Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning to all our witnesses. Thank you for being with us today.
The subject of today's meeting is extremely important in terms of the health of Canadians and of our environment—namely, the toxic substances that are released into the air and which may affect us in all kinds of ways.
Over the decades, the news has been fairly positive. According to the report, in the 1970s—when we were all still wearing short pants—one quarter of Canadians had lead levels that were too high. Now, that has been reduced to 1%. You mentioned that human-caused mercury emissions had declined by 90%. I suppose you are referring there to human activities in Canada, and mercury sources from abroad are on the rise. You can correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think so.
That is very positive; at the same time, we must not be complacent. We have to look at that report very carefully. This is too important an issue. I am certain my colleagues have lots of questions, so I will ask mine right away.
The report is critical of the two departments with respects to the lack of a comprehensive report on lead and mercury. In your presentations, you did not respond to that criticism. However, on page 16 of the French version of the report, it says that Health Canada has announced a comprehensive lead assessment by means of consultations expected to take place in mid-2010—and we are almost there. Environment Canada was also planning to publish an integrated mercury study by the winter of 2009-2010—which has already gone by.
Could I ask officials from those two departments what the status of that is? Have they filled the gaps mentioned in the Commissioner's report?