Evidence of meeting #35 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 amendment.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Can you expand on what that regulation is? This deals with methylmercury, right?
Director General, Industrial Sectors, Chemicals and Waste Directorate, Department of the Environment
It deals with mercury, elemental mercury.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
But Minamata Japan, was a methylmercury issue, right?
Director General, Industrial Sectors, Chemicals and Waste Directorate, Department of the Environment
The treaty itself deals with elemental mercury. It was conceived in Minamata, Japan, because, of course, the formation of methylmercury is a key outcome of exposure to elemental mercury.
Now I've forgotten the question.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
We have one final step to do before we ratify the Minamata Convention.
Director General, Industrial Sectors, Chemicals and Waste Directorate, Department of the Environment
That's right. We are in the final process of putting in place export control regulations for elemental mercury.
Director General, Industrial Sectors, Chemicals and Waste Directorate, Department of the Environment
We do export a very small amount, and we just found that out. We had to do all of our research, and we were digging through statistics. There's a very small amount of mercury that is exported from the country.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Wow. That's fascinating.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Aldag.
Director General, Industrial Sectors, Chemicals and Waste Directorate, Department of the Environment
Thank you.
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
Thank you.
I wanted to get some clarification on a couple of items in your brief. The first page talks about the products containing mercury regulations. You note that the regulations prohibit the manufacture or import of products containing mercury or any of its compounds, with the bit of clarification that that is unless there's no substitute.
How is that going to impact the market for things as we get into recycling light bulbs and pulling the mercury out? Is this regulation a barrier to the reuse of mercury? I'd like your thoughts or your clarification on what these regulations are pointing to in the realm of the use of mercury in Canada down the road?
Director General, Industrial Sectors, Chemicals and Waste Directorate, Department of the Environment
The products containing mercury regulations prohibit products from containing mercury unless they are specifically listed as being allowed to contain mercury.
The allowances are detailed by levels and by product types, so there's an annex that lays those out. Some of these fluorescent lights, CFLs, and so on are included in the list, and specific amounts are allowed for specific sizes.
These limits are consistent with the Minamata treaty, so, globally, there's been an agreement on the amounts of mercury allowed. We are all lining up our regulations domestically to ensure that we can comply with that international requirement. We're lined up with the United States, for example, and with the European Union, and so on.
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
I just wanted to make sure that we were lining up in some way or another with the other agreements.
There was also a statement on page 2, in the same section, in which you note that the regulations that we were just talking about set mercury content limits. Then you go on to say “as well as safe handling procedures and options available for the end-of-life management of these products.” Is that all handled under the regulatory framework?
There's also something about requiring labels to inform consumers. It was unclear in the sentence where the regulations end and where the voluntary compliance piece comes in. Are the options available for end-of-life management actually regulated, or are they simply part of voluntary compliance?
Director General, Industrial Sectors, Chemicals and Waste Directorate, Department of the Environment
The products containing mercury regulations work with the code of practice to some extent—
Liberal
Director General, Industrial Sectors, Chemicals and Waste Directorate, Department of the Environment
It's a voluntary system. The way the product regulations work is that you set limits on how many milligrams of mercury you can have in particular lamps and in other products. When an allowable limit of mercury is in a product, you, as a manufacturer or importer, have to put on the box that the product contains mercury, so that consumers know that when they are buying it. The next time you buy a light bulb you should look. You'll see that there's a little label on the box that says “contains mercury”. The instructions talk about being careful because mercury can cause problems, so you need to dispose of it carefully. I don't have the exact wording of the regulations off the top of my head, but that's essentially what they tackle.
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
I just have a concern. I assemble IKEA furniture without reading the instructions. I definitely don't read instructions when I'm buying light bulbs. I'm sure a lot of other Canadians don't go to that limit either.
I'm probably going to run out of time, but the other piece—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
I want to thank Ms. Poter for joining us today. Thank you for your witness statement and for answering all the questions. Some of them were a little on the edge there, but we really appreciate your being in front of us. That's not always the way committees do private members' bills, but we do appreciate your time.
You're very welcome to stay if you're interested in staying as we go through clause-by-clause, but you don't have to sit at the table. It's whatever you feel comfortable with.
Director General, Industrial Sectors, Chemicals and Waste Directorate, Department of the Environment
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Okay, we'll now move into the clause-by-clause section of the proceedings today. Because we've never done it before, I thought I'd go through it carefully and in some detail, just so that we don't miss something important.
How many of you have been through a clause-by-clause before? Okay, we have two experts here.
You have, too? Okay, you can help us through if we get into trouble, but for everyone else, we're just going to take this one step at a time.
Again, as the name indicates, this is an examination of all the clauses in the order in which they appear in the bill. I'll call each clause successively, and each clause is subject to debate and a vote.
If there is an amendment to the clause in question, I'll recognize the member proposing it, who will then explain it. The amendment will then be open for debate, and when no further members wish to intervene, the amendment will be voted on. Amendments will be considered in the order in which they appear in the package each member received from the clerk.
You all have a package. If there are amendments that are consequential to each other, they'll be voted on together.
In addition to having to be properly drafted in a legal sense, amendments must also be procedurally admissible. This is why I have Olivier Champagne here with us today to make sure we do this properly.
You're an expert on clause-by-clause.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Thank you.
I may be called upon to rule amendments inadmissible if they go against the principle of the bill or if they are beyond the scope of the bill, both of which were adopted by the House when it agreed to the bill at second reading, or if they offend the financial prerogative of the crown.
If you wish to eliminate a clause of the bill altogether, the proper course of action is to vote against that clause when the time comes, not to propose an amendment to delete it. Since this is the first exercise for many of us, I will not be going quickly, if you don't mind. I'll be going slowly to allow all members to follow the proceedings properly. If during the process the committee decides not to vote on a clause, that clause can be put aside by the committee so that we can revisit it later in the process.
As indicated earlier, the committee will go through the package of amendments in the order in which they appear and vote on them one at a time unless some are consequential; I'm doing a little bit of repeating here. Amendments have been given numbers in the top-right corner of the pages to indicate which party submitted them. There's no need for a seconder to move an amendment. Once an amendment is moved, you will need unanimous consent to withdraw it, so be careful what you're moving. During debate on an amendment, members are permitted to move subamendments. These subamendments do not require the approval of the mover of the amendment. Only one subamendment may be considered at a time, and that subamendment cannot be amended.