Canada Passes Its First Toxics-Reduction Law

Published June 03, 2009

TORONTO, Canada — The Ontario Legislature today passed the Toxics Reduction Act, the country's first-ever law to track and reduce the use of toxic chemicals, although many key details about its scope remain unsettled.

When it is finalized, the bill will require designated businesses and facilities to monitor their use of toxic chemicals, develop plans to help them reduce the use of those chemicals, and make summaries of those plans available to the public.

The province's government has pledged C$24 million to help businesses in Ontario meet the law's requirements; the funds will also go toward developing green alternatives and shaping plans for toxics-reduction.

The bill was approved by the Legislature today, but will go into the regulations process over the summer, during which time the government will develop the guidelines for the specifics of the law.

Upon passage of the law, several groups called on the government to include strong amendments to the law that will give it teeth. The Canadian Cancer Society listed five amendments it would like to see in the bill, including the creation of numerical goals for reductions in toxics, replacing toxic chemicals with safer alternatives, and broad reporting requirements so that Canadian citizens can track what toxics are potentially in use in their communities.

Similarly, the Registered Nurses of Ontario released a statement calling the bill "bad for people's health," and urging the adoption of hard targets for reducing toxic materials, as well as following closely the experiences of Massachusetts' Toxics Use Reduction Act, upon which Ontario's new law is closely modeled.

Earlier this year, a coalition of health and environmental groups urged the U.S. Congress to overhaul the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA, the country's flagship toxics regulation. And in the fall of 2008, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a chemical regulation law into effect, giving that state the ability regulate chemicals of concern.

Photos CC-licensed by Flickr users hyku and PhantomWard.

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Canada Passes Its First Toxics-Reduction Law

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Canada Passes Its First Toxics-Reduction Law

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