Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. We believe the elected MPs on the ENVI House of Commons committee are best placed to address real concerns in Bill S-5. We also believe government officials are best placed to determine the validity of the proposed amendments, ultimately. What we absolutely

Environment committee  I'll go to the heart of what we're doing with respect to labelling. There are a number of acts that seek to have more labelling. When you look at what we're faced with now in terms of labelling, we have the Hazardous Products Act and we have the consumer chemicals and containers

Environment committee  There are 60 amendments. There is the cumulative effects proposal in terms of ensuring that all the cumulative effects are looked at in the assessment of chemicals. There are attempts to do that right now under the framework that exists. The government has the ability to invoke t

Environment committee  I'm sorry. I don't understand the premise of the question. Can you repeat it, please?

Environment committee  There will be a lot more.... Right now, we spend about 80% of our time with our staff, looking at chemical assessments and their requirements. We're compelled to provide all of the data requirements that the government imposes on us under the act. What the senators are suggestin

Environment committee  We had an example of that last week in Europe. In 2021, they came forward with an assessment for TiO2, a substance that has been in place for many years. The industry challenged it. It went to the European Court of Justice and it was overturned last week. That's a substance that

Environment committee  I think we trust government. If the government were to continue to honour the CBI system, the confidential business information system as it is in place now, I think that would work well. What we're concerned about is that if you allow more openness, I suppose, sharing that inf

Environment committee  Sure.

Environment committee  Yes, we would support it, for sure. We have assessments now that drag on for a long period of time. That creates uncertainty for industry. Having more certainty would be better. We know that there are resource constraints imposed on government. If you look at our sector alone,

Environment committee  That's a lot of work.

Environment committee  All of the products that are being assessed are in commerce now. There are a whole bunch that are prioritized for assessment under CEPA—under the CMP—so they're presumed to be of concern. That's what we're doing in the CMP. We're engaging with the government on literally hundreds

Environment committee  Well, it affects us a lot, because it's already happening. Fifty per cent of our products now sold in Canada are shipped to Canada over the border. Manufacturing has been leaving Canada, so their products are being shipped here. Twenty years ago, it was 30%; now it's 50%, and it

Environment committee  They're still regulated, 100% regulated, but—

Environment committee  That's right. You're not going to have all the information—new information, new chemistries, new innovation that we would have here in Canada. We would have to import that or buy it in higher-priced products.

Environment committee  Yes.