Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members, for allowing us to present before you.
This discussion about the Hazardous Products Act is quite important to the Chemistry Industry Association. We're the voice of Canada's chemistry industry. Our members produce industrial chemicals across the country and we're major exporters.
I think a number of you know of our Responsible Care program. It's our industry's commitment to sustainability. It started in Canada, and it has spread to over 60 countries. It's something that I think all Canadians can be quite proud of. We won the prestigious GLOBE Award for Sustainable Leadership this year because of the Responsible Care program.
The Hazardous Products Act amendments that we are talking about here today are the first step in modernizing Canada's workplace hazardous materials information system, WHMIS, to achieve closer alignment with its counterpart in the U.S. The second step will be the regulatory changes that will take place after you've passed these amendments and the Hazardous Products Act has been modified. Shannon has already described what WHMIS is about—both of us addressed that in our briefs—with labels and material safety data sheets and training. It's been quite a unique and successful initiative.
Over the last several years, Health Canada has conducted extensive consultations with industry and others to better align the system with the system in the U.S. under the international agreement of a globally harmonized system, but Canada and the U.S. have rightly decided to focus on aligning their systems with each other.
The U.S. regulations were out in 2012. They're ahead of us. They're in a transition phase right now. They're going to have to be in full compliance by June 1, 2015. Our agreement with the Americans is that we will collaborate with them in changing our regulations, which will be in force by the same date of June 1, 2015. There's been a number of important steps taken, which are outlined in our brief, to further that objective.
The changes to WHMIS that we're looking for through these legislative and regulatory changes will further the government's agenda of regulatory cooperation with the U.S. They should help make Canada more competitive, improve the efficiency of our regulatory regime, and maintain worker protection. To maximize the benefits that we can achieve from that, we need to implement the changes in the same timeframe as the Americans. We're a bit behind the ball on that.
To catch up, the transition period for the GHS regulatory changes to WHMIS in Canada needs to start this year. In the second half of this year, the Americans are going to start using their new labels and safety data sheets. Our member companies want the flexibility to do the same. They want to be able to transition to the GHS-based labels and safety data sheets in both countries at the same time. American companies want to do this as well. That's illustrated by the letter from the American Chemistry Council, our sister association, which is attached to our submission.
For this to happen, several important things need to occur. First of all, the amendments to the Hazardous Products Act that are part of this bill need to pass. That needs to be done very soon, and then the regulations can be implemented. Most importantly, the amendments have to pass in a way such that the government can introduce the regulatory changes this June. If that is not done, we fear there will be significant delays.
The June deadline for the regulations is necessary and possible, for a number of reasons. The normal gazetting process will occur. There will be the Gazette, part I, regulations and draft, and then they will go to final regulations in the Gazette, part II. But because there's already been very effective and extensive consultations by Health Canada with stakeholders on these regulations, they can be issued pretty much right after the legislation to the Hazardous Products Act is changed.
We are also looking for—