Guide for Reporting to the National Pollutant Release Inventory 2000: section 5

Section 5: Confidential Business Information

• Request for Confidentiality
• Section 52 of the CEPA, 1999

Request for Confidentiality

Reporting to the NPRI for 2000 is governed by the requirements of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), 1999 as well as the Canada Gazette notice, published December 25, 1999. In that respect, requests for confidentiality of information submitted to the NPRI must be made pursuant to section 51 of CEPA, 1999. Please note that different rules with respect to confidentiality requests have been legislated in CEPA, 1999 than those in CEPA, 1988.

Pursuant to sections 51 and 313 of the CEPA, 1999, any person who provides information in response to the 2000 Canada Gazette notice may submit a written request that it be treated as confidential based on the reasons set out in section 52 of the CEPA, 1999. For each facility and each substance reported, the request for confidentiality must clearly indicate each field for which a request is being made. The written request must accompany the report.

It is recommended that you include with your request for confidential treatment, documentation that would be required to justify that the information submitted should be confidential as per the criteria outlined in section 52 of the CEPA, 1999.

If substantiation is not provided with the claim, or the substantiation provided doesn't support the claim, the Minister may follow the procedures with respect to publication of the information set out in section 53 of CEPA, 1999. Notwithstanding, the above, the Minister may, in the appropriate circumstances, contact the person to inform them that the information may be disclosed as permitted under sections 315 through 317 of the CEPA, 1999.

To be treated as confidential, the company must demonstrate that it treats the information as confidential and wishes to continue to do so. It must also demonstrate that this information is not available to the general public through legal means, such as obtaining a public copy of a provincial waste permit.

A request for confidentiality will be denied if the data are already in the public domain.

Necessary precautions should be taken when submitting an NPRI report for which a request for confidentiality is being made. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• confidential materials are to be sent in double envelopes, excluding the courier outer envelope
• the outside envelope should be unmarked except for mailing and return addresses, and postage, and
• the inside envelope should be stamped on both sides with wording such as "Contains Confidential Information".

A request for confidentiality is not determinative. A determination of whether the information is confidential will be based on an objective analysis of the facts.

Should you have any questions concerning confidentiality requests, please contact your regional NPRI office listed on the inside front cover.

Section 52 of the CEPA, 1999

With regards to information submitted to the NPRI, section 51 of the CEPA, 1999, allows any person to submit with the information, a written request, setting out the reason referred to in section 52 (see below), that the information be treated as confidential.

Section 52 of the CEPA, 1999, provides that:

52. Despite Part 11, a request under section 51 may only be based on any of the following reasons:

1. the information constitutes a trade secret;
2. the disclosure of the information would likely cause material financial loss to, or prejudice to the competitive position of, the person providing the information or on whose behalf it is provided; and
3. the disclosure of the information would likely interfere with contractual or other negotiations being conducted by the person providing the information or on whose behalf it is provided.