Environmental
Audit In Canada
Federal—the Commissioner of the Environment
and Sustainable Development
1. The position of the Commissioner of the Environment
and Sustainable Development, within the Office of the Auditor
General of Canada, was one of the important changes resulting
from the 1995 amendments to the Auditor General Act. These amendments
were enacted to encourage stronger performance by the federal
government in the areas of environment and sustainable development.
2. On 16 March 1994, the Minister of the Environment
asked the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and
Sustainable Development to examine ways in which an environmental
auditor general might be constituted to ensure that the government's
actions are carried out in a sustainable manner. Following recommendations
from the Standing Committee, the Government enacted in December
1995 amendments to the Auditor General Act.
3. These amendments:
- established within the
Office of the Auditor General a Commissioner of the Environment
and Sustainable Development who should report annually to the
House of Commons;
- formally included the environmental element among
the considerations the Auditor General takes into account by making
him responsible for calling attention in his reports to any cases
where "money has been expended without due regard to the
environmental effects of those expenditures in the context of
sustainable development";
- placed a new obligation on Ministers and departments
to prepare sustainable development strategies, lay them before
the House of Commons, and update these strategies every three
years;
- authorized the Auditor General to receive petitions
on environment and sustainable development matters, require ministers
to respond to them within 120 days, and enable the Commissioner
to carry out any examinations and inquiries necessary in order
to monitor Ministerial responses.
4. The first Commissioner was appointed in June 1996,
and departments were required to table their first sustainable
development strategies by December 1997. In his annual reports
to Parliament, the Commissioner may report on anything which he
considers should be brought to the attention of the House in relation
to environmental and other aspects of sustainable development,
including the extent to which departments have met the objectives,
and implemented the plans, set out in their sustainable development
strategies; and the number of petitions received, their subject
matter and status. The remit of the CESD has enabled his office
to conduct a series of studies on "cutting edge" environmental
and sustainable development issues, such as Canada's international
environmental commitments and the extent to which they are being
met; environmental issues and the Arctic; managing for sustainable
development in both the public and private sectors; and the partnerships
between federal departments and the provinces, the private sector
or other federal departments.
5. The Commissioner's reports are tabled before the
House of Commons Committee on the Environment and Sustainable
Development. In common with other House of Commons committees,
this body's remit covers legislative, departmental and policy
scrutiny and as such the Committee is extremely busy and its programme
can be dominated at any one time by the Government's legislative
programme.
Provincial - the Environmental Commissioner of
Ontario (ECO)
6. In 1994, the Ontario provincial government passed
an Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR) to help protect and restore
the natural environment. The EBR established a formal framework
for Government's notification of the public about proposed legislation,
policies, regulations and other legal instruments that will have
a significant effect on the environment and then considering the
public's input before the government makes a final decision. Central
to this process was the creation of the Environmental Registry
where notice and information on environmentally significant proposals,
decisions, court actions and other information relating to ministerial
decisions are required to be posted. Oversight of this process
was made the responsibility of an Environmental Commissioner (the
ECO). The first Commissioner was appointed in June 1996.
7. The EBR created new rights for members of the
public to participate in the Ontario government's environmetal
decision making process. It enabled members of the public to:
- comment on proposed laws
(including Acts, policies, regulations and instruments) that are
environmentally significant;
- appeal against certain environmental decisions;
- ask a ministry to review existing acts or policy
instruments or consider creating new ones;
- ask a ministry to investigate cases where there
is suspected harm to the environment;
- go to court if you think someone is harming the
environment; and
- take action, without fear of reprisal, where an
employer was harming the environment.
8. The EBR also required government ministries to
develop Statements of Environmental Values (SEVs). These are in
effect departmental sustainable development strategies setting
out (a) the account to be taken of the environment in cases where
a Ministry takes decisions which may have environmental impacts
and (b) the need to integrate environmental values with social,
economic and scientific considerations. The SEVs therefore provide
a mechanism by which to assess the extent to which Ministries
were applying the principles of the EBR.
9. The Commissioner is there to ensure the effective
operation of these mechanisms. The Commissioner is an independent
officer of the Legislative Assembly, appointed for a fiveyear
term. His main functions are to:
- report annually to the
Legislative Assembly on how ministries comply with the EBR;
- review how ministries use public input to draft
environmental Acts, regulations and policies, and how ministries
investigate reported EBR violations.
- process and monitor appeals from members of the
public under the EBR and provide assistance and information if
required;
- review the use of the Environmental Registry;
- review the use of EBR procedures to protect employees
who experience reprisals for "whistleblowing";
- assist ministries to develop thorough and consistent
Statements of Environmental Values.
10. The Commissioner's remit therefore allows him
to report on a wide range of environmental matters, including
policy issues, in relation to the way departments are implementing
the objectives of the EBR. It also includes an important ombudsman-role
in response to complaints from the public in relation to their
rights under the EBR.
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