Here is what Stephane Dion posted on his website on September 22:
“Gaining a better understanding of the relationships among chemical products, the environment and human health is a global challenge and Canada must show leadership both within and outside our borders by taking serious action to reduce pollution. Our quality of life depends on it.”
“Research suggests that preventing exposure to contaminants will result in savings of billions of dollars in health care and social costs. It will also increase our productivity.”
Stephane Dion’s comprehensive plan will shift the burden of demonstrating safety of products from government to producers and downstream industries and would use tools put in place by the previous Liberal government, including the legal framework as set out in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, to require a proponent to conduct toxicological and other tests and submit the results.
“By requiring producers to take responsibility for their products throughout the full life-cycle of the product, including end of life disposal, we will not only assign the costs of safe use and clean-up where they properly belong – with the originator – we will create incentives for them to redesign their products to reduce use of toxic substances or to facilitate end-of-life management,” said Dion.
Now this is what he said in 2004, speaking at the opening of the Conference of the Canadian Chemical Producers Association. Note the similar opening paragraph:
Gaining a better understanding of the relationships among chemical products, the environment and human health is a global challenge, whose complexity cannot be under-estimated. Canada must show leadership both within and outside our borders.
If there is an organization that seems to me to be ready to work toward this goal, it is yours. For a long time now you have been advancing toward greater integration of the objectives of health, the environment and economic competitiveness. You have been working on this for over twenty years already, armed with your domestic and international experience.
I should like to note, for example, that in the 1980s, the Canadian Chemical Producers Association developed a new ethic for the safe and environmentally sound management of chemicals throughout their life cycle. The internationally recognized Responsible Care® program was a Canadian creation. Your Association was led at that time by Jean Belanger, who was awarded the Order of Canada for developing Responsible Care® and he is today the Co-chair of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy.
Through that program, the chemical industry acknowledged that it had a role to play in protecting the public and managing its products. It is unfortunate that not all Canadian companies have adopted the Responsible Care® program.
The Responsible Care® program has truly been a success story. After being replicated in no fewer than 45 countries, it is now a shining example of Canadian know-how in the field of environmental management. It has made a substantial impact not only abroad but also in Canada. Responsible Care® has paved the way for a series of agreements on reductions in emissions of toxic substances between the Government of Canada, some of the provinces, and member companies of the Association. And progress in these agreements is reviewed not only by the government itself but also by a committee in which NGOs and academics take part. A great deal has been achieved under these agreements. In fact, since 1992:
- emissions of toxic substances within the Canadian Environmental Protection Act have fallen from 3,400 tonnes to 1,100 tonnes (a reduction of 79%);
- of these substances, emissions of benzene fell by 75%, and
- emissions of VOCs fell by 60%.
So in 2004, Stephane Dion calls for a better understanding about chemical products, the environment, and health, and then praises the Canadian Chemical Producers Association for all their hard work, their innovative and internationally recognized Responsible Care program, and for their concrete and measurable achievements.
The cornerstone of the Responsible Care program is for chemical producers to take responsibility for their products over the whole life-cycle, even disposal:
RESPONSIBLE CARE CODES OF PRACTICEThis ethic is captured in a set of 6 codes of practice that cover the life cycle of chemical products.
<snip>
The Hazardous Waste Management Code challenges companies to avoid the production of wastes in the first place. For unavoidable wastes that can’t be reused, recycled or recovered, it calls for the sound management of all aspects of waste sites. Previously contaminated sites must be assessed, communicated to authorities and appropriately cleaned up.
Isn't that what Dion is going on about?
In 2006, running for the leadership of the Liberal Party, Stephane Dion calls for a better understanding about chemical products, the environment, and health using the same words. But this time, he will come up with the plan that will make the chemical producers responsible over the whole life-cycle, a plan that will lead to concrete and measurable results.
At least that's what it sounds like. I wonder why he's decided that the CCPA work he was so impressed with in 2004 is now not even worth mentioning in a speech in 2006 dealing with exactly the same subject. Maybe the CCPA wasn't taking its responsibility seriously.
He'll show the CCPA who's boss.
I wonder what Dion's plan will be called. Better not be called Responsible Care -- that's been in use by the CCPA since 1985.
Of course, if you didn't know that, you'd be forgiven for thinking Stephane Dion came up with the idea of holding chemical producers responsible for their products.
But then I suppose that's the point.
