Consultation Workshops on Proposed PCBWEIR

• 1.1 Background and Objectives
• 1.2 Workshop Organization
• 1.3 Overview of the Report

1.1 Background and Objectives

Canada is in the process of updating its regulations to promote more efficient controls on transboundary movements and management of hazardous wastes and hazardous recyclable materials. This course is guided by the new Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 ("CEPA, 1999"), which strengthens the provisions concerning control and management of hazardous waste by incorporating new authorities into the legislation.

A review of the Export and Import of Hazardous Wastes Regulations ("EIHWR") has been initiated, with plans for new regulations to improve regulatory efficiency and enforcement, to implement changes to applicable international applicable international obligations and to implement the new CEPA, 1999 authorities by 2003. It is anticipated that the controls on the export and import of PCB wastes may eventually be integrated into these amended regulations as part of the EIHWR amendments. In the meantime, development of the amended EIHWR is in its early stages and will involve significant stakeholder consultation over the next two years.

Given the increasing interest in importing PCB wastes, rather than wait until EIHWR is amended, it was decided to amend the current PCB Waste Export Regulations ("PCBWER") in 2001 to include the same types of controls on imports. In addition, some controls on wastes containing 2 to 50 ppm of PCBs were proposed. These regulations will become the PCB Waste Export and Import Regulations ("PCBWEIR"). This was the subject of a series of consultation workshops held in late January and early February 2001.

The consultation process on the PCBWEIR was designed to elicit the views of various interested individuals from industry, environmental organizations, community concerns, First Nations people and government representatives. The meetings were held in Montreal on 30 January, in Toronto on 2 February, and in Edmonton on 5 February 2001. A discussion paper was prepared and distributed to the attendees in advance of the meetings.¹ The document described the context for the proposed changes to the PCBWER and outlined the relevant legislation and history of events leading to the development of the proposed amendments. Proposed specific changes to the regulations were identified and the rationale for these changes were provided.

1.2 Workshop Organization

The agenda for each session is included at Appendix "A" of this report. A list of the participants who attended each workshop is provided in Appendix "B". All meetings began with a round of introductions with each participant giving their affiliation and stating their interest for attending the meeting. Following these introductions, Environment Canada, represented at all meetings by Suzanne Leppinen, Head of the Export and Import Section of the Transboundary Movement Division, presented the context for the proposed regulations including a brief background for the initiative and an update on the relevant regulatory reform process. Next the workshop Facilitator provided an overview of the proposed changes by describing the existing regulations, outlining the specific changes being suggested, and detailing the rationale for these suggestions. The

participants were then asked to select the provisions of most interest to them for focused and prioritized discussion. While each workshop was structured somewhat differently because of the items selected for discussion, the participants covered many of the same topics.

At the conclusion of the discussions, participants were also asked to submit in writing any additional comments they would like to see included in the workshop report to Marbek Resource Consultants by Monday, 12 February 2001. After February 12, comments were to be sent directly to Environment Canada.

1.3 Overview of the Report

Following this introduction, Section 2 presents the discussion results from the three workshops. Because all three groups of workshop participants covered approximately the same range of topics, the summary is a synthesis of the views gathered at the three meetings. This section is structured according to subject, which is identified by the title of the proposed PCBWEIR change. A number of issues were explored under the various headings, so for easier reference each topic is further divided into subject sub-topics.

¹ Marbek Resource Consultants Ltd., "Consultations on PCB Waste Export and Import Regulations - Discussion Paper", January 12, 2001, for Environment Canada.