The Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999: Issues

Section 1 Introduction

Prepared by Environment Canada and Health Canada for the Parliamentary Review of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act 1999 (CEPA 1999)².

Environmental quality and human health are linked, and play a major role in determining social well-being and the competitiveness of local and national economies.

A significant competitive edge can be gained by those who learn how to effectively integrate and promote these linkages.

• Companies prosper by being environmentally efficient, by offering consumers products and services that avoid environmental and human health problems, and by supporting a healthy, motivated workforce.
• Countries with a high level of environmental quality and a healthy population enjoy reduced health costs and employee absenteeism, and are more attractive places to work and live.
• Global branding of environmentally responsible Canadian products, technologies and services can contribute to a global competitive advantage.
• Incentives for continuous environmental improvement, integrated into the underlying drivers of the economy, will allow a country to achieve far more environmental and health benefits than would be possible through environmental laws and policies alone.

The federal government is committed to ensuring that environmental laws and policies promote the over-arching national goal of attaining the highest levels of environmental quality so as to enhance the well-being of Canadians, protect human health, preserve the quality of the environment and advance the country's long-term economic competitiveness.

CEPA 1999 is a cornerstone of the federal government's efforts to realize the goal of protecting the environment and human health.

CEPA 1999 is the result of the significant changes made to the original 1988 Act following the Parliamentary Review of that Act.

Those revisions reflected the evolution in approaches to environmental management triggered by the 1992 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development: an evolution that seeks to integrate health, environmental and economic decision- making within governments and the private sector.

As a result, CEPA 1999 includes the fundamental principles of sustainable development, as reflected in international charters such as the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21³ and the Earth Charter⁴.

The Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA 1999) is the primary federal legislation for preventing pollution to protect the environment and human health and for promoting sustainable development.

Further information about the Act can be found in A Guide to Understanding the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999.

Pollution prevention is the priority approach for protecting the environment and human health when implementing CEPA 1999.

Pollution prevention efforts are directed at avoiding or minimizing the creation of pollutants and waste in the first place.

The Ministers of the Environment and Health are required under the Act:

• to conduct research on and promote pollution prevention, and
• to give priority to pollution prevention in developing regulations and instruments.

Pollution prevention also underlies the provisions in CEPA 1999 for preventing harmful risks from new substances and for restricting material disposed of in the ocean.

CEPA 1999 supports a comprehensive approach to environmental management

The CEPA management cycle
The Act supports informed decision-making throughout the management of a typical environmental issue: the CEPA management cycle.

Issue Scoping: based on a solid foundation of research and monitoring

CEPA 1999 requires and authorizes a wide range of research and monitoring and provides broad information gathering authorities. These activities generate information that helps ensure decisions made under the Act are sound; builds the knowledge base for future decisions; and informs the public, industry and other interested groups.

Scientific approach to risk assessment and information gathering

Substance risk assessments are based on sound science, which supports a better understanding of their impacts and exposure to the environment and human health. The assessments incorporate the precautionary principle and a weight of evidence approach.

Responsible and effective risk management

CEPA enables the government to tailor risk management activities to the problem being addressed. It authorizes a wide range of risk management tools including pollution prevention planning requirements, guidelines, codes of practice, and a broad assortment of regulations. These tools can apply to the most appropriate stage in the lifecycle of an issue. The Act also authorizes economic instruments, such as tradeable units systems. This allows the government to protect the environment in cost-effective ways that reflect social, economic, and technological factors.

Promoting compliance, enforcing decisions, and providing feedback to inform future actions

Actions by Enforcement Officers can be tailored to circumstances by way of warnings, tickets, or Environmental Protection Compliance Orders (EPCOs). Court actions can also be tailored to circumstances through prosecutions, Environmental Protection Alternative Measures agreements (EPAMs) and various court orders.

Focus on consulting with Canadians and reporting and communicating

CEPA 1999 provides a structured predictable approach to risk management decision-making that provides for the input and full consideration of public values and concerns at all stages of the decision-making process. The CEPA 1999 decision-making framework:

• enables the government to be informed on an ongoing basis of the public's concerns;
  
  
• allows the public to influence the identification of environmental problems to be assessed and provides an opportunity for public values to influence environmental objectives and solutions; and
  
  
• engages a wide spectrum of stakeholders including environmental groups, industries, aboriginal people, other governments and communities;

Inter-jurisdictional cooperation

CEPA 1999 recognizes action under other federal, provincial and territorial legislation and it also encourages cooperation with provincial, territorial and aboriginal governments through:

• The National Advisory Committee and obligations to consult on various decisions under the Act.
  
  
• Equivalency and Administrative agreements, which allow recognition of provincial, territorial and aboriginal risk management tools.
  
  
• Geographically differentiated regulations, which allow the federal government to account for regional environmental differences.

Canadians have indicated that the Act is fundamentally sound.

In preparation for the reviews, Environment Canada and Health Canada undertook a number of initiatives, including:

• the release in late 2004 of a CEPA 1999 Scoping Paper to provide background information for the public engagement process;
  
  
• creation of an interactive website to provide information on the CEPA Review and to permit online comments on the CEPA 1999 Scoping Paper or any other matter related to CEPA 1999 and the Review process; and,
  
  
• holding six public workshops across Canada in early 2005, to allow anyone with an interest in CEPA 1999 to express their views.

Independent evaluations, commissioned in early 2005, indicate that both Environment Canada and Health Canada have made progress over the past five years in implementing the many significant changes introduced in CEPA 1999, and that much has been learned over this period of time.

These evaluations also recognized that more can be done to improve and accelerate the departments' efforts to take advantage of the full range of opportunities provided by the Act.

Enhanced implementation will address many of the issues related to CEPA 1999 that Canadians identified during consultations in preparation for the Parliamentary Review.

Effective, fair and efficient implementation is an essential part of the environmental and health protection equation.

This paper:

• describes 12 issue areas that have been identified through consultations in preparation for the Review; and
  
  
• discusses three broader challenges that have been identified through consultations, and in which CEPA 1999 has a role.

² This paper has benefited from consulting with a broad cross-section of groups including:

• Municipal governments;
• Aboriginal organizations;
• Industry and business interests and civil society; and
• Advice from provincial and territorial governments.

³ See documents at www.unep.org/

⁴ See documents at http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/