Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for the invitation and opportunity to contribute to this committee's freshwater study.
I am a strategic adviser and formerly the director general of the environmental and radiation protection and assessment group at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. With me today is my colleague Melissa Fabian Mendoza, director of environmental risk assessment.
We are joining you from our homes on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.
The CNSC recognizes and acknowledges the importance and value of fresh water to Canadians and indigenous nations and communities. While our regulatory requirements apply to a breadth of technical topics and all environmental components, for the purposes of this committee, I will highlight how our regulatory framework and processes ensure protection of fresh water from nuclear facilities and activities.
The CNSC’s regulatory framework provides applicants and licensees with clear requirements and guidance to follow, such as our regulatory documents on environmental protection, in conjunction with the Canadian Standards Association's—or CSA's—suite of standards relevant to environmental protection. These documents are found on the CNSC website. The CSA series N288, for example, includes requirements and guidance related to environmental risk assessments and environmental monitoring programs. We incorporate national and international best practices into our regulatory framework.
For any new project, proponents are required to conduct an environmental assessment under applicable legislation. CNSC staff work with other federal departments, such as Environment and Climate Change Canada, Health Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, to technically evaluate submissions based on the best available science and research.
As part of this evaluation, applicants must provide sufficient baseline data, scenarios and programs to demonstrate that there will not be significant adverse effects from the project on the environment, including fresh water. The duty to consult also sets out the legal obligations related to adverse impacts on potential or established constitutional rights of indigenous peoples that the commission must meet. These potential rights must be assessed, considered and, where appropriate, accommodated by the commission.
For existing projects, CNSC staff use ongoing compliance oversight, including inspections of licensees’ environmental protection programs and reviews of cyclical updates to environmental risk assessments and of the environmental monitoring data that must be submitted as per licence requirements.
In addition, the CNSC has an independent environmental monitoring program, or IEMP. This program provides a snapshot of the state of the environment around nuclear facilities. We sample and analyze water, vegetation and air in publicly accessible areas around nuclear facilities. The IEMP sampling plan is also informed by interested indigenous nations to ensure we capture material that is of significance to the community. IEMP results are publicly available on our website, while other data, such as effluent and emissions data reported to the CNSC, can be found on the Open Government portal and the open science and data platform.
Finally, I would like to note that we have a joint initiative with Environment and Climate Change Canada called the regional information and monitoring network for the Ottawa River watershed basin, or RIMNet. The purpose of this initiative is to enhance the availability of publicly accessible environmental monitoring data and indigenous knowledge for the Ottawa River or Kichi Sibi watershed basin.
We recognize the committee’s interest in the commission’s recent authorization for Canadian Nuclear Laboratories to construct a near surface disposal facility for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste at the Chalk River Laboratories site. Please know that, due to the ongoing judicial review of this decision, we are limited in what we can say in relation to this project. We, as well as the commission, welcome the court’s direction on this file.
In conclusion, the CNSC is committed at all times to ensuring there are no unreasonable risks to Canada’s freshwater resources from Canadian nuclear facilities and activities.
We would be happy to respond to your questions. Thank you.