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ARCHIVED - RPP 2006-2007
Environment Canada


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Section 1: Overview

Minister's Message

The Honourable Rona Ambrose, P.C., M.P.

As Minister of the Environment, I am pleased to put forward the 2006-2007 Report on Plans and Priorities for Environment Canada. This document is an important element of the Government's plan to address head-on the challenges on the environment and to find solutions that deliver tangible results for Canadians.

The Government is focused on "Made-in-Canada" solutions that are results-oriented and have direct benefits to the health of Canadians and the Canadian environment. Our focus is on real domestic action to ensure that Canadians can enjoy clean air, clean water, clean land, and healthy communities.

The Government has already taken action on important environmental initiatives. These include tax credit measures to increase the use of public transport, increasing the average renewable fuel content in gasoline and diesel fuel to five per cent by 2010, reducing emissions of sulphur dioxide and metal pollutants from major industrial sources and eliminating uncontrolled disposal of mercury switches from scrap cars.

Building on these important steps, this report identifies how Environment Canada intends to address the broad range of environmental issues within its mandate and jurisdiction. Over the next three years, the Department will develop a "Made-in-Canada" plan that will:

  • Promote cleaner air for Canadians. The health of Canadians is seriously affected by the quality of the air we breathe. Those who are affected the most are our country's most vulnerable: the young, the elderly, and those with respiratory conditions.
  • Reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Work with partners to promote clean and safe water resources. The threats to the quality of Canada's water resources must be addressed.
  • Manage the risks to human and environmental health from toxic chemicals.
  • Conserve and protect Canada's significant natural spaces.

Environmental issues such as air pollution and the management of toxic substances are by their nature complex and multi-jurisdictional. Finding solutions requires commitment and a long-term view. It also requires collaboration among all orders of government, industry, and stakeholders. The key challenge is to define a common direction, a collaborative approach and to ensure that partners share a commitment to tangible results that will have lasting benefits for Canadians.

While the Department is working to promote a new and more collaborative approach to environmental management, its commitment to transparency and accountability remains unabated. This report is one of the tools Environment Canada uses to ensure its accountability to Parliament and to Canadians. I encourage you to read it and learn about the actions our Government and our partners are working to set in place for the benefit of all Canadians.

Rona Ambrose, P.C., M.P.
Minister of the Environment

Management Representation Statement

I submit for tabling in Parliament, the 2006-2007 Report on Plans and Priorities (RPP) for Environment Canada.

This document has been prepared based on the reporting principles contained in the Guide to the preparation of Part III of the Estimates: Reports on Plans and Priorities.

  • It adheres to the specific reporting requirements outlined in the TBS guidance;
  • It is based on the Department's approved Program Activity Architecture (PAA) as reflected in its MRRS;
  • It presents consistent, comprehensive, balanced and accurate information;
  • It provides a basis of accountability for the results achieved with the resources and authorities entrusted to it; and
  • It reports finances based on approved planned spending numbers from the Treasury Board Secretariat.

Michael Horgan
Deputy Minister of the Environment

Departmental Plans and Priorities

OPERATING ENVIRONMENT

Canada is particularly rich in natural assets, containing within its borders 20% of the world's natural areas, 10% of the world's forests, and 7% of the world's renewable fresh water. The Canadian economy benefits greatly from this wealth. Roughly 22% of Canada's GDP is derived from resources such as energy products, forests and agriculture. While Canada is blessed with a richness of natural assets, improved management of these resources is a central need.

Canada is not alone in its efforts to seek out effective ways to manage the environment. Over the last 50 years, the Earth has lost 25% of its topsoil, 33% of its forests, and most of its large fish stocks. The OECD estimates that environmental impacts on human health cost OECD countries 0.5% of GDP and that 20% of the total burden of disease in industrialized countries can be linked to environmental factors.


Environment Canada is open for business 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year from coast to coast and around the world. Every year we:
  • Issue more than 1.5 million public weather forecasts; 200,000 marine and sea state forecasts; 400,000 aviation forecasts; 15,000 warnings and 1,300 ice condition forecasts;
  • Respond to 33 million telephone calls and handle 6 billion Internet hits seeking meteorological and environmental information;
  • Conduct around 10,000 inspections under Canada's environmental laws;
  • Provide spill containment and clean-up advice to lead response agencies at an average of 1,000 significant incidents;
  • Assess nearly 800 new substances, process 8,000 notices for proposed international shipments of hazardous waste permits and over 43,000 manifests associated with actual shipments;
  • Manage 13 million hectares of wildlife habitat;
  • Support hundreds of community-led projects in all regions of the country to protect and restore the environment;
  • Publish over 500 scientific articles.

Health Considerations
Air quality is of increasing concern to Canadians: 60% consider air pollution to be the most important environmental issue. Over half believe it will eventually have a negative impact on their health, and a third believe that air pollution is already having adverse impacts.

There is growing evidence that the state of the environment is significantly impacting human health. Smog, for example, can worsen existing heart and breathing problems and it results in thousands of premature deaths each year. Smog causes hundreds of thousands of severe episodes of asthma and bronchitis annually, particularly among children and the elderly. The Ontario Medical Association estimates that air-related illnesses result in 60,000 emergency visits and 17,000 hospital admissions annually in Ontario alone. Data shows that 12% of children are estimated to have asthma and it is now a leading cause of school absenteeism. An analysis in eight major Canadian cities concluded that air pollution is a factor in 1 in 12 deaths – a total of 5,900 preventable deaths per year.

Some of the same pollutants that cause smog also impair ecosystems and wildlife. Poor air quality, particularly through acid deposition, remains one of the most serious threats to biodiversity, forests and fresh water ecosystems. Hazardous air pollutants such as mercury can be deposited into water and pose risks to wildlife and humans through their accumulation up the food chain.

Economic Considerations
The stress and resulting degradation that is occurring in our environment creates real economic costs associated with, among other things, forgone resource and labour productivity and increased burden on the health care system. In the province of Ontario alone, poor air quality has resulted in an estimated $200 million per year in crop damage, $77 million per year in forest damage, $374 million in lost productivity in 2005, and direct health care costs of $507 million per year.

These types of costs affect all regions and sectors, and cumulatively they represent a serious challenge to Canada's long-term prosperity. In the Okanagan Valley and Alberta oil sands region, for example, economic opportunities are increasingly constrained by water availability, whereas, in the Prairies, Atlantic Canada, and elsewhere, invasive pests that harm crops and forests are estimated to cost Canada's economy $7.5 billion each year.

Natural disasters, particularly those of a meteorological origin like severe thunderstorms, snow, freezing rain, floods or drought, also take a strong economic toll. For example, the insurance industry says it expects to pay out more than $400 million in the wake of a storm that hit southern Ontario on August 19, 2005. This storm was the worst in Ontario's history.


In addition to the departmental Act, the Minister has substantial legal authorities and obligations related to the department and including:
  • Canadian Environmental Protection Act
  • Fisheries Act (subsection 36(3))
  • Canadian Environmental Assessment Act
  • Species at Risk Act
  • Canada Wildlife Act
  • Canada Water Act
  • Weather Modification Information Act

Competitiveness in the Global Economy
Within the global economy, citizens, investors, and companies are responding to the reality that environmental sustainability is an increasingly important driver of competitiveness.

This fundamental shift in how the environment is valued can be seen in the changing nature of international trade, where countries and industries are increasingly putting in place environmental standards for imported or traded goods and services.

More than ever before, industries are pressured to behave responsibly and adopt sustainable and ethical practices. For example, the world's top wood buyers responded to campaigns calling on them to stop buying wood from endangered forests, affecting their suppliers across North America and Europe.

Investors, including banks and insurers, monitor corporate earnings related to environmental performance and liability. The Carbon Disclosure Project (155 institutional investors representing 40% of the world's managed assets or a total of $21 trillion) now requires disclosure of financial risk of carbon emissions.

Financial indices – such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index – have emerged, adding credence to arguments that environmental sustainability is essential to economic competitiveness in the 21st century, as the companies listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index have outperformed the companies on the Dow Jones World Index over the last 10 years.

Departmental Response and Priorities
The Government will adopt a Made-in-Canada approach to the environment that secures real benefits for Canadians. Recognizing the links between the economy, the environment and human health will build an understanding of the real value of the environment and help in the identification of priority areas for action. The most pressing environmental challenges are those that have the greatest impact on lives of Canadians.

While Environment Canada will continue to provide a wide range of valuable products and services for Canadians, including environmental research and weather information, focusing the Department's efforts on a number of key priorities will ensure that real environmental outcomes that benefit Canadians are achieved. The Government has identified several key areas for action:


Canada is a signatory to some 59 international environmental agreements, including:
  • Bilateral Agreements on key environmental issues, such as: Canada-U.S. Air Quality Agreement, Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, Canada-U.S. Agreement on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste.
  • Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) such as: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer, Convention on Biological Diversity.
  • Regional Agreements on environmental cooperation, such as: North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, North American Waterfowl Management Plan.

Reducing Air Pollutants
To protect Canadians from the harmful effects of air pollution, Environment Canada will demonstrate federal leadership by tabling a Clean Air Act and introducing new measures to reduce air pollution and achieve tangible reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the Government will focus on promoting new infrastructure and transformative technology, harnessing market forces, and green transportation systems with initiatives like tax credits for public transit users and 5% renewable fuel. The efforts to reduce air emissions will be the first part of a broader environmental strategy that will be developed in collaboration / consultation with partners.

Protecting Canadians from Toxic Substances
Canadians expect that any risks associated with chemicals that are on or entering the marketplace, and to which they may be exposed in air, water, food, products or other elements of indoor or outdoor environments, have been properly assessed, and that adequate measures have been taken to protect their health and that of the natural environment. This reflects a growing awareness of the connection between exposure to certain toxic substances in the environment and a variety of chronic diseases, developmental disorders and other health problems in humans, as well as threats to wildlife and the integrity of natural ecosystems.

Canada is the first country to complete a systematic examination of the hazardous properties of substances that went into use prior to 1994. This review has provided the information baseline to make a shift in the manner in which government and industry work together.

Building on Canada's success in reviewing all chemical substances in use, Environment Canada will continue to work with Health Canada to ensure that toxic substances are managed in a way that protects the health of Canadians. The Government will introduce a strategy to strengthen the sound management of chemicals and will start by taking immediate action to address the substances that have been found to be the most hazardous and take measures to reduce the risks harmful substances pose to the health of Canadians and the environment.


Science provides a foundation for sound policy decisions and actions
  • About 70% of Environment Canada's budget and 60% of its workforce are involved in science and technology related activities;
  • These include: monitoring; providing indicators of ecosystem health; weather forecasting; environmental prediction; undertaking scientific research; and communicating scientific findings in useful format to decision-makers;
  • Environment Canada operates 15 research institutes and labs and is part of a large scientific community.

Ensuring Water Quality and Quantity
The effort to ensure a safe and secure water supply in Canada will focus on priority ecosystems such as the Great Lakes, and also entail work with provinces, territories and municipalities regarding municipal wastewater.

Supporting Clean Land and Biodiversity
Work towards clean land will begin with steps to encourage the clean-up of contaminated sites and brownfields. Adopting a comprehensive, outcomes-based approach to biodiversity will mean focusing on ecosystems rather than species-by-species activities.

The strong links between these areas mean that progress in one area will contribute to progress in another. For example, measures to reduce smog-causing pollutants can also help address greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, as well as acid rain that damages lakes and rivers and their broader ecosystems.

A Made-in-Canada approach to environmental sustainability
The approach to delivering on these priority initiatives will be guided by the notion that achieving environmental quality is a means to protect the health and well-being of Canadians, preserve Canada's natural environment, strengthen Canada's long-term competitiveness and improve Canadians' quality of life. It will focus on achieving results, and aim to reward leaders and empower citizens.

The recognition that Canada's natural assets provide goods and services that fuel the economy and help keep Canadians healthy, provides a new basis for understanding and appreciating natural assets as 'natural capital'. The management of natural capital would benefit from the same rigor that is applied to the management of human and produced capital, including developing an understanding of its real value and tracking its status and rate of depletion.

Other aspects of this approach include an emphasis on taking the long-term perspective that is necessary when it comes to environmental issues. Setting long-term environmental objectives will help coordinate efforts to achieve shared goals, provide predictability and planning certainty for industry and transparency and accountability for citizens, as well as drive investments in technology. Within the federal government, improved sustainability planning and reporting across Sustainable Development Strategies will provide greater coherence, consistency and accountability to Canadians.

Working effectively with partners
The approach to delivering on these priority initiatives will be guided by the notion that achieving environmental quality is a means to protect the health and well-being of Canadians, preserve Canada's natural environment, strengthen Canada's long-term competitiveness and improve Canadians' quality of life. It will focus on achieving results, and aim to reward leaders and empower citizens.

A successful approach will see Environment Canada demonstrating federal leadership and working collaboratively with its partners to organize efforts around common priorities and a long-term outlook. Working with the provinces and territories to achieve shared goals will improve transparency and accountability, and ensure that resources are used most efficiently. Developing single-window approaches to streamline compliance and enforcement, and looking to the long-term will help reduce compliance costs for another important partner, industry. Working with industry and others such as Aboriginal peoples and governments and ENGOs, through such mechanisms as the Sector Sustainability Tables, will help to set shared priorities and generate recommendations about how to achieve objectives in a way that strengthens long-term competitiveness.

In order to encourage the highest level of engagement from key stakeholders, targeted approaches will reach out to Canadians to play a role in the environment, support communities, and implement regulatory processes that are fair, sustainable and transparent and reduce compliance costs for industry.

Principles of good governance provide a foundation for moving forward in advancing the Government's priorities

  • Informed, inclusive, and flexible decision-making to align efforts across jurisdictions;
  • Usable, accurate information to enable sound decision-making and accountability;
  • Nationally coherent science and technology focusing on priorities and key opportunities;
  • Clear incentives to drive performance and enforcement integrated across jurisdictions, focused on outcomes; and
  • Meaningful education and engagement to empower Canadians and decision-makers.

Strategic Outcomes and Departmental Plans
Environment Canada is implementing a process of transformation to enable the Department to better deliver on its mandate of ensuring the highest quality of environment for Canadians. This transformation includes implementing an integrated approach that is supported by new results management and governance structures.

Environment Canada's new results management and governance structures support the one department approach by better aligning accountabilities and the way the Department's work is organized with the results that we expect to achieve.

In preparing for the 2006-2007 planning cycle, the Department had reorganized its activities and resources into a revised Program Activity Architecture (PAA). This architecture enables the Department to better manage how its activities interact and contribute to its overarching strategic objectives. As well, it provides an important new tool to senior managers for the purposes of reordering the Department's efforts to higher priorities when necessary.

The existing Program Activity Architecture identifies four strategic outcomes:

1. Canada's natural capital is restored, conserved, and enhanced.

2. Weather and environmental predictions and services reduce risks and contribute to the well-being of Canadians.

3. Canadians and their environment are protected from the effects of pollution and waste.

4. The impacts of climate change on Canada are reduced.

The Department is currently reviewing this PAA structure and strategic outcomes and will be making adjustments to reflect the priorities and direction of the new Government.

In the context of the existing Program Activity Architecture, the Department will organize work to achieve progress towards these strategic outcomes and priorities under four areas:

Ecosystem Sustainability
Goal: To develop and implement innovative strategies, programs, and partnerships to ensure that Canada's natural capital is sustained for present and future generations.

Weather and Environmental Services
Goal: To provide Canadians with world-class meteorological and environmental information, predictions, and services to ensure safety and to support economic activity.

Environmental Protection
Goal: To develop and implement innovative strategies, programs, and partnerships to protect Canadians and their environment from the effects of harmful substances.

Climate Change
Goal: Address the long-term challenge of climate change and help Canada adapt to a changing climate.

The details of the activities to be delivered in support of the outcomes and themes are provided in Section 2 of the RPP.

CONCLUSION

The Department is placing significant emphasis on the further development of environmental sustainability indicators as a means to guide the overall approach to environmental results. Canada's Performance, the annual report to Parliament by the President of the Treasury Board, has included a selection of available indicators to provide a view of change across a certain set of issues. These include indicators related to air quality, biodiversity, climate change, toxic substances in the environment and water use.

To a large extent, Environment Canada's activities are primarily aligned with the Clean and Healthy Environment theme of Canada's Performance. However, consistent with the broader policy vision of natural environment, health, and competitiveness, Environment Canada's activities also contribute significantly to the economic, health and international government-wide themes.

2005-2006 to 2006-2007 Program Activity Architecture (PAA) Crosswalk

Environment Canada received Treasury Board approval to modify its Program Activity Architecture (PAA) for 2006-2007. The table below provides a crosswalk between Environment Canada's 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 Program Activity Architectures.

The Department will be revising the Program Activity Architecture for 2007-2008 as required to reflect the Government's priorities and directions.

Environment Canada's 2005-2006 Program Activities

Totals may differ in and between tabled due to rounding of figures.

Summary Information

EC 2006-2007 Planning and Reporting Framework

Environment Canada's 2006-2007 Main Estimates


Program Activities (millions) Operating Capital Grants Contributions and other transfers Less: Revenues credited to the vote Totals
Biodiversity is conserved and protected 102.0 0.5 -- 24.0 (1.2) 125.3
Water is safe, clean and secure 55.3 2.3 -- 0.5 (3.1) 54.9
Canadians adopt approaches that ensure the sustainable use and management of natural capital and working landscapes 68.4 0.7 -- 4.5 (1.7) 71.8
Improved knowledge and information on weather and environmental conditions influences decision-making 113.4 12.5 0.0 0.2 (8.5) 117.6
Canadians are informed of, and respond appropriately to, current and predicted environmental conditions 189.7 7.2 -- 7.5 (52.9) 151.6
Risks posed by pollutants or other harmful or dangerous substances in the environment are reduced 226.8 6.2 2.0 8.4 (7.1) 236.3
Canadians adopt sustainable consumption and production approaches 23.3 3.3 -- -- (0.0) 26.6
Net emissions of greenhouse gases are reduced 18.1 0.4 -- -- (0.1) 18.5
Canadians understand the impacts of climate change and adapt to its effects 1.3 -- -- -- (0.0) 1.3
Total Main Estimates 798.5 33.0 2.0 45.0 (74.7) 803.9
Adjustments           34.5
Total Planned Spending           838.4

Totals may differ between and within tables due to rounding.


Reason for Existence: The legislation and regulations that provide Environment Canada with its mandate and allow it to carry out its programs can be found at: http://www.ec.gc.ca/EnviroRegs/.

Under the Department of the Environment Act, the powers, duties and functions of the Minister of the Environment extend to and include matters relating to:

  • The preservation and enhancement of the quality of the natural environment, including water, air and soil quality;
  • Renewable resources, including migratory birds and other non-domestic flora and fauna;
  • Water;
  • Meteorology;
  • The enforcement of any rules or regulations made by the International Joint Commission relating to boundary waters; and
  • Coordination of the policies and programs of the Government of Canada respecting the preservation and enhancement of the quality of the natural environment.

 


Planned Financial and Human Resources


Planned Resources 2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009
Financial Resources $838.4 M $763.5 M $751.0 M
Human Resources 6,363 FTEs 6,285 FTEs 6,250 FTEs

 

Strategic Outcomes


Strategic Outcomes 2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009
Canada's natural capital is restored, conserved and enhanced $266.2 M $234.9 M $229.2 M
Weather and environmental services reduce risks and contribute to the well-being of Canadians $272.8 M $265.2 M $258.1 M
Canadians and their environment are protected from the effects of pollution and waste $265.0 M $250.9 M $249.4 M
The impacts of climate change on Canada are reduced $34.5 M $12.5 M $14.3 M
Total Planned Spending $838.4 M $763.5 M $751.0 M

Totals may differ in and between tables due to rounding of figures.

Summary of Departmental Priorities


Strategic Outcome Priority Program Activity/ Intermediate Outcome Planned Spending
2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009
Canada's natural capital is restored, conserved and enhanced Develop and implement innovative strategies, programs, and partnerships to ensure that Canada's natural capital is sustained for present and future generations. (ongoing) Biodiversity is conserved and protected 125.6 102.5 102.3
Water is safe, clean and secure 59.7 54.5 54.5
Canadians adopt approaches that ensure the sustainable use and management of natural capital and working landscapes 80.9 77.9 72.4
Weather and environmental services reduce risks and contribute to the well-being of Canadians Provide Canadians with world-class meteorological and environmental information, predictions, and services to ensure safety and to support economic activity. (ongoing) Improved knowledge and information on weather and environmental conditions 121.8 121.5 117.1
Canadians are informed of, and respond appropriately to, current and predicted environmental conditions 151.0 143.7 141.0
Canadians and their environment are protected from the effects of pollution and waste Develop and implement innovative strategies, programs, and partnerships to protect Canadians and their environment from the effects of harmful substances. (ongoing) Risks posed by pollutants or other harmful or dangerous substances in the environment are reduced 238.5 224.4 224.5
Canadians adopt sustainable consumption and production approaches 26.5 26.5 24.9
The impacts of climate change on Canada are reduced Address the long-term challenge of climate change and help Canada adapt to a changing climate. (ongoing) Net emissions of greenhouse gases are reduced 32.6 10.6 13.0
Canadians understand the impacts of climate change and adapt to its effects 1.9 1.9 1.3
Totals     $838.4M $763.5M $751.0M

Totals may differ in and between tables due to rounding of figures.