Good morning, Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development, and fellow witnesses.
I have a 30-minute brief, but I'll cut it down to 10 minutes, as your wish is.
On behalf of the board of directors of the Canadian Lung Association and our affiliates across the country, and of particular note, the one in five Canadians who suffer from respiratory disease, thank you for the opportunity to address this committee on this very important issue.
The Lung Association is one of Canada's oldest and most respected health charities. Recognized as the leader in lung health, our mission is to improve and promote lung health through support programs, education, research, and advocacy. Key areas of focus include outdoor and indoor air quality, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, asthma, smoking prevention and cessation, flu, and lung disease management. The association represents one in five Canadians--6,000 Canadians--who suffer from respiratory disease.
The Lung Association is concerned with any exposure to environmental toxins that impacts respiratory health, particularly air pollution and greenhouse gasses, which have common sources and common solutions. I have given three examples in your notes. In the interest of time, I will pass through those. There are many studies that underscore the need to take action to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gasses as part of a holistic framework to improve respiratory health within Canada. Specifications for pollution prevention and risk management in CEPA will be a critical component for use during the development of a national framework for respiratory disease in Canada, currently under way by the Canadian Lung Association. We believe it can be a focal point in some of the deliberations in future.
We have listed a number of priority recommendations for revisions to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
The focus of the act must be on protection of human health and the environment. Reference to economic considerations should occur only in relation to the process of setting standards and regulations. Thus, the existing reference to sustainable development should clearly be secondary.
It is essential not only to keep the precautionary principle as the cornerstone of CEPA, but also to expand its definition to specifically address the concepts of duty to act and joint protection of human health and environmental health, explicitly engaging the action of both the Minister of Health and the Minister of the Environment.
Most importantly, the implementation of the act is as important as the act itself. Additional resources must be allocated to Health Canada and Environment Canada to improve their ability to actively implement the act--and I can't stress that point enough.
Given the act must first and foremost protect health, a number of things should be secured within the act.
First, the term “toxic” must be retained in the act. It is a scientifically accurate word and conveys health-risk meaning to the public and to policy-makers. The following definition of the term should be used in CEPA: “A substance is toxic if it has an inherent potential to cause acute or chronic adverse effects in living organisms, including humans, via ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact.”
I will skip over some of the other points here and move directly down to an important one. Carbon dioxide, being of greatest concern for its contribution to climate change, must remain in the act as a pollutant to be subject to regulatory control.
All decisions regarding toxic substances should explicitly consider exposures to vulnerable populations, such as children, pregnant women, aboriginal groups, and people more than normally exposed to multiple pollutants. The greatest long-term damage is done to children at exposures lower than those considered safe by the many health-risk studies. A tenfold child-protection factor should be used in all risk assessments. Again, I've listed a series of studies that will support that.
Remediation of contaminated sites, as well as pollution prevention, must be an explicit and timely response, specified in the act, to be actioned by the ministers of health and environment. Again, we make a case using the Sydney tar ponds as a perfect example, with a side note saying “Costs of remediation should be obtained from the parties responsible for the contamination”. Somewhere, as we move forward, I believe that's an important part that should go in on the polluter-pay concept.
Flexibility in CEPA procedures is needed in terms of timely handling of new exposure information on substances that will require assessment and regulation of consumer products.
On mandatory timelines, we need immediate action to deal with a significant danger. Ministers now have power to act, but this provision is not used as often as it should be. Barriers to its use should be identified and be removed. Again, I indicate various points that are most important.
In closing, regulations must be enforced. Mechanisms to increase public consultation in case of contamination and to increase public awareness and use of the act to protect the public's own health must be specified in the act.
I would also like to say, ladies and gentlemen of the panel, there's a great expectation on the part of the general public. Inherently, everyone in Canada knows we have a problem with air quality; everybody knows we have a problem with greenhouse gases and what is taking place there. Our expectation and hope is that as the new act comes in, every party can work together very closely to make this act the best possible act it can be for the people of Canada, whom each and every one of you represent, and the 6,000 suffering from respiratory disease whom we represent. We have pledged our support to work with you and our scientific folks to help you advance this critical issue at this critical time.
Again, on behalf of the Canadian Lung Association, and the one in five Canadians with respiratory disease we represent, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to you here this morning, and we look forward to positive results.