Darren and Beta also had opportunity to spend some time with Environment and Climate Change Canada’s new Acting Chief Enforcement Officer, Mr. Michael Enns, and some of his team. Mr. Enns’ approach appears to stand in stark contrast to that his predecessor who was re-assigned in late spring.
As CA has continually made the case, Environment Canada’s compliance and enforcement tools were designed some quarter of a century ago to deal with industrial polluters and did not account for the department’s more recent role in the regulation of ingredients in finished consumer products. In fact, their Compliance & Enforcement Policy has not been updated in almost 25 years and reflects a “police” type approach with little support for meaningful compliance efforts.
Since these same ingredients are regulated by Health Canada – who has a long and better understanding of finished consumer products including the use of tools like the Cosmetic Ingredient Hot List which has facilitated a high compliance rate – CA has been encouraging Environment Canada to learn form what already works and better coordinate their compliance and enforcement efforts with Health Canada. As industry, it doesn’t matter whether an ingredient is restricted or prohibited for environmental or health reasons, we just want to be able to easily be able to find the information in preferably on place and to have an appropriate and proportionate enforcement regime. Environment Canada enforcement officer today wear bullet proof vests and carry bear spray when they inspect cosmetic stores (because they also enforce the Wildlife Act and could possibly encounter a wild animal), and they continue to provide the information required for compliance in some for different websites with sometime conflicting information.
A CA delegation, including our then Chair Gulnara Gabidullina of P&G, met with Deputy Minister last winter to express our concerns with this approach. It is possible that a consequence of this meeting and our continued efforts resulted in a change in the leadership of the Enforcement Branch. The new Chef Enforcement Officer has certainly indicated a better understanding of these challenges and expressed a willingness to work with us on improvements, both in our recent meeting and as a presenter at our recent Environmental Symposium. We will continue to keep you updated on developments on this important file.
