The Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA 1999) is an Act respecting pollution prevention and the protection of the environment and human health in order to contribute to sustainable development. The Act provides the federal government with new tools to protect the environment and human health, establishes strict timelines for managing toxic substances and requires the virtual elimination of releases to the environment from toxic substances which are bioaccumulative, persistent and result primarily from human activity.

For substances that are found "toxic" under CEPA 1999 and are added to the List of Toxic Substances in Schedule 1 of the Act, Environment Canada and Health Canada must propose an instrument to establish preventive or control actions for managing the substance and thereby reducing or eliminating risks to human health and the environment posed by its use and/or release.

The Toxics Management Process

Administered by Environment Canada in conjunction with Health Canada, the Toxics Management Process is the approach taken to develop management tools including preventive or control instruments for substances that are added to the List of Toxic Substances under CEPA 1999. Using this process, Environment Canada and Health Canada develop risk management actions in a way that ensures stakeholder consultations are effective and the timelines set out in the Act for managing toxic substances are met.

Central to the Toxics Management Process or TMP, is the development of a risk management strategy. This document describes how risks to human health and the environment posed by the use and/or release of each toxic substance will be addressed. The risk management strategy and other key aspects of the TMP are described below.

Responsibilities in the Toxics Management Process

When preliminary results of an assessment conducted on a substance or the review of a decision by another jurisdiction indicate the substance may be found to be toxic under section 64 of CEPA 1999, a strategy leader and one or more risk managers are usually identified and given the responsibility of developing a risk management strategy and instruments or management tools for reducing or eliminating risks to human health and the environment posed by its use and/or release. Where more than one sector uses or releases the substance, risk managers are assigned to those sectors whose use or release of the substance has the greatest environmental or health impact.

The risk managers' main responsibilities include: developing a risk management objective, selecting and developing an instrument or management tool to address the risk posed by the use or release of the substance from that sector, and undertaking stakeholder consultations on the proposed objective, and management tools or instruments.

The strategy leader is responsible for coordinating all risk management activities for a particular substance and developing a risk management strategy. The strategy leader can also be involved in the very early stages of the risk assessment process to assist in defining the scope of the assessment and developing follow-up actions should the substance be found toxic.

When developing management tools and preparing the risk management strategy both the strategy leader and risk managers collaborate with a risk management team that may include: risk assessors, economists, Health Canada risk managers, communications staff, enforcement staff, and lawyers from the Department of Justice.

The Risk Management Strategy

The risk management strategy explains why risks to human health and the environment posed by the use and/or release of a substance must be managed, describes existing management initiatives or instruments in place to reduce uses and/or releases both domestically and internationally, and outlines what should be done in the future to prevent or control further use and/or release of the substance. It is prepared by the strategy leader for that substance in collaboration with and based on input received from risk managers and the previously mentioned risk management team.

Developing a strategy for each toxic substance not only helps coordinate the activities undertaken by each risk manager (i.e. background studies, proposed risk management objective, consultations), it also helps to identify gaps in the overall management approach and enables implications of the approach to be analyzed (i.e. the impact of a tool proposed for one sector's use or release of a substance on another sector's use or release).

Ideally work on the risk management strategy will begin prior to publication in the Canada Gazette under s.77(6) of the final results of an assessment conducted on the substance and the Ministers' recommendations that the substance be added to the List of Toxic Substances. An early start on the development of the risk management strategy is preferable as once the Ministers' recommendation is published, risk managers and strategy leaders have up to two years to develop and publish a proposed preventive or control instrument.

Stakeholder Consultations and Involvement

Within the Toxics Management Process, early stakeholder input may be required to help risk managers make better informed and supported decisions when developing the risk management strategy and management tools or instruments. Stakeholders can include: provincial, territorial and aboriginal governments; municipal governments; other federal government departments; industry; and non-government organizations (environmental, health, academia, youth, aboriginal, etc.).

Public consultations on the proposed risk management objectives, tools or instruments of the risk management strategy will be carried out. Consultations will also take place on the draft of selected management tools or instruments.

The scope of all consultations will vary depending on the purpose and focus. They may range from an invitation to stakeholders to provide written comments followed by an information meeting or teleconference, to a series of face-to-face meetings where the proposed objectives, and tools and instruments are discussed.

Management Tools including Instruments

A variety of management tools are available to risk managers to reduce risk associated with the use and/or release of toxic substances. These management tools may be used to control any aspect of the substance's life cycle – from the design and development stage to its manufacture, use, storage, transport and ultimate disposal. They include tools that are developed under a provision in CEPA 1999 (referred to as instruments) and those that are developed outside of CEPA 1999 such as environmental performance agreements.

Under CEPA 1999, the Minister of Environment must publish a proposed instrument for a substance in the Canada Gazette within two years of the recommendation that the substance be added to the List of Toxic Substances [s.77(6)].

Within 18 months of the publication of the proposed instrument, the Minister must publish the final instrument in the Canada Gazette. Affected parties will have a set period of time (depending on the nature and the scope of the instrument) to implement measures to meet the requirements of the instrument.

The Toxics Management Process and Virtual Elimination

For those toxic substances that are persistent and bioaccumulative, result primarily from human activity, and are not a naturally occurring radionuclide or a naturally occurring inorganic substance, section 77(4) of CEPA 1999 proposes virtual elimination of their release to the environment.

Substances slated for virtual elimination will generally follow the Toxics Management Process with the addition of the following steps:

• a Level of Quantification is developed for the substance. The Level of Quantification (LoQ) is the lowest concentration that can be accurately measured using sensitive but routine sampling and analytical methods.
• both the substance and its LoQ are added to the Virtual Elimination List.
• a regulation prescribing the quantity or concentration of the substance that may be released is developed.
• Virtual Elimination plans may be requested.