Industrial Emissions Requirements Sectoral Sub-Group Consultations

Consultation

Representatives from health and environmental NGOs, industry and provinces collaborated to develop and present in February 2009 a draft proposal – the Comprehensive Air Management System (CAMS) – as an alternative to the Government of Canada’s 2007 Turning the Corner plan. The federal government has recently re-engaged with the “tripartite” group of provinces/territories, industry and NGOs and is working collaboratively with these parties to finalize a framework for managing air quality, building upon the CAMS proposal, and specifically to bring forward a proposal for national regulations of industrial emissions of air pollutants.

Five working groups have been established to flesh out further details on key elements of a framework. One of the working groups, the Base Level Industrial Emissions Requirements (BLIERs) “What” group, is charged with developing base level emissions requirements for the various industrial sectors in the country. The BLIERS “What” group intends to create 11 industry-specific sub-groups aimed at determining the appropriate emissions requirement for each sector as well as one or two cross-cutting sub-group that will work on equipment standards that will be relevant across a number of sectors.

Each sub-group is tasked with developing emissions requirements and reporting back to the BLIERS “What” Group by the end of October. Requirements to be developed are expected to be similar in level of effort to what leading jurisdictions in the world require of similar industry in attainment areas, adjusted to Canadian circumstances. The sub-groups will use as a starting point work that has already been done on setting emissions requirements for these sectors/equipment including: work done by Environment Canada as part of their validation of the Turning the Corner framework, national voluntary frameworks that are in place in Canada or being developed for managing air emissions from the sector and any other information the sub-group feels is relevant/ necessary to develop the appropriate standard.

The 11 sub-groups are:

  1. Oil sands
  2. Upstream oil and gas
  3. Pipelines
  4. Refineries
  5. Electricity
  6. Base Metal smelters
  7. Iron and Steel
  8. Iron ore pelletizing
  9. Aluminum
  10. Cement
  11. Pulp and Paper

The cross-sectoral sub-groups include:

  1. Equipment standards for boilers and heaters
  2. Equipment standards for gas-fired turbines (tentative)

Environmental NGO delegates are currently taking part in a series of meetings and teleconferences to flesh out further details on key elements of industrial emissions requirements for national regulations of industrial emissions of air pollutants.

The delegates are participating in multi-stakeholder sub-groups which will include representatives from the federal government, provincial governments, industry and NGOs.

Selected ENGO delegates to the Sectoral Sub-Groups:

1. Oil sands

2. Upstream oil and gas

3. Pipelines

4. Refineries

5. Electricity

6. Base Metal smelters

7. Iron and Steel

8. Iron ore pelletizing

  • Peter Ormond, Conserver Society of Hamilton and District, ON

9. Aluminum

10. Cement

11. Pulp and Paper

12. Equipment standards for boilers and heaters

13. Equipment standards for gas-fired turbines (tentative)

For more information, contact Daniel Casselman, RCEN Caucus Coordinator, at (613) 728-9810 ext. 236.

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