In 1989, the first ministers of the federal and provincial governments endorsed a Statement of Interjurisdictional Co-operation on Environmental Matters. It identified the need for co-ordinated responses from both levels of government to environmental issues with interjurisdictional impacts, such as climate change. This statement provided the overall framework for joint environmental action between the two levels of government.
Since 1993, co-ordination between federal and provincial/territorial environment and energy administrations has taken place primarily through joint meetings of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment and the Council of Energy Ministers. For the last few years, they have met at least once a year. These joint meetings are often referred to as Joint Ministers Meetings (JMM). At the JMM, the ministers deal with a variety of common air quality issues.
In November 1993, the JMM approved a Comprehensive Air Quality Management Framework for Canada. This framework agreement provides a formal basis for, and encourages all jurisdictions to co-ordinate and co-operate in, the management of all air quality issues, including climate change, and to do so within the context of sustainable development. Thus, the JMM serves as the highest level of a national process to develop direction and statements of intent on climate change.
The JMM established a National Air Issues Co-ordinating Mechanism (NAICM) in 1993 to implement the framework agreement. The NAICM generally serves as a forum to foster partnerships and co-operative discussions among environment and energy departments and to build consensus among jurisdictions on identifying and resolving multi-jurisdictional air quality issues. Its purpose is to co-ordinate progress domestically and to provide advice to the federal government on the development of international positions on such issues as climate change.
The NAICM consists of a steering committee and a co-ordinating committee. The National Air Issues Steering Committee (NAISC) comprises federal and provincial deputy ministers of environment and energy and reports to the JMM. The subcommittee of the NAISC, the National Air Issues Co-ordinating Committee (NAICC), comprises federal and provincial assistant deputy ministers, typically from the environment and energy departments.
The NAICC, as a component of the NAICM, provides an opportunity to reach a better understanding of government positions, to set up processes for stakeholder consultation and to reach a broad consensus on priority air quality issues. It is not a policy-making or decision-making body. The NAICC established a Climate Change Working Group to act as a focal point for climate change issues, covering both domestic and international aspects. The NAICC is supported by a Stakeholder Advisory Committee.
The National Action Program on Climate Change (NAPCC) was developed under the direction of the NAICM and approved by the JMM in 1995 as Canada's response to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . Since then, the NAICM has played a role in co-ordinating the implementation of the NAPCC among governments.