Thank you very much, Madam Chair, honourable members, and Commissioner Gelfand.
I'd like to start by complimenting the committee on tackling this subject of the Federal Sustainable Development Act. It's potentially a very important tool in accelerating Canada's progress towards a sustainable future. I should also apologize. I'll take the responsibility for not having provided my written submission in a timely fashion, and the blame goes to me for not having it translated in time.
I've been working as an environmental lawyer in Canada for 25 years, teaching environmental law and policy for about 20 years. Not surprisingly, I've done a lot of work in this area of sustainable development. I've also assisted governments from other countries, particularly Sweden, in the development of their national legislation governing sustainable development.
I'd like to draw upon that experience today and share with you 10 recommendations on how the Federal Sustainable Development Act could be strengthened going forward in ways that I think would make Canada a healthier, wealthier, and more sustainable nation.
I should also add at the outset that this law, which has its roots in a private member's bill from the Honourable John Godfrey, who I know testified before you last month, actually has deeper roots. The researchers at Simon Fraser University who worked with Mr. Godfrey drew their inspiration from a report I had prepared for the David Suzuki Foundation called “Sustainability within a Generation”, which in turn had its roots in a very inspiring Swedish law that was passed in 1999 and that really set Sweden on a trajectory to become the global leader that it is today in the field of sustainable development.
Without any further introduction, let me quickly provide an overview of the 10 recommendations, which have extensive detail in my written submission.
The first is that the focus of the Federal Sustainable Development Act needs to be broadened to address all three pillars of sustainable development. As it's currently framed, the focus is almost entirely on the environment, but we need to be looking at economic and social components as well. That broad, multi-pronged approach to sustainable development is the approach taken by global leaders such as Germany, Sweden, Norway, Wales, and other countries. That's number one.
Number two is that we need to have Parliament put some long-term objectives into the act, some objectives that clarify Canada's overarching goals in terms of sustainable development; and that direction is really fundamental for the civil servants who are preparing the federal sustainable development strategy. Let me just turn to the 2016-19 draft to give you an example of why this is so critical.
The 2016-19 draft federal sustainable development strategy has what it calls five long-term aspirational goals for Canada. These include fresh water and oceans; clean technology, jobs, and innovation; human health and well-being; and national parks and protected areas. These are not long-term goals. These are not aspirations. Many countries have put the long-term objectives into their sustainable development legislation. Sweden has done that.
You had the gentleman from Wales before you on Tuesday. Wales has in its Well-being of Future Generations Act seven broad goals that frame the Welsh focus on sustainable development. I've provided some examples in my written submission of the kinds of long-term objectives that could be incorporated into the act.
Number three—and you will have heard this from other witnesses—it's absolutely essential that the act be amended to require the development of short-, medium-, and long-term sustainable development targets that are SMART. By SMART, I mean specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Again, these are criteria of targets that are absolutely essential for accountability, for monitoring, and for enabling the commissioner of the environment to actually perform her function as a watchdog and as an auditor.
Number four, I think the current act identifies one principle of sustainable development. It mentions the precautionary principle. In fact, there are many other principles of sustainable development such as the polluter-pays principle, such as the right to live in a healthy environment, and others which should be included in the act. Again, this is something that's commonly found. Sweden's act contains a number of these principles. Quebec's Sustainable Development Act includes 16 different sustainable development principles.
These principles are important to include in the legislation because they will provide guidance to all of the departments, not only for their sustainable development strategies but for the policies, programs, and plans that they put in place and that they implement.
My fifth recommendation is another one that you've heard, which is based on a recommendation from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The OECD has prepared a number of reports on best practices in terms of national sustainable development strategies, and has identified as their number one recommendation the importance of having central agencies in charge of preparing the whole-of-government strategy. In countries like Norway, for example, you have the department of finance that has primary responsibility for the sustainable development strategy. In a number of other countries, including France and Germany, you have other senior government bodies that are in charge. We need to move the sustainable development office from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change in Canada to share responsibility with one or more, or potentially all of the central agencies.
The fifth recommendation that I make is that we also should be adding some additional requirements governing the federal sustainable development strategy. The first is that we should have annual progress reports rather than progress reports every three years. Having annual progress reports is commonplace in business and in other countries, and enables us to make sure that we're on track towards meeting those short-, medium-, and long-term goals.
As well, I think the act should require the federal sustainable development strategy to address how it will further the achievement of Canada's contribution to the UN sustainable development goals and to other international commitments that Canada has made, such as the Paris agreement.
Then we should also consider strengthening the role of the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development so that not only is she in charge of reviewing the draft strategy and reviewing the progress reports, but so that she can actually reject the draft strategy if it includes targets that do not meet those SMART criteria I mentioned earlier. The draft strategy should be sent back for revision until the commissioner is satisfied that the targets indeed meet those SMART criteria.
Similarly, in terms of the strategies themselves, if the strategies are inadequate for meeting those targets then the commissioner should be empowered to require the government to come back with a revised strategy.
Those are all recommendations that you've heard from other witnesses, and then I'll just close my initial remarks by saying there are two other recommendations I've outlined in my brief that are a bit more ambitious in scale.
The first of those is that Canada should create an advocate for future generations. This is something that's been done in other countries, including Wales, Hungary, and Malta. I just think it's really important that we have a voice in this country for the interests of future generations.
The commissioner of the environment and sustainable development does an amazing job, has done so for two decades here in Canada, but the role of the commissioner is really a backwards-looking one. It's reviewing the commitments government has made and the actions government has taken. The role of an advocate for future generations would be much more forward-looking, looking into the future to determine what the future trends are that Canada will face. What are the challenges we're going to face? What are the opportunities? What kinds of laws, policies, programs, and plans can Canada put in place that will protect the needs and the interests of those future generations? That is a novel concept. There are only a handful of countries in the world that have adopted that, but I think it's something that Canada could and should be at the forefront of globally.
Then my final recommendation comes from—