There are three things to consider. It is important to look at disproportionate risk, as you have indicated as one of your suggestions, but two areas in which CEPA is currently failing in this area of environmental justice—which is why we need the emphasis on it, as has been suggested—include looking at defining what is toxic as what is entering in a quantity sufficient to cause harm, rather than as an inherent hazard.
That means that we're looking at generalizations about quantities that might be entering the environment. If you live, say, in a community like Fort Chip and are being exposed to a lot of the substance that very few people are exposed to, and consequently rare cancers are cropping up in a cluster, that's an example demonstrating why we need to look at inherent hazard rather than just at the level of a substance that is potentially harmful that is entering the environment. That has an impact on environmental justice considerations, in terms of those criteria.
As well, to speak in favour of the regulatory tool box that Bob invoked, when we rely too much on voluntary measures in risk management, what happens in chemicals management under CEPA is that you're leaving the protecting of vulnerable populations up to corporate goodwill. There are many wonderful leaders in industry who are doing their best to practice safer chemistry. I salute those organizations and companies that show that leadership. Environmental Defence works with many companies to improve chemical formulations and safety. But there's a question of fairness when you're leaving it up to voluntary measures and to creating pollution prevention plans that you don't necessarily have to follow through with. On the consumer side some people can afford to buy a couch that doesn't contain toxic substances that will lower the IQs of their children, and some people can't afford to do that, if it's left voluntary. In terms of industrial emissions as well, you're still going to have people in some regions who are more vulnerable to these exposures, both because they're disproportionately exposed and because there's a lack of a lens that considers those aspects.