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New Federal Sustainable Development Strategy

The Federal Sustainable Development Act (FSDA) received royal assent on June 26, 2008. The FSDA requires the development of a Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS).  The FSDA, which applies to the policies and programs of all departments as well as a number of federal agencies, requires the government to produce a revised strategy every three years. The FSDA also responds to a number of international commitments Canada has made to produce such a strategy, including at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992 and at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Environment Canada is leading the implementation of the FSDA and led the development of the FSDS. Public consultations were undertaken by the Sustainable Development Office at Environment Canada from March 15, 2010 to July 12, 2010. For information about the findings of the public consultation period, please link to the Synthesis Report: Public Consultations Draft  Sustainable Development Strategy (PDF; 29 KB).

The final FSDS was tabled in Parliament on October 6, 2010.

The FSDS fulfills the requirements of the FSDA by rendering environmental decision-making more transparent and accountable to Parliament.  It does so by establishing a framework for sustainable development planning and reporting with three key elements, listed below.

• An integrated, whole-of government picture of actions and results to achieve environmental sustainability.
  
  For the first time, the FSDS integrates the federal government’s actions to achieve environmental sustainability and provides a detailed account of current federal Goals, Targets and Implementation Strategies for four environmental themes related to Government priorities: 
  1. Addressing Climate Change and Air Quality (Air);
  2. Maintaining Water Quality and Availability (Water);
  3. Protecting Nature (Nature); and
  4. Shrinking the Environmental Footprint – Beginning with Government (Greening Government Operations).
      
• A link between sustainable development planning and reporting and the Government of Canada’s core expenditure planning and reporting system:
  
  The FSDA requires departments and agencies to table Departmental Sustainable Development Strategies (DSDS) to comply with, and contribute to the FSDS.  Departments must make the linkage between the FSDS and the core government planning and reporting system – the Expenditure Management System (EMS). Under the EMS, reporting on plans occurs through the Reports on Plans and Priorities (RPPs).  With this new approach, RPP reporting will contain the department’s objectives and plans that comply with, and contribute to, the FSDS. Given this level of integration with the EMS reporting requirements in developing their annual RPPs, departments will effectively be completing their Departmental Sustainable Development Strategies. The tracking of progress will occur through the Departmental Performance Reports (DPRs). Details on this approach are provided on the Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy sub-page of this NRCan SD web portal.
• Effective measurement, monitoring and reporting in order to track and report on progress to Canadians. The FSDS establishes a mechanism to report and track progress of the goals, targets and implementation strategies.
  
  FSDS Themes I-III (Air, Water, Nature):
  • For the Goals and Targets, environmental indicators have been selected to assess progress.  The Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators (CESI) initiative of Environment Canada will compile information from relevant departments and consolidate for reporting on the results related to the goals and targets.
  • For the Implementation Strategies, performance will be measured through existing departmental performance measures.
     
  FSDS Theme IV (Greening Government Operations):
  • A performance reporting framework has been developed that establishes common performance measures that each FSDS department will report on.

Federal Links

Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development

The position of the Commissioner was created to respond to Canadians’ desire to protect the environment and promote sustainable development.