Moved second reading of Bill S-5, An Act to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, to make related amendments to the Food and Drugs Act and to repeal the Perfluorooctane Sulfonate Virtual Elimination Act.

He said: Honourable senators, before I speak, I just want to raise my voice to acknowledge our colleague Senator Griffin for her robust contribution here in the Senate and to personally thank her for her gracious and kind welcome when I showed up as a rookie at the Agriculture Committee.

You made me love agriculture, and I look forward to playing a round with you on the golf course this summer.

Honourable senators, I rise today as the sponsor of Bill S-5, An Act to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, to make related amendments to the Food and Drugs Act and to repeal the Perfluorooctane Sulfonate Virtual Elimination Act. That is quite a mouthful, so from now on I will just refer to it as Bill S-5.

It is one of the steps that the government is taking to strengthen the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, or CEPA. It is the first such amendment to that Act since 1999. Now, much has changed since 1999. Our scientific understanding of environmental risks to health has advanced. Sources, magnitude and types of pollution have also changed dramatically. And our understanding of what we need to do to better protect our environment, as we continue to modernize our economy while enhancing the health of all Canadians, has improved during these last twenty-three years.

Just to put this time scale into context. The top hit song in 1999 was “Believe” by Cher, and the top movie was “American Beauty.” Internationally, sadly, the war in Kosovo started, and the euro was launched. In Canada, Nunavut became a territory, and Beverley McLachlin became the first female justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. On August 11 of that year, the Honourable George Furey was appointed to the Senate of Canada.

CEPA is an important part of Canada’s environment legislative framework, and the Government of Canada relies on it to frame many of the environmental and health protection programs administered by Environment and Climate Change Canada and Health Canada. It also provides the legislative and regulatory basis for the domestic implementation of Canada’s obligations under various international environmental agreements, such as the Stockholm Convention, the Minamata Convention and the London Convention. Under these agreements, Canada has joined international commitments to, amongst other things, reduce persistent organic pollutants and mercury.

Personally, I think that this bill is a good step forward. It is timely and necessary. It moves the yardsticks in the right direction. It is in the interests of all Canadians that we have a healthy environment and that our environment does not harm our health. In order to realize this, we must move forward to strengthen CEPA.

We can facilitate this process by moving Bill S-5 through the Senate. Our chamber is renowned for its committee work, and by moving this bill to committee as soon as possible, we will be able to give deep and critical consideration to the important issues it addresses.

I will share with you why I think improving CEPA is important and thus why this bill is important, not only for the health of Canadians and that of our communities now, but also for the health of our environment and into the future.

Many of you will remember some of the global horrific stories of environmental damage that put human health at risk. I was only five years old when Minamata disease was first reported. It was a terrible disfiguring, painful and deadly disease, affecting the central and peripheral nervous systems. It was caused by methylmercury which was released in industrial wastewater from a chemical factory into Minamata Bay and the Shiranui Sea. This highly toxic chemical bioaccumulated and was biomagnified in both shellfish and finned fish, which when eaten resulted in the mercury poisoning that was Minamata disease. The legacy of this chemical poisoning — while it led to significant improvements in environmental protection in Japan and alerted the world to the inter-relationship of the environment and health — is not a story that charts a positive legacy in the relationship between polluter, regulator and victim. Quite the opposite — the conflicts amongst those affected, the polluters and governments, continue still.

Unfortunately, Canada was not immune from a similar mercury poisoning event. In our situation, however, it was intertwined with a blatant disregard for Indigenous peoples, the environments in which they live and their right to health. I am sure that everyone in this chamber is familiar with the Grassy Narrows tragedy. Sadly, its long shadow on the health and mental health of the Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation continues today, decades after the Reed Paper mill in Dryden, Ontario, dumped about 9,000 kilograms of mercury into the English and Wabigoon rivers.

Both of these tragic events may have either been prevented or appropriately remedied if a rights-based environmental approach had been in place. Such an approach is identified in the preamble of Bill S-5. Clause 2(1) reads: “. . . the Government of Canada recognizes that every individual in Canada has a right to a healthy environment as provided under this Act . . . .”

Honourable senators, this will be the first time that this right will be recognized in a federal statute in Canada.

This step forward aligns Canada with the United Nations member states’ recognition of the importance of a rights-based approach to the environment. In 1972, the United Nations Conference on the Environment declared that people have a fundamental right to “an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being.”

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child obliges parties to take into consideration the dangers and risks of environmental pollution when promoting the right to health. In October 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution recognizing that access to a healthy and sustainable environment is a universal right and invited the UN General Assembly to consider this matter.

Bill S-5 demands that an implementation framework, informed by this right, be developed within two years of its coming into force.

This will be done in consultation with Canadians and will elaborate on principles of environmental justice and non‑regression, as well as balancing this right with relevant factors such as social, economic, health and scientific factors. It also improves transparency by stipulating that the minister must publish the framework and annually report on its implementation.

Furthermore, there will be a requirement to conduct research studies or monitoring activities to support the government in protecting that right. This provision would support work that is already in progress but needs to be enhanced, such as biomonitoring. It would also need to be supported by increasing national capacity for toxicogenomics research.

Bill S-5 addresses both substantive and procedural rights in several aspects, including clean water, clean air and the like.

It also improves public access to environmental decision making and enshrines the Government of Canada’s duty to protect this right.

The bill underscores the government’s commitment to implementing UNDRIP and additionally recognizes the importance of ensuring vulnerable populations are included in assessments of actual or potential toxicity of substances and products, and in the minimizing of risks of exposure to toxic substances and the cumulative effects of toxic substances. It also stipulates that cumulative exposure and exposure to other substances that have the potential to cause cumulative effects need to be considered in risk assessment and risk management wherever possible.

I find these directives to be forward-looking, for they recognize the importance of understanding subgroup differences within populations in susceptibility to substances and do not just focus, as currently, on amount of exposure defined as a whole‑of‑population standard.

This modernizes CEPA in keeping with the emerging science in this area. Previously, risk assessment was applied to protect the general population. Now this is expanded to protect the needs of vulnerable populations and, as well, to add the impact of cumulative exposure to a combination of substances that can create risk because of this combination.

I know it sounds complicated — and it is — but basically it means that it’s not just one substance that you can look at but multiple substances acting together in cumulation over time. It’s a huge step.

This improvement is in keeping with the emerging scientific discipline of toxicogenomics defined as “the study of the relationship between the structure and activity of the genome (the cellular component of genes) and the adverse biological effects of exogenous agents.” Simply put, the science is evolving to be able to better identify toxic impacts of substances in populations. Some groups may be at greater risk for negative impacts of substances than other groups. Combinations of substances may create toxic impacts not found in each substance separately, and cumulative effects are important to understanding toxicity. Bill S-5 not only recognizes this but also supports the scientific work needed to address this reality. This is new thinking about the health impacts of the environment, and as a physician, scientist and concerned citizen, I appreciate this approach.

Through its amendments, Bill S-5 supports the need for improving biomonitoring activities that will help identify environmentally derived health risks in vulnerable populations. As some colleagues in this chamber know, Canada conducts a human biomonitoring component in the Canadian Health Measures Survey. Over the last decade, this activity has measured some 250 different chemicals in about 35,000 people. This work will now need to be enhanced, increasing the sample size, over-sampling in vulnerable sub-populations and increasing the number, size, duration, scope and breadth of longitudinal studies such as the Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals Study currently underway. For Bill S-5 to deliver on its promise of environmental justice, the research needed to support our ability to identify who is most at risk, when and where, will need to be enhanced. Simply put, we can’t move a better wagon without having the horses needed to pull it.

The second set of amendments proposed in this bill relates to improving the management of substances and products in Canada.

Chemicals make up every part of our lives — we’re a bunch of chemicals ourselves. They are both essential for life and potentially damaging to all living things. We know that it is necessary for us to identify those substances that create risk to our health and our environment, and to manage that risk appropriately, effectively and transparently.

Canadians increasingly expect that our governments will act to protect our health and the health of our environment, regardless if we live in an urban area, a rural location or a remote community. Industry also requires a clear, stable and predictable regulatory environment to be able to produce what we need in a manner consistent with those goals.

And that is what Bill S-5 aims to deliver.

For example, let’s consider the work previously done on lead exposure and its negative health impacts and how that was mitigated. Plumbism, the technical name for lead poisoning, can arise from exposure to lead in many different products, such as paint, gasoline, ammunition, foods or in different environments, such as soil, air, water or dust. It is the cumulative impact of exposure that counts, and a sub-population is more at risk for negative health impacts — young children. The actions that have limited the prevalence of this disease have included bans on the use of lead in many different products, as well as environmental monitoring and workplace occupational health and safety measures. This is an example of science, civil society, industry and government working together to address a significant environmental health risk.

But our challenges are now much more complex than simply single substances such as lead. One increasing concern that I have as a physician is about the multiplex environmental and health risks that emerge when substances that we know have cumulative effects may interact with similar substances and affect specific populations: for example, endocrine disruptors. Some of these include bisphenol A, phthalates and polychlorinated biphenyls. These substances can interfere with endocrine systems, cause tumours, birth defects and other disorders. They are found in small amounts in many everyday products, including some plastic bottles, metal liners in food cans, detergents, foods, cosmetics and pesticides. While their interactions and cumulative impacts are becoming known, substantial work remains to be done to understand their impacts on human endocrine and reproductive systems, their environmental persistence and their potential risk to human health. I, for one, was pleased to see that Bill S-5 has specifically identified this class of substances as a focus for action.

The Canadian Environmental Protection Act, or CEPA, provides the legislative framework for risk assessment and management with the Chemicals Management Plan, which was launched in 2006. It has achieved some significant results. For example, Canada was the first country in the world to take action to limit exposure to bisphenol A in baby bottles and sippy cups in 2010. Mercury emissions into air and water have decreased by about two thirds. Yet, much more needs to be done.

Three parliamentary reviews, including the sixth report of the Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources tabled on March 4, 2008, identified a number of areas where improvements to CEPA were needed to provide Canadians with better environmental and health protection.

In 2006, about 4,300 substances already in Canadian commerce were identified as needing risk assessment and, more recently, about 1,200 substances were newly added. Additionally, some substances previously assessed may need re-evaluation because of new uses, new scientific information or greater exposures than were the case at the time of the original evaluation. Bill S-5 is responding to that need. It will create a new plan of chemical management priorities to give Canadians a predictable, multi-year, integrated plan for the assessment of substances as well as the activities that support substances management, such as information gathering, risk management, risk communication, research and monitoring.

It will also implement a new and improved regime that will prioritize the prohibition of activities in relation to toxic substances of the highest risk. It will enhance previous criteria for toxicity. The previous criteria used persistence and bioaccumulation. It will also add carcinogenicity, mutagenicity and reproductive toxicity. These are really important areas.

However, I understand that it can currently take up to three years from the time a substance is deemed to be highly toxic to when a decision is made about whether it should be prohibited or restricted. To me, that sounds like a very long time during which environmental and health risks can continue. Bill S-5 currently does not address this issue. Perhaps it should.

In developing and implementing this new plan, the government will welcome public participation and consider the risk situation of vulnerable populations, including issues of exposure and susceptibility, as well as the cumulative and interactive characteristics of substances. As such, Bill S-5 can provide greater protection for Indigenous peoples, racialized communities and populations physically located in areas of greatest environmental health risk.

However, I would like to once again underscore that these necessary improvements require a substantially greater investment in, and an improvement of, Canada’s biomonitoring and toxicogenomics research capacity. In order to be able to better use science and the technology that supports it, we must make the necessary investments in infrastructure and the skilled human resources that we need to do the science. We must both improve our national capabilities and enhance our international collaborations to do so. We can’t build a better house without providing it with a solid foundation.

Bill S-5 also creates a watch list that will identify substances or products of potential concern so that consumers will be better informed and industry may use that watch list to choose better substances than the ones they were planning to use. This should nudge innovation towards the creation, manufacture and use of greener and safer substances. An additional positive approach to protecting the environment and human health is where Bill S-5 adds “product” to substance. Not only will substances that are detrimental to human health be covered in the amended CEPA, but products that emit or discharge those substances will also be regulated. This is another step forward.

Bill S-5 also adds greater transparency to risk assessment and management of substances and products. The first plan of chemical management priorities must be published within two years from the date of Royal Assent. In addition to welcoming public input during the creation of the plan, Bill S-5 legislates that any person may request that a substance be assessed to determine whether it is toxic or capable of becoming toxic, and it provides a timeline of 90 days during which the request shall be considered. The person who filed the request will be informed as to how their request will be dealt with and why. This is a positive step.

Bill S-5 also amends the Food and Drugs Act to ensure that the regulatory framework under the FDA considers environment as well as health risks — for example, if a therapeutic product may present a serious risk to the environment — thus reducing duplication, since new drug submissions are currently assessed under both the FDA and CEPA. The Minister of Health will be authorized to act, using one or more of a number of remedies such as product recall, sending the product to a place and labelling or packaging changes. Additionally, CEPA will be amended to require holders of therapeutic products to inform the minister of any serious risks to the environment that they become aware of, regardless of where or from whom that information was received. Together these amendments will improve the environmental scrutiny of therapeutic products and help create a more streamlined regulatory approach for drug assessment in Canada, as well as improve coordination across government in substance risk assessment.

Overall, honourable senators, I find this bill to be a good step forward. In the areas it addresses, it has improved CEPA considerably. However, there may be some tweaks that could be made to further improve it, and I have already mentioned a number that came to my mind in this speech. I am sure that others will want to consider additional items. According to communications from the Government of Canada, the government is open to strengthening certain parts of the bill via amendments during the parliamentary process. Thus, I am hopeful that this bill will be sent without delay to committee where additional, thoughtful consideration of its many complexities can be conducted, and that this good step forward can be potentially improved upon. Thank you, wela’lioq and d’akuju.