Canadian Industry and Climate Change

Submitted by Richard on Sat, 22/03/2008 - 10:16pm

.

Industry and Climate Change in Canada

Carbon Dioxide Emissions

The Canadian public must ensure that the Government of Canada recommits to its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and establishes regulated targets and time lines for reducing greenhouse gases from all emitter sources.

Industry as a whole produces 51% of the green house gas emissions in Canada. Resource based industries account for 16% (approx) and power generation 30% (approx) with manufacturing, 5%, 2005. These figures do not factor in transportation.

The first factor is the costs of controls to industry. If industry is unduly burdened with controls and expenses, then many may just move their facilities to countries with less environment legislation. This has already happened, many corporations have moved their manufacturing to Asia for just that reason, that along with cheap labor and free trade agreements. When this happens, the Canadian economy suffers due to job losses and trade imbalances.

Here is some food for thought. Since most of the manufacturing moves to Asian countries has taken place since 1997, the year when ‘Kyoto’ came into effect, have the governments in both Canada and the US promoted these moves in order to lessen the impact of pollution here in North America while allowing corporations to increase profits? It makes for an easy fix for a potentially tricky problem – Remove the source. Is the World Trade Organization basically a pawn that gives excuse to the Governments of Canada and the US, “Job losses are not our fault…”.

The second factor for manufacturing is energy. Energy costs a lot of money to produce. Whether it be from oil, coal, gas, hydro, nuclear, or other sources there is a huge investment required in production facilities and transmission. In both Central Canada and North East US, electrical energy has reached it's capacity without building new facilities. In order to ease the responsibility of providing electrical energy for the manufacturing industry and the subsequent increase in population, have the respective governments in Canada and the US allowed corporations to shift their energy hungry manufacturing facilities overseas?

Never forget, – It is big business money that greases the wheels of governments.

Is loss of manufacturing jobs in Canada one of the realities that Canadians have to accept in order to meet our ‘Kyoto’ commitments?

There is a sense of Canadian pride in knowing that Canada is a world leader in extracting and refining natural resources. We must not lose sight of the realization that it is the companies and their employees that have made Canada so. Resource developement is a hugely expensive undertaking and deserves to be rewarded for the financial investments required.

We look at refineries and smelters and can immediately see imposing stacks belching out immense quantities of smoking pollutants and our obvious first reaction is to condemn these polluters and demand that something be done. For the most part, these are international corporations who know very well that their corporate image is in full view for all to see. Just as any citizen, they too realize the impacts of pollution and global warming. They too desire to be good corporate citizens and do what they can to improve every aspect of their operations to meet the global standards the world is demanding.

The benefits of the resource industry reach far beyond corporate profits. Thousands of employees in hundreds of communities across Canada earn top wages, pay taxes, and add to the wealth of all Canadians. The well being of “Company Towns” all across our Nation relies almost directly on the well being of the resource industry.

Reducing the effects of extracting and refining raw materials demands investment in new technology. Because of the raw resources Canada has, Canada has the opportunity to become the technology leader in environmental developement and strategy. Resource and environment technology will become the major industry of the 21 century.

From: Mining Watch Canada
Changing public policy and mining practices to ensure the health of individuals, communities and ecosystems in Canada and around the world

Open Letter on Pollution from Base Metal Smelters

We, the undersigned, are representatives of Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations engaged in consultations with Environment Canada and Health Canada over the pollution prevention planning strategy being proposed under CEPA 99 for the Base Metals Sector.....

Smelters in Canada continue to be a major source of pollution to air, lands and water. In the 2002 National Pollutant Release Inventory, the three largest emitters of CEPA toxics to air in Canada were Base Metal Smelters – Inco Copper Cliff, Inco Thompson, Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting – and the BMS sector in total produced more than 26% of all CEPA toxics releases to air reported in Canada. The HudBay Minerals smelter in FlinFlon is the largest point source of mercury emissions to air in Canada (over 1340 kg annually). …

The extent of the health and environmental impacts of these CEPA-toxic substances and the overall role of the Base Metal sector as a major contributor to these emissions make it extremely important to achieve meaningful reductions in a timely fashion at those facilities with the weakest environmental performance and the largest emissions as a first priority. If the current consultation process, the Base Metals Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Group (BEMAG) process that was set up to deal with these issues, can not deliver significant reductions of the largest sources of CEPA toxics emissions in the country in a timely fashion, then the effectiveness of CEPA as a tool to manage toxic substances will be seriously undermined.

Finally, in recognizing the nature of the business in this sector and their role in the communities as a major employer, it behoves the industry and all levels of governments (federal, provincial and regional) to ensure that measures are taken to creatively address the interests and needs of the affected communities. The use of just-transition programs and community reinvestment funds can counter the employment impacts on these communities of the potential closure of facilities or down sizing as technologies change. No person should be forced to work in an environment which endangers their health and the health of their families because of economic constraints or threats to their livelihood.

We can and must do better as a society. We urge you to use the tools at your disposal to force change on the largest emitters of CEPA toxics in Canada.

STORM Coalition

Deadline set for big polluters
December 13, 2007

Ottawa has formally notified Canada's biggest industrial polluters they have six months to submit emissions data the government will use to set binding reductions target, Environment Minister John Baird said yesterday.

Mr. Baird said the data will be used to set emissions standards for 700 major industrial polluters next year. Companies have until May 31 to provide information on their emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases. The demand covers industries in electricity, oil and gas, pulp and paper, smelting, steel, cement, chemicals and some mining sectors.

Just how strong should regulations be from the Government of Canada on behalf of the Canadian people?

How much should the Government of Canada and the Provinces invest in new technology?

Can we afford to leave it to resource industry themselves to develope the improvements required?

.