Yes, I would. It's deemed moved already, so I appreciate that, Madam Chair.
These equivalency notions were added to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act back in 1988. They're already a compromise to try to ensure protections of public health and safety in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, originally combining sections of the Oceans Act, the water protection act and commercial chemicals.... They're primarily about toxic substances, or what are now considered CEPA-toxic substances, which the Supreme Court has ruled don't have to fall under the common-sense understanding of the word “toxic”.
The equivalency agreements are important, and the environmental law community has been very clear. I know they've tabled many briefs with this committee advocating that the equivalency agreements should be automatically terminated at five years. The amendments to CEPA in Bill C-15 would mean there would be no sunset provision at all.
My amendment is a compromise, extending it from the existing five years to seven years, as opposed to what's proposed in Bill C-15, which is no sunset provision at all. I hope this compromise will be acceptable to committee members.