5. Administration and public participation

Administration and public participation covers stakeholder engagement and inter-jurisdictional relationships.

5.1 Federal, provincial, territorial cooperation

National Advisory Committee

The National Advisory Committee (NAC) provides a forum for provincial, territorial and Aboriginal governments to advise the Ministers on certain actions being proposed under the Act, enables national cooperative action, and seeks to avoid duplication in regulatory activity among governments. The committee was provided opportunities to advise and comment on initiatives under the Act. More information on the committee is available online.

To carry out its duties in 2021–2022, the CEPA NAC held 2 teleconference meetings on April 21, 2021 and February 17, 2022.  The NAC Secretariat corresponded regularly with committee members regarding various initiatives implemented under CEPA, including to inform members of actions taken under the Act and to provide them with opportunities to comment and advise on proposed regulatory and policy measures.

Members were provided an opportunity to comment on:

• 10 draft screening assessments, 4 of which included a risk management scope document
• 4 risk management approach documents associated with final screening assessments
• 2 proposed orders (1 adding coal tars and their distillates and 1 adding talc) adding substances to Schedule 1
• 2 proposed regulations (Regulations Amending Certain Regulations Made Under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999; Regulations Amending the Regulations Designating Regulatory Provisions for Purposes of Enforcement (Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999))
• 4 Notices of Intent to vary or rescind the SNAc Provisions for 56 existing substances and 15 living organisms
• 1 proposed environmental performance agreement (Environmental Performance Agreement for the Formulation of Chlorhexidine Products)

Members were provided with an offer to consult on:

• draft Federal Environmental Quality Guidelines for Certain Substances (FEQGs) under section 54 of the Act

Members were provided with an opportunity to advise on:

• 2 proposed regulations to be made under subsection 93(1) of the Act (Single-Use Plastics Prohibition Regulations; Prohibiting the Manufacture and Import of Wheel Weights Containing Lead in Canada Regulations)

Members were also informed of:

• 8 final screening assessments
• 2 final orders, adding plastic manufactured items and selenium and its compounds to Schedule 1 of the Act
• the publication of 3 regulations (Regulations Amending Certain Regulations Made Under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999; Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Concentration Limits for Certain Products Regulations; Formaldehyde Emissions from Composite Wood Products Regulations )
• 2 orders amending the Domestic Substances List to apply the SNAc provisions to trichoderma reesei strain ATCC 74252 and mitotane
• the publication of a notice of removal of substances with no commercial activity from the Revised In Commerce List (R-ICL) under the Food and Drugs Act
• the publication of a socio-economic and environmental study on remanufacturing and other value-retention processes (VRPs) in Canada
• the publication of FEQGs for copper
• a notice of intent to address the broad class of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
• 2 information gathering notices published under section 71 of the Act
• reviewed 2020 National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) data
• NPRI reporting requirements for 2022 to 2024

5.2 Federal-provincial/territorial agreements

Part 1 of the Act allows the Minister of the Environment to negotiate an agreement with a provincial or territorial government, or an Aboriginal people, with respect to the administration of the Act. It also allows for equivalency agreements, which allow the Governor in Council to suspend the application of federal regulations in a jurisdiction that has equivalent regulatory provisions. The intent of an equivalency agreement is to eliminate the duplication of environmental regulations. Table 20 indicates the administrative and equivalency agreements in place under sections 9 and 10 of CEPA and the activities under them during 2020-2021.

Memoranda of Understanding between Canada and Quebec

In order to maximize the effectiveness of regulatory efforts and reduce the administrative burden on the pulp and paper industry, the Province of Quebec and the Government of Canada have been collaborating since 1994. The parties currently co-operate through a memorandum of understanding for data collection, whereby Quebec provides a single data-entry portal for regulatees for the following federal regulations:

• Pulp and Paper Mill Effluent Chlorinated Dioxins and Furans Regulations made pursuant to CEPA
• Pulp and Paper Mill Defoamer and Wood Chip Regulations made pursuant toCEPA
• Pulp and Paper Effluent Regulations made pursuant to the Fisheries Act

The Memorandum of Understanding continued to provide ECCC with real time access to historical and current data during 2021-2022.

On January 30, 2021, a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the federal government and the government of Quebec was published in the Canada Gazette, Part I. The MOU sets out the terms of cooperation and the respective responsibilities to ensure the continuity in the transmission of air quality data and air quality forecast and smog warnings production for Quebec's Info-Smog Program.

* Purpose is to establish a streamlined notification system and reduce duplication of effort for persons required to notify federal and provincial/territorial governments of an environmental emergency or environmental occurrence, such as an oil or chemical release.

5.3 Public participation

CEPA Registry & Public Consultation

Part 2 of CEPA (Public Participation) provides for the establishment of an environmental registry.

The CEPA Registry was launched on ECCC’s website when the Act came into force on March 31, 2000. Continuous efforts are made to increase the Registry’s reliability and ease of use. The Registry encompasses thousands of CEPA-related documents and references. It has become a primary source of environmental information for the public and private sectors, both nationally and internationally, and has been used as a source of information in university and college curricula.

From April 2021 to March 2022, the CEPA Registry website had 40 790 visits and 83 527 page views.

CEPA also has many provisions requiring consultation and public comment periods for proposed orders, regulations and other statutory instruments, and requirements to publish information to the Registry.

In addition, engaging stakeholders and the public is central to several programs under CEPA. For example, at various stages of the CMP management cycle, stakeholders are engaged and the public has the opportunity to be involved and to comment (for example, on proposed assessments of substances or groups of substances).
There were 34 opportunities posted on the Registry between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022 for stakeholders and the members of the public to provide comments on proposed initiatives under CEPA. These include:

• 13 screening assessments
• 1 final decision on assessments
• 4 results of investigations
• 2 orders adding a Toxic Substance to Schedule 1
• 1 amendment to the Domestic Substances List
• 5 proposed guidelines
• 2 proposed Regulations
• 2 amendments to existing Regulations
• 4 independent publications

Please see the CEPA Registry public consultations, available online.

CMP-related Committees and Activities

The CMP Science Committee supports a strong science foundation to CMP by providing external national and international scientific expertise to HC and ECCC on scientific issues.

• The Committee held its final meeting of its mandate online on February 17-19, 2021 to discuss the evolution of risk assessment under CEPA. Meeting records and reports are available online, including the Second term report, published in February 2022.

The goal of the CMP Stakeholder Advisory Council (CMP SAC) was to obtain advice from stakeholders and Indigenous partners for implementing the CMP and to foster dialogue with the government, and among different groups.

• In 2021-2022, the government hosted a final virtual CMP SAC meeting to reflect on an evaluation of SAC Members' experiences throughout the current mandate, as well as to seek insight on some forward looking considerations. The formal mandate of the SAC ended March 31, 2021. Health Canada and ECCC are currently developing a new Engagement Strategy with a view to modernizing the approach to engaging with CMP stakeholders in the future.

Also in 2021-2022, ECCC and HC launched the National Consultations on Supply Chain Transparency, including labelling to engage Canadians in identifying, developing, prioritizing, and testing innovative solutions, for consumer products. The objective of this work is to improve supply chain transparency and enhance mandatory labeling for certain consumer products, to give Canadians greater access to information about the substances to which they are exposed.  The consultations are in a policy lab approach, which includes a series of workshops and interactive events, during which participants are brought together to collaboratively develop and test innovative solutions. In addition, ECCC collaborated with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and industry partners to support the development and testing of distributed ledger (“block chain”) technology solutions for the secure sharing of data about chemicals within supply chains.
As part of the CMP renewal under Budget 2021, funding was provided to Health Canada for a new CMP Engagement and Outreach Contribution Program. This Contribution Program will better equip the CMP to address government priorities, namely reconciliation, GBA+, and protection of Canada's vulnerable populations confronted by systemic barriers. It also facilitates the engagement of a wider breadth of stakeholders and partners to help navigate an increasingly complex chemicals management landscape that requires a range of knowledge and perspectives for effective program decision-making. The Contribution Program is composed of three funding streams: Outreach (public awareness and education), Public Participation and Indigenous Participation.