From supranational to intertribal - Governing Transboundary Waters: Canada, the United States, and Indigenous Communities - page 64

the federal environmental ministers (or equivalent) of the member countries. The
JPAC is a 15-member, independent volunteer body that provides public input and
advice to the Council on issues within the scope of NAAEC. The Secretariat
comprises professional staff who provide technical and operational support to the
CEC, the Council, and its committees. The Secretariat is responsible for conducting
research pertaining to the North American environment, environmental law and
standards, and environment/trade issues; implementing CEC initiatives; and
processing citizen submissions on enforcement matters (CEC, 2013).
Public process
Through the JPAC, the CEC provides a mechanism for the public to play an active
whistle-blower role. The Citizens Submissions on Enforcement Matters provides
a process for the public to submit a claim to the CEC for review when a member-
country's compliance to their environmental policies is under question. Following
the review, the CEC may then choose to investigate the matter further and report
on its findings, subject to the Commission's approval (CEC, 2013).
Another method for engaging civil society in this process is through a publicly
available digital database. The CEC has catalogued approximately 350 transboundary
environmental issues along the Mexico-U.S. and Canada-U.S. borders. Users can
search the database by subject, agreement name, or by parties to the agreements.
A list of 200 environmentally related North American agreements is also available.
The database provides digital links to the full text of the agreements, as well as to
other Internet sites that provide related information. The CEC also developed an
interactive Google Earth mapping tool, which creates a picture of industrial pollutant
data across North America. This tool allows any user “whether in Manitoba,
Mississippi, or Michoacán” to access the pollution profile of participating industries
throughout North America.
Critiques of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation
Despite the inclusion of sustainable development terminology in the preamble of
NAFTA and the creation of the environmental side accord, the relative “greenness”
of NAFTA is highly contested (Johnson and Beaulieu, 1996; Audley, 1997;
DiMento and Doughman, 1998; Spalding, 1999). Many criticize the environmental
side accord for lacking political teeth. The process relies on individual countries
to adhere to domestic environmental laws, rather than raising international standards
or instilling enforcement mechanisms. Thus, the CEC's effectiveness is only potent-
ially as strong as each country's environmental policies. This limitation reinforces
the critiques about environmental regimes and nation sovereignty outlined in
Chapter 2.
Another issue associated with CEC capacity is that the Council and JPAC
members are political appointees. The members, therefore, are subject to swings
in the political climate and may reflect the current administration's view on the
environment, rather than serve as advocates for the environment. In the U.S., for