Departmental overview for the Minister of Environment and Climate Change

Table of contents

• Welcome to Environment and Climate Change Canada
• Legislative mandate and authority
• Corporate functions overview
• Federal, provincial and territorial engagement
• Indigenous engagement
• International engagement
• Non-governmental and national industry organizations
• Acronyms

Proactive disclosure

The Access to Information Act

The Access to Information Act lays out proactive disclosure and publication requirements for Ministers’ offices to follow. The relevant provisions of the Act are that:

• Ministers proactively disclose briefing materials upon assuming office (within 120 calendar days of appointment).
• Ministers proactively disclose the titles and tracking numbers of memoranda (briefing notes) prepared for the Minister within 30 days of their receipt by a Minister’s office.
• Question Period notes, as prepared by a government institution for the Minister are proactively disclosed within 30 calendar days following last sitting day in June and December.
• Briefing materials for parliamentary appearances by the Minister be proactively disclosed within 120 calendar days after their appearance.

Proactive publication does not require the release of information that would normally be withheld in response to an access to information request.

Proactive disclosure

The proactive disclosure and publication requirements will affect all the contents of this transition document. In the past, the Department has published transition material on the Environment and Climate Change Canada website to make it available to the public.