Canadian environmental group pitches for stricter provisions to curb toxic chemicals emission under CEPA

Concerned about the failure of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) to reduce emissions of toxic substances to the environment, multiple environmental groups are urging a Canadian Parliamentary committee to support key recommendations from its own 2017 report as it reviews and votes on amendments to this 20-year-old Act.

In 2017, the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development of the House of Commons published 87 proposals to improve CEPA. The same committee is now voting on bill amendments on January 30, 2023. Groups like he Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) have been constantly urging for revision in the CEPA reasons being (as per these groups)- 

1. the failure of the Act to require mandatory preparation of pollution prevention plans for all toxic substances listed in CEPA; 
2. the failure to require that safer alternatives to these substances be examined as part of such plans; and 
3. an industry-government preference for pollution abatement (i.e., limiting emission concentrations of these substances into the environment) instead of pollution prevention (i.e., eliminating their generation and use in Canadian commerce altogether).