Environment committee  Good morning. Thank you, Madam Chair, and members of the committee for the opportunity to appear today. As mentioned, my name is Bob Masterson. I am president and CEO of the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada, also known as CIAC. I am joined today by CIAC's vice-president,

Environment committee  We have a diverse membership of companies in the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada, about 50 companies representing 75% of the value of shipments in the business of chemistry. To be a member of our association, they must commit to implementing Responsible Care, and that re

Environment committee  I'll be honest. Significant improvements in environmental performance happen when companies can invest in new product and new processes, and not just in our sector but in any sector in Canada. That's when the biggest reductions come. Have the conditions been ripe to allow that to

Environment committee  A certain number of companies are small ones. Taking the value of shipments, we represent about 70% to 75% of the value of industrial chemical shipments in Canada. If you think about the chemical industry as a pie of about $50 billion, half of it is agricultural chemicals and p

Environment committee  I would say it's already built into CEPA. Everybody understands that with a substance that is persistent, bioaccumulative, and inherently toxic, the way it's distributed—let's assume that it's via air emissions, not water.... Given the way the global atmosphere works, we know tha

Environment committee  Absolutely. I think there was a comment about section 71. It made me chuckle a little bit, because I can tell you that in our industry there's a significant workload involved in responding to section 71 information requests. The certainty is there, and there's also due process.

Environment committee  We believe so. The public has many sets of interests. Certainly protection of human health and the environment is part of them, but also, as I mentioned, effective use of public resources. I know Mr. Moffet was here yesterday. You will probably have questions about REACH. That

Environment committee  Well, I believe that we have a process. There's a list of substances there and we know what's of concern. We have a process to examine, at industry's cost, new substances that come into commerce. The question of alternatives comes up very fully every time a risk management is d

Environment committee  No, but—

Environment committee  I would just say that what you've talked about is the inherent difference between a hazard approach and a risk approach. On the example of saying that someone's exposed to something because of the nature of their job and what's the right thing—to remove the person from that posi

Environment committee  I don't think that's true at all. We're talking here about the role of the federal government. The marketplace plays a very strong role. Someone mentioned phthalates earlier. The companies that are the largest producers of phthalates are the world's largest producers of phthala

Environment committee  There are also examples of substances that were found through assessment to not be toxic, but that companies themselves have voluntarily removed from the marketplace because of the precautionary principle. It isn't all about rules and decisions that the government makes. It's a

Environment committee  Under CEPA there's a very clear division between risk assessment, which is a scientific examination of the risk of the substance that it could pose on human health, and the environment. That is very separate from how the substance is used and how it should be managed and that's i

Environment committee  No.

Environment committee  The section 71 notices gather a very robust set of information on how those products enter commerce and how they're being used. I assure you that's a key part of decision-making on which risk management tools are used. I hate to use a metaphor like the eighty-twenty rule, but as