Framework for determining the potential for important environmental, social and economic effects of plan, policy, and program proposals.

Transport Canada requires the services of a Consultant to develop a quantitative decision making framework for assessing the environmental, social and economic impacts of policies, plans and program proposals. The portion of the assessment focused on environmental impacts must be consistent with the Cabinet Directive on the Environmental Assessment of Policy, Plan and Program Proposals (Cabinet Directive).

This framework will help ensure that sustainable development principles are factored into policy, plans and programs developed by Transport Canada.

The Contractor must develop a framework with a sound, defendable methodology based on scientific principles and policies to screen proposals for their potential important environmental, social and economic effects; either positive or negative.

OPIs at Transport Canada that will be using this framework will need to be able to accurately assess the potential effects of their proposal and determine, with certainty, whether an SEA is required for their proposal. In many cases, they will need to do so despite not having expertise on the elements (environment, economy, society) being assessed. Since the STAT is completed as early as possible in the proposal development process, OPIs must be able to apply the rating system within the framework to make a determination on the potential for important environmental effects before all the details of the proposal have been finalized.

The Contractor must develop the following deliverables:

• A decision framework for assessing the environmental, social and economic impacts of policies, plans and program proposals;
• A clear and simple user guide for OPIs to refer to and use when determining environmental, social and economic impacts of their proposals; and
• An overview presentation targeted towards Transport Canada Senior Management outlining the benefits of the framework and OPI user guide and describing how they function together to provide a strong and defendable assessment of policies, plans and programs.