Town of Oakville passes first-of-its-kind emissions by-law in Canada

The Hamilton District Autobody Repair Association (HARA) is making its members aware that the Town of Oakville has passed what the association describes as the first-of-its-kind bylaw in Canada that requires facilities like auto refinish repair shops to report their air emissions to the Town.  Across Canada it has always been the province that is the responsible reporting agency through their Certificate of Approval programs.

According to HARA, the Town’s new reporting function involves the completion of six excel spreadsheets and an eight page reporting form.  This is due by May 1, 2011, with the draft calculations sheets being made available to the association only last Monday.

HARA has filed some 25 questions with the Town for clarity of the reporting forms. The Town has either responded or has advised that they will look into the questions.  HARA said the Town has asked for emissions in a fashion not done before and the paint jobbers and distributors are having difficulty generating the needed data in the fashion the Town is asking for.  The Town is also demanding a report on particulate emissions from your gas furnaces.  HARA added the Town does not charge a fee to send in this one-time report; however, if the emissions are over a certain limit, there is a $25,000 reporting fee and the Town can then label a shop as a “public nuisance” on their Web site.

HARA is offering to provide the reporting requirement for each shop to the Town of Oakville as an agent for each shop in the Town.  HARA believes this will help shops come into compliance with the by-law who may not understand the reporting process and can be done at a significantly lower price than the $20,000 fee that that some consultants are asking local shops to pay.  HARA believes it can provide the necessary reports for no more than $500 plus HST for member shops.  Non-member shops pay a $750 plus HST price.

If a local shop is interested, HARA will need the following:

1)   Basic shop information: stack height, filter size, number & size of booths

2)   Copies of your natural gas bills showing consumption for the year 2010

3)   Listings from your jobber/supplier of paint purchases for 2010, by dollar amount, and type of paint (there are 15 types and we will supply your jobber with a list)

4)   A note from you permitting us to obtain your data and paint purchase information and we would guarantee that HARA would consider it confidential (although the Town may publish it)

Call 1-866-309-4272 for more information.