Mr. Chair, I'd like to explain the rationale for the clauses that this amendment would remove or the lines that this amendment would remove.
With the way part 5 of CEPA is currently constructed, the government can regulate products that contain a toxic substance and that then emit a toxic substance. For example, paint contains VOCs and releases VOCs. We cannot, however, regulate products that do not contain a toxic substance but which emit a toxic substance. The example I'll give you is a wood stove, which is a piece of cast iron and doesn't contain a toxic substance. When you put wood in it and you fire it up, it emits particulate matter and all sorts of nasty things that create smog, etc. We can't regulate the design of such products at the moment.
In clause 14, which this committee passed, there are numerous references to the term “product that contains or may release”. That is expanding the authority so that we can now regulate, for example, wood stoves under CEPA.
The provision that amendment would delete is simply an effort to define, for clarity, what is meant by “a product that may release”. We have other provisions and authorities in CEPA to address inadvertent or accidental releases. We're confident that we can do so and that we're not therefore losing any authority. This is to clarify an expanded authority under CEPA.