| Montreal, 23/06/2008 – Today, the Council of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) instructed the Secretariat to made public a factual record concerning submission SEM-03-005 (Montreal Technoparc), filed on 14 August 2003, by Waterkeeper Alliance, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, Société pour Vaincre la Pollution, Environmental Bureau of Investigation and Upper St. Lawrence Riverkeeper/Save the River! (the “Submitters”).
The Submitters assert that that Canada is failing to effectively enforce section 36(3) of the Fisheries Act in relation to the alleged deposit of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and other chemical pollutants into the St. Lawrence River from the Montreal Technoparc, formerly a household and industrial waste disposal site, located in Pointe-Saint-Charles, now owned by the City of Montreal. Section 36(3) makes it an offense, punishable by fines and/or prison terms, to allow the discharge of a deleterious substance into water frequented by fish.
On 20 August 2004, further to Council Resolution 04-05, the CEC Council instructed the Secretariat to prepare a factual record with respect to the matters raised in the submission. Factual records provide information on alleged failures to effectively enforce the environmental law in North America that may help the submitters, the Parties to the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), and other interested parties take action, as necessary, in relation to the matters raised by the submission.
The Montreal Technoparc factual record provides information relevant to a determination of whether Canada is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law regarding the matters raised in the submission. A summary of the facts can be consulted in the factual record.
On 28 March 2008, the Secretariat submitted a final factual record to the CEC Council and today, the CEC Council unanimously has decided to make the factual record public through Council Resolution 08-04.
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 Council, the organization's governing body, is composed of the top environmental officials of Canada, Mexico and the United States.
The citizen submissions mechanism of the CEC enables the public to play a whistle-blower role on matters of environmental law enforcement. Under Article 14 of the NAAEC, any person or nongovernmental organization may submit a claim alleging that a NAFTA partner has failed to effectively enforce its environmental law.
For more information, please visit the CEC's Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters page.
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