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Objective 1: Support sustainable development across government through the delivery of high-quality legal services and the development of legal infrastructure. In fulfilling its client services responsibilities, the Department of Justice provides comprehensive legal support to client departments and agencies across the federal government. These services include legal advice, legislative drafting, and representation of the federal government in the courts. They encompass support for specific client projects and the development of legal infrastructure, such as legislation, which provides legal tools to implement sustainable development. Because many sustainable development initiatives are legally based, Justice's client services role means that the Department participates in a very broad range of federal sustainable development activity. Justice also helps coordinate this activity by ensuring that its legal foundation is consistent across the country. Justice legal counsel have a complex task. They need to understand their client departments' sustainable development priorities and apply to them a broad spectrum of legal knowledge, including regulatory, business, Aboriginal and constitutional law and many other areas of legal practice. This law is constantly evolving through changes to laws and regulations and important court decisions. Justice counsel are often called upon to break new legal ground - for example, in incorporating new concepts into sustainable development legislation. Justice legal counsel are recognized as important participants in environmental law practice in Canada, and are invited regularly to share their knowledge with legal organizations such as the Canadian Bar Association and provincial bar associations. This chapter provides an overview of Justice's key client-services achievements under the 1997 Strategy, and of its new commitments for client services under this Strategy. A more detailed breakdown of achievements and commitments is provided in Appendices A and B. Key Achievements under the 1997 Sustainable Development Strategy Legal Support for Major Initiatives In its 1997 Sustainable Development Strategy, Justice made a number of commitments to ensure high-quality legal support for federal sustainable development activity. Justice's success in this area is demonstrated by its involvement in a wide range of important government initiatives, including the following: Sustainable development legislation and law reform. This included the new Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, the Nuclear Safety and Control Act, the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, the proposed Species at Risk Act, and proposed changes to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. International sustainable development issues. This included issues under the Canada-U.S. Pacific Salmon Treaty, environmental issues under Canada's trade agreements, and a challenge in the International Court of Justice to Canada's authority over fish conservation. Justice counsel also assisted the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development by providing information for a study on Canada's international sustainable development obligations. Environmental assessment of major projects. This included commercial development in national parks, the expansion of oil sands extraction facilities and the lifting of the Irving Whale oil barge from the ocean floor. New legal frameworks for sustainable development. This included environmental protection frameworks under First Nations self-government agreements and treaties and legislative wording to incorporate a pollution prevention approach into the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999. Capacity Building Justice undertook several measures to develop its capacity to provide the highest quality legal advice. It provided a wide range of legal information and training for its legal counsel, encouraged internal networking and developed several new work tools. Several Justice counsel shared their expertise by publishing a book on the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. Client Training Justice provides legal training to its clients as a "preventive law" activity, aimed at helping departments minimize their risk of legal problems. Under the 1997 Strategy, Justice legal counsel provided client training tailored to the needs of particular clients. Promoting Dispute Resolution and More Efficient Litigation Effective resolution of disputes, either through the courts or by alternative approaches, is an important element in advancing sustainable development. To resolve disputes more effectively in the context of civil litigation and prosecutions, Justice and Treasury Board jointly initiated the Legal Risk Management Project and Federal Prosecution Service Review. Areas being addressed include litigation processes and the use of information technology. These projects will continue under this new Strategy. Canadian society has shown a growing interest in applying alternative approaches to dispute resolution, and the Department of Justice has been a leader in this area. During the 1997 Strategy, the Dispute Resolution Fund, established jointly by Justice and Treasury Board, funded dispute resolution projects across the federal government. In the area of sustainable development, these involved the following: The Responsible Fishing Strategy of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans National Energy Board hearings to determine pipeline routing Compliance agreements under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 Disputes under the federal environmental assessment process (see box below) Goals for 2001-2003 The Department of Justice has set five goals for its client services under this new Sustainable Development Strategy: Deliver excellent legal support for major sustainable development initiatives Develop new and enhanced legal instruments Continue to develop capacity to deliver high-quality legal services Enhance legal training for clients Promote dispute resolution and more efficient litigation Goal 1.1: Legal Support for Major Government Initiatives The legal support provided by the Department of Justice to its clients is a key ingredient in the success of legally based sustainable development initiatives across the government. In its client-services role, Justice will be an important participant in many of the major initiatives that departments and agencies carry out under their own new Sustainable Development Strategies. The 1999 Speech from the Throne and the 2000 Budget have highlighted several government priorities that are expected to require significant client services from Justice. These include the new Sustainable Development Technology Fund, measures to address climate change through reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, management of toxic wastes, clean-up of contaminated sites, and the proposed Species at Risk Act. Environmental Assessment Dispute Resolution Although the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act permits mediation of disputes, no use was made of this dispute resolution option during the first five years of the Act. In 1998 and 1999, the Dispute Resolution Fund administered by Justice provided seed money to assist the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency to develop and implement a training and awareness program in dispute resolution for federal environmental-assessment managers and practitioners. The program focuses on informal dispute resolution methods to be used within the legal process. The program held training sessions across Canada in the spring of 1999, in which provincial officials, private sector consultants and federal officials participated. Material from the training sessions is being developed into work tools for environmental assessment managers. An additional component of the program, aimed at senior executives in the federal government, is expected to be completed in 2001. The objective is to provide training to help senior executives recognize situations in which alternative dispute resolution might be appropriate. Avoiding disputes by undertaking better public consultation will also be examined. Research has indicated that the reluctance to use alternative dispute resolution for environmental assessment is largely the result of a lack of experience. It is hoped that the training provided under this program will help to remove this barrier. Goal 1.2: New and Enhanced Legal Instruments The rapidly changing economic, social and legal environment means that the federal government needs to work constantly to develop the legal framework for sustainable development. Under this new Sustainable Development Strategy, Justice will continue to support its client departments and agencies in developing and implementing the legislation, regulations and other legal instruments that put sustainable development principles into action. This work will include developing well-structured laws and regulations, and helping to ensure smooth implementation through client training and legal advice on interpretation and other issues. Given the amount of sustainable development legislation initiated under the 1997 Strategy, Justice expects to devote considerable effort under this new Strategy in supporting clients in ongoing implementation. Justice will also continue to provide leading-edge legal support for developing instruments that are alternatives to traditional regulatory approaches. For example, Justice will continue work initiated under the 1997 Strategy to develop a legal structure for a possible “emissions trading” regime to address climate change. The general concept of such a regime would be to control overall levels of polluting emissions, while allowing individual facilities credit for exceeding minimum standards. Justice will continue several projects begun during the 1997 Strategy to help further public awareness and understanding of the federal government's legal instruments. These projects do not focus on sustainable development legislation specifically, but their benefits will be felt for legal instruments in all areas. They comprise work under the Department's Legislative Bijuralism policy to ensure that both civil law and common law legal traditions are reflected in federal laws; a pilot project in collaboration with Human Resources Development Canada to draft legislation and regulations in plain language and a more readily understood format; and the Legal Information Management System (LIMS), a new system for federal bills, laws and regulations that will enable timely publication on the Internet, improved searching and lower research costs. This is a joint project with the House of Commons, the Senate, Privy Council Office and Public Works and Government Services Canada. Goal 1.3: Building Client Services Capacity The complex demands placed on Justice counsel in delivering sustainable development legal advice make it essential to have an environment that supports continuous learning. Under this Strategy, Justice will further develop the capacity- building measures of the 1997 Strategy. Information and education for legal counsel will be enhanced by increasing content and accessibility. Work tools developed under the 1997 Strategy will be adjusted to reflect experience in applying them over time. In addition, infrastructure created under the 1997 Strategy to encourage networking, such as an internal sustainable development Web site, will be expanded and fine-tuned. This will continue to increase the opportunities for Justice clients to benefit from national synergies among its legal counsel. Goal 1.4: Legal Training for Clients As sustainable development law evolves, both Justice counsel and their clients need an environment of continuous learning. Building on the 1997 Strategy's client-training approach, Justice will increase accessibility of materials and incorporate relevant sustainable development content into material on other topics. Goal 1.5: Dispute Resolution and More Efficient Litigation Under this Strategy, Justice will build on the dispute resolution activity carried out during the 1997 Strategy. This will include work on internal support mechanisms to encourage the use of dispute resolution within Justice and financial support from the Dispute Resolution Fund for dispute resolution projects across the government. One key sustainable development project that will be continued under this Strategy is the environmental assessment training program initiated under the 1997 Strategy. Justice will also continue the projects initiated during the 1997 Strategy to manage civil litigation and prosecutions more efficiently and strategically.

 

		Last Updated: 2005-10-20		Important Notices