Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition on behalf of concerned Canadians.
Since October 2023, Health Canada has prohibited all pentachlorophenol wood preservative products used to treat Douglas fir utility poles. Basically, all the stock had to be used by this month.
The petitioners highlight that DCOI is an arsenic-free, chromium-free and dioxin-free preservative that has been standardized by the American Wood Protection Association since 1989 and has been approved by the United States and Europe for use in wood preservatives. Of the four pole preservatives registered in Canada, only creosote is oil-borne, leaving utilities without a modern oil-borne option, causing fir logs to be uncoated and hence unusable as utility poles.
There are only three processing plants left, and this has resulted in Canadian fir being exported to the United States for further processing, which could have been done right here in Canada. There is a loss of jobs, and it is not really helping the environment in the long run. This is an important issue the petitioners are bringing forward.