I was describing the fact that CEPA says that any new substance that comes into Canada has to be notified under CEPA for an environmental or a health assessment. Then there is a fairly robust regime established under CEPA to allow us to specify what information has to be provided, the timelines under which a decision has to be made, and the kind of recourse the government can have, the kinds of decisions the government can make, depending on its assessment of the information.
The act also states that if another statute provides for an equivalent assessment regime, then that statute can be put on a list under CEPA and then the CEPA obligations don't apply, the authority under the other statute applies. For example, the Seeds Act is administered by the minister of agriculture and is on that list. That means that from a legal perspective there is a full set of legal authorities that are equivalent to the new substance obligations under CEPA, specifically for seeds. So there is a statutory regime that's fully administered by the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food and no assessment for seeds has to be made under CEPA.
In some cases we have acts that don't provide for a fully equivalent regime but you have a minister and a department or an agency that is familiar with the issue. The Food and Drugs Act does not provide for the environmental assessment of food and drugs so we can't schedule the Food and Drugs Act. A new food or drug also technically has to be assessed under CEPA.