13. Cost Recovery

Environment Canada had planned to introduce cost recovery for EIHWR in April 1998 and had undertaken significant stakeholder consultations on this proposal. During the consultations, a number of stakeholders raised legitimate program issues. Some emphasized the need to harmonize hazardous waste definitions and controls in Canada and identified areas where the administrative operation of EIHWR could be streamlined while still meeting Canada's obligations under the Basel Convention.

In 1999, Environment Canada announced that it would defer cost recovery in order to further examine opportunities for streamlining of some of the administrative tasks under EIHWR and to implement new interprovincial movement regulations. The goal of this streamlining should be to reduce the overall administrative cost of implementing the regulations for both the government and for industry.

It is not intended to reinitiate the discussions on cost recovery until the new interprovincial movement regulations are in place and changes are made to the current EIHWR to improve regulatory efficiency. Full consultations and a cost-benefit analysis will be required at that time, before any fees are implemented. While there will be no specific discussion of cost recovery as part of the process to revise the current EIHWR, stakeholders may wish to take future cost recovery into account in making proposals for changes to include in the EIHWHRMR.