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Environment Canada's (EC) Audit and Evaluation Branch conducted an evaluation of Canada's participation in the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). This evaluation project is included in EC's 2006-07 Audit and Evaluation Plan.2 The project was selected for evaluation given that Canada has been participating in the CEC since 1994 and no formal evaluation of its involvement had yet been conducted. The fact that Canada's financial contribution to the CEC (US$3 million per year since 1994) represents EC's largest contribution to an international organisation reinforced the need to undertake the evaluation, in particular to ensure that Canada is effectively benefiting from the public resources entrusted to this international organisation.
The purpose of this evaluation was to examine Canada's participation in the CEC. In particular, the evaluation examined whether and how Canada has benefited from, contributed to, or been impacted by CEC's efforts to deliver the objectives of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), the agreement that created the CEC. This report presents the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the evaluation. A management response to the recommendations, provided by EC senior management, is also included.
The remaining sections of this document are organized as follows. Section 2 provides background information on the CEC, including a description of the roles and responsibilities of key bodies and committees, both CEC and Canadian federal government-related. Section 3 presents the evaluation's purpose and design. Section 4 presents the evaluation's findings. Section 5 and 6 lay out, respectively, the conclusions and recommendations. Finally, the management response to the evaluation's recommendations is presented in Section 7.
2 The Plan was approved by EC's Departmental Audit and Evaluation Committee (DAEC) on March 16, 2006.