Finance committee  Ideally it should. However, an interim step would be to require the disclosure of substantiation evidence. In that way you would not be prohibiting general claims, but you'd be requiring firms to explain what they meant. Firms would be required to define what they meant when they used these words.

Finance committee  Yes. I entirely agree with Mr. Boswell's comments and recommendations. I think as soon as you're making an environmental claim about a company, a brand, an activity or a scientific fact more generally in order to promote a business interest, irrespective of where it is, there should be a substantiation requirement.

Finance committee  Perfect. The officials also talked about the fact that certain types of claims were not covered by the present version of clause 236. Clause 236 requires that when a business makes certain environmental claims it do tests. For example, if a business wants to say that an apple is carbon neutral, it has to do tests.

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. Yes, I heard the testimony given by the officials from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, or ISED. A few points were raised. They said there may be constraints associated with the division of powers that might limit Parliament's ability to regulate greenwashing.

Finance committee  Right. I'm sorry. As I was saying, paragraph 236(1)(b.1) of Bill C‑59 proposes to tackle greenwashing by requiring that businesses that make representations regarding "a product's benefits for protecting the environment or mitigating the environmental and ecological effects of climate change" do adequate tests prior to making their representation.

Finance committee  Hello everyone. Thank you for having me here at the committee. I am very grateful. My remarks today will address the topic of greenwashing, and more specifically clause 236 of Bill C-59. Those who are not familiar with greenwashing should know that it happens when an organization makes false or misleading representations about the environmental characteristics of a product, a brand, an activity, or the organization itself.