CCME State of the Environment Reporting Harmonization Workshop ...

CANADIAN COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Background Statement
The Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) is the major intergovernmental
forum in Canada for discussion and joint action on environmental issues of national,
international and global concern. The 13 member governments work as partners in developing
nationally consistent environmental standards, practices and legislation.
The State of the Environment (SOE) Reporting Task Group was established in 1990 to pursue
three key objectives:
. identification of needs and opportunities to harmonize activities related to state of the
environment reponing;
. development of a common menu of environmental indicators; and
. establishing priorities to implement a national ecological monitoring network.
Six successful workshops have been hosted by the Task Group to address the above-mentioned
priorities. To date, efforts toward harmonization continue and individual jurisdictions have
reaffirmed the need for additional co-operation and collaboration in monitoring, analysis and
dissemination of environmental information.
This Summary Report was developed by EA.S. Environmental Auditing Systems under contract
to CCME. CCME is committed to reflect the highest standards of research and analysis in its
publications. Since CCME itself does not conduct research or author reports, it is not responsible
for the accuracy of the data contained in publications and does not warrant, or necessarily share
or affmo, in any way, any opinions expressed therein.
Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment Secretariat
326 Broadway, Suite 400
Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3C OS5
Tel: (204) 948-2090 Fax: (204) 948-2125