Not all emissions are created equal, and Ontario isn’t going to treat them that way.

Rather, Environment and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray says the government is working to bring in standards this year that will manage air pollution from the petro-chemical and steel industries, an effort that will complement the incoming cap-and-trade system and the province’s broader climate change efforts.

"It’s a this-year issue, not a next-year issue," Murray told QP Briefing last week. "The exact time I can’t give you because it’s not really being driven by time. It is being driven by very thoughtful and in-depth conversations with the industry to make sure that we’re doing that. A lot of this is technology based."

The province regulates air contaminants and already has technical standards in place to manage air pollution from the foundries, forest products and pulp and paper sectors. The standards can be either an industry or equipment standard, and they act as alternatives to complying with limits on undesirable emissions, which may not be economically or technically possible for some facilities to meet yet (hence: technical standard).

In essence, the technical standards offer a trade-off, such as how foundries that discharge sulphur dioxide can't do so unless “the source of contaminant has local exhaust ventilation that is connected to a wet scrubber, where technically and economically feasible.”

“You can’t ask the industry to do things that are technologically impossible,” said Murray. “There are certain industry types that have greater challenges.”

The government is currently in discussions on new standards for the petroleum refining, petro-chemical, iron and steel sectors.

Those industries are only found in certain parts of the province, such as Hamilton with the steel business. Sarnia, as another example, is home to the "Chemical Valley" that is home to approximately 40 per cent of that sector in Canada. As a result, the government is trying to get a handle on the air quality around Sarnia to assist with crafting the new technical standards.

At the same time, those industries are also facing challenges. Ontario steel producers such as Essar Steel Algoma and U.S. Steel Canada are in bankruptcy protection, and the price of oil has plummeted.

Murray said the government already has a cap-and-trade system of sorts on certain pollutants, such as nitric oxide, and that emissions of those contaminants have fallen 40 per cent since the rules came in. But Ontario does not have a similar system for benzene emissions. Benzene is used to make other chemicals, such as those produced in Sarnia, but it is also known to cause cancer.

Murray said the new technical standards will piggy-back on the government’s work on a cap-and-trade system and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“You work on a comprehensive strategy from an environmental perspective,” he told QP Briefing. “We’re going to be looking at other pollutants, not just carbon dioxide.”

As part of the province’s climate change efforts, Ontario’s big manufacturers will have to find ways to reduce their emissions, and the government is trying to make the transition as painless as possible. On Wednesday, for example, Premier Kathleen Wynne and Murray announced the government would invest $74 million from its Green Investment Fund to prod large industrial plants to spend money on clean technology. (The Green Investment Fund will be funded by proceeds from the cap-and-trade program.)

Murray said his ministry is working in tandem with the Ministry of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure to make it easier to make investments in modernizing steel mills and petro-chemical plants.

Therefore, the discussions on the new technical standards are ongoing, but they’re not happening in a vacuum.

“They involve consideration of greenhouse gas emissions and they involve consideration of the economic agenda and investments being made by our sister ministry, economic development, in those,” said Murray. “All of those things are folded in, which is why local area standards aren’t just a standalone discussion.”

To contact the reporter on this story:
gzochodne@qpbriefing.com
416-212-5913
Twitter: @geoffzochodne

Ontario targeting air standards for steel and chemical industries

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