Download Looking Forward 2007-2027

….institutional and policy innovations
Glen Toner
Post 1987 Record is Mixed …
 … many accomplishments …. But …
 Federal Government ‘underperforming’ at both
political and bureaucratic levels
 Result declining international reputation
 Canada no longer top performer or leader
2007 GoC SD ‘Change Process’
stalled
 W.R.
What “fully conscious’ institutional & policy
changes should we undertake ?
 SD … not Cons/Lib/NDP/BQ/Green
idea
 In power – all parties suffer ‘cognitive dissonance’
ie. Gap btw legitimate aspirations of Canadians
-
What governments know they have to do
What they actually do ie. Issue of …
‘walking the talk’ … ‘implementation gap’
Institutional Changes
Political
1) SD Committee of
Cabinet
2) SEA
3) Create Dept of Finance
and Natural Capital
4) Independent
Parliamentary
Commissioner of
Environment & SD
Bureaucratic
1) PCO – DM
accountability
2) Create Dept of SD
3) Focus SDS on key
departments
Policy changes
 EFR
 Mkt-based society/ int’al
 Information
 Never recovered
laggard
 Price signals matter
 Emerging social
consensus GBC/CD
Howe/CCCE
 Tax shift to energy &
consumption taxes from
distortinary taxes on
capital and labour
SOER/PR
 Govt manages what it
accounts for
 Need ltd # of goals &
targets against which to
evaluate progress
 Create Environmental
Objectives Council to
Report to Parliament
Build ‘societal’ SD capacity/literacy
 Very limited compared to educ/health/economic
 Genuine Progress Indicators
 Few ‘independent voices’ speak authoritatively, influence
public opinion
 Lifestyle/consumption/behavioural changes required +
on the way … anticipatory – or – just reactive
OCF … need to generate ‘societal consensus’ to underpin
‘political consensus’
Porritt … next 20 years a test of our ‘survival instinct’
Ruckelshaus … a unique experiment