Environment committee  Thank you very much. I'd like to briefly address the issue of the term “toxic” and some of the concerns that have been raised by some of the other witnesses through the CEPA hearings. I think it's important to first understand the meaning of the word “toxic”, both in terms of

Environment committee  Sure. It's apparent to me, from Mr. Graham's presentation, that words actually carry tremendous value, certainly for him and also for other stakeholders in this process. The term “toxic” fits into an overall regime that deals with harmful substances. If you take that label off

Environment committee  I think it's very much an open question. It's my view and our organization's view that the constitutional authority in CEPA is sound. That said, I certainly don't feel comfortable carrying forward a definitive opinion on whether, if you watered down the term “toxic” in CEPA, it w

Environment committee  I wouldn't want to steal some of the member's time without his permission.

Environment committee  I want to address the suggestion that there's something vague or overly broad about the term “toxic”, something that wasn't even argued in the Hydro-Quebec case, certainly not successfully. I'd actually like to refer to comments about CEPA that a colleague of mine has made, Amir

Environment committee  I'd just like to briefly address that point, and then I think my colleagues have other comments on the other points. With all due respect, I don't actually believe that this is the commonly held view of “toxic”. I think there are different definitions of “toxic” in different reg

Environment committee  I'm sorry, evidence of...?

Environment committee  Sorry to extend the PollutionWatch road show here, but according to a recent study of OECD countries, Canada ranks 29th out of 29 industrialized countries in releases of volatile organic compounds; 27th out of 28 in sulphur oxides; 26th out of 28 in nitrogen oxides; 28th out of 2

Environment committee  I'm sorry.

Environment committee  I'm definitely not an expert in the French language. I believe the meanings are comparable or similar.

Environment committee  Do you have an answer?

Environment committee  Yes. I'll respond to Mr. Vellacott's question and perhaps explore an area where there may be some common ground. When I suggested that other international conventions and regimes use the term “toxic”, I was not suggesting that their definition of toxic is identical to the defini

Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. To both you and members of the committee, I'd like to commend the work that the committee has done on CEPA so far. I think that work has been very comprehensive. I very much appreciate the efforts you've made to ensure that a broad range of perspectives is b

Environment committee  I'd like to briefly address two other issues outside of our formal recommendations that have been raised by the witnesses. This committee convened two sessions dealing with the term “toxic” in the act. In one of those sessions, I raised concerns that changing the term “toxic” in

Environment committee  The categorization exercise began after CEPA 1999 came into force, and there was a statutory deadline for them to complete that process by September 14 of this year, which was achieved.