Environment committee  My understanding is that my colleague John Moffet agreed to provide the clerk with the latest CD that was available, and I hope it has been done.

Environment committee  I am going to answer your first question. In my opinion, several factors affect the speed of an assessment. Resources certainly have an impact, but having access to information on the substance is more relevant. It really does matter how advanced the science is and how much information is available, so it's our level of understanding both domestically and internationally that has an impact.

Environment committee  That is a good question. In all honesty, it depends. There are two groups of new substances. We have 90 days to do an assessment and reach a conclusion on a new substance, but for substances that are already on the market, there are no set deadlines. It all depends on the complexity of the assessment.

Environment committee  It may please the committee to know that Canada is spearheading internationally in many respects a process to implement a globally harmonized system for labelling and classification. We've moved to some diagrams to avoid the types of programs that the member has raised, so we are working quite hard with international partners to make sure there is a globally harmonized system.

Environment committee  Thank you very much for that question. CEPA covers a range of substances. We've been talking today about the domestic substance list, and that's the categorization of 23,000. CEPA also deals with new substances. Every year, both departments take a look at approximately 800 that come forward.

Environment committee  Thank you very much. As I think was discussed this morning, the issue of context is particularly important. We were talking about the issue of context which is essential to develop an action plan dealing with a specific problem. So the issue here is context. As we heard in the discussions earlier this morning, with the example of ammonia and other substances, it's important that as we look at them, as we evaluate them and make risk-based decisions, we respond in an appropriate manner.

Environment committee  I appreciate the opportunity to participate here and to witness the debate today. I would like to bring back to the committee members what CEPA does in terms of many of the issues you have heard, because I think that is fundamentally the task before you. So I will remind you of what CEPA does and doesn't do and where we, as departments, stand on that last question with respect to biomonitoring.

Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Very briefly, in response to the questions posed by the honourable member, this is the brief history of why we are doing this. As the head of this program in Health Canada, I felt that I was running or steering this ship without a rudder. I put a challenge to the staff to figure out how we could do this, how we could get some biomonitoring program up and running, so we would have a baseline that we could use as a starting point.

Environment committee  Yes, thank you. Notwithstanding, I'd like to respond very briefly to some of the other things that we've heard today in a CEPA context with respect to the member's question. With CEPA today, independent of the time, it is important to understand that CEPA does allow for a process to publish an assessment, receive comments from the public and industry, and then respond back.

Environment committee  We would very much welcome that opportunity.

Environment committee  We have submitted to the committee.... We do assessments of those existing substances. We've completed assessments. Some 69 were published through the Canada Gazette, part I and part II, representing some 550 of the existing substances. So there is work to go through those as we think there are issues to attempt to complete.

Environment committee  I want to make sure exactly what the numbers are.

Environment committee  We have a very specific timeframe at Health Canada and Environment Canada to assess new substances. The default is, I believe, 90 days—I would like to confirm that with the committee—at which point in time we have two choices: to render a decision, or indicate we need more time.

Environment committee  I think there are certain limitations with respect to how I can answer that question. There is one thing I would like to point out to members in terms of our discussion today. We've had a lot of talk about ambient air. I would like to remind the committee, as it does its work, that we have one set of lungs; we breathe air, indoors and out; and we spend 90% of our time in a built environment.

Environment committee  It is not exactly the same procedure for new products. There is a process of notification and assessment. When we see a product that will take some time for us to evaluate we can indicate that we need more time, and that essentially stops the clock so that we have more time to conduct that analysis.