Environment Committee on April 14th, 2021

[Laura Farquharson, Director General, Legislative and Regulatory Affairs, Department of the Environment]

Good afternoon. I am Laura Farquharson. I am director general of the legislative and regulatory affairs directorate of the environmental protection branch at Environment and Climate Change Canada.

I'm accompanied by my colleagues from ECCC: Pascal Roberge, director of the program integration division for the national pollutant release inventory at the science and technology branch; and Silke Neve, director of the information and indicators division of the strategic policy branch. As well, David Morin is here from Health Canada. He is the director general of the safe environments directorate at the healthy environments and consumer safety branch.

We are pleased to appear today to participate in your study of Bill C-230.

As you know, this bill requires the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to develop a national strategy to redress the harm caused by environmental racism, in consultation with provincial, territorial and municipal governments and indigenous and other affected communities, persons and bodies.

This bill comes at a time when, as public servants, we are seized with issues around diversity, equity and inclusion and with combatting systemic racism, and when Canadian citizens are becoming increasingly seized as well.

In my remarks, I'll focus on some of the proposed or existing legislative or policy frameworks that, to some extent, address the subject matter of this bill. Then I will turn to David, who will speak about Health Canada's role in protecting the health of Canadians from environmental risks.

You discussed the definition of environmental racism.

While there is no commonly accepted definition of environmental racism, it generally refers to racial discrimination in environmental polices, practices and actions, and includes the way in which minority groups may bear a disproportionate burden of adverse health and environmental impacts from environmental pollution. Think, for instance, of landfills or polluted air.

Existing federal legislation and recent amendments ensure the government seeks to protect the environment and health of all Canadians, including vulnerable populations.

Yesterday, as you know, the government tabled Bill C-28, which aims to strengthen the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, with a particular focus on recognizing a right to a healthy environment as provided under that act.

If passed, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and the Minister of Health will be required to develop an implementation framework to set out how a healthy environment will be considered in the administration of the act. Among other things, the implementation framework will elaborate on principles such as environmental justice and non-regression. Interested persons, such as stakeholders and partners, will have an opportunity to participate in the development of the implementation framework.

In addition, the ministers are required to conduct research, studies or monitoring activities to support the government in the protection of a right to a healthy environment. This requirement could, for instance, assist in addressing environmental justice issues. For example, it could include the collection and analysis of data to identify and monitor populations and communities that are particularly vulnerable to environmental and health risks.

Additional amendments proposed in the bill tabled yesterday would recognize in the preamble the importance of considering vulnerable populations and cumulative effects. They would codify a number of new elements, including defining “vulnerable population”; requiring the Minister of Health to conduct biomonitoring surveys, which may include vulnerable populations; ensuring that vulnerable populations and cumulative effects are taken into account when developing and implementing the new plan of chemicals management priorities; and requiring that the ministers consider available information on vulnerable populations and cumulative effects when conducting and interpreting risk assessments.

To turn to another area of work, ECCC has been working closely with Indigenous Services Canada—

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

We're at five minutes, so we have to go to Mr. Morin.

There will be time to answer questions and get the points across.

Mr. Morin.

[David Morin, Director General, Safe Environments Directorate, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch, Department of Health]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee. Good afternoon.

As my colleague, Laura Farquharson, indicated, my name is David Morin. I am the director general of the safe environments directorate at Health Canada.

I welcome this opportunity to discuss Health Canada's role in protecting the health of Canadians from environmental risks.

Specifically, I would like to spend the next few minutes speaking to Health Canada's activities related to the health of indigenous peoples and racialized communities and the environmental health risks they face. This includes risks associated with exposure to toxic chemicals, air pollution and water pollution.

Exposure to toxic chemicals represents an ongoing health risk facing indigenous peoples and racialized communities, as well as other vulnerable populations.

In response, Health Canada has been working to better integrate specific considerations for vulnerable populations when conducting chemical risk assessments and implementing risk management activities under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. These improvements include the establishment of a vulnerable populations panel to help better understand the real-life exposures of vulnerable populations to chemicals.

In parallel with these efforts, Health Canada has also undertaken science and research initiatives targeting the environmental health risks facing Canada's indigenous populations. For example, Health Canada, in partnership with the Nishnawbe Aski Nation as well as Indigenous Services Canada and other partners, recently completed the Sioux Lookout zone children's environmental health study.

The multi-year study was undertaken to characterize indoor and outdoor air quality in first nations communities in Canada because of the high levels of respiratory illness, such as bronchitis and pneumonia, in children.

The study provides valuable insights into the linkages between housing, indoor air quality and health.

We now better understand the current state of housing in the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, but we also have a better understanding of issues related to air quality.

Finally, since 1991, Health Canada, along with other federal departments, has supported the northern contaminants program. The objective of this program is to reduce or eliminate contaminants in traditional foods and to provide information on contaminants to individuals and communities so they can better protect themselves. This program includes biomonitoring of contaminant levels in northern populations.

I wish to thank the committee for the opportunity to highlight examples of activities Health Canada has undertaken to address the environmental health risks faced by segments of the population.

Thank you very much for your attention.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you, Mr. Morin.

We'll now start the first round of questions. The next speakers are Mr. Albas, Mr. Saini, Ms. Pauzé and Mr. Bachrach.

Mr. Albas, you have six minutes.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank the officials for being here today and for the work they do on behalf of all of our constituents.

The implication of this bill is that the government isn't doing this work now. When developing policy, do you ignore the “link between race, socio-economic status and environmental risk”?

[David Morin]

Thank you very much for the question. It's a very valid one.

Absolutely, when we do work, for example, chemical risk assessments, we definitely factor in exposure of chemicals that we are assessing to vulnerable populations. By vulnerable populations I mean those populations that could face greater exposure to the types of chemicals we are looking at.

In many cases the assessments have resulted in our identification of areas where risk management actions have to be taken. That has then been put into regulations or management actions to address those exposures of concern. As I mentioned, several of them have been targeted because of the vulnerable populations identified in the risk assessments we've conducted.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Does Health Canada say, “Yes, we already do this”?

[David Morin]

We probably do not do it to the extent that's described in this act, but we do certainly factor in vulnerable populations and exposure of vulnerable populations when we do our risk assessments.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Thank you.

I'll go to Ms. Farquharson at ECCC.

[Laura Farquharson]

To the extent that David is talking about a chemicals assessment, that program is something which ECC and Health Canada work together on.

As well, I would say that on the framework side of things, major policies are developed through a gender-based analysis plus lens. Although the title of that is “gender-based”, the goal of using that analytical tool is to pay particular attention to intersectional analysis of race, indigenous identity, disability and sexual identity, among other characteristics.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

A lot of this is already taken under current law, then.

[Laura Farquharson]

It's—

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

You nodded, so that's all I need to see.

I'll go to Ms. Neve, please.

Do you collect information relating to the impact of environmental hazards and assess the enforcement of provincial laws?

[Silke Neve, Director, Information and Indicators Division, Strategic Policy Branch, Department of the Environment]

In the role I play, which is the director of the information and indicators division, I am primarily responsible for a program called the Canadian environmental sustainability indicators, which essentially works with data that's generated by other programs. Yes, the department does collect information on emissions of substances and also on the environmental quality.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

What about the enforcement of provincial laws?

[Silke Neve]

[Technical difficulty—Editor] program, I can speak to what we work with, and predominantly we're looking at federal enforcement at this stage, but I'll ask Laura to comment on the provincial side.

[Laura Farquharson]

I think the—

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Ms. Pauzé, do you have a point of order?

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Yes, it seems that interpretation is impossible because of Ms. Neve's Internet connection.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Madam Clerk, are we hearing Ms. Neve's comments correctly?

[The Clerk]

She'll have to speak a bit more. She didn't speak long enough.

[Silke Neve]

Okay.

To answer the first question, we do have data on the release of harmful substances to the environment.

As for the question about promoting compliance with the act, the program I'm working on, we have the federal information, but not the provincial information.

[David Morin]

If I may answer, I think one important—

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

One moment please.

Mr. Albas, you seem to—

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

I really want to make sure that this is not all going to go under my time, Mr. Chair, because there is a lot of going back and forth with the same fix and feeds.