MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — According to the Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute of Canada (HRAI), HRAI staff and member participants in the Refrigerant Management Canada (RMC) program met with representatives from Environment Canada on Sept. 8 to discuss the implementation of a Pollution Prevention (P2) plan for halocarbons. This plan could meet HRAI’s objective of having a federal extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulation for halocarbons and allow the RMC program to be broadened to include HFCs.

This meeting was arranged following a meeting in July with the Minister of the Environment’s director of policy, John Morris. At this meeting, HRAI representatives laid out the serious situation concerning long-term funding for the RMC program and the need for immediate action by Environment Canada on the halocarbon EPR regulations proposed in 2009. In this meeting, Morris indicated the ministry’s support for the program and recognized the need to move forward with the EPR measures.

At the meeting in September, HRAI members in attendance learned that a P2 plan was as equally effective as a regulation and does not require as lengthy a timeframe for implementation. The Environment Canada representatives indicated that the P2 plan for halocarbons had been drafted and a consultation on this approach was being looked at for October. Subsequent to the meeting, a notice of a P2 plan consultation session on Oct. 17, 2011 in Ottawa was sent out by Environment Canada. A number of HRAI members and staff were in attendance at the consultation.