| Montreal, 12/03/2007 – Today, the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) issued a determination finding that submission SEM-07-002 (Mount Orford Park) does not meet the requirements of Article 14 of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) and giving the Submitters 30 days to file a revised submission containing additional information.
The submission was filed on 22 February 2007, by SOS Parc Orford, Société pour la nature et les parcs du Canada-SNAP and Nature Québec-UQCN (“Submitters”). The Submitters assert that the province of Quebec failed to effectively enforce Articles 1, 4, and 5 of its Parks Act (Loi sur les parcs) and its Sustainable Development Act (Loi sur le développement durable), by adopting legislation in June 2006, Act 23 (Loi 23), that removed a ski resort and golf course from the Parc national du Mont-Orford (Mount Orford National Park), with the intention of offering them for sale.
The Secretariat found that the submission does not meet the requirements of Article 14. The Secretariat determined that it can not characterize the application of a new legal regime as a failure to enforce an old one. Therefore, the mere adoption of Act 23 in June 2006 cannot be considered a failure to effectively enforce existing laws (the Parks Act and the Sustainable Development Act). The Submitters now have 30 days to file a submission that satisfies all the requirements of NAAEC Article 14(1).
For more information, please visit the CEC's Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters page. |
