Already facing stiff criticism over its record on environmental issues, the Conservative government was dealt another blow Tuesday with the release of a critical report by the federal environmental auditor.

Scott Vaughan's 42-page report found Ottawa isn't doing enough at home to protect the environment, largely due to two fundamental problems -- ineffective leadership and inadequate information collected by departments about major environmental problems.

"… critical gaps in the federal government's environmental information hinder both its capacity to inform Canadians about key environmental conditions, and its ability to know if the billions of dollars it spends each year on environmental protection are making a difference," wrote Vaughan, the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development.

Vaughan chastised the government for not having a plan to address the impacts of climate change, which he said are already being felt in communities across the country.

"We've seen impacts in the North of Canada, where melting permafrost is already buckling roads and affecting buildings," Vaughan told CTV's Power Play on Tuesday evening. "Increased storms in Atlantic Canada, prolonged droughts in the Prairies, heat alerts in Toronto and Windsor and Fredericton and elsewhere, where they are putting populations at risk."

The federal government promised a national strategy to tackle the impacts of climate change back in 2007, but no such plan exists, Vaughan said. Ottawa has repeatedly said that a far-reaching strategy is in the works.

Vaughan's report also said Canada isn't prepared to react quickly to a major oil spill at sea, especially in the North.

Vaughan expressed concern because the volume of hazardous and noxious substances being transported in Canadian waters is increasing and Canada doesn't have a plan to respond to spills.

The Canadian Coast Guard receives an average of one oil spill report per day. Vaughan found it troubling that the agency has unclear, incomplete and unreliable data about responses to spills.

"What we said in the report today is that if there was a major oil spill in Canada, the Canadian government is not ready," Vaughan told Power Play. "The reason we said that is because they have out-of-date emergency plans going back 12 years. A lot has happened in 12 years. They have risk assessments that are a decade old. They have issues related to their equipment, the readiness of the equipment."

Vaughan gave several recommendations surrounding climate change, oil spill response and water quality. Federal departments agreed to each one, including updating a national emergency oil spill management plan.

The findings fuelled criticism levelled by Opposition MPs, who jumped on the report and blasted the government during question period in the House of Commons.

Ottawa's environmental policies -- or lack thereof, according to critics -- have come under fire this week as a climate change summit gets underway in Cancun, Mexico. Canada is accused of not doing enough to reduce greenhouse gases.

Vaughan didn't single out the current government. He wrote that the deep-rooted problems go as far back as about two decades to previous regimes, including the Liberals' 12 years in power.

Despite this, the Liberals still accused the Conservatives of lagging behind on environmental issues.

Regardless of the ruling party, Vaughan said, no federal government has met its commitments or implemented a national strategy, despite promises to do so.

In his fall 2010 report, Vaughan praised the work by individual departments, such as Environment Canada, Health Canada and the Ministry of Natural Resources, all of which have implemented small-scale projects in communities designed to identify and fix vulnerabilities to climate change impacts, such as rising sea levels.

But he also sounded the alarm about how the government monitors the quantity and quality of fresh water. He found gaping holes in the system and learned water quality isn't monitored in several areas, especially in First Nation communities.

Monitoring stations are set up on only 12 of some 3,000 reserves, Vaughan wrote.