The Trudeau government is considering requiring certain bakeries and restaurants that cook food using wood-fired ovens to annually report their total air pollution emissions to the National Pollutant Release Inventory.
Annual reports must be sent to the NPRI, which is a federally legislated, publicly accessible inventory that tracks pollution output from industrial, commercial and institutional facilities.
Owners of businesses that meet certain requirements are obligated to send an annual report of their total pollution released each year to the NPRI, which then relays that information to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault.
“The NPRI program has recently undertaken compliance promotion activities targeting some wood-fired ovens such as pizzerias and bagel shops across Canada, including Montreal,” spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada Cecelia Parsons told The Gazette.
Montreal currently has about 100 commercial outlets which operate wood-fired ovens to cook food like bagels, pizza and grilled chickens, instead of using charcoal grills.
Some public health authorities have warned that the fine particulate pollution in wood smoke can become hazardous to the health of people who work and live near those establishments.
The new federal program has started “compliance promotion” work as “a first step, as part of a scoping exercise to determine if those facilities meet the NPRI reporting thresholds,” said Parsons.
While the NPRI does not set emissions limits itself, it does have the authority to fine companies that meet the reporting requirements but fail to do so. They can also be fined if they submit past a deadline or with misleading information.
Historically, regulating the use of wood-burning appliances has generally been undertaken by provinces, territories and municipalities, not the federal government.
Certain cities, including Montreal, have already passed bylaws which prohibit residential wood-burning appliances that can’t meet the current emissions regulations.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante’s office said that the era of tolerating excessive air pollution from wood-burning businesses was coming to a close back in 2018, however delayed action on this resulted in the task being given to the Montreal Metropolitan Community (MMC) council.
The MMC’s Standing Committee on Environment and Ecological Transition planned to hold public hearings on the proposed bylaw to regulate these businesses in 2020 but the hearings were further delayed by the pandemic.
The hearings have been rescheduled to begin early this year however, which will be followed by a public consultation on the bylaw.
“We are extremely pleased to hear that the (federal) government has taken an important step with regards to wood-fired restaurants and bakeries to ensure they comply with the same rules followed by other pollution emitters,” said Daniel Vézina, director general for a Montreal-based group called Families for Clean Air.
“Data has shown that this is a very important source of pollution locally for many neighbourhoods. We welcome their efforts to potentially include those emissions in the National Pollutant Release Inventory, which would help scientists across Canada to better understand the health impacts and influence policy decisions.”
The move will likely hurt the restaurant industry and small businesses, which have been consistently struggling since the pandemic began. A recent report from Restaurants Canada revealed that a large number of restaurants across the country, about 34%, have been operating at a loss since March 2023.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre responded to the news with a social media post on X, writing, “Oh thank God! The Trudeau bureaucracy is spending our money to save our planet from the existential threat of wood-fired pizzas & bagels. Decriminalize crack and ban wood-oven pizza!”
