Environment committee  Thank you for this opportunity to present the Mining Association of Canada's views on the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. Since you recently heard from my colleague Ben Chalmers, I will not repeat a description of who we are. CEPA is only one of several federal acts that

Environment committee  Not as far as I know. The industry itself, the copper manufacturers generally, do not encourage or do not actively pursue any dispersive uses. Much more the focus is on solid objects that have no dispersal and that can be recycled at the end.

Environment committee  No, because you're using it as a pesticide, essentially, preventing rot.

Environment committee  But I'm not familiar with that particular example.

Environment committee  Not as far as I know. It would presumably be something like pressure-treated wood. Presumably there is some other act that assesses the alternatives, but I....

Environment committee  Our submission was not meant to imply that the term was inappropriate; it's just that it is not the everyday definition. You have to keep that in mind as you are discussing what to do with CEPA-toxics, in that it's a mélange of things. It may be the traditional high hazard or it

Environment committee  We're not going to run out of it.

Environment committee  It's 30%.

Environment committee  Yes, and that reflects that most uses of copper have a long lifespan. For example, the wiring in this building will not be available for recycling for perhaps 50 years, plus there's growth in electrification around the world.

Environment committee  That question I could not answer off the top of my head. We would have to get some numbers.

Environment committee  Probably not, but the market responds to prices. As prices go up, more mines come to market. If there's an oversupply, then mines shut down, because there's too much and prices drop. It is difficult to align or assign the correlation. All we know is that when prices go too high,

Environment committee  No. In some of the government publications, they mention that they are monitoring this or this is based on monitoring data. However, when we ask where that data is, it's, “Well, we're not publishing it.”

Environment committee  I don't know. I don't know why, but there isn't a cultural practice or policy to get the data out there, possibly because of costs.

Environment committee  Yes.

Environment committee  Yes, and that is captured under the NPRI.