ENVI Committee Report

Supplementary Report - Bloc Québécois

The Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA 1999)

Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development: The Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 – Five-Year Review: Closing the Gaps.

The Bloc Québécois believes that environmental issues are central concerns for Quebecers and Canadians today. Be it the fight against global warming, the quality of our water and the air we breathe, or the evaluation and use of toxic substances, the environment has clearly become an inescapable topic.

In view of these concerns and environmental challenges, the Bloc Québécois recognizes the Committee’s efforts to make the federal government fill certain gaps in the Environmental Protection Act, 1999, even though this would not address the duplication of efforts in the areas of environmental protection arising from the Act.

To this effect, the Bloc Québécois stresses that the Committee has adopted Recommendation 7, “That the government should enter into negotiations with other OECD countries to exchange information respecting any substance of concern and that the CEPA be amended to this end if necessary.”

In addition, the Bloc Québécois would like to mention that it supports Recommendation 17, “That CEPA 199 be amended in the preamble to include recognition of the need to protect the most vulnerable in our society, particularly children, and that Part 5 be amended to include language similar to the Pest Control Products Act, directing that consideration of vulnerable groups take place in the risk assessment process, including an extra ten-times safety factor for children where appropriate.”

Finally, the Bloc Québécois agrees with the Committee on its recommendation that currently used substances be re-evaluated using newly available technologies and data.

However, although the Bloc Québécois voted in favour of the report as presented to the Environment Committee on April 20, 2007, it would not grant its complete approval without further clarifications of some of the recommendations and some additional elements.

Jurisdictional powers

The environment is a complex issue, and the Bloc Québécois believes that the government of Quebec has a key role to play in this area. Thus, the federal government should be mindful not to infringe on Quebec’s environmental jurisdiction.

Let us recall that the Bloc Québécois voted against Recommendation 18, “…that [the government] explore fully its options under s. 330 (3.1) to create regulations with limited geographical application in order to protect the Great Lakes and any other vulnerable ecosystems in Canada.”

This recommendation opens the door to federal intrusion in designating sensitive ecosystems located in Quebec without consulting the Quebec government. The position of the Bloc Québécois is that this recommendation should be narrow in scope so as not to constitute an encroachment on Quebec’s right to manage its own territory and designate its own sensitive areas.

Federal responsibilities

Aside from Recommendation 18, the Bloc Québécois feels that the recommendations, although addressing real problems, have largely missed their mark. This is particularly true for Recommendation 27, “That the Government allot sufficient funds to increase A‑Base funding to the Departments of Health and Environment so that CEPA 1999 can be implemented more effectively.”

Although it is true that Environment Canada and Health Canada should be provided with adequate, or better, A-base funding, the first step should be the reallocation of funds within the ministries themselves. Above all, this should only be done after a thorough analysis of needs and priorities.

On this subject, as noted by the Auditor General of Canada in November 2006, Health Canada “does not know if it is fully meeting its responsibilities as the regulator of drug products, medical devices, and product safety.”

Yet Health Canada has redoubled its efforts to develop Canada-wide strategies and has created new agencies that do nothing but duplicate what is already being done in Quebec and the other provinces.

Instead of attempting to encroach on the jurisdictions of Quebec and the other provinces, Health Canada and Environment Canada should focus on their base activities, particularly the evaluation of toxic substances, rather than stretching their funds and energies.

The Bloc Québécois is in no doubt that if these ministries would stick to their areas of jurisdiction, they could adequately finance their essential base activities.

The precautionary principle

In conclusion, the Bloc Québécois feels that the precautionary principle is glaringly absent from this report. An important amendment should have been proposed to the Environmental Protection Act, 1999, as a recommendation, in order to formally include the precautionary principle in CEPA 1999.