Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (S.C. 1999, c. 33)

Marginal note:Agreements respecting exchange of information

308 The Minister may enter into an agreement with a department or agency of a government in Canada respecting the exchange of information for the purpose of administering environmental protection alternative measures or preparing a report in respect of a person’s compliance with an agreement.

Marginal note:Regulations

309 The Minister may make regulations respecting the environmental protection alternative measures that may be used for the purposes of this Act including regulations

• (a) excluding specified offences under this Act from the application of those measures;

• (b) prescribing the form and manner in which and the period within which an application to participate in the measures is to be made, and the information that must be contained in or accompany the application;

• (c) respecting the manner of preparing and filing reports relating to the administration of and compliance with agreements;

• (d) respecting the types of reasonable costs and the manner of paying the costs associated with supervising and verifying compliance with an agreement; and

• (e) respecting the terms and conditions that may be provided for in an agreement and their effects.

Contraventions

Marginal note:Ticketing

• 310 (1) Despite anything in this Act, the Governor in Council may, by regulation, on the recommendation of the Minister, designate any offence under this Act as an offence with respect to which, despite the Criminal Code, an enforcement officer may lay an information and issue and serve a summons by completing a ticket in the prescribed form, affixing to it the enforcement officer’s signature and delivering it to the person who is alleged to have committed the offence specified in it at the time the offence is alleged to have been committed.

• Marginal note:Regulations

  (2) Any regulations made under this section

  • (a) shall establish a procedure for entering a plea and paying a fine in respect of each offence to which the regulations relate;

  • (b) shall prescribe the amount of the fine to be paid in respect of each offence; and

  • (c) may prescribe any other matter necessary to carry out the purposes of this section.

• Marginal note:Failure to respond to ticket

  (3) Where a person is served with a ticket and does not enter a plea within the time prescribed by the regulations, a justice shall examine the ticket and

  • (a) if the ticket is complete and regular on its face, the justice shall enter a conviction in the person’s absence and impose a fine of the prescribed amount; or

  • (b) if the ticket is not complete and regular on its face, the justice shall quash the proceedings.

Other Remedies

Marginal note:Injunction

• 311 (1) Where, on the application of the Minister, it appears to a court of competent jurisdiction that a person has done or is about to do or is likely to do any act or thing constituting or directed toward the commission of an offence under this Act, the court may issue an injunction ordering any person named in the application

  • (a) to refrain from doing any act or thing that it appears to the court may constitute or be directed toward the commission of an offence under this Act; or

  • (b) to do any act or thing that it appears to the court may prevent the commission of an offence under this Act.

• Marginal note:Notice

  (2) No injunction shall be issued under subsection (1) unless 48 hours notice is given to the party or parties named in the application or the urgency of the situation is such that service of notice would not be in the public interest.

Defence

Marginal note:Defence

312 In a prosecution for a contravention of a provision of Division 5 of Part 7 by a company engaged in the business of assembling or altering vehicles, it is a defence for the company to establish that the contravention occurred as a result of work previously done on a vehicle by another company engaged in the manufacture of the vehicle.

PART 11Miscellaneous Matters

Disclosure of Information

Marginal note:Request for confidentiality

• 313 (1) A person who provides information to the Minister under this Act, or to a board of review in respect of a notice of objection filed under this Act, may submit with the information a request that it be treated as confidential.

• Marginal note:Contents of request

  (2) A request under subsection (1) shall be submitted in writing and contain any supplementary information that may be prescribed.

Marginal note:Prohibition of disclosure

314 The Minister shall not disclose any information in respect of which a request for confidentiality has been made under section 313, except in accordance with section 315, 316 or 317.

Marginal note:Disclosure by Minister for public interest

• 315 (1) The Minister may disclose information, other than information in respect of which section 318 applies, where

  • (a) the disclosure is in the interest of public health, public safety or the protection of the environment; and

  • (b) the public interest in the disclosure clearly outweighs in importance

    • (i) any material financial loss or prejudice to the competitive position of the person who provided the information or on whose behalf it was provided, and

    • (ii) any damage to the privacy, reputation or human dignity of any individual that may result from the disclosure.

• Marginal note:Notice of disclosure

  (2) Subject to subsection (3), at least 24 hours before disclosing any information under subsection (1), the Minister shall give notice of the proposed disclosure to the person who provided the information or on whose behalf it was provided.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (3) Notice under subsection (2)

  • (a) is not required where the person to whom it is to be given cannot be found after reasonable efforts have been made to do so; or

  • (b) may be given later than the time required by that subsection where an emergency exists.

Marginal note:Certain purposes for which information may be disclosed

• 316 (1) Information may be disclosed

  • (a) with the written consent of the person who provided it or on whose behalf it was provided;

  • (b) as may be necessary for the purposes of the administration or enforcement of this Act;

  • (c) under an agreement or arrangement between the Government of Canada or any of its institutions and any other government in Canada, the government of a foreign state or an international organization or any of its institutions, or between the Minister and any other minister of the Crown in right of Canada, where

    • (i) the purpose of the agreement or arrangement is the administration or enforcement of a law, and

    • (ii) the government, international organization, institution or other minister undertakes to keep the information confidential;

  • (d) under an agreement or arrangement between the Government of Canada and the government of a foreign state or an international organization, where the government or organization undertakes to keep the information confidential; or

  • (e) to a physician or prescribed medical professional who requests the information for the purpose of making a medical diagnosis of, or rendering medical treatment to, a person in an emergency.

• Marginal note:Disclosure by physician, etc.

  (2) A physician or prescribed medical professional to whom information is disclosed under paragraph (1)(e) shall not disclose the information except as may be necessary for the purposes referred to in that paragraph.

• Marginal note:Disclosure of personal information

  (3) Personal information as defined in section 3 of the Privacy Act may not be disclosed under paragraph (1)(b) or (c) unless

  • (a) the disclosure is in the interest of public health, public safety or the protection of the environment; and

  • (b) the public interest in the disclosure clearly outweighs in importance any damage to the privacy, reputation or human dignity of any individual that may result from the disclosure.