| Montreal, 12/08/2002 – On 6 August 2002, the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America (CEC) received a response from Canada to the SEM-02-003 (Pulp and Paper) submission filed with the CEC on 8 May 2002 by Sierra Legal Defence Fund (SLDF) on behalf of several Canadian 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 Pulp and Paper submission alleges that Canada is failing to effectively enforce the pollution prevention provisions of the Fisheries Act and provisions of the Pulp and Paper Effluent Regulations, or PPER, against pulp and paper mills in Quebec, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces. Section 36 of the Fisheries Act prohibits the deposit of a deleterious substance in water frequented by fish, except as authorized by regulations such as the PPER. Failure to comply with these regulations is punishable by fines and jail time. While noting that pollution from pulp mills has dropped since adoption of the PPER in 1992, the Submitters have documented over 2,400 alleged violations of the PPER at mills in central and eastern Canada from 1995 to 2000 and claim very few were prosecuted.
In its response, Canada provides clarifying information on the basis of enforcement decisions taken in respect of mills identified in the submission as of particular concern and describes enforcement decisions regarding specific cases included in the submission. Canada describes how federal Fisheries Act inspectors conduct inspections or investigations to determine if reasonable grounds exist for believing a Fisheries Act offence has been committed and explains that the response to a violation accounts for, among other things, the nature of the violation, the likelihood of achieving compliance in the shortest possible time with no further violations, and consistency in enforcement.
Canada then provides detailed information regarding federal and provincial enforcement responses taken from 1995 to 2000 in regard to the four Atlantic Provinces mills, six Quebec mills and two Ontario mills for which the Submitters state they have particular concern.
The Secretariat will now determine whether the submission, in light of Canada's response, warrants the development of a factual record.
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, the organization's governing body, is composed of the environment ministers (or equivalent) of Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Please visit the Citizen Submission on Enforcement Matters page for more information.
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