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An extensive fact-finding report by the NAFTA environmental watchdog exposes the federal government’s lax enforcement of anti-pollution laws governing Canada’s pulp-and-paper industry, environmental groups said yesterday.
The Montreal-based Commission for Environmental Cooperation’s “factual record” assessed allegations that Canada is failing to enforce provisions of the Fisheries Act and effluent regulations against pulp and paper mills in Quebec, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces. The report exceeds 300 pages.
“This Factual Record shows the underbelly of environmental regulation today and it’s not a pretty sight,” said Robert Wright, legal council with the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, one of the environmental groups that submitted a formal request for the CEC investigation in 2002.
“Its message is that industry self-reporting and a lack of allocation of government resources emasculates the federal government’s duty to protect the environment and take timely and effective enforcement action against polluters,” Wright said.
The CEC report comes as about 7,000 forestry executives, experts and observers are gathering in Montreal for one of the world’s largest forestry events, the 93rd edition of PaperWeek International. One theme of this year’s meeting is the sustainable-development side of the industry.
The CEC considered allegations involving 10 pulp and paper operations in Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. All but one allegation concerned mill operations in 2000. The Irving Pulp and Paper Ltd. mill at Saint John was assessed from 1996 to 2000.
Of particular concern to environmental groups is the “dysfunctional” agreement between Quebec and the federal government on enforcing pulp-and paper effluent regulations. CEC investigators determined that it took up to three months for Quebec to pass along reports of violations to the federal government, Wright said.
Five mills in Quebec were assessed.
They are Fjordcell Inc. at Jonquière, Tembec Inc. at St. Raymond, Uniforêt-Pate Port Cartier Inc. at Port Cartier, FF Soucy Inc. at Rivière du Loup and La Compagnie J. Ford Ltd. at Portneuf.
CEC investigators found that there were “at least 250 reported potential offences,” according to the voluminous report.
“Despite these offences, they could find no Fisheries Act prosecutions or convictions of any Quebec mills, and they state that they are particularly concerned about apparent lack of effective enforcement at six mills, based on data from 2000,” the report said.
That finding should ring a loud warning bell given the pending discussions between Canada and the provinces on the proposed Clean Air Act, Beatrice Olivastri, chief executive officer of Friends of the Earth, said.
The Canada-Quebec agreement is “clearly dysfunctional – not one prosecution of a polluter and chronically late delivery of violations reports that should have led to action,” Olivastri said.
“This is what happens when the federal government abandons its duty to protect the environment.”
The other sites assessed by the CEC were the AV Cell Inc. mill at Atholville, N.B., AbitibiConsolidate Inc. at Grand Falls, N. L., and the Bowater Mersey Paper Co. Ltd. at Brooklyn, N.S.
None of the companies cited in the report could be reached for comment last night.
The CEC, born in 1994, springs from former U.S. president Bill Clinton’s insistence on environmental and labour side deals to the North American Free Trade Agreement involving Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.