Environment committee  The instrument you have that you could use in this case may not be a CEPA instrument, but it may be implementation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and the Canada-Ontario agreement protecting the Great Lakes basin and St. Lawrence region.

Environment committee  Thank you. I mentioned calling for the designation of the Great Lakes as a special region in the context of CEPA because there is a large population and large industrial density there in terms of the scale of generation of chemicals, plus a long residence time delay that keeps the chemicals there.

Environment committee  The point I would make about looking at other jurisdictions is that what is an acceptable level of uncertainty varies among jurisdictions. While we have the same science around the world in regard to, say, some of the polybrominated diphenyl ethers, on action applying precaution in the face of uncertainty, there is a greater willingness to provide action in the face of uncertainty in certain jurisdictions than we have in Canada.

Environment committee  Mr. Chairman, I'd like to state that it's unfair to have to follow such an entertaining person. Thank you, Chairman and committee members, for this opportunity to testify before you on CEPA. I'll only cover two basic topics. I want to begin my remarks with reference to risk and precaution, and then talk about the Great Lakes perspective.