Government Sustainable Development Strategy 2023-2028

The Strategy is meant to incorporate sustainable development into all spheres of government action, i.e., laws, public policies and programs for accelerating the transition to a more prosperous, green and responsible Québec.

This plan mobilizes more than 110 departments and agencies to transform Québec’s environmental and climate challenges into business opportunities, while protecting the wallets, health and well-being of Quebecers.

The Strategy 2023-2028 at a glance (PDF 0.98 Mb)

The 2023-2028 government guidelines

The Government Sustainable Development Strategy (PDF 7.49 Mb) (in French only) (hereinafter the “Strategy”) sets out five guidelines that bring together 20 strategic objectives and 40 sub-objectives.

Guidelines 1 to 4 set out the ambitions for a prosperous, green and responsible Québec and the means to achieve them.

Guideline 5 sets out the preferred governance and management mechanisms to ensure that the government leads by example by carrying out its operations responsibly in key areas such as procurement and property management and, in its decisions, by taking greater account of sustainability issues in its actions.

Complementing the objectives, the Strategy also includes five workstreams that will bring together selected departments and agencies to accelerate the implementation of structuring and strategic measures for Québec.

Adopt a government roadmap to accelerate the transition to a circular economy in Québec (in French only)
Provide Québec with an effective statistical information system on sustainable development
Establish a roadmap to develop Québec’s new sustainable finance ecosystem and position it on the international stage
Structure responsible procurement and support eco-innovation to meet public-sector market needs
Establish a roadmap for responsible digital technology and raise user awareness of digital sobriety

As provided for in the Sustainable Development Act, this framework will guide government action for the next five years.

Key national-level indicators are used to measure the extent to which the Strategy’s objectives and workstreams have been achieved. See the monitoring framework for the objectives of the 2023-2028 Strategy (PDF 194 Kb) (in French only).

Intensifying climate and biodiversity challenges

The Strategy takes into account the context of accelerating global challenges associated with the climate and biodiversity crisis, whose consequences impact society across-the-board. It gives pride of place to the issues facing Québec so as to widen the search for concrete solutions in all areas of government intervention, opening up new fields of action.

Québec’s contribution to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

The Strategy is the formal response of the Gouvernement du Québec to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development).

More information is available in the Tableau de concordance entre la Stratégie gouvernementale de développement durable 2023-2028, les Objectifs de développement durable 2030, le Plan pour une économie verte 2030 et l’Accord de Kunming-Montréal sur la biodiversité (PDF 1.12 Mb) (in French only).

Implementation

The Strategy involves more than 110 departments and agencies active in all spheres of society. Each produces a public sustainable development plan that sets out the objectives it intends to pursue in its areas of activity to contribute to the Strategy and thereby help drive change throughout society. The contribution of each entity is therefore known.

The Ministère de l’Éducation, the Ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur and the Ministère des Affaires municipales et de l’Habitation are responsible for ensuring the contribution of the institutions in their respective parapublic networks and of the municipal bodies under their authority. For now, the institutions in the parapublic networks and the municipal bodies are not subject to the Sustainable Development Act.

Sustainable development planning by departments and agencies

Entities subject to the Sustainable Development Act must carry out sustainable development planning for the 2023-2028 period. Hyperlinks to these planning documents will be added as they are published. In accordance with the Orientations en matière de planification pour l’administration gouvernementale (PDF 210 Kb) (in French only), departments and agencies had until September 1, 2023 to adopt their sustainable development planning. This planning must cover the implementation period of the Government Sustainable Development Strategy 2023-2028.

List of government ministries and agencies required to produce a sustainable development action plan (all documents available in French only):

Accountability and performance evaluation

The government ministries and agencies are required to annually report their PADD achievements in a separate section of their annual RAG management reports, which must be tabled to the National Assembly. On the basis of RAG results, the Ministère de l’Environnement, de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques, de la Faune et des Parcs assigns a sustainable development performance index covering 2018-2019 for each ministry and starting in 2023-2024 for each agency.

Government Sustainable Development Strategy implementation reports

Strategy accountability is assured through the production of periodic implementation reports that describe the actions taken by government ministries and agencies to achieve their assigned objectives. The Ministère de l’Environnement, de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques, de la Faune et des Parcs is tasked with producing the reports, that include the following:

a report tabled every five years in the National Assembly by the Premier;
the state of sustainable development in Quebec, produced in collaboration with the Institut de la statistique du Québec when the Strategy is reviewed.

Currently available: the Government Sustainable Development Strategy 2015-2020 implementation reports (in French only) .

Sustainable development indicators

Sustainable Development Statistical Portal

To monitor progress toward the Strategy’s objectives, the Sustainable Development Statistical Portal (in French only) was launched in 2024. It presents the indicators included in the Strategy’s monitoring framework. Drawing on up-to-date data broken down by various socio-economic and territorial characteristics, the portal presents results in a structured, accessible manner, making it easier for the public, local governments, and departments and agencies to use the data in carrying out their mandates. It also enables Québec to compare itself at the national and international scales.

Indicators included in the Strategy’s monitoring framework and published by the Ministère de l’Environnement, de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques, de la Faune et des Parcs

In addition to this portal, four indicators included in the Strategy’s monitoring framework can be accessed via a link on this page:

4.1.1: Proportion of municipal organizations engaged in a sustainable development process (PDF 528 Kb) (in French only)

5.5.1: Responsible digital maturity index (PDF 394 Kb) (in French only)

5.8.2: Modal share of active, public and alternative transportation to single-occupant vehicles among employees of the State (PDF 823 Kb) (in French only)

5.9.1: Proportion of health and social services institutions, school organizations and institutions of higher education engaged in a sustainable development process (PDF 333 Kb) (in French only)

Taken together, these data provide government and civil society with better tools for assessing Québec’s progress in the three spheres of sustainable development.

Sustainable Development