On May 25, 2017, Environment and and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) issued a news release regarding the proposed methane and VOC emission regulations for the oil and gas sector. These proposed regulations will be published in the Canada Gazette, Part I, on May 27, 2017 for a 60 day comments period; comments will be accepted until July 27, 2017.

The full ECCC news release, including quick facts and links to the backgrounders on the proposed regulations, can be viewed here:

https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/news/2017/05/canada_to_reduceemissionsfromoilandgasindustry.html

Quick links to the proposal technical backgrounders are available below:

Proposed regulations to reduce methane emissions in the oil and gas sector

Proposed regulations to reduce the release of volatile organic compounds (petroleum sector)

For questions on how these regulations may impact your facility, please contact Marnie Freer.

On April 27, 2016, the Online Reporting Application was released for the Multi-Sector Air Pollutants Regulations (MSAPR) Part 1 - Boilers and Heaters for the June reporting requirements; the application is accessed through Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Single Window (SWIM) reporting platform.  It is important to note that pursuant to Section 120 of the MSAPR, the use of the online reporting tool is mandatory.  The Application will be updated later this year  to accommodate future online reporting requirements (e.g. annual reports).

Webinars demonstrating the online Reporting Application were completed in early May.  During these sessions, a request was made in regards to the acceptable format for the signature of the authorized official.  In response, a template was provided by the Electricity and Combustion Division of Environment and Climate Change Canada.  A copy of this template is provided below:

MSAPR Part 1 Signature Declaration Template (29 KB)

Due to the popularity of the webinars demonstrating the Online Reporting Application, an additional session in both English and French have been scheduled.  There is no need to pre-register for these webinars.

Copies of the instructional documents for SWIM entry are provided below.

MSAPR Part 1 - Online Reporting Application Instructions (English) (146 KB)

MSAPR Part 1 - Online Reporting Application Instructions (French) (123 KB)

Additional questions can be forwarded to ec.combustion.ec@canada.ca.

For additional information in regards to the MSAPR, please contact Pete Pakalnis.

On April 1, 2017, pursuant to CEPA 1999, paragraph 71(1)(b), notices were posted in the Canada Gazette, Part I, Vol. 151, No. 13 in regards to information required for the assessment of certain toxic substances for substances manufactured, imported or used in 2015 and 2016. 

Information is required to be submitted through Environment and Climate Change's Single Window (SWIM) system for applicable substances by the required date.  A brief overview of the Summer 2017 requirements is provided below, please refer to the Canada Gazette notice for complete information and further details on the Fall 2017 requirements.

Inquiries concerning the notice may be directed to the Substances Management Information Line at 1-800-567-1999 (toll free in Canada), 819-938-3232 (outside of Canada), or via email to eccc.substances.eccc@canada.ca.

Notice to provide information for the risk management of certain substances — Summer 2017

Notice to provide information for the risk management of certain substances — Fall 2017

Summer 2017

Information pertaining to applicable substances listed in Schedule 1 for the summer notice are required to be provided no later than June 28, 2017, 3 p.m. (EST). Please refer to the Canada Gazette notice for complete information.

Schedule 1 (Substances) & Schedule 2 (Applicability)

Part 1 - Hexavalent Chromium Compounds

This notice applies to any person who, during the 2015 or 2016 calendar year:

• manufactured a total quantity greater than 25 kg;
• imported a total quantity greater than 25 kg whether alone, in a mixture or in a product at a concentration equal to or above 0.1% by weight (w/w%);
• used a total quantity greater than 25 kg, whether the substance was used alone, in a mixture or in a product at a concentration equal to or above 0.1% by weight (w/w%), for chromium electroplating, chromium anodizing or reverse etching.

Part 2 - 2-Propanone Substances

This notice applies to any person who, during the 2015 or 2016 calendar year:

• manufactured a total quantity greater than 100 kg;
• imported a total quantity greater than 100 kg whether alone, in a mixture or in a product at a concentration equal to or above 0.1% by weight (w/w%);
• used a total quantity greater than 100 kg whether the substance was used alone, in a mixture or in a product at a concentration equal to or above 0.1% by weight (w/w%) in the manufacture of a mixture, a product, or a manufactured item.

Part 3 - Common Names Dechlorane Plus, DP, DBDPE or DecaBDE

This notice applies to any person who, during the 2015 or 2016 calendar year:

• manufactured a total quantity greater than 100 kg;
• imported a total quantity greater than 100 kg of a substance at a concentration equal to or above 0.1% by weight (w/w%), whether  
  • alone, in a mixture, or in a product; or
  • in a manufactured item that is
    
    •  a vehicle, aircraft or watercraft, or a part contained therein,
    • a construction material,
    • a carpet, vinyl or laminate flooring, or foam underlay for flooring,
    • a cable, a wire, an appliance, or an electrical device or equipment,
    • a rubber conveyor belt,
    • a plastic pallet, other than a plastic pallet used to import other goods, or
    • clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture or furnishing if the substance is contained in a foam, leather, textile fibre, yarn or fabric;
• used a total quantity greater than 100 kg whether the substance was used alone, in a mixture or in a product at a concentration equal to or above 0.1% by weight (w/w%) in the manufacture of a mixture, a product, or a manufactured item.

Part 4 - Refractory Ceramic Fibres

This notice applies to any person who, during the 2015 or 2016 calendar year:

• manufactured a total quantity greater than 100 kg;
• imported a total quantity greater than 100 kg whether alone, in a mixture or in a product at a concentration equal to or above 0.1% by weight (w/w%);
• used a total quantity greater than 1000 kg whether the substance was used alone, in a mixture or in a product at a concentration equal to or above 0.1% by weight (w/w%) whether the substance was used alone, in a mixture, or in a product.

If an applicable substance above met the criteria for both 2015 and 2016, only the information for 2016 is required to be provided.  If the criteria was met for only the 2015 calendar year, the 2015 information is only required.

Exemptions to the criteria above can be located in Schedule 2 (11) and information required to be submitted under Schedule 3 is provided in Schedule 2 (12).  Schedule 3 provides the specific information required for reporting.

Information pertaining to applicable substances listed in Schedule 1 for the summer notice are required to be provided no later than June 28, 2017, 3 p.m. (EST).

For additional information in regards to this notice, please contact Marnie Freer.

LEHDER is pleased to be hosting the AWMA Breakfast Series teleconference session on June 1, 2017. 

The Sarnia Breakfast will teleconference into the session taking place in Hamilton.  

The Toxicological Assessments with the New EASR Regulation session on will be presented by Tania Onica and Brianne Attard with the Human Toxicology and Air Standards Section of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change.

This presentation is an introduction to toxicological assessments of contaminants without limits. It covers the screening process using the Ministry's Air Contaminants Benchmark (ACB) List and provides a general overview of the elements of a toxicological assessment of contaminants in air. At the end of this session, participants will be able to more effectively screen out contaminants using the ACB list and will have a better understanding of the components of a toxicological assessment.

TIMES:

Sign-In and Breakfast - 7:30 A.M. (Please email us with any food allergies or restrictions one week prior to your registered session).

Presentation - 8:00 A.M. until 9:00 A.M.

REGISTRATION & ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

For additional information and to register for this session, please visit:

Toxicological Assessments with the New EASR Regulation
http://awma.on.ca/breakfast-meetings/sarnia-breakfast-series

Online registration requires payment via PayPal.   You may also pay cash at the door; funds will be forwarded to AWMA and a receipt will be provided.  To prevent the "$5 no prior notification surcharge" please email us if you are attending so the necessary arrangements can be made.

On April 27, 2016, the Online Reporting Application was released for the Multi-Sector Air Pollutants Regulations (MSAPR) Part 1 - Boilers and Heaters for the June reporting requirements; the application is accessed through Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Single Window (SWIM) reporting platform.  It is important to note that pursuant to Section 120 of the MSAPR, the use of the online reporting tool is mandatory.  The Application will be updated later this year  to accommodate future online reporting requirements (e.g. annual reports).

In addition, several webinars will be held to demonstrate the Online Reporting Application in both English and French.  There is no need to pre-register for these webinars.

Copies of the instructional documents for SWIM entry are provided below.

MSAPR Part 1 - Online Reporting Application Instructions (English) (146 KB)

MSAPR Part 1 - Online Reporting Application Instructions (French) (123 KB)

Additional questions can be forwarded to ec.combustion.ec@canada.ca.

For additional information in regards to the MSAPR, please contact Pete Pakalnis.

On December 12, 2016, an Act to Amend the Food and Drugs Act, the Hazardous Products Act, the Radiation Emitting Devices Act, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, the Pest Control Products Act and the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act and to make amendments to a related Act, formerly known as Bill C-13, was enacted. This legislation enabled Canada to ratify the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade Facilitation (TFA) on December 16, 2016.

The TFA, which entered into force on February 22, 2017, contains binding commitments for the 164 WTO Members to modernize and simplify border procedures. The legislative amendments contained in this Act relate to two specific provisions of the TFA:

• Article 10.8.1: Importers may return to exporters goods rejected on account of their failure to meet certain health and technical requirements, unless an alternate way is provided for in laws and regulations.
• Article 11.8: Technical regulations may not be applied to goods moving through the territory of a WTO Member from a point outside its territory to another foreign point (i.e. goods in transit).

As a result of the legislative changes, the following provisions in the TFA apply to hazardous products under the Hazardous Products Act (HPA), as follows:

• Under Article 10.8.1 of the TFA, hazardous chemicals that do not comply with the HPA could be returned/re-consigned to the importer for removal from Canada at their expense unless they pose unacceptable risks to human health and safety, in which case they would be seized and not returned.
• Under the Hazardous Products Regulations, the sale and importation of hazardous products that are "in transit" (being transported through Canada after being imported and before being exported, when the place of initial loading and the final destination are outside of Canada), and that are not intended for use in a work place in Canada, are exempt from the labelling and safety data sheet requirements of the HPA.
• In addition, the HPA was amended to provide authority, consistent with other Health Canada legislation, to implement international agreements, such as the TFA.

For more information, please contact the Workplace Hazardous Materials Bureau at:

Email: WHMIS_SIMDUT@hc-sc.gc.ca

Telephone: 1-855-407-2665

Additional information can also be found online:

WTO-Negotiations

WTO-TFA FAQs

Bill C-13

Hazardous Products Act

For more information, please contact Mark Roehler.

On April 5, 2017, the proposed amendments to the Cap and Trade and Reporting Regulations was posted to the Environmental Registry.  The full post for this EBR post, Registry #013-0104 can be viewed here but an excerpt of the proposed amendments is provided below.

Proposed Amendments to the Cap and Trade Regulation

Changes being considered to the Cap and Trade regulation along with the incorporated Methodology include:

• Changes to the methods for determining the number of allowances to be distributed free of charge to particular facilities in the pulp and paper, mineral wool insulation, used oil processing, and fuel ethanol sectors. The proposal is to move the particular facilities to emissions intensity/ product output benchmark approaches from distributions based on energy use or fixed historical emissions.


• Updates to selected benchmarks or facility intensity in beer and industrial ethanol sectors to address emissions from additional sources (i.e., cogeneration);


• Refinement of the method for determining the distribution of allowances free of charge to capped participants based on the amount used where that use differs from the indirect useful thermal energy (e.g., steam) imported;


• Administrative amendments to improve administration and implementation of the program (e.g., address a situation where a facility becomes a mandatory participant after registering as a voluntary participant in a previous year).

Proposed Regulatory Amendments to the Quantification, Reporting and Verification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Regulation (O. Reg. 143/16)

Changes being considered to the reporting regulation along with the incorporated Guideline include:

• Requiring the reporting of emissions from the use of all the process fuels by the iron and steel producer, including emissions from the process fuel that is transferred off-site


• Requiring capped participants, for whom the cost of carbon is not included in the price of fuels, to report all emissions from the combustion of fuels they receive. Natural gas distributors do not pass on the cost of carbon to capped participants because they are expected to bear the compliance obligation for those emissions. This would require capped participants to report emissions from both:
  • natural gas used at the capped facility; and
  • natural gas transferred offsite to a non-capped facility.


• Clarifying the requirements for the reporting and verification of production data by capped participants, to support any application for free allowances. Clarification will apply only to the data that are the basis for the allocation of allowances.

Capped participants will also have an associated compliance obligation under the cap and trade program as a result of these changes under items 1 and 2 to the reporting regulation.

The proposed changes are included in the Proposed Amendments to the Cap and Trade and Reporting Regulations - Spring 2017 document provided below.

Proposed Amendments to the Cap and Trade and Reporting Regulations - Spring 2017 (261 KB)

The 45 day comment period for these amendments is open until May 20, 2017.  Comments can be submitted directly to:

Eric Loi
Senior Engineer
Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change
Climate Change and Environmental Policy Division
Air Policy Instruments and Programs Design Branch
77 Wellesley Street West
Floor 10
Ferguson Block
Toronto Ontario M7A2T5

Phone: (416) 314-1700

Comments can also be submitted online at:

https://www.ebr.gov.on.ca/ERS-WEB-External/searchComment.do?actionType=add¬iceId=MTMyMTEz&statusId=MjAwNTIz¬iceHeaderIdString=MTMyMTM5

For additional information on Ontario's Cap and Trade Program, please contact Marnie Freer.

A proposal to amend the TDG Regulation was published in the Canada Gazette Part I on April 1, 2017. The proposed amendments to the TDG seek to update marine requirements to align with those in the Cargo, Fumigation and Tackle Regulations (CFTR) and the 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and to reduce duplication. The objectives of this proposal are as follows:

• Update the marine provisions in the TDG Regulations to reflect the terminology and definitions used in the current version of the CSA 2001 and in regulations that are made under the authority of the CSA 2001;
• Update certain marine requirements to align with those in the CFTR and the 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and reduce duplication;
• Eliminate discrepancies between the definitions of short-run ferry in the TDG Regulations and in the CFTR and amend the exemption for short-run ferries in the TDG Regulations to provide clarity around the provisions from which it grants exemption;
• Allow the transport of gasoline and propane in highway tanks on passenger carrying ferries operating over the most direct water route between two points not more than 5 km apart under certain conditions; and
• Allow the transport of UN3156, COMPRESSED GAS, OXIDIZING, N.O.S. in quantities up to 25 L on passenger carrying vessels.

Full details of the proposed regulations can be obtained from the Canada Gazette at:

http://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/index-eng.html - Saturday, April 1, 2017, Vol. 151, No. 13

Interested persons may provide comments on the proposed Regulations within 30 days after the date of publication of this notice (by May 1). All such representations must be in writing and cite the Canada Gazette, Part I, and the date of publication of this notice, and be sent to:

Geneviève Sansoucy, Chief

Regulatory Affairs Branch, Transport Dangerous Goods Directorate, Department of Transport

Place de Ville, Tower C, 9th Floor, 330 Sparks Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N5

tel.: 613-990-5766; fax: 613-993-5925

email: TDGRegulatoryProposal-TMDPropositionReglementaire@tc.gc.ca

For more information on the TDG Regulation, please contact Mark Roehler.

LEHDER is honoured to be nominated for the 2017 Employee Relations Outstanding Business Achievement Award (OBAA) through the Sarnia Lambton Chamber of Commerce.

This award recognizes companies which demonstrate a commitment to staff development, work/life balance, fair employment practices and employee communications.  LEHDER has always mandated a dedication to each of these principles and we are delighted to be recognized for this commitment by our local community.

The OBAA ceremony is taking place at the Imperial Theatre on June 16, 2017 - tickets are currently available on their website.

Thank you to the Sarnia Lambton Chamber of Commerce for this honour and our congratulations to all the local businesses on their nominations!

On March 22, 2017, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) conducted the first greenhouse gas (GHG) allowances auction. The auction included both current 2017 vintage allowances in addition to an advance auction of 2020 vintage allowances.

All of the current vintage allowances and 26% of the 2020 vintage allowances were purchased during the auction. The March 2017 Ontario Auction #1 Summary Results Report, including the list of participants and additional auction details, has been posted to the Government of Ontario’s site at:

https://www.ontario.ca/page/cap-and-trade-auction-allowances#section-0

The PDF documents have also been provided for you below.

March 2017 Cap and Trade Auction Summary Results (English) (91 KB)

March 2017 Cap and Trade Auction Summary Results (French) (92 KB)

For additional information on Ontario’s Cap and Trade Program, please contact Marnie Freer.