Environment committee  We do provide for public involvement, and my colleague, Jacqueline Gonçalves, can explain the current procedures.

Environment committee  I'll turn to Greg.

Environment committee  This is an ongoing issue for the management of all departments, including environment and health. The amendments in the act are largely—not exclusively, but largely—enabling. There are some new mandatory requirements, such as the requirement to develop a plan for chemicals manag

Environment committee  I don't think there's a big difference among developed countries in the approach that they take. The terms that you will hear as we continue to discuss this bill are “risk-based” and “hazard-based”. A purely hazard-based approach looks at a substance or a group of substances

Environment committee  Thank you for raising that question. You'll see that we are on record in the Senate as explaining that this term would be a novel term and that it would require definition. If not, it's our view that it would be difficult to define in a.... Because it's a new term, it might be d

Environment committee  I think I need to defer to the chair on questions about timing that the committee has available to it. I apologize.

Environment committee  I apologize. I did not understand the question.

Environment committee  Our overall view on the approach to living organisms is that we have just launched a broad-reaching discussion on the overall approach to assessing and managing living organisms. We have broad authority in CEPA, so let's not jump straight to legislative fixes. Let's talk to Canad

Environment committee  That's a very important question. This bill clearly addresses some of the recommendations of previous committees. As the minister explained, it has two focuses: one, introducing the right to a healthy environment and, two, improvements to the provisions related to the managemen

Environment committee  I think we see a benefit in having a plan outline and expected timelines for broad categories of activities, but also in providing an expected time frame within which the overall plan might need to be revisited and renewed. The main concern we have is with respect to any obligat

Environment committee  Laura, can you address that, please?

Environment committee  The basic question there is.... The assertion is that in Europe, under REACH, there will be the ability to take action on broad classes of substances. Again, we already have that authority in CEPA. We've just issued, for example, a description about a proposed approach for perflu

Environment committee  No, sorry. That's my mistake. We actually already have that authority and we're taking that action now.

Environment committee  The traditional approach in Canada has been primarily substance by substance, but that has not always been the case. Some of the earliest assessments were of effluent from pulp and paper and effluent from metal mining, for example, which comprised multiple substances. We've alway

Environment committee  I'll start, but maybe Laura can jump in. It's our opinion that the language in the act—and we're certainly looking forward to the discussion in committee—does not specify that those factors must always be taken into account. Indeed, the provision does not stipulate that those fa