Monitoring of Sustainable Development Strategy Commitments

The Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development reports on how well federal departments and agencies are meeting the objectives and implementing the plans set out in their sustainable development strategies. With the coming into force of the Federal Sustainable Development Act in June 2008, the Commissioner was given three additional responsibilities:

• The Commissioner must review a draft of the federal government’s sustainable development strategy and comment on whether the targets and implementation strategies can be assessed. The federal government was required to table its first federal sustainable development strategy in the House of Commons no later than June 2010, and it must table a federal sustainable development strategy every three years thereafter.
• The Commissioner must report annually to the House of Commons on whether the departments and agencies that are subject to the Federal Sustainable Development Act have met the targets and objectives set out in the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy, and whether they have implemented the plans set out in their own sustainable development strategies. Departmental strategies must be tabled within one year of the federal strategy being tabled.
• The Commissioner must also assess the fairness of the information contained in the government’s progress report on implementing its strategy. The government’s first progress report is due one year after the tabling of the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy and every three years thereafter.

Our observations on selected strategy commitments should not be applied to other related issues or used to draw conclusions about overall progress toward sustainable development.