OMA Members See Harm In Ontario’s Toxics Reduction Regulation

The Ontario Mining Association expressed a number of significant concerns about the implementation of the proposed regulation for the Toxics Reduction Act in a recent submission to the Ministry of Environment (MOE).

The stated goals of the regulation are to reduce toxic substances created and/or used in manufacturing processes and to provide better access to information on toxics for the public. While generally supportive of these goals, the mining industry has serious objections to many details of the regulation.

“OMA members believe that implementation of the proposed regulation will be an onerous and costly exercise for mining companies with no readily foreseeable benefit to further protection of the environment or better informing Ontarians,” says the submission. “OMA members have raised more than 20 concerns relating to the toxic substance accounting, the format and applicability of reduction plans, confidentiality of proprietary business information and the piecemeal approach for creating the new legislation.”

Specific flaws seen in the regulation relate to the designation of many metallic end products as toxic. This could stigmatize products vital to the economy and building a “greener” society. You can’t have catalytic converters, wind turbines, electric cars and solar panels without metals. Determining toxicity is an issue of science. Toxicity will vary according to the nature of exposures (inhalation, skin contact or ingestion), the form of the sub-stance to which exposure occurs and duration of exposure.

The OMA would like metallic end products and alloys excluded from the list. It also objects to the use of the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) as the basis for the toxics reduction program because the NPRI is intended to promote reductions in pollutant releases, not end products of manufacturing processes.

In addition, the OMA believes the scientific expert panel created to form the toxic reductions strategy should have mining industry representation and that the 45-day consultation period should be extended. In its full submission, the OMA includes numerous recommendations for amendments to the proposed regulation, which will assist the MOE to better achieve its stated goals, while keeping the regulatory burden on the mining industry proportional to the benefits the proposed regulation would deliver.

“OMA members look forward to having the opportunity to discuss the contents of this submission with MOE at the earliest opportunity prior to the ratification of the proposed regulation, so that they can work constructively with MOE to achieve its desired outcomes for the environment and for all Ontarians.”

— This is a condensed version of the Ontario Mining Association’s response to the Ministry of the Environment’s proposed Toxics Reduction Act. The full version of the submission is on the OMA websitewww.oma.on.ca.