and severe thunderstorms to freezing rain and heavy snowfalls. With climate change expected to increase the severity and frequency of extreme weather events in the years ahead, the delivery of severe weather warning services will be increasingly important.

Environment Canada's Meteorological Service is considered among the world leaders in providing severe weather warning services. However, there is no national system for verifying the accuracy of severe weather warnings. Such a system would help Environment Canada understand how good a job it is doing and where improvements are needed. A national system would also tell the Department how well the current warnings are understood and heeded by Canadians, and where future improvements in the delivery of severe weather warnings may be needed.

Chapter 3, Managing Environmental Programming, notes that Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has spent about $370 million to protect environmental quality on farms by addressing issues such as the handling of agricultural waste and restriction of livestock from waterways. Producers are informed of environmental issues and partially reimbursed for adopting management practices that are beneficial to the environment. However, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada lacks sufficient data to determine the extent to which action at the farm level has resulted in positive environmental change.

In the areas we examined for this report, a key challenge for government is to know if its programs are succeeding in improving environmental quality. This requires the ongoing monitoring of environmental quality, and assurance that environmental laws, standards, and regulations are being implemented and enforced effectively. Government should clearly define for Parliament its management targets that measure progress against either improved environmental quality or reduced risks to the environment through lower pollution emissions. Measuring the extent to which federal laws, programs, and initiatives are actually working to protect Canadians from environmental degradation remains a significant management challenge. Trying to manage the environment without a coherent measurement system is like trying to guide Canada's economy in the absence of indicators like the gross domestic product, inflation, interest rates, and unemployment data.

Sustainable development: Directions and strategies

Since the idea of sustainable development emerged in the 1980s, translating its goals into concrete practice has eluded us. Its appearance in policy and legislation and its apparent acceptance in theory are at odds with operational reality.

Nowhere is this weakness more apparent than in the federal government's past sustainable development strategies. The promise of these strategies was that the requirement to have them tabled in Parliament would motivate departments to take environmental issues into account, along with social and economic issues, when making management decisions.

It is clear that the strategies produced since 1997 have not realized their potential to promote sustainable development in Canada. Indeed, the Office of the Auditor General has underscored the failure of these strategies to drive more sustainable development. Successive commissioners have reiterated that the strategies are underperforming and need fixing. This year's report is no exception. Given the findings and recommendation in the Commissioner's 2007 Report on the strategies, and pending the implementation of that recommendation and the new Federal Sustainable Development Act, we carried out only minimal monitoring work on the strategies this year.

Federal Sustainable Development Act. Parliament has recognized the fault lines of the current system, passing the new Federal Sustainable Development Act in June 2008. The new Act holds promise to correct the current flaws by requiring for the first time an overarching federal strategy for sustainable development. The strategy is to be completed in 2010 or earlier under the leadership of Environment Canada. Departments' and agencies' sustainable development strategies must now have plans and objectives in place that comply with and contribute to the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy.

The Act sets out concrete operational parameters for sustainable development, drawing on the precautionary principle that where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, a lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation. The Act also establishes the need to integrate environmental, economic, and social factors into all decisions made by the government. The Act calls for a federal strategy that includes measurable targets and that identifies the ministers responsible for meeting each target.

The 2008 Federal Sustainable Development Act also sets out obligations for the Commissioner. These include a requirement to review and comment on the draft federal strategy to ensure that its targets can be measured and its implementation strategies assessed, and a requirement to assess the fairness of the information reported by the government on its progress in implementing the federal strategy and meeting its targets.

The way forward

Shortly before my arrival at the Office, the Auditor General convened a Green Ribbon Panel to examine how the Office's environment and sustainable development mandate established in 1995 had been put into practice, and to identify any potential opportunities to serve Parliament better. The Green Ribbon Panel made a number of valuable recommendations. The Auditor General and I are committed to developing a strategy and work plan to address those recommendations and the requirements of new legislation, as well as other important environmental and sustainable development issues facing the federal government.

I would like to thank my staff for their dedication and professionalism. I look forward to working with them to continue providing Parliament with independent and objective information that it can use in holding government to account for delivering on its environmental commitments.