Consultation

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation's Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) wants to hear from you about proposed changes to the CEC's Guidelines for Submissions on Enforcement Matters (SEM) under Articles 14 and 15 of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC).

NAAEC Articles 14 and 15 include procedures allowing private parties to make submissions to the CEC Secretariat asserting "that a Party [to the NAAEC] is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law."

The CEC's Council of federal environment ministers, at their session last year in Montreal, formally announced a trilateral review to "modernize and improve" the submission process. As a result of this review, a Council-directed Task Force on SEM Modernization will present proposed changes to the Guidelines on Wednesday, 18 April, during the afternoon session of JPAC's public forum in Toronto. JPAC would like your feedback on the draft changes, which are available online.

There are two ways to make comments. You can join a question and answer session in Toronto or live online, starting around 3:15 EDT. You can also send in written comments by Thursday, 17 May on this web page or by e-mail to jpac@cec.org. The current Guidelines and more information about the SEM process are available on the Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters website. JPAC also submitted an Advice to Council (No. 11-04) with recommendations on the SEM process following their last meeting in El Paso, Texas, in November 2011.

Guidelines for Submissions on Enforcement Matters Under Articles 14 and 15 of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation