Stratégie gouvernementale de développement durable Overview and obligations of McGill

A brief history The Sustainable Development Act, is a central element of the Sustainable Development Plan of Quebec ▫Presented to the public in the fall of 2004, ▫Extensive public consultation in 21 Quebec cities ▫A parliamentary committee in ▫Entered in force in 2006 ▫December 12, 2007, the Premier of Quebec, tabled the Government Sustainable Development Strategy

Why The Sustainable Development Act gives the Québec government the ability to meet its international commitments. ▫At the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg (2002), Québec pledged to develop and implement a sustainable development strategy.

McGill’s Existing Commitments 1990 Talloires Declaration  "to ensure that all university graduates are environmentally literate, and have the awareness and understanding to be ecologically responsible citizens", and  "to set an example of environmental responsibility" 1991 Halifax Declaration  added its voice to those many others world-wide that were deeply concerned about the continuing widespread degradation of the Earth's environment, about the pervasive influence of poverty on the process, and about the unsustainable environmental practices so widespread.

Québec’s Vision: The Québec government will create a context for innovation and renewal of practices first within Québec’s public service ▫then with consultation and approval of the following  expand to municipal organizations,  educational, health and social services networks.

Elements of the Act Establishes a definition of sustainable development for Québec; Introduces 16 principles to guide the actions of the public service; Commits departments and agencies to identify actions they will take to help reach the governmental objectives and annually report results of their undertakings; Introduces evaluation and accountability mechanisms to measure sustainable development progress.

Principles when framing your actions ▫Health and quality of life ▫Social equity and solidarity ▫Environmental protection ▫Protection of cultural heritage ▫Economic efficiency ▫Participation and commitment ▫Access to knowledge ▫Subsidiarity ▫Inter-governmental partnership and cooperation ▫Prevention ▫Precaution ▫Biodiversity preservation ▫Respect for ecosystem support capacity ▫Responsible production and consumption ▫Polluter pays ▫Internalization of costs

Principles when framing your actions “Health and quality of life”: People, human health and improved quality of life are at the centre of sustainable development concerns. People are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature; “Social equity and solidarity”: Development must be undertaken in a spirit of intra- and inter-generational equity and social ethics and solidarity; “Environmental protection”: To achieve sustainable development, environmental protection must constitute an integral part of the development process;

Principles when framing your actions “Protection of cultural heritage”: The cultural heritage, made up of property, sites, landscapes, traditions and knowledge, reflects the identity of a society. It passes on the values of a society from generation to generation, and the preservation of this heritage fosters the sustainability of development. Cultural heritage components must be identified, protected and enhanced, taking their intrinsic rarity and fragility into account; “Economic efficiency”: The economy of Québec and its regions must be effective, geared toward innovation and economic prosperity that is conducive to social progress and respectful of the environment; “Participation and commitment”: The participation and commitment of citizens and citizens' groups are needed to define a concerted vision of development and to ensure its environmental, social and economic sustainability;

Principles when framing your actions “Access to knowledge”: Measures favourable to education, access to information and research must be encouraged in order to stimulate innovation, raise awareness and ensure effective participation of the public in the implementation of sustainable development; “Subsidiarity”: Powers and responsibilities must be delegated to the appropriate level of authority. Decision-making centres should be adequately distributed and as close as possible to the citizens and communities concerned; “Inter-governmental partnership and cooperation”: Governments must collaborate to ensure that development is sustainable from an environmental, social and economic standpoint. The external impact of actions in a given territory must be taken into consideration;

Principles when framing your actions “Prevention”: In the presence of a known risk, preventive, mitigating and corrective actions must be taken, with priority given to actions at the source; “Precaution”: When there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty must not be used as a reason for postponing the adoption of effective measures to prevent environmental degradation; “Biodiversity preservation”: Biological diversity offers incalculable advantages and must be preserved for the benefit of present and future generations. The protection of species, ecosystems and the natural processes that maintain life is essential if quality of human life is to be maintained; “Respect for ecosystem support capacity”: Human activities must be respectful of the support capacity of ecosystems and ensure the perenniality of ecosystems;

Principles when framing your actions “Responsible production and consumption”: Production and consumption patterns must be changed in order to make production and consumption more viable and more socially and environmentally responsible, in particular through an eco-efficient approach that avoids waste and optimizes the use of resources; “Polluter pays”: Those who generate pollution or whose actions otherwise degrade the environment must bear their share of the cost of measures to prevent, reduce, control and mitigate environmental damage; “Internalization of costs”: The value of goods and services must reflect all the costs they generate for society during their whole life cycle, from their design to their final consumption and their disposal.

Québec’s Stratégie Strategic Direction (9 orientations) ▫Produce and consume responsibly* ▫Inform, sensitize, educate, innovate* ▫Sustainable land use* ▫Economic efficiency ▫Encourage community participation ▫Preserve and share collective heritage ▫Reduce and manage risks ▫Respond to demographic changes ▫Prevent and reduce socioeconomic inequality *Priority

Québec’s Stratégie ▫Produce and consume responsibly*  Apply environmental management measures and a policy of environmentally responsible acquisitions.  Promote reduction of the amount of energy, natural resources and material used.  Increasing the share of renewable energy with less impact on environment (biofuels, biogas, biomass, solar energy, wind, geothermal, hydropower, etc.).  Apply more écoconditionnalité and social responsibility in public assistance programs and encourage their implantation in the programs of the financial institutions.  Provide the necessary benchmarks for the exercise of responsible consumer choice and to promote certification of products and services.

Québec’s Stratégie ▫Inform, sensitize, educate, innovate*  To increase awareness of the concept and principles of sustainable development, encourage sharing experiences and skills in this area as well as the assimilation of the knowledge and know-how to facilitate implementation.  Draw up and periodically update the portrait of sustainable development in Quebec.  Support research and new practices and technologies contributing to the sustainable development and maximize returns for Quebec.

Québec’s Stratégie ▫Develop and manage the region so sustainability is integrated *  Integrating the requirements of sustainable development into strategies and management plans for regional and local development.  Enhancing the sustainability and resilience of urban, rural or territorial and aboriginal communities.  Ensuring access to basic services to reflect the current realities of regional and local authorities, in the interests of fairness and efficiency.

Québec’s Stratégie ▫Economic efficiency  Reveal more externalities associated with the production and the consumption of goods and services.  To promote the use of economic, fiscal and non-tax incentives, in order to include the production and consumption of products and services in a sustainable development perspective.

Québec’s Stratégie ▫Encourage community participation  Increasing involvement of citizens in their community.  Increasing the incorporation of concerns of the citizens in decisions.

Québec’s Stratégie ▫Preserve and share collective heritage  To strengthen the conservation and enhancement of scientific and cultural heritage.  Ensuring the protection and promotion of heritage and natural resources in the respect of the ability of support ecosystems.  Intensify cooperation with national and international partners on integrated sustainable development projects.

Québec’s Stratégie ▫Reduce and manage risks  Further develop and the promotion of a culture of prevention and establish conditions conducive to health, safety and the environment.  Better prepare communities to cope with events that may be harmful to health and safety and mitigate the consequences.

Québec’s Stratégie ▫Respond to demographic changes  Encourage family life and facilitate reconciliation with working, studying and personal living.  Raise the standard of living.  Increasing productivity and the quality of jobs which involves environmentally and socially responsible measures.  To improve the demographic balance of Quebec and its regions.  Transmit to future generations healthy public finances.

Québec’s Stratégie ▫Prevent and reduce socioeconomic inequality  Increase schooling, graduation rates and qualification of the population.  Increase participation in ongoing education and the qualification of labour.  Preventing and combating poverty and social exclusion.  Supporting initiatives in the sector of the social economy aimed at integration of lasting employment to persons removed from the labour market.

Our actions These principles and other comparable ones are being integrated into McGill’s practices. ▫Adoption of the McGill Environmental Policy ▫The McGill University Physical Master Plan establishes that new buildings and major renovations carried out by the university shall be built according to state-of-the-art sustainable design practices.

Mechanisms to measure progress Promote reduction of the amount of energy, natural resources and material used. (Québec objective) ▫McGill must reduce energy use by 14% before 2010 compared to 2003 baseline. Ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sports Adopt a system of sustainable development indicators ▫Except for energy use, others not yet identified.

Evaluation and accountability Sustainable Development Commissioner reporting to the office of the Auditor General of Québec to ensure the transparent evaluation of results. ▫Reporting format not defined.

Obligations Ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et des Parcs ▫McGill Sustainable Development Strategy ▫due March 31, 2009

How Will We Respond? What is your commitment? What will be our endpoint (our strategy)?

At your service Dennis Fortune Kathleen Ng Jim Nicell