Evidence of meeting #36 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was women.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Lynne Groulx  Executive Director, Native Women's Association of Canada
Melody Lepine  Director, Government and Industry Relations, Mikisew Cree First Nation
Phil Thomas  Scientist, Mikisew Cree First Nation
Gabriel Miller  Vice-President, Public Issues, Policy and Cancer Information, Canadian Cancer Society
Sara Trotta  Senior Coordinator, Public Issues, Canadian Cancer Society
Verna McGregor  Environment and Climate Change Project Officer, Native Women's Association of Canada

3:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair (Mrs. Deborah Schulte (King—Vaughan, Lib.)) Liberal Deb Schulte

I call the meeting to order.

I would like to start by welcoming three of the groups that are here today with us. There is a little bit of chatter, so I'm going to wait until we all settle down. I'm glad we're all in such good moods.

3:40 p.m.

An hon. member

It is week one.

3:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte

It's week one, and we have four to go.

I just want to welcome our guests today. We have three groups presenting to us.

We have the Native Women's Association of Canada, with Lynne....

3:40 p.m.

Lynne Groulx Executive Director, Native Women's Association of Canada

I'm Lynne Groulx.

3:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte

Lynne is the executive director.

We have Verna McGregor, the environment and climate change project officer. Welcome. Thank you for being with us today.

We have, from the Mikisew Cree First Nation, Melody....

3:40 p.m.

Melody Lepine Director, Government and Industry Relations, Mikisew Cree First Nation

I'm Melody Lepine.

3:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte

Melody is the director of government and industry relations. Welcome. We also have Phil Thomas, who is a scientist with them.

We have Gabriel Miller, from the Canadian Cancer Society. Welcome. He is the vice-president of public issues, policy, and cancer information. We have Sara Trotta—I hope I said that right—the senior coordinator of public issues. Welcome all of you.

We'll start with the Mikisew Cree First Nation, if you wouldn't mind. You're first up. We're going to have 10 minutes of deputation. We'll have each of the groups do their deputations. Then we'll have rounds of questioning after that.

If I hold up a yellow card, it means that you have one minute left, just to give you a bit of a warning. Once the red card goes up, you're over the time. It doesn't mean to just stop what you're saying, but wrap it up in an expeditious way, if you could, please. We'll be doing that through the questioning as well.

Thank you very much. The floor is yours.

3:40 p.m.

Director, Government and Industry Relations, Mikisew Cree First Nation

Melody Lepine

Thank you. I believe copies of my presentation have been provided to everyone. I just want to confirm. Thank you.

First of all, thank you for inviting me to speak as part of your review of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. My name is Melody Lepine, and I am a member of the Mikisew Cree First Nation.

I will begin with slide number 2. You should see a map.

The Mikisew Cree nation is a signatory to Treaty 8 in northeastern Alberta. We are the largest first nation within the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, which is primarily the area called the Athabasca oil sands region of Canada. The community that I am from is just downstream. A large majority of our members occupy today a small community called Fort Chipewyan. It's actually the oldest settlement in Alberta.

There are about 800 or 900 members who reside in Fort Chipewyan. A large portion of our members still occupy their traditional territories, which today are referred to as the Wood Buffalo National Park and the Peace-Athabasca Delta, as well as along the Athabasca River, where there is extensive oil sands mining and development occurring today.

With me is Phil Thomas. Phil is one of the scientists who work for Environment and Climate Change Canada. He has done some studies that he is going to refer to at the end of the presentation, and he is going to assist me with some of the technical questions that we may have about the things I'm going to discuss here today.

Some of you may already be aware that this area, specifically within Wood Buffalo National Park, which is also a UNESCO world heritage site, has been a concern for many of the indigenous people within the region. I represent one of five first nations within the region. The Mikisew Cree, being the largest, filed a petition about two years ago with the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, asking for the site to be listed as “in danger”.

One of the reasons we filed a petition to the World Heritage Committee requesting the “in danger” listing is one of the subject matters I am discussing today, which is the increasing levels of contamination within the region.

Wood Buffalo National Park was listed as a world heritage site because of its having one of the world's largest freshwater deltas, the Peace-Athabasca Delta. The Peace River feeds the delta from B.C., where there are extensive hydroelectric projects, and the Athabasca flows from the Athabasca glaciers in the mountains within Jasper National Park.

There is extensive oil sands development along the Athabasca River, and the contaminants that Phil and I will be discussing today would be mostly PAHs and a bit of mercury.

I will turn to slide number 3.

Like many other indigenous communities throughout Canada, the Mikisew Cree occupies traditional territories. We strive to protect the area. We continue to hunt, fish, and trap, and to exercise our treaty rights within the area. The health of our environment is really critical to the health of the community—the physical health, the spiritual health, and the mental health.

One concern that has been growing within my community of Fort Chipewyan is the increasing occurrence of rare cancers. You may have heard, from the headlines in the past several years, that Dr. O'Connor, a physician within our community, was accused of raising undue alarm because of witnessing the increasing levels of cancers.

The community feels that the increase in the levels of cancers and a lot of these rare autoimmune diseases has a direct link to the oil sands development and the increasing levels of pollution flowing downstream to our community.

We have little choice but to have confidence that our traditional foods and our environment are healthy. We rely on pieces of legislation like the act that you are reviewing to protect and safeguard our environment, to allow for it to be healthy so that we can continue to sustain ourselves, eat our traditional foods, practice our treaty rights, and pass on our culture to future generations.

On slide 4, you'll see a table. There's not a lot of monitoring within the region, and there have been very few studies.

We did undertake a traditional food biomonitoring study. It was done out of the University of Manitoba with Dr. Stéphane McLachlan. One of the things we did was survey a number of community members about their perception. How did they feel about the foods they were consuming? Were they worried about the state of the environment and the health of the ecosystems and the water?

Many members do not drink water from the rivers anymore. They're witnessing a changing environment. The table really represents the fear among the community members, as well as their concern for the state of the environment, the health of their wildlife, and the foods that they're consuming, such as the berries. The table is from the study, and we can supply you with the biomonitoring study if you'd like to examine some of those results a little further. That study actually was funded in part by Health Canada through the northern contaminants program.

Slide 5 shows some examples of what some of the community members are seeing. Mikisew has also started a community-based monitoring program within its community. We started community-based monitoring within our territory in and around Fort Chipewyan, specifically within the delta, because there is no monitoring occurring there. A lot of the monitoring is done upstream; it is focused on where a lot of the development happens. However, we are seeing a changing environment downstream. Fort Chipewyan is just about 200 kilometres from Fort McMurray. We have elders and traditional land users observing, and what they see is very unusual, so we started a monitoring program, and we are now collecting data and sharing the results with both the federal and provincial governments. We are trying to understand why these changes are happening.

For example, we are seeing numerous fish kills. In the spring, the elders go out to Lake Claire in the delta, and they're seeing hundreds of fish floating around. There have also been occurrences of a lot of seagulls dying off. We're seeing things like rabbits with extra genitals. There's a photo that you'll see later on of deformed fish. We really don't understand why these things are happening; we just know that they are happening.

Some of the results that we are collecting from our monitoring indicate increasing levels of contaminants. They link people and health in terms of increasing cancers and some of these rare diseases that our communities have never experienced before. You see the changes that they're seeing in their traditional foods: fish, moose meat, rabbits, ducks, muskrat, and everything that we rely on—subsistence living. It's not just our constitutional right to exercise hunting, fishing, and trapping; it's also a part of our culture.

Things like mercury, lead, silver, cadmium, arsenic, selenium, zinc, and chromium are all very dangerous substances to be consuming. We're actually seeing their levels exceed the CCME guidelines.

Phil, maybe you can speak about the next slide.

3:45 p.m.

Phil Thomas Scientist, Mikisew Cree First Nation

Slide 6 basically speaks to increased depositional patterns of mercury in the northern environments of Fort McMurray and into the Peace-Athabasca Delta where the people of the Mikisew Cree First Nation are living. This slide speaks about mercury, but like mercury, other substances—like PAHs, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic compounds—are also increasing. They also have deposition patterns similar to what you're seeing with the mercury trends. Together, this complex soup of contaminants is of concern to the communities that rely on healthy wildlife and healthy waters for subsistence.

3:45 p.m.

Director, Government and Industry Relations, Mikisew Cree First Nation

Melody Lepine

Slide 7 shows the photo I was referring to earlier of some skin lesions on some fish. This is just one of many fish that we catch like this.

With regard to the PAHs, I'll ask Phil to elaborate a bit on them and on why they are of concern to us. There are natural PAHs within the region, but there are also unnatural sources of PAHs. As a result, there have been numerous Environment Canada studies within the region that show increasing levels of PAHs and other contaminants. This one is of real concern, because this is where we will provide you with some recommendations. It seems very obvious to us and to the community that there's a direct correlation between these increasing levels of PAHs and the changes in the health of the fish that we are consuming.

3:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte

I want to ask the committee's indulgence. We're a little over the time, and we have a few more slides to go.

Are we okay to go over time? You're good?

3:50 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

3:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte

Please continue.

3:50 p.m.

Director, Government and Industry Relations, Mikisew Cree First Nation

Melody Lepine

Okay.

I'll just turn it over to slide 8 and ask Phil to maybe link the PAH increases with your review of the act.

3:50 p.m.

Scientist, Mikisew Cree First Nation

Phil Thomas

To be brief, we've mentioned that PAHs are carcinogenic, teratogenic, and immunogenic compounds, especially when they're being metabolized. It's those metabolites that are the toxic principles in those mixtures. With the fish, we're seeing increased incidence of liver tumours and neoplasm skin lesions that are scaring the community.

Basically, under current regulations and legislation, we usually focus on only 16 PAHs. Those are the parent compounds that are found on the U.S. EPA list of priority substances. Those are the compounds we're actually finding in lower quantities in the environment. When you're looking at any environmental sample, be it water, biota, or sediments, you're finding that over 95% of all PAHs are actually the alkylated forms of those compounds. With PAHs, there are thousands of different compounds, and we're finding the majority of them are currently not listed under priority substances lists.

Mikisew is working hard to recommend the inclusion of some of these compounds, especially the alkylated PAHs, on the priority substances list, and also more meaningful monitoring in addressing the complexities around exposure to these complex environmental mixtures of PAHs and other heavy metals, as they've presented.

3:50 p.m.

Director, Government and Industry Relations, Mikisew Cree First Nation

Melody Lepine

To summarize, with the efforts of the federal government moving toward reconciliation with indigenous people, here's an opportunity to include, for example, the Mikisew Cree, in terms of our request to include these additional PAHs, and to include us in further research and monitoring to understand how these PAHs are affecting our health and our way of life.

I think I'll end it there and take any questions.

3:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte

Thank you very much.

There will be more time to go into detail during questions.

Next we'll move to Native Women's Association of Canada. The floor is yours.

November 17th, 2016 / 3:50 p.m.

Executive Director, Native Women's Association of Canada

Lynne Groulx

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and committee members, distinguished witnesses, and guests.

My name is Lynne Groulx. I am the executive director of the Native Women's Association of Canada. I am here today with Verna McGregor, NWAC's environmental and climate change project officer.

First I would like to acknowledge the Algonquin nation, whose territory we are on today.

Thank you for the opportunity to present. I am a Métis woman of mixed Algonquin and French descent. I bring with me the voices of my ancestors, the concerns of aboriginal women from across Canada, and the hopes of our future leaders, our youth.

NWAC is the only national aboriginal organization in Canada that represents the interests and concerns of aboriginal women specifically. NWAC is made up of provincial and territorial member associations from across our country. Our network of first nations and Métis women spans the north, south, east, and west, in urban and rural and on- and off-reserve communities.

We have three key messages that we would like to deliver today.

First, indigenous women have an important role in environmental issues. From a traditional understanding, the health of indigenous women cannot be separated from the health of our environment, the practice of our spirituality, and the expression of our inherent right to self-determination, upon which the mental, physical, and social health of our communities is based.

Historically, indigenous women had traditional roles in passing on the knowledge and traditions around being stewards of the land. Today, despite the impacts of colonization and increased urbanization, indigenous women have retained their close relationship to the land and the responsibility for caring for and nurturing the land. It is no coincidence that it was women who started the Idle No More movement in 2013 to protect the water in our country. Each year, our grandmothers walk around the Great Lakes to honour and protect the water.

As indigenous women, we have witnessed the impacts of environmental degradation and resource development without proper consideration for people or the environment, as well as rapid changes in weather and climate. Indigenous women are often the first ones to observe and experience the impacts of climate change and are more likely to become climate refugees.

The list of vulnerable populations provided by Health Canada places indigenous women and children within all or most of the categories of vulnerable segments of the Canadian population to be negatively impacted by climate change. Indigenous women can be found in low-income groups, groups with pre-existing health problems, groups who live off the land or have a cultural reliance on the environment, and in the northern residents group.

We have seen the impact of climate change around the world: the degradation of already poor housing, increased susceptibility to diseases because of fresh water shortages and mould in houses, increased costs of energy sources, and air and water pollution, all of which are impacting our health.

There is also the issue of the change in the range, number, and health of animals, fish, and plant species, which impacts access to both the traditional food supply and the traditional medicine supply. The changes in hunting and harvesting practices also change traditional dietary foods and decrease access to traditional medicines.

The second key message is that there is a need for an indigenous and gender-specific perspective in revamping the Environmental Protection Act. Upon our internal review of the legislation, we found only two references pertaining to aboriginal peoples. There is one specific reference in the preamble, which states:

Whereas the Government of Canada recognizes the importance of endeavouring, in cooperation with provinces, territories and aboriginal peoples, to achieve the highest level of environmental quality for all Canadians and ultimately contribute to sustainable development;

The second reference is found in the interpretation section of the act, which recognizes “existing aboriginal and treaty rights” and is basically an incorporation of subsection 35(1) of the Constitution Act of 1982. We find that these two references are wholly insufficient, in particular because indigenous women are not explicitly mentioned anywhere.

Numerous national and international studies and research have shown that including indigenous women in decision-making with regard to environmental protection and sustainable development leads to greater protection of genetic resources, such as forests, species at risk, and bodies of water.

This is explicitly noted in the United Nations Development Programme of 2011.

Within Canada, it is crucial that indigenous women be part of the discussions on environment and climate change with the different levels of government and other stakeholders. Engagement and consultations must be more than cursory; they must be meaningful. This issue of consultation has already been thoroughly canvassed by the courts in recent years. Indigenous women also need to be recognized for the leaders that they already are on the issue of climate change in Canada.

NWAC believes there is a need to support more research and development of risk-reduction strategies for indigenous women and children and to support the development and delivery of emergency preparedness techniques and strategies for indigenous women and families.

At the international level, the inclusion of indigenous women's traditional knowledge in the creation of international agreements, such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Paris agreement, will most certainly help to ensure that the sustainable development goals are achieved.

The third and final key message is that the revamping of the legislation needs to be done in compliance with and respect of the principles that are set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Most specifically, we refer to paragraph 2 of article 32 of the UNDRIP, which says that “free, prior and informed consent should be the precondition for state approval of 'any project' affecting Indigenous peoples' lands, territories and resources.”

This also means free and prior consent of indigenous women, not just indigenous men.

In addition, specifically articles 21 and 22 of UNDRIP refer to the particular needs of indigenous women and say that states should take effective measures to ensure the continuing improvement of their social and economic conditions.

In conclusion, there are three points we want to make to you.

First, women have an important role. Second, we believe that a gender and an indigenous perspective needs to be included. Third, we believe that consideration needs to be given to the principles of UNDRIP in this review.

Thank you.

4 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte

Thank you very much.

It was interesting that both of you started your presentation off with pretty well the same sentence: that your health cannot be separated from the environment. This is kind of interesting.

We have the Canadian Cancer Society up next. The floor is now yours.

4 p.m.

Gabriel Miller Vice-President, Public Issues, Policy and Cancer Information, Canadian Cancer Society

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

It's a great honour to be here with you folks.

Before I begin, I just want to say that we prepared to come to speak to you today in particular about asbestos, but we know that the task before you goes well beyond that material.

The Canadian Cancer Society is interested in the work that you're doing in all areas to protect the health of Canadians. We're working closely with researchers, for instance, at the Occupational Cancer Research Centre to look at a broad range of potential risks to Canadians. We look forward to continuing the conversation after today and taking any questions that come up in this discussion that we can answer back to the society so that we can return on another occasion and keep talking with you.

I want to begin with a few words about the Cancer Society.

It is Canada's largest national health charity. We have 132,000 volunteers across the country, more than a million donors, and it's a privilege to be here speaking on their behalf.

We commend the committee for undertaking a comprehensive review of the Environmental Protection Act. It is critical tool for protecting our citizens. Sara and I are not experts on the act, but we believe that its treatment of at least one substance must be strengthened. That substance is asbestos, and likely there are others.

It's time Canada adopted a comprehensive approach to this dangerous and unnecessary material. It's time to ban any new use of asbestos across our economy and to take action to reduce the risks of being exposed to wherever asbestos already exists in our communities. Again, what's required is a comprehensive approach, and in the next couple of moments we'll describe what that means to us, including key changes that we feel should be made to the Environmental Protection Act.

First I'd like to share a few words about the danger that asbestos continues to pose to the country.

Some people are surprised to hear that asbestos regulations in this country are still inadequate. They may have assumed that we had finally put this issue to rest after so many years and after so many fatalities. Surely Canadians must think that we closed this long and painful chapter when the last asbestos mine was closed four years ago, but it isn't over—not yet. We haven't solved our asbestos problem, despite the progress we've made. As a country, we have unfinished business, and this committee can help us complete it.

Here are a few facts.

Asbestos is the number one cause of work-related death in Canada. This year alone, more than 2,300 Canadians will be told they have cancer, in part because they were exposed to asbestos. In fact, the number of Canadians diagnosed with asbestos-related cancers continues to rise today due to exposure over the past 20, 30, and 40 years. However, what might be most shocking is that 150,000 Canadian workers are still exposed to asbestos every year in Canada. Those are people at risk today in 2016.

As I said at the start, a comprehensive approach is required. It would consist of at least three elements, and these may well not be exhaustive.

First, the Environmental Protection Act should ban all asbestos-containing products, including commercial piping and automotive brake pads. Their use, manufacture, import, and export must end. This will reduce exposure among today's workers, protect future workers, and send a clear message about the dangers of this material.

Second, the federal government must work with provinces and territories to mitigate the dangers posed by asbestos that is already present in our communities and our workplaces. This must include registries and other systems to track where asbestos exists in buildings, beginning with the buildings owned and operated by government itself. We would include in that all public buildings, including schools, hospitals, and others.

Third, both levels of government must work together to develop a comprehensive strategy to transition our country to a post-asbestos future. That means taking action internationally by signing the Rotterdam Convention, but more importantly, it means taking action inside our own borders by making sure that regulations not only exist but are enforced for the safe detection and removal of asbestos wherever it exists.

Canada has made progress on asbestos, but our work is not done. We are encouraged by the government's commitment to tackle the issue and we look forward to working with all parties in the House of Commons to put a comprehensive solution in place. We hope this committee will take this opportunity to support a ban on asbestos through the Environmental Protection Act. It's time that we joined the 50 countries around the world that have banned this material. It's the right thing to do, and Canadians will thank you for it.

We look forward to your questions. Thank you very much.

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte

Thank you very much to all of you, and we'll start right into the questions.

We'll start with Mr. Amos.

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

William Amos Liberal Pontiac, QC

I will be fairly brief and ask for brief responses. I have six minutes only.

To the Canadian Cancer Society, I found the testimony of our indigenous witnesses compelling. It made me think that I'm going to put CCS on the spot here a bit.

What kind of programming does CCS have in relation to vulnerable populations, such as indigenous communities where cancers are being found? It's not news. In Fort Chip, this has been reported for years and years. They've been on a crusade to help figure out the problems there. Is the CCS a contributor when it comes to engaging on cancer in vulnerable communities?

4:05 p.m.

Sara Trotta Senior Coordinator, Public Issues, Canadian Cancer Society

A lot of the work that we do involves educating vulnerable communities, aboriginal peoples among them, about the importance of screening and cancer prevention.

We do a lot of work with aboriginal communities, for example, in Ontario, to promote the importance of screening, and we've seen a significant uptick in the rates of screening among people in our northern Ontario communities.

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

William Amos Liberal Pontiac, QC

Okay. That's interesting. That's on the detection side. Obviously from the perspective of our witnesses in Fort Chip, they're concerned about research being done to figure out what impacts industrial processes are having on them. I would suspect that their population is less interested in tests down the road and more interested in helping figure out what can be done to reduce the burden of chemicals that are mixing together.

Does CCS do research in relation to the mixing of various industrial compounds and the effects on isolated communities?

4:05 p.m.

Vice-President, Public Issues, Policy and Cancer Information, Canadian Cancer Society

Gabriel Miller

The Cancer Society certainly funds research into environmental carcinogens and how industrial pollutants can increase the risk of cancer. I would say that right now our greatest focus in this area is on a group of carcinogens that Canadians are being exposed to primarily in the workplace, which includes asbestos, radon, and diesel fuels.

However, hearing the witnesses today, I was struck by some of the same things that you were. I think it gives us reason to go back and speak with our research team to get a good picture of exactly where we're funding research in this area.