| Montreal, 28/04/2003 – CEC Council defers vote on Ontario Logging submission
On 22 April 2003, the Council of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) voted unanimously to defer voting on the Secretariat's factual record recommendation for the Ontario Logging submission (SEM-02-001).
The submission, filed on 6 February 2002, by Sierra Legal Defence Fund on behalf of several Canadian and US environmental groups, alleges that Canada is failing to effectively enforce Section 6(a) of the Migratory Bird Regulations (MBR) in regard to logging in Ontario. The MBR makes it an offense to disturb, destroy or take a nest or egg of a migratory bird without a permit, but there are no provisions for issuing such permits.
By correlating bird data from the Canadian Wildlife Service with information on planned clearcut logging activities, the Submitters estimate that clearcutting has destroyed over 85,000 migratory bird nests in central and northern Ontario forests in violation of the MBR in 2001. They also relied on an access to information request showing no action by Environment Canada to monitor or enforce compliance with the law.
In response, Canada denied that it has made a policy decision not to enforce subsection 6(a) with regard to logging operations. 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."
The Council concluded that the submission "as it is based in large part on an estimation derived from the application of a descriptive model, and does not provide facts related to cases of asserted failures to enforce environmental law, does not contain the sufficient information required to proceed with the development of a factual record at this time."
The Submitters have 120 days to produce "the requisite sufficient information." The Secretariat, which recommended the preparation of a factual record in November 2002, has been instructed to consider whether any additional information submitted warrants a response from Canada.
Secretariat to prepare factual record on Tarahumara submission
The Council of the CEC also unanimously instructed the Secretariat to prepare a factual record for the Tarahumara submission (SEM-00-006).
The June 2000 submission alleges that Mexico failed to effectively enforce its environmental law with regard to allegedly illegal exploitation and destruction of forest resources in the Sierra Tarahumara. The submission contends that by failing to adequately process citizen complaints and prosecute probable environmental crimes, Mexico was denying access to environmental justice to the indigenous peoples of that region.
On 29 August 2002, the Secretariat informed the Council that the submission warranted the development of a factual record. According to the Secretariat, Mexico did not show that it had properly applied the General Law on Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection (LGEEPA) in the majority of the cases discussed in the submission.
Under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), members of the public may submit a claim alleging a NAFTA partner has failed to effectively enforce its environmental law. The development of a factual record is the last step in the citizen submission process and requires the approval of two-thirds of the CEC Council.
Please visit the Citizen Submission on Enforcement Matters page for more information.
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