Evidence of meeting #42 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was right.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Cosmetics Alliance Canada
The gazetting process is a known, established means, and I wouldn't have enough feedback from my industry to give you a fair assessment of that provision.
5:20 p.m.
Bloc
Monique Pauzé Bloc Repentigny, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Beeman or Ms. Parent, I would like to come back to the right to a healthy environment. In your opinion, shouldn't Bill S-5 at least include a definition of what constitutes a healthy environment? Other countries talk about a safe and sustainable environment, for example.
5:20 p.m.
Executive Director, Breast Cancer Action Quebec
Yes. I would say that it's surprising that this definition isn't part of the bill and is being deferred to the implementation framework, as I understand it from the Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
As I said, we're not a group with expertise in this area. However, I think it's frustrating for everyone, and it's obvious that it would have been better to include a definition in the bill.
5:25 p.m.
Bloc
Monique Pauzé Bloc Repentigny, QC
Thank you, Mr. Beeman.
Ms. Ladell Yakelashek and Mr. Yakelashek, you've made good contacts. You went to the municipalities, and I think the municipalities are places where people are very aware of environmental problems. When they have to provide drinking water to their citizens, for example, they understand what's happening with climate change.
You're so environmentally conscious that you are appearing before a House of Commons committee, which is pretty impressive.
My question is similar to a question asked earlier. Did your school curriculum include any lessons on this topic?
5:25 p.m.
As an Individual
Thank you for the question.
For a large quantity of our schooling—because the traditional school system often doesn't go into the detail we would want in various subjects—we did distance learning so we could tailor our schoolwork to special interests, and a lot of that was about environmentalism, the environment and our relationship with it. From a young age, we knew and learned that humanity is a part of the environment, and about the damage we do to the environment.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
Thank you.
Franny, would you like to say something about that?
5:25 p.m.
As an Individual
Yes, just to continue what Rupert was saying, from an early age we learned that what we do to the environment directly comes back to us, because we are a part of the environment, and the decisions we make around the environment are essentially decisions that we make about our health.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I did want to give Ms. Beeman the opportunity to continue on timelines.
You were in the middle of giving some examples and talking about the importance.
5:25 p.m.
Executive Director, Breast Cancer Action Quebec
It's essential that the work progress in a predictable, transparent manner. The fact is that there are no timelines currently, for example, in terms of the risk assessment—the initial assessment and the final assessment. There will be important timelines coming up, for example, for the accountability framework that's in Bill S-5. It's clear they need to be mandatory.
As I said, it's a question of also the government being accountable for its work. We need to know where things stand. There have been cases in terms of chemical assessments that have dragged on—for example, the preliminary assessment was finished in 2017, and there's still no news of a final assessment.
The question that came to my mind was this: What workplace would allow this? We need clear timelines with other mechanisms to strengthen the application of the law.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
Thank you so much. You painted a very clear picture.
In the last 15 seconds, I want to thank all the witnesses, especially Franny and Rupert for their years and years of advocacy, and for being the two people who really gave me the first spark of fighting for the right to a healthy environment. Thanks for being here.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Damien Kurek Conservative Battle River—Crowfoot, AB
Thank you very much.
I appreciate the perspectives brought forward by all of the witnesses. Although I don't have questions for our two younger witnesses, I appreciate their involvement. I first joined the political party that I'm now a member of Parliament for when I was 14 years old, and I was elected at 29. Who knows what your futures might hold?
Mr. Praznik, the Senate has offered us a definition of the characteristics of a substance of highest risk, but I'm curious if you can expand on that. They've offered us a definition that we've heard from some witnesses narrows what defines a substance of highest risk. I'm wondering if you can provide some details as to what your association feels on that matter.
5:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Cosmetics Alliance Canada
I can't get specifically into that matter, but generally speaking, when the CEPA process did the review, going back some years ago, of in-commerce substances, they did an assortment based on highest risk, medium risk and lowest risk, and they batched the highest risk and did the assessments. That process worked very well. It was very efficient, probably one of the most efficient evaluations of in-commerce substances in the world. I would think there is probably guidance to be gleaned from the definitions that were used to set up that initial list as to what was the highest level of concern, the medium level of concern and the lower level of concern with substances.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
Damien Kurek Conservative Battle River—Crowfoot, AB
Thank you for that.
I want to jump on something that you referenced just briefly in your opening testimony, and it's related to digital labelling. Certainly in this world, everybody carries around one of these sometimes silly devices. I'm curious to know if you could expand, from the perspective of your industry but also from the context of a consumer confidence point of view, on the idea around labelling, to make sure that we get it right regarding CEPA. There's the possibility of seeing an expanded role for digital labelling as opposed to a process that may have harmful effects on an industry that has a pretty significant impact in Canada.
5:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Cosmetics Alliance Canada
We've just gone through, in the last few years, a major reform and modernization of labelling with non-prescription drugs with Health Canada, with natural health products and now with cosmetics. We've gone through this process.
In each case, we've made a very strong case for enhanced digital labelling. Health Canada looked at that. Obviously, some things need to be on the product label at point-of-sale, but there's a lot of other information that can be moved to the digital world, and that becomes very important if you look at e-commerce sales. When you're buying on e-commerce, you don't see the label. If point-of-sale is important, then a digital label means that you get it all when you do e-commerce sales.
From an environmental perspective, it means that if you want more information on how a substance is in a product and whether there is a risk, you can add a lot more information on the digital label to inform the consumers than you can in just flagging it in a colour on an ingredient list. I think it's a good way of making sure consumers get the information they need.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
Damien Kurek Conservative Battle River—Crowfoot, AB
I'm going to ask you two quick final questions.
In your submission, you've proposed the removal of clause 67.1. In about 30 seconds of what you have left, could you expand on that a bit and also talk about some numbers on how impactful your industry is on the economy in Canada?
5:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Cosmetics Alliance Canada
Yes. We're somewhere in $12 billion to $15 billion a year in retail sales. Very importantly, we're a major exporter of cosmetic products around the world, as well as a major importer. There were literally tens of millions of lipsticks made in Canada last year that were exported, for example. It is important to the Canadian economy, particularly in Montreal. There's a very large part of our industry in Quebec.
We've asked for that clause to be removed because it's nonsensical. All environmental and health regulations apply equally to imported as well as domestically manufactured products. That amendment brought by a senator was based on erroneous information.
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
Patrick Weiler Liberal West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
Earlier, you mentioned some concerns related to CUSMA. I'm wondering if you have any other concerns related to the proposed changes in Bill S-5 that could impact our obligations under CUSMA.
