Responding to Climate Change - Time to Rethink Canada's Implementation Strategy

Main Points

1. Climate change is perhaps the most daunting of a new generation of environmental problems that are testing governments around the world. Canada's position is that some degree of climate change is inevitable. The federal government has concluded that the threat of climate change is real and that the risks have to be managed. It believes that the potential environmental, economic and human costs are simply too high not to take immediate, precautionary action.

2. Responding to climate change falls into an area of shared jurisdiction and requires clear agreement on the roles and responsibilities of all levels of government. It also requires that their efforts be integrated and involve industry, non-governmental organizations and individual Canadians.

3. Since 1990, Canada has had a domestic policy commitment to stabilize its greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by the year 2000. In 1995, the federal, provincial and territorial ministers of energy and the environment approved the National Action Program on Climate Change (NAPCC) to provide strategic direction to achieve the stabilization goal. However, by the federal government's own assessment, instead of moving toward stabilization at 1990 levels, Canada's greenhouse gas emissions are headed in the wrong direction.

4. In our opinion, the NAPCC has been inadequately implemented. Many of the key elements necessary to manage the implementation of Canada's response to climate change are missing or incomplete. For example, there is no clear assignment of roles and responsibilities, no national communication program, no implementation plan, limited provision for regular, results-based monitoring of progress and no consolidated summary-level reporting to Parliament. Our audit identified several recommendations to address these concerns. These recommendations are also relevant to meeting any new climate change commitments that Canada may set, and thus serve as lessons to be learned for the future.

5. We believe that strong federal leadership is required in a number of areas to build upon the strategic direction of the NAPCC. The federal government has a responsibility to lead the nation in developing a realistic, broad-based and cost-effective response to climate change that minimizes any negative impact and maximizes any positive impact on Canada's economy. The implementation approach needs to be substantially rethought, with an effective management structure put in place.