Hello.
Thank you for having me today.
As Ms. Goodier said, I am the Director General of the Environmental Enforcement division at Environment and Climate Change Canada.
I would like to use the rest of our allotted time to provide a few overarching comments on behalf of ECCC's enforcement branch.
We have approximately 200 officers designated to enforcing the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, which we call CEPA, and its almost 60 regulations across the country. These same officers also enforce the pollution prevention provisions of the Fisheries Act.
Our organization takes great pride in the work of these officers. They conduct thousands of inspections and hundreds of investigations every year. More than ever, their work is leading to meaningful penalties to deter those who would choose to violate Canada's federal environmental laws and regulations.
Over the past five years, for example, fine amounts for CEPA offences have increased from a few hundred thousand dollars per year in 2012 to over $3 million in the 2016-17 fiscal year. Our total fines from prosecutions last year, including fines for Fisheries Act offences, were more than $10 million. The majority of these fines are directed to the environmental damages fund, which finances projects that improve environmental quality.
We are also improving our capacity to identify where non-compliance presents the greatest risk to the environment and human health. To this end, in 2017 our directorate launched a comprehensive risk assessment process, with the objective of completing a comparative analysis of all CEPA regulations by the spring of 2020. We believe this work will address the recommendations outlined in the current audit as well as previous audits on the same subject. This is part of a continued effort to better target the highest-risk non-compliance with ECCC laws and regulations to achieve the highest levels of environmental protection.
We would like to thank the commissioner for her continued work in this area and her continued attention, and we really appreciate the comments.
We would be pleased to answer any questions you have.