This report is one part of a renewed commitment by the Government of Canada to provide regular updates on environmental issues to Canadians. Future reports will have a more comprehensive picture of all the top environmental issues of concern to Canadians. These reports will also provide an overview of progress made to date in addressing the environmental issues.

While these citizen-oriented reports will initially use existing information and tools, they will reflect over time the renewed investment by the Government of Canada in gathering, analyzing, and interpreting new environmental information through the Environmental Innovation Agenda.

By the end of 2001, a national Task Force will report to the government on a recommended design and strategy for the new Canadian Information System for the Environment, including analytical tools and means for public reporting. This comprehensive environmental information system will help to provide Canadians with up-to-date information on progress in addressing environmental concerns, as well as information that will help them to take action to protect the environment. It will also improve the basis for public policy based on the principle of sustainable development. Key to the success of this initiative will be the engagement of provincial, territorial, and other partners, as well as feedback from Canadian citizens.

One of the most important actions that any individual, organization, business, or government can take to help the environment is to know more about it—to more fully understand the science, the challenges concerning what we need to know, as pointed out in this report, and the possibilities. By simply reading this report and others like it, the first step towards environmental action has been taken. Other steps can be as large in scale as implementing a zero-pollution program in an industrial plant or as individual as making a family decision to drive 100 kilometres less per week. Each is an action based on knowledge, and each is an action that will benefit the environment.

Canadian volunteers from every walk of life can and do make a vital contribution to improving our knowledge and understanding of the environment. They count birds through such programs as the Christmas Bird Count, listen to and record information on frogs through Frogwatch, gather weather data using Stephenson screens in back-yards, and contribute through a host of other activities. A good deal of the work that Environment Canada carries out today is made possible by their efforts (see "Citizen Science: volunteers the eyes and ears of Environment Canada" at the Science & The Environment web site www.ec.gc.ca/science/new/enviroaction_e.html).

If you want to learn more about what you can do to help the environment, Environment Canada’s EcoAction 2000 web site (www.ec.gc.ca/ecoaction/index_e.htm) provides further examples of what individuals, groups, businesses, and organizations are doing. Similarly, the Millennium Eco-Communities site provides information on what community groups are doing to tackle environmental challenges. (www.ec.gc.ca/eco)

There are many suggestions for such actions, and more information on environmental issues, science, and policy, available on Environment Canada’s Green Lane at www.ec.gc.ca or by calling the Environment Canada Inquiry Centre at 1-800-668-6767.