2017 Fall Reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development to the Parliament of Canada—The Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development releases Fall Reports

2017 Fall Reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development to the Parliament of CanadaThe Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development releases Fall Reports

Ottawa, 3 October 2017—In her reports tabled today in Parliament, Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Julie Gelfand, presents the results of four audits completed since last spring, along with her Commissioner’s Perspective and the annual report on environmental petitions.

The first two reports, which focused on climate change, found that the government’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have fallen short of its target and that overall, it is not preparing to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Only five of 19 government organizations had fully assessed their climate change risks and acted to address them. The rest had taken little or no action to address risks that could prevent them from delivering programs and services to Canadians.

“Climate change is one of the defining issues of the 21st century. These audits show that when it comes to climate change action, Canada has a lot of work to do in order to reach the targets it has set,” said Ms. Gelfand.

The audits also found that five of six government organizations had not provided their ministers or Cabinet with the requisite assessment of the positive and negative environmental impacts of their proposed plans, policies and programs.

On a positive note, the Environment Commissioner reports that three funds supporting the development of clean energy technology demonstration projects were working well overall.

“The government has come up with a new climate change action plan, and it worked with important players to develop it,” added Ms. Gelfand. “The federal government needs to turn its new plan into action. We will continue to audit its progress in the area of climate change.”

The Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development will be holding a news conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa at 11:00 am (Eastern timeET).

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The 2017 Fall Reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development are available on the Office of the Auditor General of Canada Web site.

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