Closed Consultation

Consultative Scoping Workshop for the Environmental Outlook for Canada

The RCEN selected one (1) ENGO representative to attend the Consultative Scoping Workshop for an Environmental Outlook for Canada (EOC), on March 1-2, 2007 in Montreal. The development of the EOC is a 4-year project initiated by Environment Canada in 2006, with the intent of creating an outlook that can be used to guide national policy as well as for reference and educational purposes.

The selected delegate is: Susan Holtz, Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy

The March workshop will seek to engage participants and provide an opportunity to influence the scoping of an Environment Outlook for Canada by: Identifying the key uses and users of environmental outlooks and how such outlooks can best inform environmental and economic policy development; Reviewing and learning from key ongoing and proposed environmental outlook activities in Canada and elsewhere (e.g. European Environment Agency, UNEP); Determining how best to address technical issues, eg. spatial resolution, temporal scope, and range of issues to be addressed, and; Getting a clearer indication of level of interest of attendees in directly participating in an environmental outlook for Canada, and identifying others who should be brought into the process. A draft agenda for the March workshop is available upon request.

For more information, contact Leela Ramachandran, National Caucus Coordinator, at 613-728-9810 ext. 223.

Background Information

The workshop builds on informal scoping discussions held last December and January with various organizations within Environment Canada, other federal departments, ENGOs, provinces, international organizations (such as the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, UNEP), and subject area experts. The input from these informal meetings has been used to prepare a draft paper on developing an Environment Outlook for Canada. This paper will support discussions at the workshop, and will then be revised to reflect input received. The paper will also serve to inform EC on next steps with the work. 

Approximately thirty-five (35) participants are expected, representing Environment Canada, other government departments, provinces, international organizations, ENGOs, aboriginal groups, academia and subject area experts. To encourage dialogue, the draft discussion paper and draft terms of reference for the project governance will be distributed to participants prior to the workshop.