To answer this question, I would point to a number of reports that were published by the Auditor General's office, by the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development, which highlighted that. So far, there have been three reports that looked into enforcement: a 2009 report, a 2011 report and a 2018 report. Some of the findings have been consistent in terms of the way that Environment and Climate Change Canada has invested resources and capacity in enforcing its regulations.
The last report that came out in 2018 showed that 2,000 of the 10,000 inspections and enforcement actions conducted by the department were targeting dry cleaning businesses. These are mostly small to medium-sized businesses and the audit showed that there was no prioritization of risk in terms of how the department allocated its resources. Many very important regulations, such as the prohibition of toxic substances regulations that prohibit 26 substances, did not receive one inspection in 2018.
Once again, I want to emphasize that some of these findings have been consistent throughout the audits that were done by the environment commissioner. There's also an issue of resources and funding, and we have provided recommendations over the years in terms of increasing the funding going towards the enforcement department within ECCC.