Hello,
As delegates from around the world gathered in Ottawa today to work on ending global plastic pollution, Canada announced the creation of a new plastics registry to push industry to monitor and track the use of the substance.
Environment Canada Steven Guilbeault touted the plan at the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on plastic pollution, or INC-4.
The registry will compel plastic resin manufacturers, producers of plastic products and service providers to annually report on the amounts and types of plastic they put out in the market, and where the plastic ends up.
“The registry will provide critical information to measure progress, identifying gaps and building a truly circular economy,” Guilbeault told delegates.
He described an urgent situation. “We produce, buy, use and throw plastic away irresponsibly and unsustainably. Plastic pollution is found in every corner of the planet. We are breathing, drinking and eating it. We know there is another way.”
Reporting requirements will be enacted September, 2025, and rolled out through 2027.
The INC-4 committee, which falls under the umbrella of the United Nations Environment Program, was set up in 2022 with the goal of crafting an international, legally binding plastics treaty by the end of 2024. The eventual goal is to end plastics pollution by 2040.
The Ottawa session is the last set of negotiations before the fifth and final session to come up with an agreement. The first session is scheduled for November in South Korea.
According to the UN program, 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced since the 1950s, of which seven billion tonnes have become waste.
- INC-4: Details on the gathering
- OPINION: “When the USS Enterprise first set voyage on our screens more than half a century ago, science fiction was full of space pioneers racing to discover new reaches of the universe, their authors imagining what the future might look like. As the face of one of those space pioneers for nearly 30 years, I have one message for world leaders: Imagine a plastic-free future. If Captain James Kirk visited Earth today, he might as well be returning to Planet Plastic.” – William Shatner
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TODAY'S HEADLINES
Ottawa, Ontario to announce multibillion-dollar Honda EV deal this week: The deal with Honda includes a standalone battery manufacturing and a retooled car assembly plant, as well as facilities for both cathode materials and separator components, according to two sources.
Chinese institute compiled profiles of Canadian MPs of Chinese descent: The profiles were drawn up by a research institute that supports the work of China’s United Front Work Department, a body that answers to the Communist Party’s central committee.
Trudeau, Poilievre condemn chant on Parliament Hill glorifying Hamas attack on Israel: Saturday’s protest, more than six months into the Israel-Hamas war, featured Palestinian flags and placards calling for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Spike in international student asylum claims an abuse of study permits, experts warn: The sharp increase is particularly acute at colleges, where claims at some schools have climbed in excess of 4,000 per cent since 2018.
Naheed Nenshi seen as front-runner as deadline looms in Alberta NDP leadership race: Members have until tonight – with a midnight deadline – to buy a membership in order to cast a vote on June 22 on who will replace Rachel Notley as NDP leader and head of the provincial Opposition.
Liberal and NDP MPs lament departure of long-time Tory MP as Status of Women chair: Members of the committee said they were disappointed to learn Karen Vecchio would no longer be at the helm. Vecchio was first elected as chair in 2017.
Vaisakhi paradegoers remember late Sikh leader Hardeep Nijjar: The annual Vaisakhi parade, which drew more than half a million people to Surrey, B.C., on the weekend, was dedicated to the memory of Hardeep Nijjar, the local gurdwara president who was killed last year.
Ottawa spent $2.2-million fighting emergencies act court challenge on convoy protest: The cost of the litigation, disclosed by the Department of Justice in a reply to a question from a Conservative MP, included the “notional amount” for the services of government lawyers, who are public servants and worked on the case, as well as outside legal services.
TODAY’S POLITICAL QUOTES
“We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to profoundly change our relationship with plastic. This can be the moment when we turn the tap off on plastic pollution waste. We cannot waste this chance.” – Inger Anderson, under-secretary-general of the United Nations and executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, at today’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee conference on plastic pollution, or INC-4.
“We know that foreign adversaries are using our openness as a society, our openness on internet and social-media platforms to divide our nation. I am certain I am doing the same here in Canada and across the globe. They’re using our freedom and our democracy against us by trying to insert themselves into national debates, by trying to divide the country and disrupt the normal courtesies we give to one another in our communities. They are applying that in disinformation campaigns that will impact elections. I think it’s vitally important that all nations take this security challenge very seriously.” – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a member of the U.S. Senate select committee on intelligence, on foreign intelligence. Gillibrand was in Ottawa today for INC-4.
THIS AND THAT
Commons, Senate: The House of Commons is on a break until April 29. The Senate sits again April 30
Deputy Prime Minister’s day: Chrystia Freeland, in Montreal, accompanied by Small-Business Minister Rechie Valdez, toured a startup company, discussed the federal budget’s investments to support entrepreneurs, and took media questions.
Ministers on the road: With the House of Commons on a week-long break, cabinet ministers are out across Canada talking up the federal budget seen as key to improving the government’s political fortunes. Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault was scheduled to speak to an Edmonton Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne is in Saskatoon. Public Services Minister Jean-Yves Duclos is in Quebec City. Housing Minister Sean Fraser is in the Nova Scotia district of Bedford. Diversity Minister Kamal Khera is in Brampton, Ont. Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon is in Windsor, Ont., visiting a kitchen and cabinetry design studio. Sport Minister Carla Qualtrough, King’s Privy Council President Harjit Sajjan, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree, Tourism Minister Soraya Martinez Ferrada, and Justice Minister Arif Virani are in Delta, B.C. Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge and National Revenue Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau are in the Quebec city of Bromont. Filomena Tassi, Minister for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, and Marci Ien, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, are in Hamilton. Veterans Affairs Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor is in Fredericton.
Meanwhile, International Trade Minister Mary Ng is leading a trade mission with 240 people from more than 160 Canadian businesses and organizations, to South Korea through to Thursday.
GG in Saskatchewan: Mary Simon and her partner, Whit Fraser, are making an official visit to Saskatchewan through Wednesday. Today, the tour is in Regina with stops that include meetings with Premier Scott Moe and Lieutenant-Governor Russ Mirasty, and a visit to First Nations University.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Justin Trudeau is in the Ottawa region with no public events scheduled.
LEADERS
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, in Coquitlam, B.C., held a news conference with NDP MP Bonita Zarrillo on health care.
No schedules released for Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, Conservative Party Pierre Poilievre and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May
THE DECIBEL
On today’s edition of the podcast, Salmaan Farooqui, personal finance reporter with The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business, explains the basics of capital gains and how this tax might affect Canadians. The Decibel is here.
TRIBUTE
Iona Campagnolo: “She was never dull.” The life of the cabinet minister under Pierre Elliott Trudeau and a B.C. lieutenant-governor is recalled in an obituary.
OPINION
The B.C. NDP is playing with fiscal fire
“The first alarm bells over British Columbia’s finances started tinkling last spring, when NDP Premier David Eby rushed to spend billions of dollars in surplus revenue rather than – horror of horrors – pay down the provincial debt.” – The Globe and Mail Editorial Board
The Bloc’s fake freakout over halal mortgages is ridiculous
“The Bloc Québécois stands for certain unbending causes, such as the protection of the French language, the safeguarding of Quebec’s jurisdiction and the demand that home purchases be financed only through interest-levying instruments. That last one was a surprise, because until last week, there was little outward sign of the Bloc’s dedication to preserving the traditional culture of Canadian bankers.” – Campbell Clark
Danielle Smith launches what could be her biggest broadside yet at Ottawa
“Danielle Smith has long promised to be the most combative of premiers. She has lived up to those words, perhaps especially so in legislation introduced this month, the Provincial Priorities Act (Bill 18), which would allow her government to say a pre-emptive yea or nay to every funding deal Ottawa makes in Alberta.” – Kelly Cryderman
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Ian Bailey