Industry committee  No, we can't. We're a trade-exposed sector. We primarily export.

Industry committee  Thank you for the question. I think one of the important things to keep in mind is that we are a natural resources country, and one of the things we forget is that our natural resources are actually among the lowest among other jurisdictions in terms of greenhouse gas emissions through the manufacturing cycle.

Industry committee  The science hasn't been done yet. The science is still very much in flux. The federal government would need to do a risk assessment to determine what the impacts are. A draft science assessment was conducted by Health Canada and Environment Canada. It was primarily a review of the state of science, and it identified the fact that plastics are problematic in the environment, but there are no material impacts at this point because the science is just not available yet in terms of human health.

Industry committee  No, that's not the position. The products haven't been listed yet. We're asking the federal government to choose an alternative method to manage plastics. If you declare polypropylene, for instance, as toxic, that becomes problematic because the face masks you're wearing or the face shield you're wearing would then be deemed toxic.

Industry committee  That's a fair point. Our position is that these are not toxic, but they need to be managed. They can't be in the environment. Microplastics in particular degrade or deteriorate, and they should not be in the environment. There are a number of other tools that we can implement, including circular economy legislation, that will allow us to incent the development of advanced recycling technologies to help with product design and create polymers down the road that have fewer additives in them and are safe.

Industry committee  Sure. I mean, the plastics haven't been listed there yet, but the CEPA's schedule 1 is titled, “List of Toxic Substances”. There are tons of substances, over 3,000, that are listed there, including zinc and CO2. If something is applied there, it means.... Once it's listed, it requires a management process.

Industry committee  We usually run about 10% of investment linked to the U.S. We've been tracking much less than that, but again, we have the potential for another $20 billion in investment and are hoping that, with the right supports in place and good, sound policy, we'll be able to get there.

Industry committee  It's a little bit of both. If you think back to 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis, the chemistry sector weathered those fairly well, primarily because 95% of manufactured products globally include chemistry solutions in them. They're made up of chemical compounds and solutions.

Industry committee  Yes, it's an excellent platform. It was spearheaded by BASF Canada and Trimac. It builds on a platform that had been in place to link people who had goods to transport with trucks and transportation, sort of a dating network. In this particular case, BASF and Trimac were able to modify it so that we could make it available to a broad spectrum.

Industry committee  We've been working very closely with the government and support the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment and the federal government in their approach to managing plastic in the environment, in particular, their approach for zero plastic waste. Our concern with the federal government's impending approach to regulating single-use plastics and plastic pollution in the environment is that they have indicated they want to use the CEPA, Canadian Environmental Protection Act, in particular, schedule 1, which is a list of toxic substances.

Industry committee  We are hoping so. We feel there's a tremendous opportunity with the CEPA review process, which should be getting under way in either June or July this year. There's an opportunity there to potentially bring about amendments, in particular to the pollution prevention section, that might be able to help the government address its concerns, while ensuring the toxic designation isn't used.

Industry committee  We're looking at the two polypropylene investments that are currently being made in Alberta and Ontario. We're also looking at CKPC, the Canada Kuwait Petrochemical Corporation, and Pembina. They have received supports and have deferred their $4-billion investment in Alberta until after the COVID crisis.

Industry committee  The biggest ones are around investment supports. One of the things that's really critical to understand is that we're using feedstocks from Canadian natural gas and natural gas liquids, which can bring about greenhouse gas emissions reductions in intensity, up to 60% in some cases, compared to other products worldwide.

Industry committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. It's my pleasure to be with you today on behalf of Canada's chemistry and plastics manufacturers. You may be aware that Canada's chemistry sector generates nearly $60 billion a year, making us the third-largest manufacturing sector in the country.

International Trade committee  It's a very vibrant industry. Chemistry is foundational to all of our products. When we're thinking about moving to a low-carbon economy, that drives alternative energy, and it drives a lot of the light-weighting of our vehicles in terms of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.