| Montreal, 18/07/2001 – A resolution passed by the CEC Council in its eighth session (Guadalajara, Mexico, 28-29 June 2001) to improve the transparency of the Citizen Submissions process, has enabled the Secretariat to publish a number of documents that had previously been withheld from the public.
In the past, whenever the Secretariat provided a recommendation to Council for the development of a factual record on any given submission, it was required to wait 30 days before notifying the public that it had made such a recommendation, and publication of the rationale underlying its recommendation was permitted only after Council had voted on the matter.
With Council Resolution 01-06, the waiting period is reduced to five working days, at which point the Secretariat is also authorized to publish its reasons for the recommendation.
To give effect to this new policy, on 3 July 2001, the Secretariat posted on the CEC web site the full text of its:
- 4 August 2000 recommendation for preparation of a factual record for the Aquanova submission (SEM-98-006)
- 15 December 2000 recommendation for preparation of a factual record for the Migratory Birds submission (SEM-99-002), and
- 11 May 2001 recommendation for preparation of a factual record for the BC Mining submission (SEM-98-004).
The Aquanova submission alleges that Mexico is failing to effectively enforce its environmental laws with respect to the establishment and operation of a shrimp farm in Isla del Conde, San Blas, Nayarit.
The Migratory Birds submission alleges that the United States is failing to effectively enforce the Migratory Bird Treaty Act with respect to logging operations throughout the United States.
The BC Mining submission alleges that Canada is failing to effectively enforce the Fisheries Act with respect to mining operations throughout British Columbia.
At the Guadalajara meeting, the Mexican government also announced unilaterally that it no longer considered its 1 June 1999 response to the Metales y Derivados submission (SEM-98-007) to be confidential. Accordingly, on 12 July 2001, the Secretariat publicly released Mexico's response by placing it on the CEC web site.
All of these new documents are available electronically from the online Citizen Submissions Registry.
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 may then proceed with a process that can lead to the development of a factual record on the matter.
The CEC was established under the 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, the organization's governing body, is composed of the environment ministers of Canada, Mexico and the United States.
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