Securing Compliance
Compliance is conformity with the law - that means meeting the requirements set out in Acts of Parliament or regulations within a specified period or by a specified date and, in the case of agreements, meeting the commitments set out in those documents.
How is compliance with provisions of regulations secured?
When regulations are developed under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, stakeholders provide input and comment at various stages. Compliance is easier when those being regulated understand the purpose of regulations and have input into their creation. Environment Canada promotes compliance through information sessions, conferences and workshops with regulatees in attendance as well as through fact sheets, manuals, guidelines, reports, and notices in the Canada Gazette. It is hoped that by providing the means to participate in the creation of regulations and by promoting compliance using the tools outlined above, a high rate of compliance will result.
Enforcement is part of the compliance continuum, and part of the goal in achieving the highest level of environmental quality for all Canadians. Usually, the first stage of enforcement is inspection by site visit or review of submitted reports or other documents as a means of verifying compliance with the Act and its regulations.
In cases of non-compliance, enforcement officers will investigate. If a violation is confirmed, action will be taken using one or more of the enforcement tools available under Canadian law such as warnings, directions, tickets, orders of various types, including environmental protection compliance orders, injunction or prosecution.
CEPA 1999 enforcement officers have the following enforcement tools at their disposal:
- warnings to indicate the existence of a violation, in order that the alleged offender can take notice and return to compliance;
- directions that enforcement officers may issue to deal with or to prevent illegal releases of regulated substances;
- tickets for offences such as failure to submit written reports;
- various types of orders, including prohibition orders, orders to recall illegal substances or products from the marketplace, and environmental protection compliance orders to put an immediate stop to illegal activity, to prevent a violation from occurring or to require action to be taken;
- injunctions; and
- prosecution.
A detailed report on activities aimed at prevention or reduction of air pollution is available in the Annual Report for CEPA 1999 that the Minister of Environment is required to submit to Parliament for every fiscal year. The CEPA Environmental Registry contains the report for the current fiscal year, and, for fiscal years previous to the current one, please consult the "What's New Archives" on the home page of the registry.
For more information on compliance and enforcement:
- Environmental Management Systems
- Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 - Enforcement and Compliance
- Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 - Annual Report April 2001 to March 2002
How is compliance with provisions of non-regulatory instruments secured?
Non-regulatory instruments include environmental quality objectives, guidelines, codes of practice, memoranda of understanding (MOUs) and environmental performance agreements (EPAs). Guidelines and codes are developed under CEPA 1999 or under the auspices of organizations such as the Canadian Council of Minister of the Environment (CCME). Where they remain in that form, Environment Canada promotes compliance with them as benchmarks or recommended practices to achieve less harmful environmental impacts of human activities. Provinces and territories may choose to adapt them to their needs, and any level of government may choose to incorporate them into regulations or permits. Under those circumstances, they become enforceable and federal officials and the provinces and territories take the measures available to them under their laws to secure compliance.
Most MOUs and EPAs between government and industry have reporting provisions that allow government to determine whether their provisions are being met. If the original intent of application and compliance with non-regulatory instruments is not being met, governments have option of creating regulations to achieve the environmental objective of the MOU or EPA.
