4. Principles Behind the Amendment Process

While the amendment process will involve a complete review of the current EIHWR, the main goal of these regulations -- ensuring effective control of transboundary movements of hazardous waste and hazardous recyclable materials to protect the environment and human health -- remains unchanged.

The amended regulations must continue to allow Canada to implement its international obligations under the Basel Convention, the OECD Council Decision on wastes destined for recovery operations and the Canada-USA Agreement on transboundary movements of hazardous wastes. These agreements are quite prescriptive in the requirements that countries must implement to ensure proper notification and tracking via movement document of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and hazardous recyclable materials.

As will be discussed in later sections, there have been some changes made to the Basel Convention and OECD Decision over the last several years which will have to be addressed in the new regulations. However, the core elements and goals of these agreements have not changed.

Prior notification and consent for imports, exports and transits for both hazardous wastes and hazardous recyclable materials will continue to be at the core of the new regulations. Given their responsibility to regulate and license disposal and recycling facilities as well as carriers, Environment Canada will continue to seek the consent of the province in question for any import. As is currently the case, no export, import or transit will be allowed unless the proper consent from the importing jurisdiction has been secured.

Harmonization of hazardous waste and recycling regimes will also be an underlying principle of the process. Because EIHWR is designed to implement Canada's international obligations under the Basel Convention, OECD Decision and Canada-USA Agreement, the EIHWHRMR must be fully consistent with the types of controls in these agreements. At the same time, in Canada, hazardous wastes and hazardous recyclable material may also be subject to provincial waste management regulations, the upcoming regulations on interprovincial movements of hazardous wastes and hazardous recyclable materials as well as federal or provincial transportation of dangerous goods regulations.

Clearly, if each of these regulations had very different controls and definitions of what constituted hazardous waste or hazardous recyclable materials, the costs of compliance and the risks of confusion in the regulated community will be much higher than if there is a harmonized approach. That regulators have recognized this is evident by the efforts under the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) to cooperate in reviewing and harmonizing definitions and controls for movements of hazardous waste and hazardous recyclable materials in Canada.

While remaining consistent with Canada's international obligations, Environment Canada's goal will be to adopt, to the extent possible, the definitions being developed under the CCME and ensure appropriate coordination with provincial requirements in the EIHWHRMR. Specific areas of harmonization are further discussed in the sections that follow.