I am really concerned about…

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013-4235

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20656

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I am really concerned about the proposed changes to the Toxics Reduction Act which would exempt facilities FOREVER from having to make a toxics reduction plan, or report on such a plan, including "Facilities that have never planned or reported under the program, but now meet the reporting threshold for one or more toxic substances;"

If I am understanding this correctly, only known, well-established polluters will have to report on their (hopefully) pollution abatement activities. New companies or new agribusiness operators will be forever exempt. So I could start a new polluting business and be forever exempt.

This is unbelievable.

The rationale seems to be that the Federal Chemicals Management Plan will take care of everything for us. But...
1. There have been some critiques of its failure to address chemicals which impact women more than men (cf. Regulating Toxics: Sex and Gender in Canada's Chemical Management Plan)
2. What reassurance do we have that Ontarians will continue to receive this information in the form we need it?

This change is proposed to become effective in 2021. So why not wait until 2021 to propose this legislation? Then the federal CMP could be evaluated to see if it even meets Ontario's needs at that time.