Environment committee  EcoAction is actually an envelope and people submit proposals, which are then evaluated and the funds are awarded. That's why there are deadlines for the submissions of proposals, and there's an annual call-out for action. I would reiterate that from a departmental perspective, putting forward actions and putting in place a strategy and an action plan is departmental, and is our minister's priority.

Environment committee  Your question is, who does it best? I would say there are a variety of actions that get taken, and they get taken in the context of the issues that are important to either the municipality, the province, the country, the industry and others. So there's are a variety of actions occurring with respect to single-use plastic, including initiatives that are happening from companies' perspectives where they're showing their own leadership and action with respect to that.

Environment committee  I do think, as part of our Canada-wide strategy on zero plastic waste, one of the areas that will be important will be the monitoring and measurement of progress against the strategy and the action plan that's being put forward. Again, it'll be looking at the targeted actions that ministers agree to and then making sure there's appropriate information, either through data sources like Deloitte and Stats Canada or other sources, which provinces and territories have to make sure we're able to monitor and report.

Environment committee  Thank you for the question. It's a priority for our department and our minister, as indicated in her mandate letter. Dealing with putting forward a strategy, working collaboratively with provinces and territories to put in place a Canada-wide strategy on zero plastic waste, is one of the mandate letter's priorities.

Environment committee  By adding plastics or a subset of plastics to the list of schedule 1, it allows us to gain access to our CEPA authorities. Our CEPA authorities, as I mentioned, are broad, and can cover essentially the life cycle of the material. Then it's a question of looking at what action is warranted in order to get at the risk that's been identified to the environment or to human health; to develop a risk management measure that's targeted to that; and then specifically to undertake the evaluation with respect to that in terms of putting forward a proposed risk management measure.

Environment committee  If you look in our Canada-wide strategy on zero plastic waste, you'll see that one of the areas that was identified was the need to have more consistency, and standards is one of the areas that's talked about. When we talk about those things, we can talk about issues like recycled content and others, and you can set standards working with standard-setting bodies.

Environment committee  Some of the information that's come forward from Deloitte's study, in which they started to identify the areas where plastics are used and the nature of the sector, helps to give us a better understanding of the kinds of information that are important to our being able to monitor and measure progress.

Environment committee  Currently some energy from waste happens in Canada. We approach things from the hierarchy of waste generally, so we're trying to make sure that we recover the maximum value and economic opportunity from it. But then there may be circumstances where, because of the nature of the material, there's also a place for energy recovery and to be able to use that.

Environment committee  Yes. One of the targeted areas of the charter, in addition to the national strategy, is education and awareness to ensure that people understand the implications and also to seek their help to clean up the material that's found there. I think from both perspectives this is important.

Environment committee  Again, that's one of the areas that people are looking at to identify the viable alternatives. In addition, there's been funding put forward for the domestic innovation challenges to look at some of these potential alternatives so that they find their place with the $12 million invested there.

Environment committee  As I mentioned, we're working with provinces and territories in the development of the action plan to support the Canada-wide strategy on zero plastic waste. In there, we look at the areas of action that are needed across the spectrum, including municipalities, provinces, industries and individuals.

Environment committee  What I would say is that the ocean charter is a broad statement, with broad commitments that are negotiated internationally. When you then look at the EU directive and the work the EU is doing with its member states, it's a targeted response. They've specified the actions they want to take within Europe that respond to their specific issues, based on their information.

Environment committee  I'll turn to my colleague, Jacinthe, to provide some details of the kinds of support the federal government has been giving in this area. We have a number of grants and contributions with other parties that are engaged in this. I'll leave it to Jacinthe.

Environment committee  I would say that there's not a one-for-one alignment, but the actions the EU has taken go towards supporting the ocean plastics charter. As I mentioned, the charter is non-binding, but its objectives still call on us to take concrete action and to have measurable reductions. The EU directive is a measure for them to take action in support of the ocean plastics charter.

Environment committee  Putting something on the list of toxic substances is what allows us to gain access to our authorities under CEPA. Then, from there, we need to undertake the development of the risk management measure that targets the risk. For instance, if you're talking about products that are coming from abroad, when we're looking at assessing the nature of the risk and what targeted action is warranted, in undertaking that assessment, we look at those issues in terms of the origin of the material, the nature of the risk that it poses and so on.