Environment Canada's Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS) 2004-2006, tabled in Parliament in February 2004, is Environment Canada's third in a series of sustainable development strategies. It highlights for Canadians key commitments that the Department will undertake over the next three years to further our sustainable development objectives, to participate in building a government-wide approach to sustainable development, and to address our international sustainable development agenda.

SDS 2004-2006 builds upon the strengths of our previous SDS 2001-2003 by continuing to advance four themes that have shaped the Department's approach in recent years - Information for Decision-Making; Innovative Instruments; Partnerships for Sustainable Development; and Managing for Sustainable Development. The updated Strategy focuses on building a future shaped by:

• A strong knowledge base that puts human and natural capital on an equal footing with economic capital, informs public debate and ensures integrated decision-making;
  
• The strategic use of market forces to ensure that good economic policy becomes good environmental and social policy;
  
• Partnerships and governance models that enable horizontal decision-making at the government, community and corporate levels; and
  
• Leadership in our departmental operations as well as supporting efforts to promote sustainable development in operational policies and practices government-wide.
  
  

Applying Environment Canada's SDS Framework to Departmental Priorities

The SDS 2004-2006 has taken steps to demonstrate the influence of the Strategy on the delivery of Environment Canada's policy and programming priorities: Reducing the Health and Safety Impacts of Environmental Impacts of Pollution, Moving Forward on Climate Change; Sustaining our Natural Environment; and, Reducing Risk from Weather, Environmental Change and Other Hazards. The following describes related significant sustainable development challenges under each of the four departmental priorities, and the SDS commitments that will address these challenges. This section is intended to provide a clearer picture of the role and fit of the Strategy within the Department.

Priority 1: Reducing the Health and Environmental Impacts of Pollution

Reducing the health and safety impacts of environmental threats requires that Canadians receive timely and accurate information and take the appropriate steps to both mitigate against the risk and protect themselves. Our key sustainable development challenges are related to addressing research gaps, enhancing information dissemination and strengthening partnerships with industry.

Information for Decision-Making: A significant sustainable development challenge for the Department is to strengthen our understanding and increase awareness of the link between the environment and health. At the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Canada announced $3 million to support the initiative Strengthening Health and Environment Linkages: From Knowledge to Action. The Initiative will bring together scientific, technical and socio-economic information on environment and health linkages, and transfer that knowledge to inform decision-making at the local, regional and national levels.

Over one-half of all Canadians live in areas where ground-level ozone may reach high levels during the summer months and every urban centre has levels of airborne particles that are high enough to cause health impacts. Providing accurate, comprehensive and timely information to all Canadians will allow them to take appropriate action to reduce their personal health risk and contributions to air pollution.

Research characterizing sources and processes determining air quality in airsheds (some of which are shared with the United States) provides information that can guide decision-makers to maintaining and enhancing sustainability.

Innovative Instruments: The 2003 Speech from the Throne called for an External Advisory Committee on Smart Regulations to be established to provide an external perspective and expert advice on regulatory issues spanning economic and social policy objectives. Environment Canada will continue to support this Committee and look for opportunities to develop innovative, market-based economic instruments to reduce environmental threats.

Partnerships for Sustainable Development: Environment Canada will develop innovative partnership strategies with the corporate sector to support industry, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, to: catalyze the deployment of new technologies; increase the quantity and quality of corporate social responsibility and sustainability reporting; and, identify the financial and other business benefits, as well as challenges, associated with corporate environmental and sustainability performance. The Department will also work with other government departments and other partners to enhance productivity and environmental performance and provide sustainable development tools and best practices to the corporate sector.

Priority 2: Moving Forward on Climate Change

Addressing climate change is important to Canada's competitiveness and the health and security of Canadians. Implementing near term and enduring emission reductions and setting long-term goals to make the deep emission reductions needed to successfully address climate change and starting to work towards them will accelerate a shift to sustainability.

The larger challenge for all countries is developing and deploying the next generation technologies needed to make the transformative changes that will be required to make the economies of the world less carbon intensive and sustainable for the long term. Canada's long-term competitiveness will be determined by how we manage the situation overall.

Information for Decision-Making: Domestic emission reductions will rely on sustainable electricity production and use, sustainable transportation, clean and efficient industry and sustainable cities. Working with provinces, territories and stakeholders to develop long term industrial strategies for key sectors will require strengthening our understanding of business cycles, capital stock replacement rates, investment hurdles, research and development cycles and technology development timelines.

Improving our scientific understanding of the challenges and opportunities posed by climate change for our resources and economy and developing strategies, scenarios and options are essential to guide decision-making on adaptation in areas vulnerable to a changing climate.

Innovative Instruments: Canada needs to take an integrated approach to drive the transformational shifts that are needed to address climate change. This means collective accountability based on shared goals and common principles. It means a long-term process where today's decisions are shaped by the realities one to two decades in the future. It means setting longer-term goals to make the deep emission reductions needed to successfully address climate change and starting to work towards them. Finally, it means providing the tools, incentives and standards needed to align economic and environmental signals.

Partnerships for Sustainable Development: Environment Canada will develop sector-based approaches to develop long term sector specific agendas containing measurable targets, transition incentives and reporting requirements. These partnerships will have broad participation from the value-chain in key sectors and will also include provincial, municipal, Aboriginal and non-government organization participation tailored according to the sector.

The Department will continue to be involved in international negotiations. Kyoto is an important first step in addressing climate change. However, a new agreement will be needed for the long term. This agreement must include all industrialized countries and key developing countries. The commitments and timeframes in it must be based on the transformative changes that are required to successfully address climate change over the long term. Canada is committed to being an active part of the long term global solution.

While the majority of Canadians are aware of the climate change issue, and many acknowledge that there is something they can do personally to address this issue, greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise during the late 1990's. As consumers, individual Canadians are responsible for more than one quarter of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions. The One Tonne Challenge aims to engage Canadians providing them with information on how their individual consumption choices contribute to the emissions that drive climate change.

Priority 3: Sustain Our Natural Environment

Sustaining our natural environment presents significant opportunities to further sustainable development at the ecosystem, community and regional levels. The key sustainable development challenges are related to new knowledge and indicators for decision-making and partnerships, especially those with other levels of government.

Jurisdiction for this complex issue of safe and secure water is shared across the federal, provincial and territorial governments. Partnerships are key to addressing this issue. The Department is working with its provincial, territorial and health counterparts to address water quality, water quantity and water use.

Information for Decision-Making: In the next three years, Environment Canada will focus on developing the models and tools for integrated analysis of water quality and quantity and using this information to address sustainable water management issues. The department will also develop national agri-environmental standards related to water quality, water conservation, pesticides, air quality and biodiversity.

Innovative Instruments: One of the Department's most significant instruments to influence individual landowner behaviour is the Ecological Gifts Program. This program will be evaluated and expanded in the next three years.

Partnerships for Sustainable Development: To better meet our sustainable development objectives, improved governance is required for the implementation of a number of strategies and Acts, including Ecosystems Initiatives, the Species at Risk Act (SARA) and the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy.

Implementation of SARA and related provincial and territorial activity under the Accord for the Protection of Species at Risk presents Canadians with a significant opportunity to renew our approach to wildlife conservation, protect and conserve habitat, and secure new resources for conservation programming. SARA implementation presents a good opportunity to develop new models of partnership with communities, Aboriginal peoples, provinces, territories, other government departments, wildlife management boards, industry, non-governmental organizations, etc.

As well, under the North American Bird Conservation Initiative, Environment Canada will work with industry to influence land-use decisions and practices related to migratory bird habitats.

Priority 4: Reduce Risk from Weather, Environmental Change and Other Hazards

The risks to health, safety, property and the economy from naturally occurring environmental hazards, such as ice storms, floods, droughts and wind are increasing. It is estimated that $150 billion of Canada's economy is weather-sensitive, with some sectors (e.g. transportation, agriculture, forestry, health) relying extensively on accurate forecasts and warnings to mitigate risks posed by weather events. Other environmental hazards, such as poor air and water quality, may be produced or intensified by human activity. Property and economic losses due to environmental hazards have increased dramatically in recent years.

Information for Decision-Making: A long-term goal of the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) is to improve Canadians' capacity to anticipate, mitigate, withstand, and recover from high-impact events and related hazards. Over the next three years the MSC will, as part of its transformation activities, improve the Canadian environmental threats forecasting and warning systems through: science to strengthen our prediction capability and monitoring technology to increase lead-times as the basis for improved weather warning services to Canadians; and, enhanced outreach strategies for public alerts, new National Service Offices and new service partnerships/strategies with first responders and emergency organizations (e.g. Health Canada, Emergency Preparedness, provincial and municipal emergency measures and response agencies).

Partnerships for Sustainable Development: Environment Canada will develop innovative partnership strategies with the corporate sector to support industry, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, to: catalyze the deployment of new technologies and identify the financial and other business benefits.

Further information on all SDS commitments and progress on implementation for Sustainable Development Strategy 2004-2006 will be included in upcoming Departmental Performance Reports. For more detailed information on Sustainable Development Strategy 2004-2006, please visit Environment Canada's Green Lane: www.ec.gc.ca/sd-dd_consult/