Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Bill C-32 and to the many motions that have been put forward within Group No. 1.
As the member opposite has recognized, the motions that we are dealing with today deal with export controls, virtual elimination and focus on toxics. The preamble of Bill C-32, as amended by the standing committee, talks about the phase-out of the generation and use of persistent and biocumulative toxic substances.
Government Motion No. 2 proposes an amendment to make the statement in the preamble consistent with that which is in the bill.
There are also changes on biotechnology and the administrative duties of the bill. As a result of the amendments put forward by the Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development, the administrative duties now correctly reference products of biotechnology.
For clarity, government Motion No. 9 retains this reference but places it in a separate clause that recognizes the need to protect the environment by providing for the safe and effective use of biotechnology.
I think all members will agree that the bill in its entirety is focused on making sure that we are producing a win for the environment, a win for the Canadian public and a win for the future health of Canadians. The bill is on the leading edge of environmental protection worldwide. It focuses on pollution prevention, the protection of our environment and the health of all Canadians. It strengthens the environmental protection act, as the member opposite has mentioned, a piece of legislation that came in some five years ago.
One of the key components of the bill is the section on virtual elimination. Virtual elimination means reducing the releases to the environment of a very small number of the most dangerous toxic substances to a level where these releases cannot be measured.
Right now we are talking about 12 substances in Canada that have been found to meet the criteria for virtual elimination. Nine of these substances, one example being DDT, are banned in Canada. Controls are in place or are being developed for the remaining three. There are 23,000 substances in commerce in Canada. It is estimated that over the next number of years 10 or 12 could also be slated for virtual elimination.
Why are we doing this? Even extremely small releases of certain substances to the environment can create problems that are extremely costly or impossible to correct. This is particularly true of substances that are: toxic as defined under the environmental protection act; primarily the result of human activity; persistent, take a long time to break down, if ever; and bioaccumulative, collect in living organisms and end up in the food chain.
A prime example of this is the insecticide DDT, which I mentioned earlier. It was introduced into Canada in the 1940s. It was responsible for causing drastic reductions in many bird populations, especially those at higher levels in the food chain such as gulls, cormorants and bald eagles.
Despite the ban in Canada on all major uses of DDT in the 1970s, today DDT is being detected in the breast milk of Canada's Inuit people. The bill will make sure that we remove these substances from our communities and from the environment in Canada.
The bill is based on the regulatory relief limit that is very precise, the limit that industries will be obliged to meet after this limit is set. That will come after consideration of the health and environment risk to Canadians, of the social and economic situation, and of technical matters. Does the technology exist? Do we need to develop something else?
Sometimes achieving the virtual elimination of these substances will not be immediately feasible. The bill recognizes the need to consider all these matters.
The government amendments to these sections, represented in a whole series of motions, will make it clear that virtual elimination planning and regulatory requirements will be set after consideration of environmental or health risks, as well social, economic and technical matters. This is a common sense approach.
With the special regime for the virtual elimination of the most dangerous and toxic substances, Bill C-32 is on the leading edge.
The member opposite talked about inherent toxicity. To be slated for virtual elimination, a substance must meet the criteria for toxicity in section 64 of the bill. Government Motion No. 88 clarifies ambiguous language in subsection 77(3) to make sure that the only toxic substances are put on the track to virtual elimination. This is consistent with other sections in the bill and the government's commitment to risk-based decision making.
Let us talk about export controls. Government Motion No. 128 is a technical amendment to make it clear that it is both the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of Health who add a substance to the export control list. This is about stewardship. It is about people being responsible within our borders for what they are producing and what they are sending elsewhere.
I would like to talk for a couple of seconds about some of the opposition motions that are before us. The Bloc Quebecois have several motions that would need the agreement of the provinces before we could move ahead with virtual elimination of persistent and bioaccumulative toxic substances.
Let us be clear. In 1998 the federal government and all the provinces and territories endorsed the national policy for the management of toxic substances. That policy is reflected in the bill.
Bill C-32 is consistent with the policy which calls for the virtual elimination of persistent and bioaccumulative toxic substances. With the new CEPA, the federal government will continue to work closely with its provincial and territorial partners in taking action to deal with toxics.
The New Democratic Party wants to alter the definition of toxic and to abandon the current practice of making decisions based on risk. The government is committed to a risk-based approach when dealing with toxic substances. Basing our decisions on an assessment of risk to the environment and human health is the internationally accepted way of doing things. Abandoning it would produce no environmental benefit and would put Canada out of step with the other nations with whom we work so closely to protect the environment from the threat of toxics.
Both the Bloc Quebecois and the Reform Party want to return the definition of virtual elimination to that which was originally proposed in the bill. The standing committee heard that the definition of virtual elimination that originally existed was confusing and could have been interpreted in conflicting ways. The government amendments corrected this problem. The definition in the bill is clear and credible.
Ultimately, reducing releases of the most dangerous of toxics to the point where they can no longer be measured is our goal for virtual elimination. Striving for anything less would put the environment and the human health of Canadians at unnecessary risk.
Let us talk about the Progressive Conservative amendments. Substantive gains have been made in this piece of legislation. Since there are several pieces of federal legislation that govern new substances and the expertise is shared across several government departments, it is appropriate that the decision making is in the hands of the governor in council.
A key point of the bill, which some people choose to ignore, is that CEPA sets the standard. Other acts must assess for toxicity to determine if the new substance has the potential to harm the environment or human health.
Let us talk about the Reform cross-referencing amendments to delete all mention of virtual elimination outside the definition in section 65. That would make the goal of virtual elimination unattainable. It would leave the definition of the bill without any corresponding operational clauses. We are not prepared to do that. It would be bowing to industry, to the mythology of some of the paranoia that has existed.
Reform amendments to the export control provisions would weaken Canada's ability to control exports of dangerous substances. It would add “for the purposes of implementing international agreements” and the concept is “severely” restricted. These limit the scope of the sections dealing with the export of toxics. It would take away Canada's ability to control exports of potentially dangerous chemicals unless they were covered by an international agreement.
Reform Motion No. 92 would make it impossible for Canada to control exports of CFCs which are responsible for depleting the earth's ozone layer. It would be kowtowing to industry, it would not be a good thing and it would take us to pre-Reform Party, pre-1985.
The bill is about stewardship. It is about pollution prevention. It is a good bill that is important for the health and environment of all Canadians. I urge all members to support it with the amendments we are proposing.