Meeting Record - February 19-20, 2014

Chemicals Management Plan (CMP) Science Committee (SC)

Attendees

Committee Members

Sylvain Bintein
Peter Campbell
Nicola Cherry
Elaine Cohen Hubal
Miriam Diamond
Geoff Granville
Barbara Hales
James Maguire
Jonathan Martin
Don Wilke

Government of Canada Officials

Mark Bonnell (Senior Science Advisor, Ecological Assessment Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment Canada)
Robert Chénier (Director, Ecological Assessment Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment Canada)
Eeva Leinala (Senior Manager, Existing Substances Risk Assessment Bureau, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch, Health Canada)
David Morin (Director General, Science and Risk Assessment, Science and Technology Branch, Environment Canada)
Christine Norman (Director, Existing Substances Risk Assessment Bureau, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch, Health Canada)
Virginia Poter (Director General, Chemicals Sector, Environmental Stewardship Branch, Environment Canada)
Amanda Jane Preece (Director General, Safe Environments Directorate, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch, Health Canada)
Jennifer Walter (Senior Policy Analyst, Existing Substances Risk Assessment Bureau, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch, Health Canada)

Guest Presenter

Greg Paoli (Chief Operating Officer, Principal Risk Scientist, Risk Sciences International)

Overview

The Chemicals Management Plan (CMP) Science Committee met on February 19 and 20, 2014 for their inaugural face-to-face meeting. This meeting focussed on addressing the charge question: capturing and communicating uncertainty. It included a number of relevant presentations intended to inform Committee deliberations as well as a full day discussion to develop a preliminary response to the charge question and next steps for formulating the Committee Report. Outlined below is a brief summary of the meeting.

Day 1

Agenda items #1 & #2 (Introduction and Opening remarks)

After brief introductory remarks and a round table, two of the Director General's (DG's) with oversight for the CMP, Amanda Jane Preece and David Morin, provided welcoming remarks. Housekeeping items were addressed.

Agenda item #3 (Introductions and declarations)

Members gave a more detailed description of their expertise and backgrounds. There were no declarations with regard to agenda items for this meeting.

Agenda item #4 (Terms of Reference)

The Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Committee was reviewed, section by section. Additions and changes were suggested and the ToR will be amended before it is formally endorsed by the Committee.

Follow-up item
Secretariat: Send out revised ToR to the Committee co-chairs for final review, in consultation with members.

Agenda item #5 (Introduction of topic and charge question)

Charge question introduced: How can Environment Canada and Health Canada better communicate uncertainty to decision makers and external stakeholders in the context of their regulatory risk assessment reports?

Government officials and Committee members agreed to slightly modify the charge question to include how to 'capture' uncertainty, in addition to communicating uncertainty.

Agenda items #6 & #7 (Presentation from Government of Canada officials and Guest presentation on communication of uncertainty)

There were a number of presentations delivered, intended to inform the Committee's deliberations on capturing and communicating uncertainty:

Government of Canada (GoC) officials, Robert Chénier and Christine Norman, presented the current process for both Health Canada and Environment Canada risk assessments, including how each department addresses uncertainty.
Greg Paoli presented on uncertainty and value of information.

The presentations were well received and were followed by discussion.

Agenda item #8 (Reflections/presentations from Committee members on communication of uncertainty)

Don Wilke, Miriam Diamond, Elaine Cohen-Hubal and Sylvain Bintein presented different perspectives on communicating uncertainty.

Day 2

Agenda item #9 (Housekeeping items/recap of Day 1)

Recap of day one.

Agenda items #10 – 12 (Discussion amongst Committee members on charge question, Preliminary input to charge question, and Next steps for formulation of written report)

Committee members engaged in a full day of discussions and constructive dialogue as they developed their preliminary draft input to the charge question, and they also identified their next steps for formulating a Committee report.

Agenda item #13 (Brainstorm of Committee topics for consideration of Government of Canada officials)

Each Committee member put forward suggestions for potential topics for future meetings for consideration by Government officials.

Agenda item #14 (Wrap up and adjourn)

It was agreed that the next meeting would be held in fall 2014 and the meeting was adjourned.

View the February 2014 Committee Report.