SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

Progress Report on  2001-2003 Strategy

Minister's Message

Canadians rely on Canada's oceans and freshwater aquatic resources and count on their conservation for the benefit of future generations. My department, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), is committed to meeting this expectation and to helping Canadians make the most of these resources.

DFO strives to integrate environmental, social and economic considerations into its decision making, operations and resource management activities. This balanced approach is known as sustainable development and is central to the business of my department. This means managing our oceans in an integrated and consultative fashion. It means ensuring that our own operations are environmentally sustainable. It means applying the precautionary approach, both domestically and internationally, to better understand and respect the limits and risks of fish harvesting. It means working with provinces to address freshwater issues. It means developing and drawing on scientific excellence to ensure we have a sound understanding of aquatic ecosystems. And it means encouraging an innovative marine sector.

Today, striking the sustainable development balance is more important than ever. The environment in which DFO operates has shifted dramatically in recent years. Our mandate has evolved with the emergence of the Oceans Act and the Species at Risk Act, as well as with Canada's Oceans Strategy. Legal developments related to Aboriginal and treaty rights, a rapidly expanding aquaculture industry and the need to play a more active role in issues related to fish-habitat management have also affected the Department.

In October 2002, the Commissioner for the Environment and Sustainable Development released a report that recognized the significant progress DFO has made in integrating sustainable development principles across its mandate. The report also outlined the challenges the Department faces and pointed the way forward for meeting these challenges.

We are striving to meet these and other challenges, including increased demands for new and more specialized knowledge and a need to ensure that departmental resources are put to the best possible use to meet the needs of Canadians. DFO is in the midst of a comprehensive review - the Departmental Assessment and Alignment Project (DAAP) - that is aimed at securing DFO's financial stability for the future, strengthening our management practices and renewing our policies and programs. Ensuring that sustainable development principles are an integral part of strengthening what we do as a department has been at the heart of our review.

As this process to revitalize DFO is still under way, this report provides a summary of progress to date against commitments in our 2001-2003 Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS). Following the completion of the DAAP, a comprehensive SDS will be developed and tabled in Parliament in 2004-2005. This new strategy will both fully reflect the DAAP and other change initiatives being proposed to meet our internal and external challenges and ensure that sustainable development principles are a part of everything we do as a department. Indeed, DFO's next strategy will raise the bar higher by focusing the Department on sustainability outcomes for a broader range of activities.

Both my Parliamentary Secretary, the Honourable Shawn Murphy, and I are committed to working with Parliamentarians and Canadians across the country to make this commitment a reality by encouraging the sustainable development of our aquatic resources for the benefit of present and future generations of Canadians.

The Honourable Geoff Regan, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Fisheries and Oceans