Planning for a Sustainable Future:
A Federal Sustainable Development Strategy for Canada
2013–2016 - Consultation Paper

Sustainable Development Office
Environment Canada

February 2013

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Executive Summary

The second cycle of the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS) fills the requirement of the Federal Sustainable Development Act to develop an FSDS every three years that makes environmental decision making more transparent and accountable to Parliament. It builds on three key improvements made in the first cycle, which was tabled in Parliament in October 2010:

1. An integrated, whole-of-government picture of actions and results to achieve environmental sustainability;
2. A link between sustainable development planning and reporting and the government’s core expenditure planning and reporting system; and
3. Effective measurement, monitoring and reporting in order to track and report on progress to Canadians.

Significant progress has been made over the course of the first cycle. With the tabling of the first strategy, Canadians had for the first time a comprehensive picture of actions across the federal government that contribute to environmental sustainability. Since 2011, departments and agencies have produced annual Departmental Sustainable Development Strategies integrated into their core planning and reporting processes. The government has also demonstrated its commitment to measurement, monitoring and reporting by issuing two progress reports and expanding the suite of environmental sustainability indicators that support FSDS reporting.

In accordance with its “Plan, Do, Check, Improve” system of performance management, the government is building on progress to date to further advance the transparency and accountability of environmental decision making. Key steps for the second cycle include:

• Building the whole-of-government picture by incorporating a broader range of federal actions that support the FSDS goals and targets;
• Enhancing the link to core federal planning and reporting through ongoing alignment between the FSDS and federal departments’ Program Alignment Architectures; and
• Expanding the Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators suite to ensure that indicators are available to measure progress on all FSDS goals and targets.

Through including environmental sustainability goals and targets in strategic environmental assessments and continuing to integrate environmental performance considerations into the procurement of goods and services, the second cycle of the FSDS will also continue to support informed and integrated decision making across government. Further development of the government’s sustainable development approach will continue in future FSDS cycles.

The second cycle of the FSDS reaffirms the four priority themes introduced in the first cycle, namely:

1. Addressing Climate Change and Air Quality;
2. Maintaining Water Quality and Availability;
3. Protecting Nature; and
4. Shrinking the Environmental Footprint – Beginning with Government.

The targets have been updated to include current activities and policy commitments and to better reflect the social and economic context for federal action in these areas. Measurement, monitoring and reporting have been strengthened by more closely aligning targets and implementation strategies with the SMART criteria (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) and incorporating new indicators. For the first time, indicators are included in the strategy to show how the government will measure progress on the FSDS goals and targets.

Goals, targets, implementation strategies and indicators are set out in the strategy’s annexes, providing a detailed description of how the federal government is taking action on each of the four themes. While recognizing that provinces and territories, Aboriginal peoples, industry, and others also contribute to achieving environmental sustainability outcomes, the FSDS includes only federal actions to advance the goals and targets.

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