Environment committee  I have a few key messages. This is a very complex problem, and a bill with a one-sentence answer clearly can't solve this problem. The main concern here is that “final disposal” is not identified and it isn't defined. That needs serious attention. The solutions are in EPR. I hope you ask my colleague, Ms.

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, I think I'll be giving—

Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members. I'm here on behalf of the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada. We are an $80-billion chemistry and plastics industry in Canada. We are Canada's third-largest industry, with 80% of everything we make exported out of this nation. This is not a made-in-Canada issue.

Finance committee  Broadly, that's correct, and it fits in with the message I gave earlier. This is a growth industry. We have to remember where these chemicals go: they go into 95% of all finished products. If you can touch it, taste it, feel it or see it, it has chemistry in it. As the economy grows, as there more people in Asia aspire to enter have a middle-class lifestyle there, and worldwide too, more demand for more sustainable [Technical difficulty--Editor] water, clean energy, and safe, nutritious, abundant food, that means more and more chemistry.

Finance committee  In the chemistry industry, you either locate your facilities close to the resource, and in that case, it's Alberta, or close to market. We have maybe less of a vibrant culture, but a historical culture in southwestern Ontario that is seeing some reinvestment. It could certainly do more.

Finance committee  If you look at the petrochemical sector, Canada is just in the top 10, but you have to go by scale. We're certainly not China. We're not the United States. We're not the Middle East. Then you're into, how do we outperform countries such as Singapore? How do we outperform countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium and those countries?

Finance committee  Both of these will, and they are both measures that we see south of the border. Those are things that Parliament can look at as it does a fundamental tax review. You can look at why Ireland and Switzerland are performing so much better. Why is the United States performing so much better?

Finance committee  What we have said to Mr. Wilkinson and the government is they have a multi-pronged approach to addressing the problem of plastic waste. We agree it's a serious problem. We agree that industry has to lead. Industry has to pay. We support the extended producer responsibility to take it off the backs of municipal taxpayers and let industry pay for it.

Finance committee  I think they'd be two separate initiatives. Again, if I could just share a bit of our investment picture.... In preparing for this meeting I did look at StatsCan data, and if you cast your mind back to 2007, you will know that we had $125 billion in FDI and $68 billion invested abroad.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. It's nice to see many of you again. It is a privilege to appear before you in these unprecedented circumstances. Before I begin, on behalf of our industry I want to acknowledge and thank Parliament for its work to support Canadians and Canadian businesses as they cope with the impacts of COVID-19 on their health and economic well-being.

Finance committee  Well, there are many different ways to make plastic. We have a large plastics industry in Canada because we have abundant low-carbon, low-cost natural gas liquids. The products come out when we take natural gas out of the ground, largely in western Canada. Other nations will make them out of crude oil or out of coal.

Finance committee  Thank you. I appreciate what Ms. Greenwood said, and I just want to provide that perspective from the chemistry sector. Again, we're your third-largest manufacturing sector, $60 billion a year. Because we have the resources to make it here in Canada, 80% of what we make is exported to global markets.

Finance committee  Let me answer that in the reverse order. First, as you know, in British Columbia the recycling system under Recycle BC is a 100% extended producer responsibility system. Those that produce packaging and put it into the economy are responsible for the cost of the recycling system.

Finance committee  Thank you, Chairman Easter. I'm pleased to be with you on behalf of Canada's chemical sector and the plastics manufacturers. For those who don't know us well, we're Canada's third-largest manufacturing industry, with about $60 billion a year of shipments. To begin, I want to extend our sector's appreciation to Parliament and to the Government of Canada for how quickly you have put in place a number of these measures to support individuals and the economy, businesses broadly.

Environment committee  I don't think that we are in a position to answer that at this time. Perhaps the tobacco industry might be better, but I think we're part of that value chain and we can find the people who can get an answer to you.