moved:
That in the opinion of this House, the government should act decisively, in response to the evidence in the Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Report, to eliminate persistent organic pollutants by working to advance the POPs protocol.
Madam Speaker, members may ask why we are debating this motion. The brief answer is that certain harmful polluting substances, which travel long distances, are landing in the Arctic. The Government of Canada is constructively working with other governments in arriving at agreements to reduce these polluting substances, to protect human health, the environment, wildlife and people living in the Arctic.
The name of these polluting substances is POPs. They are pesticides used in agriculture, chemicals such as PCBs, products such as chlorinated dioxins, furans, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons otherwise known as PAHs, resulting from fossil fuel combustion, the burning and processing of wood and other materials.
One might ask why the signature on the protocol of persistent organic pollutants or POPs is important and urgent. Because 16 nations are required to ratify the protocol so that the agreement to reduce organic pollutants goes into effect. I am told it will be open for signature by interested nations after December 21, 1998.
The situation in the Arctic is described in the Canadian Arctic contaminants assessment report which was produced last year.
The report states that persistent organic pollutants from sources outside Canada and outside the Arctic have been transported to the Arctic by air. These pollutants find their way into the Arctic food chain and accumulate in traditional aboriginal foods. As a result, high levels of the pesticides toxaphene and chlordane have been found in beluga muktoq and seal meat. In many cases, our Inuit people who eat even a very small quantity of traditional sources of meat may ingest more than what Health Canada considers tolerable.
It is important to note that neither toxaphene nor chlordane is used in Canada.
In that report we find also that there are disturbing measurements of PCBs in the breast milk of Inuit women which are now among the highest levels in the world. In the cases of 40% and over of Inuit women, the PCB in their blood is up to five times the level of concern prescribed by the Department of Health.
Clearly, human health depends on what we do about pollutants and in the case of the Arctic, about these POPs. In southern Canada, Professor Jules Blais of the University of Ottawa whose research appeared in the journal Nature in October 1998 reports disturbing quantities of pesticides transported by air to the Rocky Mountains. In the Columbia ice fields and at Lake Louise, Professor Blais found traces of the prairie crop insecticide, lindane; endosulphan, a popular insect killer used in eastern Canada; chlordane, a banned termite terminator; and even DDT, a pesticide banned in Canada but still in use in China, in Mexico and in other countries.
There are also reports related to Denver and Mexico City. People may face a problem with respect to their drinking water from snow melts on mountains more than 3,000 metres high where there may be even greater accumulation of pollutants than found in our Rockies. Scientists in Switzerland have also expressed alarm because a number of Swiss towns also take their water from lakes high in the mountains.
All this points to the problems posed by these POPs as faced by people and governments in different continents.
For the Government of Canada, it therefore becomes necessary to control the release of these POPs that we still produce at home, such as dioxins and furans. As long as we continue to produce them, POPs will enter the ecosystem and the food chain.
The more we pollute, the higher price we pay in terms of health care costs. Many POPs we are told cause endocrine system defects, immune system dysfunction, reproductive abnormalities and developmental problems in humans. Some POPs can induce or promote cancers. Here at home once we clean our own backyard, then of course we can urge our neighbours to clean up theirs.
Ratifying the POPs protocol becomes desirable so that other countries know we are serious about the reduction of these organic pollutants.
We need to take a lead role in the implementation of the new global agreement. A meeting of international experts on organic pollutants held in Vancouver in 1995 produced recommendations. The agreement I am referring to is the one that UNEP, the United Nations environment program, produced to ensure that firm targets and timetables are set for the elimination of these POPs around the globe.
It will take a great deal of political will to convince developing countries of the long term human health benefits of eliminating POPs. It will also require significant financial resources to help those countries to change their processes and practices in agriculture and pest management.
Apparently the World Bank and other international lenders, as a condition for giving financial aid, often force farmers in developing countries to use pesticides containing POPs. This policy led to a meeting in Vancouver three years ago when international experts got together and came up with the following recommendations.
One, that international and national banking practices should promote safe alternatives to and the reduction and elimination of POPs.
Two, that incentives for the use of safer pesticides and chemicals be offered to communities in developing nations in order to reduce and eliminate POPs.
Three, that there be an enforcement of stricter limits on pesticide residue on food and that countries be discouraged from using POPs in agriculture.
Four, that human and ecological health be taken into account when making decisions related to trade and investment.
The importance of addressing the human health implications in the Arctic resulting from the long range transport of organic pollutants is proven by the northern contaminants program. This will be funded in Canada for a further five years by the Government of Canada, in the amount of $6 million each year, for a total of $30 million.
The elimination of these organic pollutants also points to the need to take action in Canada on several fronts.
First, we must continue to do research on the effects of POPs. Second, we must enact strong legislation to eliminate and prevent POPs and enforce it. Third, we must regulate industry efficiently and prevent damage to human health. Fourth, we must ban substances that are dangerous to human health and, where certain substances cannot be banned, use pollution prevention policies.
We are mindful of the fact that there are over 23,000 substances registered for use in Canada. So far only a handful have been banned. Thousands of others still need to be reviewed to determine if they are toxic and plans for their management, control and elimination still are to be developed.
There is a need to implement a policy whereby health is given priority over the economy because, as we are discovering, over the long term a healthy society and a healthy environment ensure the foundation for a healthy economy. This is the reason we as parliamentarians are interested in promoting and accelerating treaties which reduce international pollution.
International organic pollutants, POPs, must be seen as a threat to health and the economy. Pollutants from faraway places can and do harm us. Hence, there is a necessity for agreements between governments so as to ensure good economic and environmental behaviour among nations.
For parliamentarians there is a role to play through the Arctic Council. There are parliamentary colleagues in Scandinavia, the U.S.A. and Russia interested in preventing pollution. The member for Lac-Saint-Louis and I discovered this fact several years ago and have at every opportunity advanced the cause of pollution prevention and reduction through the signature of protocols. In the case of organic pollutants, we have done so in Iqaluit, in Salekhard, Russia and at the Council of Europe.
Next year we intend to intensify our efforts in Brussels on the occasion of a meeting of the Arctic Council and again in Strasbourg at the Council of Europe.
I conclude in urging colleagues in this House to speak forcefully in favour of pollution reduction and prevention and any initiative that can take us toward the reduction and virtual elimination of pollutants which are so damaging to human health, the economy and the environment.
As the population on this globe grows and human activities intensify, it is becoming evident that we have to accelerate the process of pollution reduction and, where possible, pollution prevention through changes in industrial processes and practices if we are to make life on this planet possible in the long run.
The issue of POPs is a classic example of international interdependence. The pollutants we let into the atmosphere can harm people in distant places and the pollutants emitted in distant places harm us. We have to renew the strong will which guided us in the seventies and the eighties and make a concerted new effort toward the goal of a pollution free society. Today that is what this debate on POPs is all about.