1. Introduction

The New Substances Notification (NSN) Regulations for Chemicals and Polymers have been in place under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) since July 1, 1994. When the Regulations were promulgated, a commitment was made by Environment Canada and Health Canada to review them following three years of implementation. To fulfil this commitment, these departments established a multistakeholder consultative process in June 1999. Representatives from industry, public advocacy groups (PAG) and the federal government participated in the process.

The NSN Multistakeholder Table (hereafter referred to as the Table or the NSN Table) held eight meetings and numerous subcommittee and other meetings between November 1999 and August 2001 to produce this report. At its first meeting, the Table agreed that the objective of this consultation would be "to identify, discuss and develop consensus recommendations on ways to improve the NSN Regulations and the Program."

This report details the background, context, deliberations and final recommendations of the NSN Multistakeholder Consultations. Section 2 provides the background and context of the consultations, including an introduction to the NSN Regulations and the New Substances (NS) Program and the guiding principles used by the NSN Table in its discussions. The focus of this report and the extensive deliberations of the NSN Table in developing recommendations for improving the Regulations and Program are captured in Section 3. The Table organized its discussions around five themes and several issues relating to each theme. The five themes are:

• Improving the Environmental and Health Assessments for New Substances;
• The Regulatory Framework;
• Transparency of the NSN Regulatory Process;
• Improving Responsiveness of the NSN Regulations and NS Program in the Global Context; and
• Service Delivery.

Section 3 provides a description of each theme and associated issues, details about the Table deliberations and, where appropriate, the recommendations of the Table with respect to those themes and issues. The appendices to this report provide background information and references pertaining to the consultation process and the NSN Regulations and NS Program.