Evidence of meeting #21 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cepa.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:40 a.m.
Vice-President, Environment and Regulatory Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
I don't know.
I don't know why, but there isn't a cultural practice or policy to get the data out there, possibly because of costs.
11:40 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
You've talked about the need for good regulations and strong oversight. We saw the recent tragedy around Mount Polley in British Columbia. I hope you read the auditor's report. It was somewhat devastating.
I was at a mining conference just afterwards. The industry was properly upset with how things had been going, because it's connected to a loss of public faith. If the government says we're monitoring and we have strong laws in Canada, we often....
The mining industry and government say that we have the best laws, but if they're not enforced, they're close to being meaningless. There are a lot of lessons to be learned.
With regard to the release of the chemicals that were in, let's say, something like that tailings pond, being aware of what was being released into the environment would be important in terms of what the government, the company, and the community would do in response. Is that a fair statement?
11:45 a.m.
Vice-President, Environment and Regulatory Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
Yes.
11:45 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Knowing what's there is important to adapting to how to—
11:45 a.m.
Vice-President, Environment and Regulatory Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
Yes, and that is captured under the NPRI.
11:45 a.m.
Vice-President, Environment and Regulatory Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
Yes.
11:45 a.m.
NDP
11:45 a.m.
Vice-President, Environment and Regulatory Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
Yes.
11:45 a.m.
Vice-President, Environment and Regulatory Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
That is in the NPRI. Where the NPRI falls short—and we had a certain disagreement way back before it was brought in—is that other aspects that are significant in terms of the environmental and safety aspect of the tailings pond are not captured in the NPRI.
11:45 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Okay.
To Ms. Sian, why is the industry resistant to the sharing of similar information when we move to the upstream gas sector? There was a petition to the federal government, rejected in November of 2015, to include information on the release of fracking fluids so that the public and local communities could know. Why does that remain a policy that any government could sustain?
11:45 a.m.
Manager, Environment, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
The industry has been focused on hydraulic fracking and additives for some time. One of the initiatives we had been engaged in was the development of FracFocus, which is intended to provide transparent and publicly available data about hydraulic fracturing in B.C., Alberta, and the territories. You can get access to it online.
In terms of why it wasn't captured—
11:45 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I'm sorry, but my specific question is around the national release of NPRI. We're fairly certain that the substances we're talking about, as we've seen through the provincial-level disclosures, are toluenes and benzenes, highly toxic materials that we wouldn't want any of our children exposed to. Why not have them also included in the toxics list that's captured by the National Pollutant Release Inventory? They obviously qualify as toxic by anybody's definition, so why not include them in NPRI if that's already happening at the provincial level in some cases?
11:45 a.m.
Manager, Environment, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
I would need to look into why that hasn't been captured, Nathan. I'm afraid I can't respond to that question.
11:45 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
It might be something more for government officials. A petition was just rejected, and we all believe in disclosure and the importance of it.
I want to turn to Ms. Peart for a second.
Andrea, welcome. It's nice to see you.
I have a question around asbestos. One of the bills I was proud to promote early on in my time here was about the banning of the export of asbestos from Canada. Dumping it on often developing countries and tying it to trade deals with those countries was not exactly in the Canadian way, from my perspective.
What's going on with asbestos right now? Is it banned in Canada in terms of its import, export, or use?
June 7th, 2016 / 11:45 a.m.
National Representative, Health, Safety and Environment, Canadian Labour Congress
Asbestos is not banned in Canada. It's legal to import it. It's legal to sell it and a number of asbestos products. Asbestos imports are actually rapidly increasing.
11:45 a.m.
National Representative, Health, Safety and Environment, Canadian Labour Congress
Yes.
11:45 a.m.
National Representative, Health, Safety and Environment, Canadian Labour Congress
We were reporting just over $4 million a year five years ago. Now that's over $8 million, the bulk of which, about 45%, is with regard to brake pads.
11:45 a.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Are there alternatives to that? We've sometimes heard from industry that, “Sorry; this is all we have.”
11:45 a.m.
National Representative, Health, Safety and Environment, Canadian Labour Congress
That's ridiculous. Most people, certainly I in my vehicle, have ceramic brake pads, which are dominant. There's also quite a plethora of semi-metallic brake pads that don't contain asbestos. With 56 countries around the world, including major automotive producers like Germany, it's ridiculous to suggest there's no alternative.
11:45 a.m.
NDP
11:45 a.m.
Vice-President, Environment and Regulatory Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
We do not represent and have never represented asbestos producers.