Foreword

This is the first annual report on the administration of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA 1999). CEPA 1999 is powerful legislation. It provides new authorities with which to protect the environment, and it also imposes new requirements and strict new deadlines on the federal government.

It is significantly improved over the former act (CEPA 1988) in five priority areas:

• promoting cleaner air and water;
• managing toxic substances;
• better tools for public participation;
• preventing and responding to environmental emergencies; and
• enforcement.

This report responds to the requirement under CEPA 1999 to present an annual report to Parliament on the administration and enforcement of the act. It provides an overview of the key accomplishments and results achieved under the act from April 2000 to March 2001. The chapters in this report are organized along CEPA's 11 major parts. Each chapter contains an introductory section on the new provisions of CEPA 1999, followed by a description of the key results achieved under that part. The sources listed at the end of this document contain all the necessary content information.

CEPA Environmental Registry

This report is not intended to cover every section of CEPA 1999 or to describe all of the work undertaken by Environment Canada and Health Canada in the context of the act. If there were no major actions achieved under a certain section or authority of CEPA 1999, then that section or authority is not addressed in this report. To ensure a manageable and informative document, this report takes a results-oriented approach by focusing on the key CEPA-related actions or products delivered in the reporting period.

Specific reporting requirements

CEPA 1999 also makes specific mention of several provisions of the act that need to be addressed in the report to Parliament. A brief description of these provisions, including the sections of this report in which they are addressed, follows:

• Activities of the CEPA National Advisory Committee and of any committees established under paragraph 7(1)(a) - Section 1.1 of this report highlights the activities of the CEPA National Advisory Committee during 2000-01. There were no other committees established under paragraph 7(1)(a) of CEPA 1999 in 2000-01.
• Administration of the act under administrative agreements - Section 1.2 of this report describes the activities under the Canada-Saskatchewan Administrative Agreement during 2000-01.
• Administration of agreements respecting equivalent provisions - Section 1.4 of this report describes the activities under the Canada-Alberta Equivalency Agreement during 2000-01.
• Administration of the international air pollution provisions - Although there were no activities under these provisions (Division 6 of Part 7) of CEPA 1999 during 2000-01, Section 7.6 of this report highlights activities during 2000-01 on several international agreements respecting air pollution.
• Administration of the international water pollution provisions - There were no activities under these provisions (Division 7 of Part 7) of CEPA 1999 during 2000-01.
• Research conducted under the authority of the act - Environment Canada and Health Canada scientists published hundreds of reports, papers, book chapters, articles, and manuscripts on CEPA-related subjects during 2000-01. This impressive body of work appeared in books and scientific journals that are available in libraries and from the publishers. Although it is not possible to describe all of these activities in this report, Section 3.2 of this report provides examples of the types of research initiatives under way and their key contributions in 2000-01. The CEPA Environmental Registry contains more information on research and monitoring activities.

Monitoring, reporting and research