Appendix A: Activities Undertaken by Environment Canada and Health Canada to Prepare for the Review

This Issues Paper reflects the extensive work undertaken by Environment Canada and Health Canada to prepare for the Parliamentary Review and to provide opportunities for the public to comment on the experience with CEPA 1999.

The work of the departments included the following activities:

• In 2001, Environment Canada assessed its implementation of each of the main elements of the Act.
  • Following the identification of legal obligations, best practices and external challenges, these assessments helped the department develop strategic directions to guide its implementation of the Act.
  • In 2003, Environment Canada received additional funds to help implement some of the new directions identified by these reviews.
• Health Canada undertook a review of its operational activities under the Act in 2001, and received additional funding in 2003 to help offset funds from a previous allocation that were ending.
  • More recently, Budget 2005 provided an additional increase of $89.9 M over 5 years to ensure that they would be better able to meet their legislative obligations under the Act.
• A group of officials from Environment Canada and Health Canada participated in an exercise in fiscal year 2003-2004 to review the process and apply lessons learned from the Parliamentary Review of the 1988 CEPA.
• In fiscal year 2004-2005, each department commissioned independent evaluations of their implementation of the Act.
• During 2004 and 2005, a sub-committee of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) provided its views and advice to Environment Canada and Health Canada on challenges in the implementation of CEPA 1999 and with some of its provisions.
• Starting in the spring of 2004, Environment Canada and Health Canada began to collect the views of the Canadians affected by CEPA 1999.
  • The departments benefited from the advice of a committee representing a broad cross-section of federal, provincial and municipal governments, Aboriginal organizations, industry and business interests and civil society (including environmental, public health and labour groups).
  • The committee provided advice on the public participation process, including issues to address in preparing for the Parliamentary Review.
  • Departmental officials then prepared a "Scoping the Issues" paper identifying the issues that could benefit from public input.
  • The scoping paper was made available for comment on the CEPA Environmental Registry.
  • Environment Canada and Health Canada also conducted six regional public workshops across Canada in early 2005 to receive input on key issues identified by the public.
• In parallel with the public consultation efforts, Environment Canada funded the Assembly of First Nations, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Métis National Council to raise awareness of CEPA 1999 among their members and to identify relevant issues.
• The interactions with Aboriginal organizations, as well as the comments received from the web-based consultations and the public sessions, were particularly helpful in shaping the issues outlined in this Paper.

A summary report of the public consultations and the web-based consultations is available.