Thank you, and on behalf of the Canadian Association of Chemical Distributors, we welcome this opportunity to share with the committee today. I'll just say right off the start here that I think all of the associations represented here today are on the same page.
The Canadian Association of Chemical Distributors comprises 48 Canadian companies that distribute chemical products to manufacturing end-users in Canada. We operate from 160 sites across Canada, employing 3,600 people. Our member companies receive, store, handle, and offer for transportation over 100,000 chemical products of every hazard class, with the exception of radioactive materials and crude oil. These substances range from commodity substances to complex proprietary mixtures. In addition to what I'll call straight distribution members, we have 90 members that are part of the chemical supply chain made up of transportation, brokerage, and warehousing companies.
Our member companies commit to conducting their business in strict adherence to the code for responsible distribution. Our members are passionate about responsibly distributing chemical substances in a manner without negative impact to individuals, communities, and the environment that we share with all living things. Each member company receives an on-site verification that each site they operate from complies with the responsible distribution code. Verification is done through a third party, SAI Global, Canada's largest registrar of management systems such as ISO 9000 quality, and ISO 14000 environmental.
With over 700 safe shipments made last year, our membership received a transportation incident measurement,TIM, of 1.71. This was made up of 12 incidents, of which 10 involved dangerous goods and two involved non-dangerous goods. Since statistics are somewhat limited in putting things into perspective, I can say that the 10 dangerous goods incidents were far from catastrophic. They were more along the lines of the reportables within Transport Canada's dangerous goods regulations, where five kilograms of a corrosive may have been released into containment on a site, etc., or 250 litres of a flammable. Again, there was no permanent environmental impact. A lot of these incidents happen not in transportation but in the handling and offering for transport, and that is reportable.
This is not to downplay a release, as for CACD members no release is acceptable. Prevention measures are an integral part of the responsible distribution code. Our registrar’s auditors examine a site’s release-prevention measures, as well as response measures. CACD member companies typically hold emergency response assistance plans registered with Transport Canada if they're offering for transport those substances identified under the regulations as requiring a plan.
We use the services of contractors belonging to the Canadian Emergency Response Contractors' Alliance, CERCA—and I apologize for all the acronyms creeping in here. Regular exercises are held with the contractor to ensure readiness and response. Member companies participate in regional TransCAER—transportation community awareness and emergency response—together with the chemical manufacturers; transportation companies, road and rail; regulators at all levels of government; and community responders. We seek to communicate with and educate the communities that our products are passing through or are being delivered to.
You Be The Chemist is a very well-received program that CACD has partnered together with local schools to stimulate an interest in chemistry. We've also participated with the B.C. Ministry of Environment in the process that they are going through to produce a world-class, land-based, spill prevention response regime, and have appreciated being able to be part of that.
While our members as a whole tend to ship in packaged containment via road, there is a significant number of bulk road shipments and road tankers. As well our larger member companies do have tank-car rail fleets for shipping, while many member companies may only receive in rail tank cars, and then from their storage they ship via road.
Again, I would echo the same concerns as have already been expressed, and I look forward to answering your questions surrounding our business and our concerns.
Thank you very much.