Public Accounts committee  I just want to underscore that we do take this as an important area and we are actively continuing to manage these substances, older substances as well as the newer ones. I just want to clarify.... I know that I left Mr. Christopherson a little confused in terms of where we wer

Public Accounts committee  I would just briefly add that the existing PCB regulations do cover the safe disposal of mercury, including from sealants and paints.

Public Accounts committee  I think the member is quite right in that the issue is going to be the increased industrial activity, particularly in Asia, and that's why work has started under UNEP. Specifically, negotiations will start in June of this year and are aiming to conclude in 2013. The objective wou

Public Accounts committee  I'll try. Essentially what the 90% reduction means from sources within Canada, so industry products manufactured and used in Canada...so that has come down substantially. We always start with a pie that shows all the sources, so if you will, the pie is now quite small in Canada.

Public Accounts committee  Yes. We do have a draft of the strategy going through the approval process. In addition, we have taken an extra step of combining on our website all of the instruments that are in place and the instruments that are under development already, so Canadians can see that right now.

Public Accounts committee  We're on target for finishing both of those objectives.

Public Accounts committee  Yes. We're in the process--

Public Accounts committee  That's right. We're in the approval process of the strategy.

Public Accounts committee  It's in a draft and going through the final approval.

Public Accounts committee  Well, I think we were flagging that there are two aspects to it. There was one that the commissioner was getting at, which is communicating what you're already doing and what instruments are in place. Then, as I explained, there's pulling that all together in the strategy. So we

Public Accounts committee  I was speaking specifically about mercury, but we do have already on the website all of the substances. For each substance, you can now go in and find out what instruments are in place. Specifically for mercury, you can go in and find a summary of the risks and what instruments a

Public Accounts committee  Yes.

Public Accounts committee  I think it was April 1, but it did not exist at the time of the audit. I think that's what the commissioner was saying. We have many, many instruments in place. We have strategies for specific types of sources, but we don't have one overarching strategy.

Public Accounts committee  The toxic substances research initiative has expired, but on our website for Environment Canada, on the Green Lane, if you now type in “mercury”, you will get the list of initiatives that are in place and under development.

Public Accounts committee  I can start, and I'll allow my colleagues to add to it. You're quite right that many of these things are ubiquitous in products. That's why we are working on this regulation to deal with, for instance, the content of mercury in products. We envision this regulation becoming a st