Emmanuella, thank you so much for the question.
That Saint-Laurent plant is a great plant for us. It's been there since 1983. We appreciate the workforce there, and the innovation that's come out of there.
Our company recycles about 22 million pounds of plastic a year. It goes into products that are sold to Home Depot, Rona, Lowe's and big box stores. It's used for drainage pipes, rainwater leaders and also in the construction sector.
The products we make are long life. Water mains are supposed to last 100 to 200 years. Certainly, ours do, because they don't rust. The other alternatives have a much shorter lifespan.
When we talk about single-use plastics, I totally agree with you. Litter is the issue with single-use plastics, and Environment Canada should deal with that, as such. The provinces have jurisdiction over litter, not the federal government. The federal government should work in coalition with all the provinces to make a better recycling program for all plastics.
We live in a modern economy. Look around you. It is impossible to ban plastics, even though the government has signalled that it is going to ban a certain number of them by using a blunt instrument called CEPA, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. It needs to change CEPA, so that it can deal with environmental issues without calling for bans. That's the big error made by Environment Canada.
We're currently in a pilot program with Environment Canada. We collect oxygen masks, IV tubing and a couple of other plastic products from five major hospitals in downtown Toronto, and we recycle that material into longer-life products. There are many solutions out there that Canadian companies are providing. There's no need to ban anything.