EJQ4 - Spring 2025 - Journal - Page 15
Joanna Vince, a partner with Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers,
says day-to-day rulemaking and enforcement in Canada are largely
handled at the provincial and territorial level. However, toxic substances
are areas of federal jurisdiction and may be guided by federal standards,
and so the federal reporting requirement is meant to gather baseline data
to support future rulemaking. “Governments have to start somewhere,”
says Vince. “They don’t know who’s importing it and using it, or how
much. It’s step one.”
For the time being, while the federal government examines the new data
and determines its next steps, CEPA already recognizes a handful of PFAS
variants as toxic under and in some cases limits their manufacture, use
and sale. The federal government also introduced drinking water guidelines for some of the chemicals in 2018. Then, in 2023, the government
released a draft report on PFAS acknowledging they have the potential to
harm the environment and human health, and an updated report last July
took the assessment of certain classes even further.
“This is just showing that the federal government is engaging in the issue,” says Vince. “They’re continuing to do research to better understand
how they want to regulate, whether it’s bans or restrictions.”
E N V I RON M E N T J OURN A L QUA RT E RLY RE PORT • S PRI N G 2 0 2 5 • P AGE 1 5
