2. Public Participation (Part 2)

• 2.1 CEPA Environmental Registry
• 2.2 Public Consultations

Part 2 of CEPA 1999 outlines public participation requirements under the Act, including the establishment of an environmental registry, whistleblower protection, and the right of an individual to request an investigation and pursue court action.

The CEPA Environmental Registry was launched on Environment Canada's website with the proclamation of CEPA 1999 on March 31, 2000. Since that time, ongoing efforts have been made to increase the Registry's reliability and user-friendliness.

The content and structure of the Registry continue to evolve as new documents are added and areas of improvement are identified by users. The content of the Registry continues to expand to serve Canadians better and now encompasses thousands of CEPA 1999-related documents and references. It has become an important source of environmental information for the public and private sectors, both nationally and internationally, and has been used as a source of information in university and college curricula. For 2009-2010, the number of visits to the site was, on average, 96 400 per month.

From April 2009 to March 2010, there were over 260 requests for CEPA 1999-related information received in the Registry mailbox. Many of these requests were for information on the assessment reports of substances from batches 5 and 6 identified under the Challenge, a key element in the Chemicals Management Plan. Other requests involved pollution prevention plans, proposed regulations, guidelines, importing chemicals, biotechnology, permits and the Domestic Substances List.

During 2009-2010, there were 46 consultation opportunities posted on the CEPA Registry for stakeholders and the public to provide comments or input; this is slightly above the average number usually posted within a given year.