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SUMMARY REPORT ON THE PUBLIC WORKSHOPS ASSISTING ENVIRONMENT CANADA
AND HEALTH CANADA IN PREPARING FOR THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW OF THE CANADIAN
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ACT, 1999
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3. STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF THIS SUMMARY REPORT
CEPA 1999 is a sizeable, complex Act that addresses a varied and large
number of topics. In order to provide some structure and manageability
to the workshop discussions, the agenda and the government presentations
were structured along four broad themes, as follows: Knowledge for Protecting
Human Health and the Environment; Tools for Taking Action; Fair and Efficient
Compliance Promotion and Enforcement; and, Information for Canadians.
While a wide range of views were raised by participants, in most cases
these views can be categorized by one or more of the themes proposed by
the departmental representatives at the beginning of each session. (The
presentation "slide show" used throughout the workshops is included
in this Report in Appendix 2.) As a result, the summary of views presented
in the following sections is organized in accordance with these themes.
This Report strives to ensure that all of the issues that were heard in
each of the sessions are presented fairly. However, "the details"
that often accompanied a specific view, and examples used to illustrate
these views are not presented in this Summary Report. Readers who participated
in the sessions are cautioned that the issues they raised are not reported
verbatim. However, workshop participants should be able to recognize the
general intent and thrust of the issues that they raised in the sessions.
The facilitator stressed that the purpose of the sessions was to solicit
the views of participants, and not necessarily to strive towards consensus
with respect to any particular view. As a result, a particular perspective
on CEPA 1999 that was proposed by one individual at one session is as
legitimate and may be as important in helping the departments prepare
for the Review as a perspective that was shared by many participants across
sectors in all sessions.
As mentioned at the sessions, the views detailed in this Report are not
attributed to any particular individual. In some cases this Report does
attribute a particular perspective to a specific stakeholder interest
(e.g., environmental organizations, or industry groups) where this is
appropriate and helpful. In addition, this Report does identify "overarching"
or "cross-cutting" messages where it seemed apparent that many
participants across sectoral interests in most sessions tended to agree
with a particular view. These are detailed in Section
4.1, below.
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