News Release

WINNIPEG (GNB) – Environment and Local Government Minister Brian Kenny today joined his fellow federal, provincial and territorial environment ministers in agreeing to strengthen collaboration and continue to take action in the fight against climate change.

Kenny is in Winnipeg participating in a meeting of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME).

“New Brunswick, like all other jurisdictions, has an important role to play in addressing climate change,” said Kenny. “For the nation to make progress, our collective actions must represent a cohesive and common way forward. As such, we must co-ordinate our respective jurisdictional activities and collaborate on best practices and setting priorities.”

The ministers also agreed to work together in advance of and following the 21st Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris in December 2015. 

The ministers have established a new climate change committee to work on priorities they have identified. Priorities include reviewing the outcomes of the Paris convention and maintaining a dialogue among the federal, provincial and territorial governments in preparation for the next Climate Change Conference, scheduled for November 2016 in Morocco.

Waste reduction continues to be a concern of the environment ministers. They renewed their ongoing commitment to implementing extended producer responsibility and to achieving consistent and common approaches where practicable, while respecting their own governments’ jurisdictions and issues. Extended producer responsibility is a tool to decrease the total environmental impact of a product by making the producer responsible for the entire life-cycle of the product – not just manufacturing and distribution but also the take-back, recycling and final disposal.

The ministers directed their officials to work with stakeholders to achieve greater consistency on key elements of these programs such as product lists for materials, program monitoring and reporting metrics, and auditing protocols. Officials will report back to the ministers at the 2016 CCME meeting.

As well, ministers identified a set of principles to guide a jurisdiction if it chooses to develop a water pricing framework. Governments can now use these principles to develop or improve their policies in light of their particular circumstances and objectives.

The ministers also reaffirmed their support for continued development and implementation of the Air Quality Management System. This system is a comprehensive and harmonized approach to air quality management across Canada to broadly address all sources of air pollution. Québec supports the general objectives of the system, but has already implemented its own regulation and is collaborating with jurisdictions on developing some elements of the system, notably air zones and airsheds.

The ministers acknowledged the efforts by industry to eliminate the use of non-biodegradable plastic microbeads from consumer products and supported the federal government’s scientific review of microbeads in personal-care products as part of the listing process under Schedule 1 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999.  Provinces and territories may take additional complementary actions to restrict the use of microbeads. A co-operative approach will help keep waterways free of these harmful substances. 

Québec will host the next meeting of the CCME, which is the primary minister-led intergovernmental forum for collective action on environmental issues of national and international concern.