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ARCHIVED - Scoping The Issues: Preparation for the Parliamentary Review of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999


Section 4: Timely Access to Information

4.1 Overview and Key Objectives

In order to support sound decisions and foster real accountability, it is important for Canadians to have timely and easy access to information about the state of their environment and about how their decisions affect their environment. This requires regular, understandable and credible signals of impacts on the environment. Monitoring environmental and human health and pollution releases, for example, is essential both to track the results of risk management programs and to help identify changes that warn of new threats.

4.2 What CEPA 1999 Does

CEPA 1999 requires the Minister of the Environment to:

  • establish, operate and maintain a system for monitoring environmental quality;
  • create an inventory of and publish data on environmental quality in Canada;
  • publish information respecting pollution prevention, pertinent information in respect of all aspects of environmental quality; and a periodic report on the state of the environment; and
  • prepare and publish the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI), which provides information on releases (to air, water and land) and transfers (for disposal and recycling) of pollutants.

CEPA 1999 requires the Minister of Health to:

  • collect, process, correlate and publish on a periodic basis data from any research or studies conducted relating to the role of substances in illnesses or in health problems; and
  • distribute available information to inform the public about the effects of substances on human health.

4.3 Should CEPA 1999 Be Implemented Differently? Should The Act Be Changed?

  • Biomonitoring

Biomonitoring is used to provide information about which environmental contaminants are present in the human body and at what levels. It also helps identify vulnerable populations, such as children and the elderly, at risk of exposure and health effects from specific environmental contaminants. After establishing baseline levels, biomonitoring can be used to track the impact of domestic and international actions such as control policies and public health interventions which are implemented to reduce environmental exposures and risks to health. CEPA 1999 requires the Minister of Health to conduct research and studies relating to the role of substances in illnesses or in health problems of Canadians and to disseminate that information to the public. The Act does not, however, explicitly mandate bio-monitoring.

CEPA 1999 is an important tool for the Minister of Health to use for protecting human health.

Q. Should CEPA 1999 be clarified to require the Minister of Health to conduct monitoring studies?

  • The National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI)

CEPA 1999 requires the Minister to establish and publish a "national inventory of releases of pollutants". The NPRI is intended to inform policy decisions on actions to reduce pollutant releases, enable the government to monitor the progress of current actions and to identify priorities for future actions and to inform Canadians about the pollutants released in their communities.

Information reported under the NPRI is useful to a wide range of audiences, including government risk managers, industry decision makers, advocacy and labour groups, local communities and private individuals. It is not clear, however, whether NPRI data is used as widely and as effectively as possible. Among other things, some users have expressed concerns about the reliability of the information reported to the NPRI, and some argue for a mechanism for verifying NPRI data. CEPA 1999 does not explicitly authorize the Minister to require reporters to use specific estimation techniques or monitoring to complete their NPRI report; to require the reporting of information other than releases that can be used to assess and improve data quality; or to use the NPRI reporting software which incorporates many automatic data quality checks. In addition, where raw materials containing NPRI substances are sold or transferred the Act does not provide explicit authority to require the supplier to notify the receiving facility of the type and amounts of NPRI substances contained in those raw materials. Such notification would improve the ability of the receiving facility to accurately estimate releases.

Another reason the ability to verify the reported data is limited at present is that the length of time facilities are required to retain records (three years) is too short to allow for subsequent analysis and verification by government and other officials.

Some stakeholders have expressed concern about the significant administrative complexity of the current NPRI reporting requirements. Environment Canada acknowledges this concern, and is working to reduce complexity and improve guidance. For example, efforts are underway to develop a multi-functional, "one window" reporting system.

Q. Is there a need to improve the reliability of information reported under NPRI and the administrative efficiency of the program? If so, what type of changes to CEPA 1999 would you recommend?

  • Information gathering powers

Section 71 creates extensive information gathering powers to support risk assessments. These powers are restricted to the Minister of the Environment. This means that information gathering requests relating to health assessments from Health Canada must be directed through the Minister of the Environment, which leads to administrative inefficiencies.

Q. Should the Act extend the information gathering powers in s. 71 to the Minister of Health?

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