Good afternoon to the members of the committee.
My name is Amélie Côté, and I'm a source reduction analyst at Équiterre.
Équiterre is a well-known Quebec-based environmental organization with 126,000 supporters, over 22,000 members and a 30-year history.
Waste management is one of our key priorities in our 2021-25 strategic plan. We're working to reduce waste at the source from a circular economy perspective.
In 2022, the organization published the first Canada-wide study on access to repairs, which I had the pleasure of coordinating and jointly directing. The study was funded by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada's Office of Consumer Affairs.
I would like today to draw your attention to two key points.
Firstly, as shown by the name of this committee's study, when we talk about the circular economy, it's often a matter of recycling, and focusing on extending the life of existing products.
Given the shortage of critical and strategic minerals, the key strategies of a circular economy should be given priority. Extending the life of products and components makes for a better use of resources. This applies to metals and plastics that have already been extracted and processed, as well as to existing electronics and electric household appliances.
At the reuse symposium jointly organized by environment Canada in the fall of 2022, several attendees underscored the problems involved in applying government funding to reuse initiatives on broader scale. In fact, most efforts go to recycling.
I would like today to encourage the committee members to include the key circular economy strategies among its recommendations.
The second point I would like to draw to your attention is the importance of promoting access to repairs through public policies that would extend the life of electronics and electric home appliances.
In Équiterre's study on repairing, we learned that fewer than 20% of Canadians repaired their products over the past two years. Furthermore, 63% of those who responded to the Canada-wide survey reported having at least one item break down during that period, within an average of 2.6 years after acquiring it. The reduced service life and repairability of these devices has a significant environmental impact on Canada and an economic impact on Canadians. We can talk more about this if you wish.
Équiterre made recommendations during the consultation on the future of Canada's competition policy. We believe that stronger competition requires the democratization of access to parts, tools and information for independent repairers and for the owners of the products being repaired.
It's also important to have access to better information when making purchases, to assist in making well-informed decisions. Canada could draw inspiration from France's repairability index, which will be replacing its durability index, and provide information about the service life and repairability of products at the time of purchase. A durability index could be introduced across Canada. It would be an important step toward supporting the development of a circular economy in Canada.
Repair cost is the second impediment identified in our study. To address it, a variety of environmental tax measures could be introduced. These could be tax credits, a repair fund based on the French approach, or tax credits for repair work. It would be useful to analyze the potential impact of these measures on decisions about whether or not to repair an appliance, to ensure that they are achieving this objective.
A brief was sent to the committee to allow you to explore these issues in greater depth.
I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have about the issues dealt with in my address.
Thank you for your attention.