Notifications for environmental emergencies
Under federal legislation, any environmental emergency or environmental occurrence, such as an oil or chemical release, must be reported to Environment and Climate Change Canada to help ensure timely and effective oversight of the emergency response.
Notification Regulations
To reduce notification burden and duplication of effort, Notification Regulations allow the responsible party and the public to report environmental emergencies or environmental occurrences to the authorities in the province or territory where it occurred, who will in turn notify Environment and Climate Change Canada.
This streamlined reporting is enabled under the authority of the Release and Environmental Emergency Notification Regulations under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), 1999 and the Deposit Out of the Normal Course of Events Notification Regulations under the Fisheries Act.
Notification Agreements
Environment and Climate Change Canada has entered into Environmental Occurrences Notification Agreements (Notification Agreements) with the Governments of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and the Yukon.
The purpose of these Notification Agreements 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. Under these Notification Agreements, 24-hour authorities operating for the provinces and territories receive emergency or occurrence notifications and transfer this information to Environment and Climate Change Canada, which is essential for timely and effective oversight of the response.
In jurisdictions that do not have a Notification Agreement, Environment and Climate Change Canada receives notifications directly from the regulated community and the public.