Thank you, Mr. Chair. I found this very interesting.
I am going to be keeping my comments short to give opportunity for further dialogue between the witnesses.
The focus of today's dialogue is measuring success. At the beginning we put together a number of ideas, the topics that we'd like, and a list of witnesses to speak with. Today's measuring of success dealt with three specific issues: the goals of CEPA and how they can be measured, how Canadians can be best informed about the state of the environment, and how monitoring of exposure to toxic substances can be improved.
I do have a question. As you're making your presentation, if you could be dealing with it, I'd find it quite helpful.
There were two issues, private members' bills that were dealing with phthallates and PFOS. I think it was you, Mr. Schwarcz, who made a comment about phthalates.
Is CEPA working? This is the review. We want to make sure that we have an effective environmental act that works. We've heard from other witnesses of frustration regarding the length of time it takes to deal with substances and assess them.
We also heard in the House recently that assessments that were done, for example, on phthalates were completed in 2000 and are therefore six years out of date. Are assessments made in 2000 still relevant, or do they need to be redone?
Doctor, you commented on that. As science progresses, do we need to redo some of these assessments? There are concerns about the PFOS and phthalates. Could you comment on that, where we go, and how we make CEPA effective, better? I'd appreciate hearing from each of you.