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SECTION IV - OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST

Strategic Integration Activities

Description

Clear, consistent and integrated departmental policy advice, coordinated interactions with partners and stakeholders and effective communication are important tools to help Environment Canada deliver on its mandate and commitments.

Environment Canada is leading the development of federal strategies to integrate environmental sustainability into government-wide policy priorities in a concrete manner. As part of this work, the Department is advancing policies and programs that are focused, results-oriented and that recognize the inextricable linkages between the environment, our economic competitiveness and the health of Canadians.

Environment Canada's work to develop a unified departmental policy approach is organized into two program areas:

• Integrated policy advice, communications and information strategies enable effective decision-making.
• Relations with other governments and partners are effectively managed in support of environmental priorities.

Plans and Priorities

Over the next three years, Environment Canada plans to focus on the following:

• Achieving departmental coherence in delivering and communicating environmental policy and program outcomes. Work will include implementing the Government's Clean Air Agenda to reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. Government of Canada regulations and investments, coupled with actions being taken by provincial and territorial governments, will result in a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 from 2006 emissions levels.
• Continuing to lead Canada's international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially with regards to the design of a post-2012 climate change agreement that will engage all significant emitters while considering the national circumstances of member countries. Delivering tangible reductions in the emission of global greenhouse gases.
• Advancing and implementing the Action Plan for Clean Water, with investments in the Great Lakes, Lake Simcoe and Lake Winnipeg, and developing regulations to address the issue of municipal wastewater effluent.
• Strengthening environmental enforcement, through a 50 percent increase in the number of enforcement officers, as announced in Budget 2007.
• Improving the government's approach to sustainable development strategies.
• Improving how Environment Canada engages provincial and territorial governments, stakeholders and citizens in policy development and sustainable actions. The Department plans to advance the development of a national approach through collaboration with provinces and territories to achieve results; develop a strategy and tools to systematically and consistently engage key stakeholders in policy development and environmental education; and effectively communicate the strategic environmental framework to Canadians.
• Strengthening Environment Canada's strategic approach to its international activities through identification of international priorities that support the Department in its efforts to achieve environmental results for Canadians. As part of this strategic approach, and in response to a recommendation from the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, the Department also plans to improve its reporting to Canadians on progress achieved on international environmental agreements. This will be done through future planning and performance reports as well as the Department's website.
• Advancing a Canadian environmental sustainability indicators initiative as a first component of a broader state-of-the-environment indicator and information strategy. The Department also plans to move forward on national environmental objectives as core policy tools to guide long-term departmental priority-setting and specific policy deliverables.
• Delivering analytical and evidentiary support to demonstrate explicit linkages between the environment and the economy, to allow for informed decision-making on environmental issues and the building of a policy-research-communications strategy to proactively communicate important environmental information to Canadians.

Planning Context

Integrated policy advice, communications and information strategies enable effective decision-making

A key priority is to improve the coordination of the existing but dispersed policy capacity of the Department in order to work more effectively and bring department-wide perspectives and scientific evidence to bear on all major policy work. Increased focus will be placed on policy research and economic analysis, and on strengthening the linkages between science and policy.

Moving forward on the environmental agenda, Environment Canada will coordinate and implement integrated communications strategies in support of departmental priorities and the Government's actions on the Clean Air Agenda, the Action Plan for Clean Water, the Conservation Agenda, and the Chemicals Management Plan. Regulation and enforcement as well as information on meteorological services will be proactively communicated to Canadians. Increased attention to the development of a post-2012 international approach to climate change and a greater emphasis on communicating the federal Science and Technology Strategy will also mobilize communications. Advertising on consumer incentives will add another dimension to climate change communications and the concrete actions this government is taking to preserve and protect the environment.

Improving the coordination and strategic direction of Environment Canada's education and engagement activities is also an important priority. Emphasis will be placed on particular target groups where greater return can be expected by understanding their needs and challenges, and working to address them.

Environment Canada will also develop and implement a grants and contributions management framework. In order to ensure that Environment Canada is accountable for all that is carried out, a departmental reporting strategy will be defined and implemented to deliver on strategic reporting products. Lastly, Environment Canada will continue to strengthen strategic departmental approaches to science and technology.

In order to reach these important goals, key partners will be identified and approached, in particular those that are better positioned than Environment Canada to deliver education and engagement activities because they have a deeper and broader reach.

Environment Canada's indicator-related work is being repositioned to provide better management of environmental and environment-related data within the Department; enhanced comparability of the available data and the mechanisms by which these data are made available; and data and information that are more relevant to departmental priorities as well as indicators that can be used to communicate environmental implications to citizens, policy makers and decision-makers. The Department will continue to develop the partnerships, principles and technologies required to integrate disparate environmental data and information in a consistent, credible and timely manner.

Environment Canada will work towards the implementation of its Sustainable Development Strategy 2007-2009, as well as the refining of associated action plans and performance measures. More broadly, Environment Canada, in collaboration with other government departments, is conducting a thorough and documented review that identifies means to improve the Government's approach to sustainable development.

Advance strategic approaches to science and technology within the Department and externally

Environment Canada's ability to fulfill its mandate is fundamentally linked to science. To help ensure that Environment Canada has the science needed to support sound environmental decision-making, a departmental Science Plan has been established. The Department is committed to moving forward with the implementation of this Plan, and it will work to integrate the Department's Technology Plan with the Science Plan to create a single, cohesive departmental science and technology strategy. To deliver on its Science Plan commitments, the Department will work to advance its integrated environmental monitoring and prediction agenda both internally, through work under a new departmental working group dedicated to integrated monitoring, and inter-departmentally, through its work on developing an integrated approach to monitoring in the Arctic. The Department will also work to address common science needs and opportunities identified through a series of six regional science fora recently held across the country. It is also critical to communicate Environment Canada's success in generating tangible environmental, social and economic benefits through its science and technology activities. To this end, work will be undertaken to improve tracking and communication of the impact of the Department's science and technology.

Improving the effectiveness with which science informs policy development is core to the Department's business. Environment Canada will enhance practical mechanisms for strengthening science-policy linkages, and the Department will use science-policy liaising functions to help improve targeting of departmental science and technology results internally and to decision-makers.

As an active member of the federal science and technology community, Environment Canada will continue to contribute to federal science and technology policy. The Department will work with its federal partners to implement the new federal science and technology strategy, Mobilizing Science and Technology to Canada's Advantage. It identifies environmental science and technology as a priority research area, and seeks to leverage Canada's existing strengths in this field to deliver results for Canadians. Environment Canada is a key player in environmental research both in Canada and internationally, and it will use its significant scientific and technological capacity to help advance environmental research and development collaboration and networking in support of the federal science and technology strategy.

Relations with other governments and partners are effectively managed in support of environmental priorities

Environment Canada does not achieve environmental outcomes on its own. Advancing departmental priorities such as clean air, climate change and chemicals management will require close cooperation with external players in the economy and society. This program area focuses on managing partnerships and working relationships with provincial and territorial governments, protecting and promoting Canada's environmental interests internationally, and engaging Aboriginal peoples and stakeholders in Canada's environmental agenda.

Environment Canada's stakeholder and consultations work advances constructive consultations and participation in departmental priorities, and strengthens our relationships with key partners and stakeholders, including industry, non-governmental organizations ( NGOs), Aboriginal governments and organizations, market influencers and opinion leaders. A strong policy framework for consultations and Aboriginal involvement was developed over the past year to guide the Department, and this year's activities will focus on implementing these policies by providing the tools and services needed to inform Environment Canada's consultations and ensure effective engagement with Aboriginal peoples.

Environment Canada's work under federal-provincial/territorial relations is being repositioned to focus on the most important departmental priorities, in particular clean air and climate change. Because provinces and territories share responsibility for environmental management with the federal government, their active engagement is essential to ensure the successful implementation of policy across Canada. The oversight and coordination of federal-provincial/territorial relations is, therefore, key to supporting the implementation of Environment Canada's agenda both on a national basis and on a regional or bilateral basis within a national context.

In the international context, Environment Canada's activities and engagement will increasingly be focused on those activities that clearly support departmental priorities. The Department will work to define priority issues to ensure that its international activities are focused on those key countries and international institutions that offer the greatest opportunities to achieve environmental and health benefits for Canadians.

A key priority issue will be Canada's contribution towards the design of a post-2012 global climate change agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that will engage all significant greenhouse gas emitting nations while also considering countries' national circumstances. Outside of the United Nations, the Department will also be leading Canada's engagement in key multilateral partnerships on climate change, such as the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, the Major Economies Process on Energy Security and Climate Change and numerous other international technology-focused partnerships. Through engagement in these partnerships, Canada is advancing work on a global climate change agreement, exploring the capacity of existing technologies to reduce emissions intensity in the near term, funding research into innovative low-emission technologies for the future and implementing practical actions to advance the development and use of clean technology that will achieve real-world emissions reductions.

The Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development recently recommended that information on objectives, means, expected results and progress on international environmental priorities be provided to Parliament and Canadians. Environment Canada has various reporting methods, and in response to the Commissioner's recommendation, the Department will use future Reports on Plans and Priorities, the Departmental Performance Report, and the Department's website to ensure that information on objectives, means and results on Environment Canada-led international environmental agreements are transparently and effectively reported. The Department regularly reports and updates progress on international environmental agreements on individual Environment Canada branch public websites, where appropriate, and will update the Department's International Affairs website to reflect information on international environmental cooperation agreements.

Corporate Services and Corporate Management Activities

Description

Integrated and effective corporate services help Environment Canada to carry out its mandate. The Department continues to transform its way of doing business in order to be better positioned to play the central role it was given by Parliament to coordinate the policies and programs of the Government of Canada with respect to the preservation and enhancement of the quality of the natural environment. Environment Canada's internal transformation agenda helps the Department deliver on its goal to protect the health of Canadians, preserve our natural environment and strengthen Canada's long-term competitiveness.

Environment Canada is putting significant effort into repositioning its enabling programs and services in order to better support results-based management and internal governance changes in a way that allows the Department to successfully address the environmental priorities of Canadians. This work is organized into two program areas:

• High-quality corporate services and advice enable the Department to meet its strategic objectives.
• Strategic management support enables the Department to meet its objectives.

Plans and Priorities

Over the next three years, Environment Canada plans to pursue the following plans and priorities:

1. Establish a viable foundation for its enabling programs and services, with a focus on addressing high-risk areas in human resources, finance, administration, information management and information technology (IM & IT). Environment Canada continues to build management and staff capacity in human resources, finance, administration, and IM & IT so that corporate functions can appropriately assist the Department in delivering results. This work is expected to include implementing strategies to address critical departmental risks-specifically, better recruitment and retention plans, training for enabling staff and departmental managers, and implementation of a "one-department" approach for the provision of core services.
2. Ensure the delivery of essential financial, administrative, human resources, corporate management, and IM & IT services to address mission-critical, operational and key governance needs across Environment Canada. Other priorities include work to support the greening of federal government operations; the implementation of a new Human Resources Management System (HRMS), PeopleSoft V8.9, and of a finance / materiel management system (Oracle/SAP), aligned with the government-wide Corporate Administrative Shared Services (CASS) initiative; and progress towards integrated human resources and financial information. A performance measurement and monitoring framework will be developed and implemented to support results-based objectives for human resources management.

Planning Context

The Department is completing the transformation process that will enable it to fully plan, manage and report by results. The transformation has involved changing the results structure (and the Program Activity Architecture), establishing new management structures and processes, and restructuring the organization.

These changes promote integrated management and decision-making by clarifying results and strategic directions for the Department's programs. Financial and human resources are clearly linked to results through a planning process that connects capacity to work. Performance information will support informed departmental decisions and transparent and balanced public reporting.

Results in this area are aimed at transforming Environment Canada's management framework in order to strengthen control and accountability; provide high-quality service, support and systems related to governance and program delivery; and support key departmental and government-wide management initiatives. The Department's corporate services activities are organized as follows:

• Corporate management and planning support departmental progress on forecasting and results.
• Human resources are managed effectively and strategically in support of departmental objectives.
• Financial management frameworks are established and high-quality financial services are provided.
• Administration and assets management enable effective, efficient, accountable and environmentally responsible departmental activities.
• Information management frameworks are being established, high-quality IM & IT leadership is being provided, and both information and technology are managed as critical enabling assets.

Department-wide Services

Planning

Environment Canada has adopted a "one-department" approach to planning that aligns priority-setting and resource allocation functions to the new Program Activity Architecture. This approach significantly enhances the overall transparency of proposed plans and priorities, enabling senior executive direction, engagement and strategic decision-making.

The planning process integrates corporate planning and decision-making and ensures that internal decision-making on priorities is aligned to annual reporting to Parliament through the Report on Plans and Priorities. Senior managers undertake business planning through results-based committees and teams. Managers at all levels from across the Department are engaged in the process to ensure consistent application of planning and reporting requirements. National management meetings are held to provide opportunities for managers to work through significant planning tasks on a collaborative basis.

Information Management and Information Technology

As a result of Environment Canada's internal transformation, most of the Department's information management and information technology (IM & IT) staff are managed within the Chief Information Officer Branch (CIOB). A small number of IM & IT staff with highly specialized program area knowledge and skills remains "embedded" in program areas.

The objective of the CIOB is to provide effective, efficient and equitable levels of IM & IT services to all areas of program delivery across the Department, and to further develop the capacity to provide the coherent, authoritative and trusted information systems needed to achieve government and departmental objectives.

Management efforts in the IM & IT domains are directed towards the re-alignment of IM & IT resources and services with departmental priorities to ensure that the best outcomes are achieved by using existing resources and infrastructure where possible and making strategic investments in evolving technologies and capacity as required.

Information management and information technology are key enablers of Environment Canada Program Activities both in terms of providing strategic advice and leadership, as well as hardware and software infrastructure support. This is reflected in the following manner:

• Across all Strategic Outcome areas, through the provision of basic infrastructure and support to "general-use" software applications (e.g. e-mail, office application suites, corporate finance and human resource applications)
• Within specific Strategic Outcome areas, through the provision of specialized hardware infrastructure in support of Program Activities, as well as through the provision of services in support of these activities, including development, implementation and maintenance of specialized application software for the collection, storage, analysis and dissemination of environmental data and products; and, data and information management services

Efforts are focused on ensuring that Environment Canada's data and information holdings can be and are treated as critical departmental assets. This involves providing leadership in information management through the implementation of an integrated IM plan for the Department, by establishing key IM services and products, by promoting policies and best practices for the management of information, and by implementing and maintaining technologies to support the function. Policies and best practices will reflect Government of Canada IM policies, identified best practices and technologies in use in industry and other organizations, and Environment Canada practices and requirements.

Ongoing investment will be required to support the existing infrastructure as well as the new IM policy-related functions to ensure that the CIOB is able to respond to new work requirements and evolving technologies being introduced in the workplace. The ongoing development of a comprehensive IM & IT architecture will help to guide these efforts by fostering the adoption and use of consistent policies, standards and technologies that comply with those in use in the Government of Canada. The architecture will be supplemented by other efforts to ensure the efficient and effective application of IM & IT in the Department.

In order to enhance our ability to provide effective, efficient and equitable levels of service to other parts of the Department, the CIOB will be implementing new standardized operational practices to assure clarity and predictability for the provision of services to program areas within Environment Canada.

Maintenance of hardware infrastructure will continue to reflect "greening" policies to promote the effective use and life-cycle management of IT while reducing the potential negative environmental impacts associated with hardware use. Through these policies, Environment Canada strives to maintain its leadership role in this area.

Environment Canada has been selected as one of the five "early adopter" departments advancing the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat-led Corporate and Administrative Shared Services (CASS) initiative. Shared services are viewed as a way of producing more effective, efficient and economical delivery of common services within and across government departments.

As part of that initiative, participating departments will migrate their human resource management systems to the PeopleSoft suite of applications and migrate their finance and materiel management systems to a common system (Oracle / SAP).

Legal Services

The Department of Justice Canada is responsible for the legal affairs of the Government as a whole and for providing legal services to individual departments and agencies. Services provided by the Department of Justice Canada include providing legal advice, preparing legal documents, drafting legislation and regulations, and managing or conducting litigation.

The Department of Justice Canada provides legal services to Environment Canada primarily through Environment Canada's Legal Services unit. The Department of Justice Canada also provides services through its Environmental Drafting Services Section, and through the Federal Prosecution Service and other units located at Justice headquarters and in the regions.

High-quality legal advice enables Environment Canada to take decisions that are based on a thorough understanding of its legal authorities and relevant legal risks. Legal Services is committed to deliver results by ensuring that Environment Canada has access to appropriate levels of legal expertise by identifying primary legal risks to the Department and by making legal training available to Environment Canada officials where needs arise.

Like Environment Canada's other corporate functions, Environment Canada Legal Services adopts a "one-department" model with the aim of providing effective and efficient legal support for departmental priorities and objectives.

Audit and Evaluation

Audits and evaluations are used to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of departmental policies, programs and management. The audit and evaluation functions are carried out under the authority of the Federal Accountability Act (December 2006), the Treasury Board Policy on Internal Audit (April 2006) and the Treasury Board Evaluation Policy (February 1, 2001). The Federal Accountability Act underscores the importance of the audit and evaluation functions in providing the necessary support to the Deputy Minister in his role as accounting officer.

Internal audits and evaluations are determined through a risk-based planning process and carried out by the Audit and Evaluation Branch in accordance with Treasury Board standards. The Audit and Evaluation Branch, reporting directly to the Deputy Minister, is responsible for providing the Deputy Minister and senior management with objective, independent and evidence-based information, assurance and advice on management practices, controls and information, and the performance of programs, policies and initiatives to enhance results-oriented and accountable management.

Building and maintaining strong and independent internal audit and evaluation functions remains a priority. With additional resources provided by Treasury Board, the Department is enhancing its capacity in both areas. In addition, Treasury Board has approved the creation of a three-member, independent External Audit Advisory Committee to advise the Deputy Minister and provide oversight to the internal audit function. The Department has also established a new Departmental Evaluation Committee, chaired by the Deputy Minister, to provide oversight to the evaluation function. These changes in governance will further strengthen the capacity of the Audit and Evaluation Branch to carry out its responsibilities in an objective and professional manner.

Human Resources

The Human Resources Branch, as a key enabling function, will continue to enhance its services to effectively and strategically support departmental objectives and ultimately provide service to Canadians. Human Resources will offer core human resources management services to managers and employees to build a stronger foundation and move towards a modernized and integrated people management regime.

Gaps between people capacity and business needs with a focus on employment equity, learning, staffing and recruitment, and official languages will be clearly identified with tools developed by the Human Resources Branch that support managers in their human resources planning. The Human Resources Branch will continue to improve and standardize business processes in line with central initiatives (Canada Public Service Agency / Corporate and Administrative Shared Services), the Clerk of the Privy Council's renewal agenda with a focus on fast-track staffing, and in support of the implementation of PeopleSoft v.8.9.

Performance measurement and reporting capacity will be further developed through the introduction of standard reports and the implementation of performance measurement frameworks for staffing, classification and other disciplines. The Human Resources community and departmental managers will further develop their capacity in the area of human resources management policies and practices to ensure that Environment Canada is responsive to the departmental mandate and to Canadians.

Official Languages

Under the Official Languages Act, Environment Canada's obligations include providing bilingual services to the public and ensuring that the language of work provisions are respected at all times.

The Department is committed to ensuring that members of the public can exercise their right to communicate with it, and obtain services in the official language of their choice and to create and maintain, for its employees, a work environment that is conducive to the use of both official languages. To this effect, Environment Canada identifies, on an ongoing basis, all employees that require language training to meet the language requirements of their position and ensures that they have access to and complete such training within the timeframe prescribed by the Public Service Official Languages Exclusion Approval Order. The Department also encourages employees to acquire or improve second official language skills in order to advance their careers and possibly fill bilingual positions in the future as part of their personal development plans and in accordance with the Departmental Guidelines on Second Language Learning for Career Development Purposes.

The Department also ensures that English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians have equal opportunities for employment and advancement and that the Department's workforce reflects the presence of both official languages communities in Canada. In addition, the Department is taking positive steps to enhance the vitality of English and French minority communities and support their development.

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[1] Ontario Medical Association, The Illness Costs of Air Pollution: 2005-2026 Health and Economic Damage Estimates (June 2005). Available at www.oma.org/Health/smog/report/ICAP2005_Report.pdf.

[2] Ontario Medical Association, The Illness Costs of Air Pollution: 2005-2026 Health and Economic Damage Estimates (June 2005). Available at www.oma.org/Health/smog/report/ICAP2005_Report.pdf.

[3] An Invasive Alien Species Strategy for Canada, September 2004. www.cbin.ec.gc.ca/issues/ias_invasives.cfm.

[4] Ontario Medical Association, The Illness Costs of Air Pollution: 2005-2026 Health and Economic Damage Estimates (June 2005). Available at www.oma.org/Health/smog/report/ICAP2005_Report.pdf.

[5] Insurance Bureau of Canada, Facts of the general insurance industry in Canada 2006. Available at www.ibc.ca/en/Need_More_Info/documents/FactsBook2006.pdf

[6] CDP5 FT 500 Report (2007). Available at www.cdproject.net/cdp5reports.asp

[7] National WES (Weather and Environmental Services) Products and Services Survey 2007, a phone survey of 4141 Canadians conducted in March and April 2007.

[8] Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators, Feature report (2007). Available at www.ec.gc.ca/environmentandresources/CESIFeature2007/Feature2007_e.cfm

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