Honourable senators, I rise today as the critic of Bill C-204, An Act to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, a bill that will prohibit the export of certain types of plastic waste to foreign countries for final disposal.

First, let me thank Member of Parliament for York-Simcoe, Mr. Scot Davidson, and our colleague Senator Frum for raising this important issue of final disposal of our plastic waste. In this speech I will address the reasons for this type of legislation and my agreement on its principle. I worked my entire career on identifying, assessing and solving pollution and contamination problems created by domestic or hazardous industrial wastes. These problems affect human health and safety, as well as that of an ecosystem that provides ecological services essential to our survival.

Too numerous times to be mentioned here, I have witnessed firsthand the negative impact of our irresponsible, ever-growing waste-producing habits and handling of toxic substances. Typical landfill operations stockpile all kinds of objects that could have been recycled but, instead, become macro- and microplastics that will find their way to water bodies initiating their path into the food web.

One view that is still very fresh in my mind are the numerous fish from Chaudière River that develop tumours and deformations since the Lac-Mégantic oil spill. Who will eat these fish? Do you know that scientists found microplastic in human lungs, livers, spleens, kidneys and recently in human placenta?

Colleagues, it is no secret: Humanity has a global waste problem and if we don’t manage it in a sustainable way as our population grows, we will further intoxicate our lives.

Every year, 280 billion tonnes of groundwater is polluted by landfill leachate containing contaminants — a source of water which a quarter of Canadians and at least half of the world’s population rely on to survive.

The use of land for our billions of tonnes of waste every year reduces our capacity to stop deforestation, to fight climate change or to offer healthy environments for humans and wildlife alike. To minimize the contamination of our lands, we rely on foreign countries and on the oceans.

In the end, 13 million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans each year, pollute the waters and destroy oceanic ecosystems. More than half of this plastic is less dense than the water and thus will float. Once these plastics enter ocean currents, they are unlikely to leave the area until they degrade into smaller microplastics under the effects of the sun, waves and marine life. As more and more plastics are discarded into the environment, the plastic concentration in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch will only continue to increase. This floating plastic patch covers an estimated surface area of 1.6 million square kilometres: an area the size of my province of Quebec. At this rate, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050.

Canada is no shining example for the rest of the world. In fact, we are among the worst waste producers. With an estimated 1.33 billion metric tonnes of waste or 36.1 tonnes person in 2017. Canada ranks as the most wasteful country per capita.

The difference in waste production per province and territory is noticeable, with provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan producing more than double the amount per capita of provinces like Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Here, it is worth noticing that this data comes from a total per province that includes domestic, industrial and municipal wastes and divided by the respective provincial population.

The waste problem is increasing in Canada, and it goes beyond plastics. I hope we will address this problem holistically with robust legislation.

In 2016, we generated 3.3 million tonnes of plastic, with only 9% of it being properly recycled, 4% being incinerated for energy recovery and an incredible 86% being sent to landfills. Take a moment to reflect on the sheer amount of plastic waste sitting in landfills across the country right now that will persist for generations.

The main offender representing almost half of total plastic waste in Canada is the packaging sector, followed by the automotive, textile, electrical and electronic equipment and construction sectors.

Why do we urgently need to address problems associated with plastic waste? Because it is not just a problem of stored materials. It is also a health problem and an environmental problem, and if that does not move you, you should know that it is also a major economic problem. I would also add that as a mother and grandmother, it is also an ethical problem that is causing significant harm around the world.

Historically, and still today, our economy follows a linear model, namely extraction, production and disposal. More than 60% of all extracted natural resources end up as waste. What a waste. How ineffective and inefficient. These completely outdated economic models rely on the false and illogical assumption that our planet has infinite resources and that we can grow forever in a system that in fact does not exist on our planet.

In 2009, scientists described the limits of our planetary system, which is essential to sustaining life on Earth, as the entire world knows it. Today, we have already exceeded four of those limits: climate instability, loss of biodiversity, land use and nutrient cycles.

We must immediately shift our consumer model into a circular economy.

Using our natural resources more efficiently, preventing products and materials from becoming waste for as long as possible and transforming waste that cannot be avoided into a new resource are key steps to achieving a more sustainable and circular economy. These key steps will help stimulate the economy, ensure the economic stability that investors and industry demand and create millions of jobs through the development and implementation of clean technologies.

Actions to ensure sustainable waste management must follow a clear sequence: source reduction, reuse, recycling, energy recovery and encapsulating final waste materials. This is the waste management model advocated by waste management experts around the world, including multinational organizations like the OECD, of which Canada is a member.

Historically, however, Canada has chosen to focus on the third option, creating a recycling industry. If we take a closer look at plastic recycling rates today, we can see that our feeble attempts at sound waste management are a complete failure, and we must acknowledge that. We have created an entire recycling industry that is not very efficient. Our recycled materials are used very little in the manufacture of new products. Packaging manufacturers, advocates for planned obsolescence and those who waste materials do not assume any responsibility, which does nothing for the circular economy.

By skipping the first two steps of sound waste management, we are massively diminishing our opportunities to reduce waste.

In fact, through the funding of our own department of Environment and Climate Change Canada, a 2019 report entitled Economic Study of the Canadian Plastic Industry, Markets and Waste stated that in 2016 Canada lost an $8 billion opportunity from unrecovered plastic material, a number that will grow to $11 billion by 2030.

The same report states that by diverting 90% of plastic waste out of landfills and back into the production cycle by 2030, Canada could save $500 million per year. It could also create 42,000 direct and indirect jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.8 million tonnes of CO2 per year.

Why are we not doing that? The world is looking to decarbonize, and better waste management is a major factor.

In 2019, ECCC published a discussion paper entitled A proposed integrated management approach to plastic products to prevent waste and pollution, in which it adopted a target of at least 50% recycled content in plastic products by 2030. Why the government cannot and has not acted earlier on this is baffling to me.

On the private sector side, a series of corporations operating in Canada have partnered with the Canada Plastics Pact, a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s global Plastics Pact Network, to commit to four actionable targets by 2025, including all plastic packaging being designed to be reusable, recyclable or compostable; half of plastic packaging being effectively recycled; and all plastic packaging containing 30% recycled content.

These initiatives are encouraging to hear, but they are tiny steps to ending the plastic waste problem in Canada. We need a comprehensive and interlinked waste legislation framework.

For example, encouraging recycling is only one part of the circular economy. Manufacturers must use a maximum amount of recycled material in their new products to capture the value of the recycled material and avoid exhaustion of natural resources. Bold policies like this will help us shift to a more sustainable economy.

Where does our plastic waste currently end up? Most of our plastic waste, well above 90%, is exported to the United States, with other countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Honduras, Turkey and Chile sharing the rest. The trade of plastic waste, however, is internationally regulated by the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, which was adopted in March 1989 as a response to mounting controversy over wealthy nations exporting hazardous waste to developing countries with no capacity to adequately manage it, therefore provoking massive environmental and health issues. Its main objectives are to reduce hazardous waste generation and promote environmentally sound management, restrict transboundary movement of hazardous waste except to nations that are capable of environmentally sound management and create a regulatory system to frame permissible trade of hazardous waste.

Although Canada ratified in December 2020 new amendments to the Basel Convention, “. . . requiring prior informed consent-controls for all but the cleanest types of plastic-waste exports traded between treaty parties,” the United States has not done so, which has many experts worried about a 2020 bilateral agreement with the U.S. allowing exports of plastic waste to the south, with less strict controls than the Basel Convention and possible re-exportation to developing countries.

With heavily mediatized cases of international waste disputes involving Canada in recent years, I cannot say that I am confident our plastic waste will be adequately managed under our current agreements.

In the spirit of all this information, I completely agree with the principle and intent of Bill C-204. I will echo the words of Senator Frum: “By continuing to export our plastic waste, we are failing in our duty for environmental stewardship.”

For centuries, the wealthy nations of the world have imposed a burden on developing countries by making them deal with our toxic waste. This is environmental racism and colonialism, period.

The world is not our dumping ground, and to continue to act like it is reinforces the colonial tendencies of a country grappling with the consequences of its own actions. The wealth of a nation should not justify the transfer of responsibility for our waste. In fact, it should be quite the opposite. We have some of the highest capacities in the world to manage waste in an environmentally sound way.

The above applies to pollution reduction and environmental protection as a whole, including climate legislation. Canada needs to stop lagging. We still don’t have a climate accountability bill that will harmonize our law with our international commitments and that would make our country cleaner and our economy more competitive. We should not be afraid of legislation that will make our people healthier, happier and ultimately more prosperous. I long for a time where these issues stop being political and we start focusing on our needs as humans.

That being said, I do believe this is an issue that requires detailed and careful study, especially given the potential impacts on interprovincial and international trade, and the fact that it affects many sectors.

As responsible citizens of the world, we want Canada to deal with its waste, and I believe that you will agree with me that we must quickly determine the paths to eliminate unnecessary waste production and cure the problem at its roots.

As the critic of this bill, I wholeheartedly agree to send this bill to committee.

Colleagues, I will leave you with these wise words from Pete Seeger’s song “If It Can’t Be Reduced”:

If it can’t be reduced, reused, repaired

Rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold

Recycled or composted

Then it should be restricted, redesigned

Or removed from production

Thank you very much. Meegwetch.

Senator Gold, do you wish to speak? We have about a minute before we adjourn.