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Remarks prepared for:

The Honourable Laurel Broten
Minister of the Environment

Moving Forward: Waste Infrastructure …Basics and Beyond
Municipal Waste Integration Network
2006 Annual Conference

Blue Mountain Inn, Collingwood, Ontario
Wednesday, June 21, 2006

(Check against delivery)

Thank you.

I’m glad to be here. It’s always a pleasure to be back in Collingwood.

This community is a perfect setting for this conference. It is a fast-growing community that is dealing with the pressures of growth while trying to preserve the natural wonders around it.

Communities across our province are dealing with similar issues. Growth is a good thing, but it needs to be planned and managed carefully, especially when it comes to services like waste management.

I want to thank you for all that you do through the Municipal Waste Integration Network. You are helping us meet one of our biggest environmental challenges — managing the waste generated by our rapidly growing population.

We know what has to be done to get where we need to be.

We must move forward with increased and broader waste diversion programs.

We need to welcome innovations and new waste technologies that will help us meet the needs of our province in the 21st century.

We need to create more waste disposal capacity right here in Ontario.

And we need effective, responsible waste planning for the future.

That’s where we need to be.

I want to talk today about how we can get there.

We have made real, measurable progress in diverting waste from landfill and now we must move forward to realize our vision in making Ontario an environmental leader across the board in terms of conservation as well as sustainability.

We are in a good position because we’re building on a solid foundation.

Ontario was the birthplace of what has become an internationally-recognized symbol of diversion and collective effort. I’m referring, of course, to the Blue Box.

This experience has shown that, to get results, a program must be sustainable.

As you well know, sustainability for the Blue Box was achieved through the principle of extended producer responsibility and a funding formula that obliges industry to pay its fair share for managing the wastes it produces.

This was a huge breakthrough in its day and it’s one of our province’s most significant environmental accomplishments.

In 2006 alone, municipalities will receive $55.5 million from industry stewards towards the cost of diverting Blue Box materials from disposal sites. That will bring the total funds provided to municipalities to $137 million since the program first began three years ago.

In addition, around $9 million has been provided to municipalities as part of the Effectiveness and Efficiency Fund administered by Stewardship Ontario to help reduce their costs and increase their blue box tonnes recovered.

I want to recognize and congratulate the Municipal and Industry Program Committee for its work in steering the implementation of the Effectiveness and Efficiency Fund, developing and implementing the cost containment plan and revising the municipal funding allocation model.

This is truly an example of how municipal and industry representatives can work together to create successful diversion programs.

In 2004, the Blue Box program diverted more than 824,000 tonnes of recyclable materials — a 5.6 per cent increase over 2003 — and achieved a diversion rate of about 55 per cent. That’s impressive.

We’re also seeing further advances in many of our material recovery programs as more materials are being captured.

And an expanding number of communities are offering composting programs like the Green Bin, a program that I’m proud to say got its start in Toronto, in my home riding of Etobicoke.

All in all, over the past 10 years, the total amount of recyclable materials recovered has increased by 74 per cent.

But despite these positive developments, we’ve got quite a distance yet to go.

We must significantly increase waste diversion rates right across Ontario. And we must expand our disposal capacity within the province to handle the waste that’s left over.

We will continue to support the efforts of our municipal and industry partners to meet these challenges head on.

Mais malgré ces résultats positifs, nous comprenons tous et toutes l’ampleur de la tâche.

Nous devons largement augmenter la quantité de déchets que nous réacheminons en Ontario. Et nous devons accroître la capacité d’enfouissement de la province pour pouvoir gérer les déchets qui restent.

Nous continuerons d’appuyer les efforts de nos partenaires des municipalités et de l’industrie pour relever ces défis.

One of the challenges involves ensuring compliance with our provincial 3Rs Regulations.

Industrial, commercial and institutional wastes make up the single largest component of the waste stream. Clearly, this is an area where significant progress could be made.

To support our government’s commitment to waste diversion and to help ensure greater compliance, we have begun field inspections in a number of industrial, commercial and institutional sectors.

This will give us essential information and insights in determining the challenges faced by the regulated community in implementing and diverting more waste through the 3R’s regulations.

We know that shipping waste to Michigan is not a sustainable solution on any level.

We need to develop made-in-Ontario solutions that will work for us for decades to come.

To increase diversion rates, we need repeat performances of the Blue Box success story, but this time for a range of types of waste.

In my recent remarks to Waste Diversion Ontario’s Annual General Meeting, I signalled my intention to develop two new initiatives to move us ahead on the path to sustainability.

One of the new programs is for household hazardous and special wastes.

Many municipalities have been running household hazardous waste programs for years, so we’re off to a good start because some of the infrastructure is already in place. The new program will give us a co-ordinated, province-wide approach with sustainable funding. This is a great opportunity to capture more toxics, heavy metals and other harmful chemicals in our diversion programs.

As you know, a proposed minister’s regulation to designate this waste under the Waste Diversion Act has recently been posted on the EBR for public comment. I encourage you to visit the site and submit your comments before July 10th.

I intend to request WDO to develop a diversion program for household hazardous wastes that will identify the program requirements such as the scope, timelines and performance measurements.

Ministry staff will also be holding stakeholder consultations to discuss the draft regulation and solicit input for the program request letter. This meeting will be taking place June 27th at Queen’s Park.

Second, we intend to request Waste Diversion Ontario to move forward on a program for electronics.

We need to deal with electronic products such as computers, printers and cell phones that have outlived their usefulness. Electronics have evolved quickly, and our approach to diversion has to match that pace.

We need an effective mechanism to keep electronics out of landfills.

WDO’s Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment study was very helpful in recommending that we take a staged approach.

We are following that advice and moving in stages on the development and implementation of the household special waste and electronics programs to make the process more manageable for WDO and participating industries and stakeholders.

Diversion programs are a large part of the solution — but they aren’t the whole answer.

We will complement diversion programs by providing our municipal and industry partners with new and better tools to better manage their wastes.

Let me speak to a number of specific initiatives, many of which will be regulatory proposals that we will be consulting on in the near future.

First, we are going to expand the scope of recyclable materials to remove more types of material from the waste stream. By setting the right rules, we can do a better job of recycling materials such as paint, metal-bearing waste and crumb rubber, and processing waste asphalt, asphalt shingles and glass intended for use as aggregate in construction.

We will allow operators to collect, store and transfer items such as batteries, electronics and printed circuit boards for recycling without waste systems approvals. And we will consult to see if there are other recycling situations that should be exempted.

We are making progress on waste-derived fuel. We will make it easier to use waste to make ethanol and bio-diesel, and to use wood waste to produce waste-derived fuel.

As we expand the range of materials included, we are increasing the need for recycling facilities. And so we will consult on streamlining approvals for these facilities.

We want to take the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility that already works so well and apply it to new programs. To help move voluntary EPR programs along, normal waste management rules will not apply to systems where consumers return products under a manufacturer’s or brand owner’s control.

And to minimize the creation of waste in the first place, I have already signalled my intent for a review of the national packaging protocol with my provincial and federal counterparts.

But there will always be residual wastes that we have not been able to reduce, reuse or recycle. It’s imperative to build capacity within Ontario’s borders to deal with materials that cannot be diverted.

As you know, projects in the waste sector, as in other sectors, must be subjected to the rigors of the environmental assessment process.

Before they can be built — they need to be proven environmentally sound.

Everyone involved knows the current EA process can be slow, often confusing and costly. We need to be able to say “Yes” more quickly to green-light projects that are environmentally protective, necessary and constructive — and “No” to projects that are neither environmentally responsible nor viable.

More must — and can — be done to the EA process to save proponents time and money.

Earlier this month, I announced that our government is taking action to improve Ontario’s environmental assessment process for all sectors, including waste.

These improvements will address some longstanding concerns.

We know the fundamental principles of Ontario’s EA Act are sound. Environment Assessments are one of the most effective tools a government can apply. The process is designed to look at potential environmental impacts, identify issues and protect the environment before projects are constructed. That will not change.

With the help of the EA Advisory Panel, we have crafted a new process — one that fits Ontario’s needs in the 21st century.

We’ll develop codes of practice to help participants better understand the EA process and what’s required of them. The codes of practice will lay out the ministry’s expectations for the content of documents. We’ll also provide guidelines on the EA process, including examples of best practices.

We’re also introducing a facilitator role to assist and advise stakeholders on EA matters. That will add transparency and help projects move through the EA process.

As well, we’re shortening government decision-making timelines and providing direction to project proponents on their own timelines to get the process moving faster.

And my ministry will work with ministries such as Municipal Affairs, Public Infrastructure Renewal, Transportation, Energy and Natural Resources to make the process more integrated and efficient. We’ll also be working with our counterparts at the federal level to cut out duplication.

All this will help reduce costs and delays for project proponents, for our government and for the Ontario taxpayer.

As I said, these changes will benefit every application under the environmental assessment process, but we’re also taking further action in key sectors — specifically waste, as well as energy and transit.

To better manage our waste in this province, we are going to develop an EA waste regulation modelled after the successful electricity regulation that will set-out the EA process requirements for waste facilities, based on the type, size and impact of the project.

For projects with a greater environmental footprint, the process will be more rigorous — for those with a smaller footprint, we will apply a more efficient process.

If there is one sector that is at a real deficit with respect to rules and structure, it is the waste sector. We need to fill the gap by providing much needed clarity and direction to proponents, both public and private, as well as Ontarians in communities right across the province who want to participate in the process.
An improved EA process will mean that much-needed waste management projects will come on stream sooner… and that we’ll move along the road to sustainability faster.

On the other hand, there are some cases where greater flexibility will be useful, beneficial and even necessary.

Around the world, many jurisdictions have adopted innovative solutions for managing their wastes. We need to pay attention — they're setting the pace. I believe we should take advantage of the opportunities presented by new, cleaner technologies.

But to get a foothold, new technologies have to prove themselves. Municipalities and industry must be able to test new solutions with minimal delay and with zero risk to the environment. We can make this happen by streamlining approvals for pilot or demonstration facilities.

This is exactly what we are doing with the Plasco pilot project.

In Ottawa, Plasco Trail Road Inc. has received the green light to construct and operate a pilot plasma gasification facility. It will break down non-recyclable municipal waste destined for landfill to create a synthetic gas to power electricity generators.

We’ve put regulations in place to establish safeguards and standards that Plasco must follow. The company has agreed to go beyond certain provincial emission standards, including those for particulate matter — that is, air-borne dust and other particles. The project will be subject to continuous emissions monitoring, stack testing and third party inspections.

Plasco will gasify up to 85 tonnes of Ottawa’s waste every day, producing 5.2 megawatts of electricity at a facility to be built at the closed Nepean landfill.

The Plasco project is the forerunner of a new approach we’re taking to encourage new waste management solutions. Over the next few months we will be consulting on a proposed regulation that would grant an EA exemption to promising small-scale, time-limited pilot projects and demonstration facilities.

In short, we are constructing a better waste management framework — one that cuts red tape and fosters innovation while fully protecting the environment.

Steadily, we are building the Ontario we envision …

… where more materials are diverted from landfill and at much higher rates;

… where decisions on waste management projects are made faster;

… where new environmental technologies are welcomed;

… where protection of the environment remains paramount;

… and where unsustainable practices like shipping waste out of the province at our current levels are put to an end.

I am proud that our government is providing tools and supporting municipal efforts to increase diversion and manage wastes in an environmentally responsible manner.

Let’s continue to work together to create a future where sound waste management practices help to sustain a healthy, prosperous and strong Ontario.

Thank you and best of luck for a productive conference.

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