| Montreal, 30/04/2002 – On 25 April 2002, the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) received a response from the Government of Canada to the SEM-02-001 (Ontario Logging) submission, filed with the CEC on 6 February 2002 by Sierra Legal Defence Fund (SLDF) on behalf of several Canadian and US nongovernmental organizations. The CEC will now review the submission in light of the response to determine whether it warrants the development of a factual record.
The submission alleges that Canada is failing to effectively enforce Section 6(a) of the Migratory Bird Regulations (MBR) adopted under the Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994 (MBCA), in regard to the logging industry in Ontario. Section 6(a) of the MBR makes it an offence to disturb, destroy or take a nest or egg of a migratory bird without a permit. The Submitters estimate that clear-cutting activity in 2001 destroyed over 85,000 migratory bird nests in central and northern Ontario forests. They allege that Environment Canada, through its Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS), is primarily responsible for enforcing the MBCA and has taken virtually no action to enforce section 6(a) of the MBR in regard to this logging activity.
In response to the submission, Canada asserts that "Environment Canada's Wildlife Enforcement Branch has not made a sweeping policy decision not to enforce subsection 6(a) of the MBR with regard to logging operations." The response states that priorities for wildlife enforcement are set on an annual basis in response to public complaints, international commitments, and wildlife conservation goals. The response indicates that "[i]n the forestry context, an enforcement approach that will be helpful to migratory bird conservation over the long term first requires compliance promotion and education among industry, particularly decision-makers." It states that CWS has initiated such compliance promotion activities and "is planning and in the process of implementing significant new initiatives and programs to address the growing needs of compliance promotion and enforcement of wildlife laws among industry in general. Environment Canada will investigate possible violations of subsection 6(a) of the MBR, and lay charges as may be appropriate." The response concludes that "because the submitters did not provide any actual case, the Canadian Government was not able to respond in a meaningful way to their main assertion" and "[f]or this reason, as well as the submitters' failure to otherwise make a complaint to the CWS that a logging operation in Ontario was in violation of subsection 6(a) of the MBR, the Government of Canada believes that a factual record is not warranted."
Article 14 of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) provides that the CEC Secretariat may consider a submission from any person or nongovernmental organization asserting that a Party to the NAAEC is failing to effectively enforce an environmental law.
Where the Secretariat determines that the NAAEC Article 14(1) criteria are met, it shall then determine whether the submission merits requesting a response from the Party named in the submission. If the Secretariat considers that the submission, in light of any response provided by that Party, warrants the development of a factual record, the Secretariat may so inform the Council, in accordance with Article 15. The Secretariat shall prepare a factual record if the Council, by a two-thirds vote, instructs it to do so. Publication of the resulting factual record also requires a two-thirds vote by the Council.
The CEC was established under NAAEC to address environmental issues in North America from a continental perspective, with a particular focus on those arising in the context of liberalized trade. The CEC Council is composed of the environment ministers, or their equivalent, of Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Please visit the Citizen Submission on Enforcement Matters page for more information.
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