Readers may have seen recent media reports about the federal government focusing on wood-burning ovens at restaurants in Canada. Canadian Pizza contacted Environment and Climate Change Canada spokesperson Amelie Desmarais to learn what was happening.
Said Desmarais: “While work has recently been done by the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) team at Environment and Climate Change Canada to increase awareness and understanding with existing reporting requirements related to pollutants, the NPRI does not set emission (or reduction) limits or enforce compliance. There are also no plans to change the NPRI. Rather, the data collected helps to create an ongoing inventory that tracks pollutant releases, disposals and transfers for recycling.
“Recently, the NPRI program undertook compliance promotion activities for some wood-fired ovens such as those found in some pizzerias and bagel shops across Canada to determine if they meet the program’s reporting thresholds. Since the start of these compliance promotion activities, no wood-fired pizzeria or bagel shop has been identified as meeting the emissions threshold for reporting under published reporting requirements.
“The NPRI requires reporting when certain quantities of Particulate Matter are exceeded, which in this case is 0.3 tonnes (PM 2.5) and 0.5 tonnes (PM 10), with facilities where employees work totals fewer than 20,000 hours annually required to only report releases that exceed those amounts where the emissions are from stationary combustion equipment.
“No in-person inspections of facilities have taken place as part of this initiative, and it is not anticipated that pizza shops or bagel shops will be pursued for further compliance promotion activities.”
