Annual Report 2006–2007

President’s Message

With this annual report, I am proud to announce that the Commission's long-sought legislative amendments have been enacted into law. Bill S-2, An Act to Amend the Hazardous Materials Information Review Act, received Royal Assent on March 29, 2007, marking the conclusion of a remarkable journey toward a revitalized, modernized Commission.

We began our renewal process in 1999 with the vision of becoming a more client-focused agency committed to improving service quality and timeliness. Along the way we implemented wide-ranging initiatives that touched every area of our operations, and introduced more openness, more transparency and more accountability into our everyday operations. And now, with the passage of three these recent legislative amendments, we can finally say that we have transformed the Commission into a dynamic, progressive, well-performing agency.

These legislative amendments enhance our renewal process by introducing further efficiencies into our administrative processes. The first amendment relates to the Commission's mandate to protect industry's bona fide trade secrets. When a company believes that disclosing certain information on a hazardous product would betray a trade secret, the company can file a claim with the Commission for an exemption from the requirement to disclose that specific information.

Under the old legislation, claims for exemption had to be supported by cumbersome substantiating documentation-to verify that the information is a genuine trade secret, to detail the measures that protect the confidentiality of that information, and to prove that disclosing the confidential information would result in an economic loss for the claimant or an economic gain for its competitors. This first amendment will significantly reduce the regulatory burden on industry so that a claimant will submit only minimal documentation to support its declaration that it is seeking to protect a bona fide trade secret. The streamlined process will reduce administration for industry, shorten the time the Commission needs to review each claim, and give workers information on hazardous materials more quickly.

The second legislative amendment relates to the second element of our mandate: to conduct a scientific review of the material safety data sheets (MSDSs) included with applications for trade secret protection. The Commission's role is critical in ensuring that MSDSs are as complete and correct as possible since they provide information to workers about safely handling hazardous materials. Under the old legislation, if the Commission decided that ann MSDS did not comply with Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) regulations, it had to publish a formal order against the claimant in the Canada Gazette-even if the claimant was willing to correct the information-and the order became binding only after a mandatory waiting period of at least 75 days. The amendment will allow us to expedite the process and bypass the waiting period by permitting claimants to voluntarily correct health and safety information without the stigma of a formal order. The streamlined approach will enhance workplace safety since workers will have corrected safety information much more quickly.

And finally, the third legislative change will expedite the appeals process, which is available to claimants or affected parties who disagree with Commission decisions. Appeal boards are independent from the Commission, and made up of three representatives from government, labour and industry. To expedite the appeal process, a Commission representative will now be allowed to give the board factual information on the decision, if necessary.

The revitalization of the Commission was my top priority when I accepted this position as President and CEO in 1998, and the successful conclusion to this initiative is a fitting end to my tenure. Throughout this renewal process I have been inspired by the commitment of the Commission's staff and all members of the Council of Governors. In consultation with our clients, stakeholders and WHMIS partners, we seized the renewal agenda and laid out our objectives in a strategic plan called Blueprint for Change. We then developed an operational workplan, a road map of sorts, which plotted our journey toward renewal with 29 specific action items. The journey has had its share of challenges, of course, but by working collaboratively we have accomplished every action item that we set for ourselves.

In working toward renewal, the Commission has truly been a model of industry, labour and government consultation, consensus and collaboration. We began the process by consulting with our stakeholders, and continued to encourage open dialogue at every stage. Our new accessibility quickly paid dividends as we worked with industry to overcome misunderstandings and resolve issues. For example, to respond to a longstanding industry concern, we overhauled our cost-recovery structure to reflect the distinction between services performed primarily for private benefit and those carried out for the public good.

Working with industry, we redesigned our approach to dispute resolution. The new approach features an open communication and frequent contact with clients during the MSDS and claims exemption review processes. This ensures that disputes are resolved early on and serves to avoid appeals. Since we implemented this client-centred approach in 2001, not a single Commission decision has been appealed, indicating that our new approach is working.

The steady increase in claims filed is, I believe, another sign that our outreach efforts with industry have been successful. To raise the profile of the Commission, we reached out to various stakeholder groups and helped our international clientele understand the importance of our mandate. We worked hard to establish strategic partnerships with our provincial and territorial WHMIS partners, with central agencies, and with other organizations committed to similar health and safety objectives. I believe that our communication and outreach efforts encouraged claimants to come forward.

In the drive toward renewal, we developed and continuously enhanced our Web site. We added user-friendly information on Commission business, and credit card payment options for the convenience of our clients. Internally, we added and reorganized resources to right-size the Commission and allow us to better accomplish our vision. Even with our growth, we succeeded in staying small and nimble, able to respond quickly to challenges as they arise.

Many of our business processes have changed since 1998, but our fundamental role has not. Through our MSDS compliance efforts, the Commission is an important advocate for workers, and between 1998 and 2007 it made a measurable improvement to workplace safety by ordering corrections to 13,846 MSDS compliance violations. The Commission is also a strategic partner to industry, helping to safeguard trade secrets that help companies compete in the marketplace. Between 1998 and 2007 the value of those protected trade secrets totalled $2.86 billion. We are continually striving to achieve a balance between the right of workers to know about the hazardous materials they deal with in the workplace and the right of industry to protect confidential business information.

I am proud to have led our renewal initiative, but this monumental achievement was very much a joint effort, involving staff members who were fully invested in the process and Council members who represent many different stakeholders yet came together to do the right thing for the public good. The end result shows what can be accomplished through partnership, through professionalism, and by committing ourselves to tangible and measurable results. We have fundamentally changed how we operate, and have set the Commission on a new course for the future.

This will be the last annual report in my tenure as President and CEO of the Hazardous Materials and Information Review Commission. It has been an honour to have served in this role for nine years. I would like to thank staff members and Council members for their dedication, their support and their unwavering commitment to our goal. As I leave the Commission, I am confident that they will continue to make a difference to industry, to workers and to the health and safety community.

Weldon Newton