Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Beaches—East York.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my colleague from Halifax for her work on the environment and for this motion calling for microbeads to be added to the list of toxic substances by the federal government under the Environmental Protection Act.
This is a very important motion. As an MP from the Toronto area, my riding borders Lake Ontario. I take this very seriously, as do constituents in our area and people who live around the Great Lakes. However, this also affects people who live around the world.
We know about plastic contaminant in our world's oceans, but we are talking about the very small manufactured pieces of plastic called microbeads, which are particularly problematic. They are used in many consumer products, such as facial cleansers, shower gels and toothpaste.
These microbeads persist in the environment and are very susceptible to soaking up toxins in the water around them. They cause harm to fish and other wildlife. They are found in very high concentrations in the Great Lakes waters, particularly downstream from major cities.
Toronto is a major city in Canada, and my riding is on the border of the Humber River, which is one of the major watersheds in our area. Toxins come down that river and into Lake Ontario. In fact, a U.S. study found the highest concentration of microbeads among the Great Lakes in the Lake Ontario area. This is of great concern to everyone in the city of Toronto.
Microbeads are consumed by a variety of marine life, fish harvested for human consumption, and it can also cause asphyxiation and blockages of organs in marine animals. Chemical pollutants tend to accumulate and persist in microplastics, which could then transfer these chemicals to the animals ingesting the plastic.
Microbeads have been patented for use since 1972, but it was not until the 1990s when manufacturers began to replace them with more natural alternatives, such as ground almonds, oatmeal and sea salt. Therefore, since alternatives do exist, plastic microbeads are not an essential ingredient in cosmetics or personal care products.
Water treatment facilities are unable to filter these microbeads because they are very small and buoyant. Upgrading treatment plants would be prohibitively costly and there are no known ways to effectively remove these microplastics after they make their way into the environment. Therefore, the simplest solution, and the one that the New Democrats support, is reducing the problem at its source and preventing it by getting rid of these microbeads.
The New Democrats want the government to take immediate action and designate microbeads as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. This would then allow the federal government to regulate, phase out or eliminate the use of microbeads used or produced in Canada.
I am sure all of us in the House want a clean and healthy environment. We want to ensure the ongoing recreational fishery in Canada and the safety of fish and other aquatic species.
The motion before us would also make a level playing field for businesses that want to do the right thing but feel they are at a competitive disadvantage if their competitors do not take the same action. The government can clearly take the competition out of this situation by regulating microbeads and identifying them as a toxin. We want the government to assume its federal responsibility as a steward of our environment and take action to eliminate these toxins. I know this might be difficult for the Conservatives, because their record on the environment has not been a good one.
They have shut down the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy; they withdrew funding for the Canadian Environmental Network; they have muzzled, fired, or intimidated government scientists; they have cut nearly $3 billion and up to 5,000 jobs from science-based departments, including scientific research positions and programs for monitoring air, water, and wildlife; they have gutted environmental assessments and legislation, and greased the wheels for big resource development, with little environmental oversight or scrutiny.
In my own area, the Humber River was removed from protection from the Navigation Protection Act. This is something that, working with my colleague from York South—Weston, we are trying to redress and get that protection reinstated because the Humber River is essential to so much of the watershed in the region north of Toronto and in the Toronto area. It is something we take very seriously.
The environment minister, so far, has responded by saying that this is a waste management issue that should be dealt with by the province. We hope that the federal government will look seriously at this and take a different stance. We need to get microbeads put on the toxic list for protection under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, and to define a substance as toxic:
a substance is toxic if it is entering or may enter the environment in a quantity or concentration or under conditions that
(a) have or may have an immediate or longterm harmful effect on the environment or its biological diversity;
(b) constitute or may constitute a danger to the environment on which life depends; or
(c) constitute or may constitute a danger in Canada to human life or health.
New Democrats believe that these microbeads certainly qualify.
Under CEPA, both the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of Health are responsible for developing a list of substances that must be assessed in a timely manner to determine if they are toxic or capable of becoming toxic. This list is known as the Priority Substances List. It is a requirement that substances on this list be assessed within five years of their addition to the list. Environment Canada and Health Canada have a legal obligation to determine if these PSL substances are toxic, as defined in section 64 of the act. Toxic is defined in terms of risks that substances pose to the environment or to human health.
I should say that some businesses have been trying to do their part. While Environmental Defence has been calling on the federal government to ban microbeads in consumer products, at least 21 companies around the world that produce or carry cosmetics and personal care products have made some level of commitment to phase out microbeads in their products and not carry products containing them. This is significant.
Internationally, the Dutch parliament is promoting a European ban on microplastics in cosmetics and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, a binational coalition of more than 100 mayors, is calling on companies to phase out the use of microbeads by 2015.
Companies are already doing this or have done this. The Body Shop said:
As part of our commitment to help save the planet, we’ll be phasing out microbeads from all of our products by 2015.
Johnson & Johnson said:
We’ve already begun the phase out of polyethylene microbeads in our personal care products. We have stopped developing new products containing plastic microbeads.
Colgate-Palmolive is working on this as well. A number of businesses are doing this.
In summary, Canadians have a right to expect that basic health protection is the utmost priority of their federal government, preventing microbeads from getting into our major water sources, when that is so easily preventable. Remember that the Great Lakes are the biggest freshwater body in the world and these essential sources of our fresh water need to be kept free and clear of toxins. This seems like a basic responsibility of the federal government, and I would expect every colleague in the House to do his or her part and support this motion. Let us get rid of these toxins, clean up our Great Lakes, and protect the people of Canada.
