521 Enviromation
● require PCB owners opting to destroy PCBs on-site to ‘‘In this leadership vacuum, provincial governments are
obtain the necessary authorizations from their respective taking matters into their own hands, with eight provinces
territorial or provincial government. setting tougher targets than Ottawa.’’
The proposed amendments seek to provide increased While the government’s stated goal is a 20% reduction
flexibility to regulated persons to use on-site destruction in emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from 2006 levels
methods for stored PCBs without compromising the time- by 2020, Mr. Ignatieff wants to see 1990 as the base year,
line for the final destruction of PCBs as prescribed by the the same as the European Union. However, his policy state-
Regulations. ment included no details on the scale of GHG reductions
he preferred, opting for cuts sufficient to keep average
Owners of PCBs that will have them destroyed off-site global warming to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial
will continue to be subject to the current end-of-storage levels. Environment Minister Jim Prentice was derisive,
deadline of December 31, 2009. saying that the lack of specific goals meant that it could not
be called a plan ‘‘under any stretch of the imagination’’.
The Regulations Amending the PCB Regulations also ´ ´
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe noted that the Lib-
seek to clarify existing ambiguities with the Regulations and erals recently supported a Bloc call for a 25% reduction
to address identified inconsistencies. from 1990 levels by 2020.
Any person may file comments about the proposed
Mr. Ignatieff acknowledged the lack of specifics, sug-
regulation with the Minister of the Environment within
gesting that a successful plan required international con-
60 days after the date of publication of the notice.
sensus. ‘‘That is what you go to Copenhagen to talk
about’’, he said. ‘‘You’ve got to have realistic targets, you’ve
For more information please see: Canada Gazette
got to have attainable targets. This is no time to pick num-
Part I, September 26, 2009, Vol. 143, No. 39, page 2920.
bers out of the air, and you’ve got to do that with other
Reprinted with permission from the Environment & industrial countries.’’ The Conservatives have said they
Gowlings newsletter dated November 23, 2009, Vol. 6, would like to see a continental cap-and-trade program in
No. 5, published by the Gowlings Environmental Law place no later than 2015, but Mr. Ignatieff said that a Liberal
Group, which consists of environmental law specialists government would move more quickly. ‘‘You pollute, you
and practitioners in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, and B.C. pay’’, he said, adding that a Canadian program must be
(www.gowlings.com/environment). compatible with any U.S. initiative, ‘‘but that does not
mean . . . that we have to wait for Washington’’.
Green Plan Issued by Liberals
Environmental Accord Building
In one of his first major policy announcements since
becoming Liberal Party Leader last year, Michael Ignatieff Environment Minister Jim Prentice and his provincial
has distanced himself from his predecessor’s politically and territorial counterparts have approved in principle a
divisive ‘‘carbon tax’’ plan. Instead, he is proposing nation- pair of initiatives designed to reduce the amount of waste
ally coordinating environmental legislation, coupled with a generated and sent to landfi