Federal governance regimes for ocean ecosystems in Canada: Accountability within collaborative management regimes

This thesis develops and verifies a methodology to measure the extent to which the principles of a collaborative and ecosystem approach have been reconciled with the principles of sound accountability, including ministerial responsibility. The thesis reviews three decades of institutional interventions in Canada intended to strengthen oceans governance, then distills the underlying assumptions of a new paradigm for collaborative oceans governance at the scale of a large marine ecosystem. The focus is on the accountability implications of Canada's new oceans governance model, including a new governance regime which is based on trust rather than the traditional regime which is based on blame. An Oceans Governance Accountability Framework is presented and indicators of accountability are designed and employed to measure the extent to which credible reporting, an effective holding to account and Integrated Management of Large Ocean Management Areas have occurred.; These indicators of accountability are applied to the relationships between the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Parliament, the Minister and other ministers and the Minister and other users of the ocean. The indicators are applied to a Large Ocean Management Area, the Eastern Scotian Shelf.; The two major conclusions are that the indicators of accountability provide a practical approach for assessing collaborative and ecosystem management programs, and that the Government of Canada has not convincingly demonstrated that it has reconciled the principles of a collaborative and ecosystem management approach with the principles of sound accountability. The last chapter distills important lessons learned from the Canadian experience for other jurisdictions, such as the need to define accountability before the promulgation of a major environmental policy.