Thanks very much, Chair.
I want to weigh in on the proposed amendment by Ms. Saks. I think it makes a lot of sense.
It really looks like Conservative members in particular are determined to push this bill through. I know it's from a Conservative MP. They're determined to push it through the committee, despite the serious issues that have been raised by government officials and that have been raised by people in the waste-processing and recycling sector, who would bear the responsibility for actually making sure that we can process our waste if this bill were to pass and come into effect. I would at least hope they would give the government reasonable time to make those corrections that Mr. Albas was saying need to be made to the bill.
I think there are a number of other things that need to be corrected. The schedule needs to be amended because there are things that aren't plastic listed on the schedule. We've heard from officials about the need to amend regulations or update regulations.
The government members of the committee, including me and others, have tried to underline some of the concerns that have been raised by the sector that's responsible for waste processing and recycling across Canada, through our references and summarizing of the letters that our committee received objecting to the bill and pointing out the consequences. The government would have to undertake regulatory changes to make sure there was clarity for that sector and for the enforcement authorities.
There's another thing that we've talked about in previous meetings. Today we haven't spent as much time on it, but in previous meetings members of this committee asked officials what the implications of this bill would be for waste processing in this country. We heard that a tremendous amount of the products that currently are exported for processing would essentially have to go into landfills, which, first of all, is impractical because we have a landfill capacity problem in most provinces. Provinces weren't consulted on this, but even before consulting them we know that landfills across Canada, in many provinces anyway, have very limited capacity. In Ontario I think we will max out in about 10 years, and it takes five to 10 years just to build a landfill, to permit it, regulate it, construct it, etc., and make it available to process waste. That's the first thing.
The second thing is that I don't know how to explain why we would pass a bill that would allow plastics to go into a landfill when they could potentially be recycled, which is what the current process allows for. Even though they have to be exported, they get processed.
The reason I'm raising all this is to say that these are the kinds of flaws that exist in this bill. These are the kinds of issues that we've heard from witnesses and officials need to be resolved, clarified or better defined.
I think Ms. Saks presents an amendment that's quite reasonable and practical, which is designed to give the government time to fix the bill, to fix the regulations to ensure that they conform and to make sure that we have the capacity to actually implement this.
The last point I'll make is that, at the end of the day, we're the environment committee and we're here to protect the environment. What we've heard from folks, including officials, is that this bill, if it were to pass in its current state, would potentially have plastic waste, some of which could have been recycled, sitting in landfills. That's not protecting the environment. That's damaging it.
I'm disappointed about that. I'm disappointed that this bill has come this far along. I do not think we should allow it to pass, but if that's the will of the opposition members, then I think, at the very least, they should give the government time to make the necessary adjustments to compensate for some of these flaws and problems.