Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee. Copies of my remarks are available in English for people after the session is over.
My name is Robert Larocque. I'm very pleased to be here to represent the Forest Products Association of Canada as part of your review of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
FPAC provides a voice for Canada's wood, pulp and paper producers nationally and internationally in government, trade and in the area we are discussing today—environmental affairs.
Let me give you a quick snapshot of how important the forest products sector is to Canada's economy. It is a $65-billion-a-year industry that represents 2% of Canada's GDP. The industry is one of Canada's largest employers, operating in 200 forest-dependent communities from coast to coast. We directly employ about 230,000 Canadians across Canada.
The sector is also important when it comes to the Canadian environment. As custodians of almost 10% of the world's forests, we take our responsibilities as environmental stewards very seriously. In fact, repeated surveys of international customers have shown that the Canadian forest products industry has the best environmental reputation in the world.
We work very closely with forest communities and take chemical management and public reporting extremely seriously. Our sector is committed to continued environmental improvement. For example, we have eliminated such toxins as nonylphenol and its ethoxylates, as well as PCBs. Both of those were the result of product substitutions. Since 2005 we have also cut water pollutants by 70% and air pollutants by more than 50%. Pulp and paper mills have cut their greenhouse gas emissions by about 60% since 1990.
Canada has the most independently certified forests in the world—about 166 million hectares, or about 43% of all the certified forests across the world. Recently FPAC pledged to remove 30 megatonnes a year of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. That's about 13% of the government's emissions reduction target There is no question that the Canadian forest products industry is an environmental leader.
As a sector, we feel that the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, or CEPA, largely works well. Except for parts 6 and 9, the rest of CEPA applies to our sector.
For today, I would like to focus my remarks on chemicals management, equivalency agreements and information gathering and sharing.
The Canadian forest products industry supports the chemicals management plan as a leading program globally for the sound management of chemicals. From information-gathering authorities to sound risk assessments to a suite of tools to manage the risks around toxics, CEPA is a sound act that could be improved but should not be overhauled. One of the core principles in the chemicals management plan is the need to balance hazard and risk. Risk assessments under the act are based on scientifically credible information that considers hazards such as carcinogenicity, vulnerable populations such as Canadians with asthma, and exposure in terms of whether Canadians are exposed. This is extremely important.
The flexible risk managements tools of regulations, codes of practice, and guidelines under the act protect against the release of toxic elements into the environment as well as their use in products and processes. Our sector has demonstrated that the flexible risk management instrument can work, and should be maintained. The forest sector wants to make sure that the people who live in our communities and Canadians are well protected.
I will make a few comments on equivalency agreements. In order for our facilities to operate, they all have permits from the provinces that regulate their processes, including air and water emissions. We all know that the environment is an area that crosses federal and provincial jurisdictions, and environmental matters often require intergovernmental co-operation. For example, there are already equivalency agreements between Ottawa and Alberta regarding two CEPA regulations for pulp and paper mills. Maintaining the option of equivalency agreements in CEPA is key to minimizing regulatory duplication and administrative burdens. However, we do feel that equivalency agreements are not used often enough. CEPA should be modified to ensure easier implementation of equivalency agreements between the federal and provincial governments.
The last area I would like to address has to do with information gathering and sharing. The forest sector works hard to provide accurate information to government. As an example, our sector has taken advantage of the flexibility under the section 71 survey notices to provide voluntary information to Environment Canada and Health Canada. After two years of implementation, this flexibility has saved our sector about $1 million a year in reporting requirements.
One area where CEPA could be improved is requiring chemical suppliers to provide more accurate and timely information to the users of those substances. Too often we have seen companies use section 313 of the act to request that all information sent to Environment Canada and Health Canada be considered confidential. It is very difficult, as a sector, to take actions to address potential toxins at our mills if we don't even know which potential toxins our facilities are using.
In conclusion, we think that CEPA is working well as Canada remains a world leader in chemical management. There can always be improvement—for example in ensuring flexibility and taking into account provincial legislation. However, this can be done by minor tweaks; there is no need to overhaul the legislation.
Thank you for your attention and I welcome your questions.