This section presents the management response to address the evaluation recommendations.
Recommendation 1:
The Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan (FCSAP) Secretariat, in co-operation with the Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, should consider adjusting the FCS Steering Committee from an ADM-level to a DG-level committee. The discussion of strategic issues should be a regular agenda item for Steering Committee meetings.
Management Response
The FCSAP Secretariat and the Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, agree in principle with the recommendation. Given that the existing ADM-level committee is a Cabinet- and Treasury Board-approved governance structure, changes to its mandate cannot be accomplished under the current program. A DG-level committee has been created to provide additional management support during the development and implementation of the renewed program. Proposed changes to the governance structure will be considered as part of the post-2010 FCSAP program renewal, including a continuing role for the DG-level committee.
Recommendation 2:
The FCSAP Secretariat should consider seeking the advice of external experts in developing strategies for the post-2010 period of the program.
Management Response
The FCSAP Secretariat and the Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, agree with the recommendation. As part of the FCSAP program renewal, the FCSAP Secretariat will establish an interdepartmental committee representative of key stakeholders in early 2009 to identify key program issues for the post-2010 period. External experts will then be consulted on significant strategic issues.
Recommendation 3:
For very large projects, the FCSAP Secretariat should consider requiring peer review of remediation/risk management plans and progress. External experts or interdepartmental representatives could be drawn upon to undertake the peer review. Large projects could be defined as those in excess of a certain dollar level of liability or ranking score.
Management Response
The FCSAP Secretariat and the Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, agree with the recommendation. In FY 2009-10, the FCSAP Secretariat will undertake a review and gap analysis of existing peer review practices for large FCSAP projects, defined as projects being 100% funded by the FCSAP or having total project expenditures of over $10 million. Requirements for additional internal or external peer review of large FCSAP projects will be identified and considered as part of FCSAP program renewal.
Recommendation 4:
The FCSAP Secretariat, in co-operation with the Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, should consider making long-term periodic monitoring mandatory for the most contaminated FCSAP sites.
Management Response
The FCSAP Secretariat and the Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, agree with the intent of the recommendation and support long-term periodic monitoring for the most contaminated FCSAP sites. However, the ability to make such monitoring mandatory is constrained by the Federal Real Property and Federal Immovables Act which gives Ministers responsibility for the administration of their department’s real property:
As a result of this Act, departments have an enduring responsibility for the management of their contaminated sites. The FCSAP program, on the other hand, has a fixed time horizon, so the inclusion of additional mandatory requirements would not be sustainable beyond the life of the program. It is, therefore, not within the authority of the FCSAP Secretariat nor the Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, to make long-term monitoring mandatory for any federal contaminated site.
However, the FCSAP Secretariat is currently developing a decision-making framework that will, among other things, assist custodians in evaluating the possible need for long-term monitoring on federal contaminated sites receiving funding under FCSAP. This decision-making framework is expected to be approved by the FCS Steering Committee in 2009-10. The Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, in FY 2009-10 will also investigate the feasibility of tracking long-term monitoring on federal contaminated sites using the Federal Contaminated Sites Inventory (FCSI).
Recommendation 5:
The FCSAP Secretariat should consider making project closure reports mandatory for all FCSAP projects.
Management Response
The FCSAP Secretariat agrees with the recommendation. In 2009, the FCSAP Secretariat will ask that PWGSC Expert Support develop an appropriate FCSAP closure report template and guidance document for roll-out in the post-2010 period of FCSAP.
Recommendation 6:
The Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, should consider requiring the mandatory application of restrictive covenants to land titles for FCSAP sites that are being risk-managed or monitored.
Management Response
The Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, agrees in principle with the recommendation. The Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, recognizes the merit of introducing such a concept to ensure that future landowners are well informed of the environmental condition of federal real property as well as any monitoring or risk management requirements that may impact future land use.
The Treasury Board’s Directive on the Sale or Transfer of Surplus Real Property already requires that, prior to seeking an indication of interest in a surplus property, custodians provide interested parties with sufficient information, including the property's environmental and physical condition (section 6.4). It is necessary to examine the feasibility of the application of restrictive covenants to federal real property. The Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, will undertake a more thorough examination of the opportunities and constraints of implementing such a mechanism in consultation with the Department of Justice Canada in the 2009−2010 fiscal year.
Recommendation 7:
The Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, should consider allowing the FCSI to identify a site as a FCSAP-funded site, and to identify a site as requiring no further action.
Management Response
The Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, agrees with the recommendation. The Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, has established an interdepartmental working group to explore issues relating to the future improvement of the FCSI. The two issues identified in the recommendation have also been highlighted by the working group and solutions will be implemented in 2009.
Recommendation 8:
The FCSAP Secretariat, in co-operation with the Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, should consider various processes that could be implemented to ensure that custodians improve the quality and timeliness of both the Interdepartmental Data Exchange Application (IDEA) database and FCSI data reporting.
Management Response
The FCSAP Secretariat and the Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, agree with the recommendation. Accurate and timely information supports the measurement and communication of the achievements of the FCSAP program.
Steps have already been undertaken to identify and address data quality issues in IDEA and the FCSI. Some of these include enhanced training for reporting in IDEA, timely calls for FCSAP program reporting in IDEA, the creation of an FCSI interdepartmental working group, and the creation of conditional frozen allotments for future FCSAP funding for custodians with extensive and ongoing data quality issues in the FCSI. The FCSAP Secretariat is also planning to undertake a program data management survey and gap analysis in 2009 to identify areas for improvement in data management between the FCSI and IDEA, such as opportunities for potential system harmonization in order to ease the reporting burden on custodians.
Recommendation 9:
The FCSAP Secretariat, in co-operation with the Treasury Board Secretariat, should consider providing additional guidance, training and costing models/templates to help custodians provide more accurate and consistent liability estimates for projects.
Management Response
The FCSAP Secretariat and the Treasury Board Secretariat agree with the recommendation. The FCSAP Secretariat is planning to carry out a scoping exercise in 2009 to define the issues and risks related to the reporting of environmental liability estimates in support of the FCSAP program. However, given that the policy responsibility for the accounting of environmental liability rests with the Office of the Comptroller General (OCG) at the Treasury Board Secretariat, the FCSAP Secretariat will work closely with the OCG to develop additional guidance, training, and costing models/templates, to ensure that they will be in line with the new Treasury Board Financial Management policy directions and accounting guidance.
Recommendation 10:
The Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, should consider requesting that custodians articulate, in their contaminated sites management plans, estimates of the number of sites they have remaining to assess, how many sites they anticipate assessing each year until all sites have been assessed, and their best estimates as to when no further action will be required for these sites.
Management Response
The Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, agrees with the recommendation. The Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, will undertake a review of the drafting guidance and revise as required for the next call for Contaminated Sites Management Plans (Spring 2009).
Recommendation 11:
The FCSAP Secretariat, in co-operation with the Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, should consider undertaking a comprehensive horizontal program capacity/resource assessment and, where gaps emerge, determine risks and develop strategies to address them.
Management Response
The FCSAP Secretariat and the Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division, partially agree with the recommendation. The scope of this recommendation involves undertaking activities that are well beyond the current roles and responsibilities of the FCSAP Secretariat or the Treasury Board Secretariat, Real Property and Materiel Policy Division.
However, as part of the post-2010 FCSAP program renewal, an assessment of the existing FCSAP program's human resource issues and gaps will be considered, particularly with respect to the future allocation of departmental program management, Expert Support and FCSAP Secretariat resources. Strategies will be examined to respond to any gaps or program-level risks identified through this analysis.