Evidence of meeting #29 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was food.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Harold Albrecht
Thank you.
We just have to make sure that we were able to get interpretation to Mr. Louie.
Are you okay in French as well, Mr. Louie?
4:40 p.m.
First Vice-President, Federation of Canadian Municipalities
I am not. Thank you for asking.
4:40 p.m.
NDP
Mylène Freeman NDP Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
I think I threw in four words. It was entirely in English otherwise.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Harold Albrecht
But I think the four words were the specifics of what you were asking.
4:40 p.m.
NDP
Mylène Freeman NDP Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
Yes, the slide on the working group on construction is what I'm looking at.
4:40 p.m.
First Vice-President, Federation of Canadian Municipalities
What page are you referencing?
4:40 p.m.
NDP
Mylène Freeman NDP Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
I have page 16. I was just asking about what the working group's strategy would be and how the federal government would be involved. I'm not really referring to anything on the slide. That's all I was looking at.
4:40 p.m.
First Vice-President, Federation of Canadian Municipalities
Okay. As the slide mentions, the working group is currently establishing a prevention and diversion policy and guidelines for government. The hope is that, as was described, this amount of waste does not end up there. We're hoping to model this after a number of different jurisdictions and situations.
For instance, just yesterday, Vancouver City Council passed a deconstruction resolution. It will allow us to force any demolition of any house that is currently older than 1940 and deemed to have “character”, at a 90% diversion rate. This is the first stage. It is a longer process and is slightly more expensive, but the cost is relatively small in comparison to the overall cost of the house. It's about $5,000, whereas it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to create a house, but we end up with a 90% diversion rate coming out as a result.
The working group was just formed. The mandate is to try to recycle. We're looking to perhaps increase some of our current region-wide bans. For instance, we have a ban on clean wood waste in the Metro Vancouver region. That could be something that is layered in across the country as well.
Essentially, what we're looking for is not quite specific to the ICI group, but consistency across our nation, I think, is important for industry and businesses. I think we've talked a lot about government today, whether local, provincial, or federal government, but the major component of this is business. We believe that it would be a competitive advantage for Canada if we were able to redirect resources that would normally flow through the consumer into our landfills or some incineration plant and able to have the beneficial use of that waste as it's reused. But it's more important not to have it happen in the first place. I think that's the focus for all of our working groups, including the group related to construction and building waste.
4:45 p.m.
NDP
Mylène Freeman NDP Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
So essentially, on the role, that potentially could become a recommendation. Recommendations for the federal government could potentially come out of this for what their role would be. It would be to set minimum standards around prevention. Is that basically what you were saying?
4:45 p.m.
First Vice-President, Federation of Canadian Municipalities
Well, that's correct. There's a standardization across the country. In terms of materials, for instance, I know that in Europe there are more stringent standards in terms of the types of materials that go into the manufacturing stream and into the waste stream. If there are more materials and they are not easily separable, it makes it harder for the reuse and recycle component of it. We're hoping that as a result of our efforts here and education through the various governments, and through business and manufacturing setting certain standards, we can in turn influence the entire cycle on the front end.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Harold Albrecht
Thank you.
We move next to Mr. Sopuck, please, for five minutes.
June 12th, 2014 / 4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
Thank you.
Mr. Moore, did I hear you right? Did you make the point that landfilling is always the cheapest option? Did I hear that correctly?
4:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Island Waste Management Corporation
Well, certainly, in most cases, not having a properly functional landfill—one that's fully designed with leachate collection and so on—is the cheapest option. Because a lot of times, based on transportation and so on with the recyclable materials.... There are a lot of recyclable materials that have a market that fluctuates dramatically. In some cases you try to recycle them, but it actually costs you more money to do so than to simply put them in a landfill.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
I really appreciate your saying that, because I find, quite frankly, on this issue of waste management and recycling, there is far too much religion and not enough math. I think doing the math is absolutely critical.
In your case, does the P.E.I. recycling program actually cost you money, or can you break even with the program?
4:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Island Waste Management Corporation
We're totally funded by our customers, who
are the residents of P.E.I., and I don't mind sharing that we charge each islander $205 to collect curbside waste, compost, and recyclables on an annual basis. For that $205 we recycle all the materials we can. We send some to an energy-from-waste facility where we can incinerate safely. The materials we can't send there go into the one remaining landfill that we have.
That landfill is not simply a hole in the ground. It's fully lined. All the leachate, all the water collected on the site, is treated in an on-site treatment system.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
You're saying then that the market value of the materials is probably not sufficient to cover the full cost of the entire program. You depend on that $205 per household. Is that a fair conclusion?
4:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Island Waste Management Corporation
That's correct. You can't fund a program based on the market price of the recyclable material that you receive. It's not enough.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
I think you've nailed the issue directly, because, as I said, I think practitioners like you are the people who really know what can be done and what the limitations are.
Mr. Moore, how do you deal with low-value materials? I would assume you would landfill materials like glass, which is nearly impossible to recycle in any economic way.
4:50 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Island Waste Management Corporation
We currently do not landfill glass. We currently grind it, actually, and use it as an aggregate material. You don't get anything for that. It actually costs money to dispose of that recyclable at this time.
What happens in the recyclable industry is that things change. The economic benefit of utilizing these materials for other means sometimes happens because you have it, and somebody knows you have it, and they would like to build a business case to utilize that material for the remanufacturing of some other component. That has happened. Even in our small community here in Prince Edward Island, we had one recycler that was using silage wrap. For those who may not be familiar with that, it is a wrap used for agricultural silage and it's a plastic that, for the most part, is non-recyclable. The recycler was using it to make plastic lumber by mixing it with other plastics to produce a reusable product. That plastic was then used to fence in the cattle that were using the silage wrap.
Things like that do happen if you have enough material on hand to do that.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
I represent an agricultural constituency, and silage wrap, I can see, would be an issue.
Mr. Goeres, given the potential benefits you outlined—I hear all these numbers and I hear about all these materials and all this potential and so on, but I think Mr. Moore has given us an idea of the limitations—what's holding this industry back from achieving the goals you outlined?
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Harold Albrecht
You're at your limit.
We'll give you time for a short response, Mr. Goeres.