JOIN WEBCAST: Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) meeting and Regular Session of the CEC Council will be webcast live from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada
Montreal, 9 July 2014—Even if you can’t make it to Yellowknife, you can participate in this year’s Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) meeting and the 21st annual CEC Council Session by visiting www.cec.org/webcast on July 16 and 17, where all the action will be webcast live and where you can share your questions via Facebook, Twitter or email.
On July 16th, beginning at 9 a.m. (MDT), JPAC has a packed agenda of expert speakers who will be exploring the issue of transboundary natural resource management in Canada, Mexico and the US, including the management of transboundary water resources, transboundary climate change considerations, and the use of traditional ecological knowledge in transboundary resource policy-making.
Keynote speaker and leading Canadian public policy expert David McLaughlin will kick off proceedings. McLaughlin currently serves as strategic advisor on sustainability in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo, and previously served as president and CEO of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) from 2007 to 2013, where he gathered diverse and competing interests to create consensus and viable suggestions for sustainable development in Canada.
Then, on July 17, beginning at 12:10 p.m. (MDT), tune in to the CEC Council Session where you’ll hear from North America’s top three environmental officials on their agenda for environmental cooperation: Canada’s Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq, Mexico’s Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources Juan José Guerra Abud, and US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy. The Council public session will carry over the thread from the previous day’s sessions, with a Town Hall focused on the use of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in environmental decision-making. The officials will also commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Commission and share and the organization’s future priorities with the public.
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.