Environment and Climate Change Canada is proposing changes to the manifest system for tracking hazardous waste. OWMA is in agreement with Environment and Climate Change Canada’s (ECCC) effort to modernize the tracking system to eventually eliminate the use of paper movement documents (manifests) and instead track shipments electronically. ECCC has begun to create an on-line shipment tracking system that will first be used to track hazardous waste movements into and out of Canada but could then be used for interprovincial movements. It may also eventually be adopted by some provinces for intra-provincial movements.
OWMA has identified some problematic aspects of the proposed system including the date (September 1st, 2018) to end the use of paper manifests.
The proposed system will increase the administrative burden on industry and is less efficient. The key aspect to improve the system is to allow for the uploading of third party information from the more sophisticated systems deployed by companies for internal purposes.