9. Government operations, federal and Aboriginal land

Part 9 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA 1999) provides the authority to regulate the federal Crown and all lands, entities, or persons falling within the federal constitutional heads of powers. This part also requires the Minister to establish objectives, guidelines, and codes of practice for the ‘federal house.'

The department has held preliminary consultations on federal hazardous waste regulations that would apply to federal departments, agencies, Crown corporations, and aboriginal land. These regulations will address releases to the environment from the processing, handling, storing, recycling, or disposing of hazardous waste by federal institutions. It is expected that draft regulations will be published in 2002. The department is also developing software designed to enable Internet-based reporting.

The Federal Committee on Environmental Management Systems is an interdepartmental committee co-chaired by Environment Canada and Natural Resources Canada. Its mandate is to demonstrate leadership in the development and implementation of environmental management systems that further sustainable development and to provide ongoing advice as it relates to setting priorities and strategic directions for greening government. In recent years, the Committee has also been used as a forum to discuss compliance and regulatory matters. Topics discussed in 2000-01 include guidelines for boiler emissions, green power guidelines, and storage tank guidelines and regulations.

In 2000-01, the Wastewater Working Group, created under the Committee, presented its final report entitled An Approach for Assessing and Managing Wastewater Effluent Quality for Federal Facilities. This report is intended to propose new standards, reflecting today's modern environmental management system setting, that could be used to assist Environment Canada in updating the Guidelines for Effluent Quality and Waste Water Treatment at Federal Establishments made in 1976.