Two Ontario residents are urging the province to review and improve what they say is a “broken” system that’s supposed to limit air pollution from big industries.

Ian Borsuk, executive director of Environment Hamilton, and Crystal George, a lawyer and member of Aamjiwnaang First Nation near Sarnia, are planning to file a formal application for review with the Ontario government Monday.

The residents are doing so alongside the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA).

“It has become very obvious that there needs to be some sort of intervention or challenge to the system that’s in place,” Borsuk told CBC Hamilton. “People think we have a much more robust air quality protections in Ontario than we actually do.”

Their request is for the province to review its “cumulative effects policy,” which was put in place in 2018. It’s meant to add an extra layer of regulation to prevent industries from emitting high levels of carcinogens that are harmful to human health, says the province’s website.

It’s also supposed to address the issue of pollutants accumulating in communities over time.

But the policy has “failed to improve air quality in Ontario because of its extremely narrow scope and the government’s failure to apply it in the approval process,” says a new report by CELA.

Ontario’s regulatory approach to air pollution is also “founded on a fundamental flaw” in that it considers contaminants on a facility-by-facility basis and not the overall build up communities are exposed to over time, the report says.

The Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) did not respond to CBC Hamilton’s questions before publication.

Policy limited to Sarnia, Hamilton areas

Only new or expanding industrial facilities in the Sarnia area that expect to emit benzene, and in the Hamilton area that expect to emit benzene or benzo[a]pyrene, need approval through the cumulative effects assessment, says the report.

Benzene and benzo[a]pyrene are cancer-causing contaminants produced through industrial processes such as steelmaking, petroleum refineries and chemical manufacturing.

But there are many more impacted communities, harmful contaminants and established emitters that don’t fall under the policy, CELA’s report says.

The applicants are looking for the province to not only expand the cumulative effects policy, but also use it to better protect residents in Hamilton and Sarnia areas.

“For decades, our community has lived beside heavy industry and carried the health impacts that come with it,” said George in CELA’s news release. “Air pollution regulations should reduce the unequal levels of pollution communities like mine are exposed to every day.”

The cumulative effects policy only applies to Hamilton and Sarnia because the province says it has found there’s a higher concentration of benzene and benzo[a]pyrene in those communities than elsewhere in Ontario.

Environmental advocates have called Aamjiwnaang First Nation and the surrounding area, where many industrial companies operate, “chemical valley.” 

Exemptions granted

Many facilities are granted a “patchwork of exemptions that prioritizes flexibility for polluters over consistent protection for people,” said Borsuk.

These exemptions include site specific standards, technical standards and abatement plans, the report says. Under these exemptions, industries are allowed to emit above the province’s air regulations.

The province said it would review the cumulative effects policy within two years, but that’s yet to happen, according to CELA.

“This application is important because it seeks to help fix Ontario’s broken air pollution laws and regulations,” the report says.

MECP is required to respond to the request in the next few months about whether or not it will do the review.