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Working to bring CEPA into the 21st century

July 14, 2020

The Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA) has finally been reformed for the first time in more than two decades.

CEPA is Canada’s cornerstone law for protecting human health and the environment from pollution and toxic substances.

In the past 20 years, our scientific understanding of the impacts of environmental and toxic pollution has greatly evolved. We now know that there is no real safe threshold for exposure to toxic chemicals or air pollution – even at low doses, their effects can be detrimental to human and ecosystem health.

That is why we need a modern law that protects our health and the people, species, and places we care about from these harmful substances.

In April 2021, the federal government tabled Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act (Bill C-28) that would finally bring important modernization to CEPA.

However, when a federal election was called in 2021 and voters elected a new Parliament, Bill C-28 died on the order paper.

The incoming government once again committed to reform CEPA, and in February 2022 they reintroduced proposed legislation for CEPA reform as Bill S-5 before the Senate, intending to pass the legislation in the upper chamber before it goes through the legislative process in the House.

In June 2023, Bill S-5 passed into law.

Passage of Bill S-5 represents important progress for the following reasons:

  • It introduces long-overdue updates for the control of toxic substances and dangerous chemicals, including requiring that priority be given to prohibiting the most hazardous substances. The bill also updates the framework for assessing and managing toxic substances and improves transparency and accountability.
  • The right to a healthy environment will be recognized for the first time under federal law. The legislation establishes a new duty for the government to uphold the principles of environmental justice, intergenerational equity, and non-regression — ensuring environmental protections cannot be rolled back. It also requires the federal government to consider the cumulative impacts of toxics, and their effects on vulnerable populations.

There is more to do to complete the process of CEPA modernization, including removing barriers to citizen lawsuits when there are violations of the Act, action on air quality, labelling of hazardous substances in consumer products, and strengthening control of genetically engineered animals.

The Minister of Environment and Climate Change has indicated that he intends to introduce a second piece of legislation that builds on the reforms of Bill S-5.

CEPA is one of the key pieces of legislation that Ecojustice relies on when going to court to fight for a healthy environment for all Canadians.

We use CEPA to demand the federal government regulate toxic substances and crackdown on polluters who put the health and security of Canadians at risk – such as recent litigation to force the federal government to lay charges against Volkswagen for its emissions-cheating.

The right to live in an environment that is free from environmental harm and dangerous pollution is core to the values of Ecojustice and is crucial to holding polluters accountable when they break the law.

Ecojustice has been at the forefront of calling for modern environmental law that can protect Canadians from 21st-century threats. This includes legislation that would guarantee the legal right to a healthy environment for the first time in federal law.

In 2016 and 2017, Ecojustice participated in a thorough review of CEPA undertaken by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development (ENVI), providing both oral testimony and written submissions.

Thanks in part to Ecojustice’s extensive contributions, the standing committee released a report in 2017 with 87 substantial recommendations to improve the Act and its implementation. In response to the report, the government agreed to update CEPA, and in 2019 the Prime Minister mandated the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to better protect people and the environment from toxins and other pollution by strengthening the Act.

Our supporters have been vocal in calling on political leaders to keep their promise and reform CEPA so that everyone in Canada is protected from dangerous environmental pollution. More than 30,000 Ecojustice supporters contacted their MPs to encourage them to strengthen and pass a law that would modernize CEPA.

Bill S-5 marks and important milestone for environmental justice in Canada.

May 2023
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MPs pass first major update to Canada’s most important environmental law in more than two decades

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Mar 2023
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Feb 2023
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Nov 2022
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MPs must seize the opportunity to strengthen bill to update environmental protection law

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Jun 2022
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Jun 2022
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Jun 2022
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May 2022
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Canada faces a chemical pollution crisis — and the time to act is now

This was originally published in the National Observer on May 4, 2022.
Apr 2022
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Feb 2022
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Apr 2021
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Political parties need to make Bill C-28 a priority After years of campaigning by committed activists, environmental groups and health advocates, the federal government tabled the Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act (Bill C-28).
Apr 2021
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Environmental health advocates welcome first federal recognition of right to a healthy environment in bill to better protect Canadians from toxics

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Dec 2020
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Failure to recognize this right is a critical barrier to racial, environmental justice Canadians may be shocked to learn that we – who live among some of the world’s last-remaining boreal forest systems and along the shores of the Great Lakes, whose glossy tourism adverts promise adventure in pristine archipelagos and towering mountain ranges –.
Feb 2020
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Jun 2017
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Highlights include major breakthrough for environmental rights, strengthened toxics regulation and protections for vulnerable populations The Canadian Environmental Protection Act (“CEPA”) is Canada’s most important environmental law.
Jun 2017
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Jun 2017
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Watch video: the Canadian Environmental Protection Act needs a makeover

Ecojustice’s Simone Williamson explains the many hidden dangerous substances in our daily lives and how an updated Canadian Environmental Protection Act will help protect us.

WATCH VIDEO

Read op-eds by Dr. Elaine MacDonald:

Modernizing the Canadian Environmental Protection Act should be a public health priority – Hill Times

We can’t wait any longer for modern environmental protection – iPolitics

Exposure to toxic chemicals in Canada disproportionately imposed on communities of colour – Ricochet Media