Invitation to participate in the 2011 CEC Council Session
Public forum to discuss e-waste in North America
Montreal, 29 April 2011—The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) is pleased to invite you to the Eighteenth Regular Session of its Council and related events, to be held 21–22 June 2011, in Montreal, Canada.
Public events begin 21 June with a forum organized by the CEC’s Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) to discuss the rapidly growing amount of electronic waste in North America and ways Canada, Mexico and the United States can promote better management of e-waste through product design, recycling and enforcement cooperation to halt illegal trade of discarded electronic products within and from North America. Forum results will help JPAC in its consideration of possible recommendations to the CEC Council.
In its annual Regular Session, the CEC Council, consisting of the cabinet-level environment ministers of the three NAFTA countries, will examine environmental issues of common concern and set the direction for the Commission’s work program.
The Council Session will take place on 22 June, with much of the agenda open to the public to attend as observers. Council members will participate in a forum where members of the public may make presentations of up to five minutes in length on matters related to the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation or CEC endeavors.
JPAC will hold its regular session on the same day to analyze possible recommendations to Council, including any stemming from the previous day’s forum. The public may also participate in this session as observers.
Financial support and public statements
Attendance at these meetings is open to all and is free of charge. Nonprofit organizations and individuals seeking financial support to cover travel and lodging expenses may request funding on the registration form.
Participants can also submit proposals to make statements to the CEC Council on issues related to the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation or CEC projects. Proposals must be noted on the registration form and be accompanied by a written summary (no more than one page) of the statement, indicating the opinions or questions the presenter wishes to bring before the Council. Note also that, in order to allow presentations by the greatest number of participants possible, presentations will be limited to five minutes.
For those who cannot attend the meeting in person, the CEC will this year allow presentations to be made via YouTube video. The presentation guidelines are the same but applicants must also provide a link (URL) to a video already posted on YouTube.
Videos of statements made to the CEC Council at last year’s session can be found online.
The deadline for requests for financial support, and statements to Council is 13 May 2011. Persons selected to make a statement to the CEC Council will be notified by 27 May 2011.
About the CEC
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) was established in 1994 by the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States through the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, a parallel environmental agreement to NAFTA. As of 2020, the CEC is recognized and maintained by the Environmental Cooperation Agreement, in parallel with the new Free Trade Agreement of North America. The CEC brings together a wide range of stakeholders, including the general public, Indigenous people, youth, nongovernmental organizations, academia, and the business sector, to seek solutions to protect North America’s shared environment while supporting sustainable development for the benefit of present and future generations
The CEC is governed and funded equally by the Government of Canada through Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Government of the United States of Mexico through the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, and the Government of the United States of America through the Environmental Protection Agency.