Environment committee  Depending on what they're interested in, what they were looking for, they would target importers or manufacturers.

Environment committee  To a degree, yes. What we're talking about when we talk about mandatory surveys, though, are not the prohibited substances, right? These are the everyday chemicals that are being used to manufacture all sorts of things.

Environment committee  Absolutely. I couldn't have answered it better myself. That's exactly what I would have said. It's the manufacturers who would know how these products are made, right? Supply chains are incredibly complex, so the vendor that the retailer might deal with is almost never going to b

Environment committee  If it doesn't meet the Canadian standards, absolutely. I think the best way to get at that is through information sharing agreements between governments.

Environment committee  Both mandatory and voluntary processes are used, and for greater clarity, I'm speaking specifically about finished consumer products. I think the approach that is being used right now for chemicals per se, which is also a combination of mandatory and voluntary, is working very

Environment committee  Right, voluntary and of greatest concern, so that retailers can focus.... It's a highly competitive environment. Retailers are competing for market share, so they can focus their scant resources on getting information to help decision-makers make decisions.

Environment committee  To my knowledge, not one risk management action has been taken as a result of any of these voluntary or mandatory surveys. The only risk management action that has been taken on a consumer product that I'm aware of is the banning of BPA in babies' bottles. That was before that ti

Environment committee  That has been our experience to date, yes.

Environment committee  Let me take that one back with me. I'm familiar with the precautionary principle, but in terms of safe substitution, my comments are based primarily around surveys of substances that are not of concern right now. In terms of substituting substances that are of concern, I would li

Environment committee  I'm not really in a position to comment on risk versus hazard, but what I can tell you is that Canada, from my experience, is recognized as a world leader in this area. CEPA is recognized as a world leader, and other countries are basing their models on what we're doing. I think

Environment committee  I have not much to add. I would just say that the approach we find really effective with CEPA is that flexibility—exactly what I was talking about—so I think that's something we remain very supportive of.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and esteemed members of the committee, for allowing us the opportunity to provide our comments on the review of PIPEDA from a retail perspective. The Retail Council of Canada, RCC, has been the voice of retail in Canada since 1963. A not-for-profit, industry

Information & Ethics committee  From a retail perspective, because the nature of retail is such a reputational one, the members that the Retail Council represent want their brand to be known, and of course, many of the members that we represent are very familiar household names. For them, the interest of protec

Information & Ethics committee  Just to clarify, it's 45,000 storefronts, which would be approximately 2,000 to 3,000 members. From my estimation and the conversations I've had with the members, the level of awareness is already extremely high. Because of the self-interest and the need to protect their consumer

Information & Ethics committee  For example, the Retail Council had a privacy committee where members would get together and share information and best practices around issues related to privacy. On Canada's anti-spam legislation, we held a number of webinars around that. So a number of activities are being hel