The Scrap Metal Act, Dougald Lamont's leadership, and concerns over lead pollution

On Thursday March 10, I spoke on the Scrap Metal Act, a bill which is designed to reduce thefts of metals – including catalytic converters – which are then sold to scrap metal dealers.  This bill was originally brought forward by Dougald Lamont the Manitoba Liberal Leader and MLA for St. Boniface.   The bill was then copied by the NDP and most recently in the current bill by the Conservatives.  I acknowledge the leadership of Dougald Lamont on this bill and also point out concerns with regard to lead pollution by the scrap metal industry.   The latter need to be better addressed because lead pollution can lead to children having poisonous levels of lead in their bodies and difficulties with learning and behaviour as well as increased juvenile delinquency and crime.

 

Bill 9–The Scrap Metal Act

Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Mr. Speaker, in a few minutes, I want to start by thanking the MLA for St. Boniface for bringing forward, essentially, this bill in October 4, 2020. The bill could have been passed if there'd been support then. I'm pleased that there is support now.

      And it was good to see that, after the MLA for St. Boniface had brought forward this bill, that about six months later, in May 2020, the MLA for Elmwood brought forward a copy of the bill, and then brought forward another copy in November of 2021.

      So this is thanks to the leadership of the member for St. Boniface (Mr. Lamont) that we are where we are today, with a robust bill, which we will support, to try and decrease the theft of metals, of catalytic con­verters, and to make Manitoba a better place to be, with a more robust, and safe and better protected scrap-metal industry.

      I want to also put a few comments on the record about the scrap-metal industry and its role, his­torically, in the pollution of lead.

      Lead is a very sig­ni­fi­cant neurotoxin, and lead in the environment has been sig­ni­fi­cant on its impact to lower IQ, to decrease school performance, to increase the likelihood of children getting attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, to increase the rate of juvenile delinquency and to increase the rate of crime.

      And just as one study, which was published March 7th, so very recently, hot off the press, 2022, estimating that in the United States, there was a popu­la­tion-level effect of lead going back a number of decades with, as I quote, lead is respon­si­ble for the loss of 824 million IQ points as of 2015. Quite a sub­stan­tial impact on the popu­la­tion in the United States, and it is to be expected that there would be a similar impact here in Canada and Manitoba.

      And we know that while some of the sources of  lead–lead in gasoline has decreased–is now eliminated, that other sources of lead from scrap metal industries are still around. And we need to make sure that we are cleaning these up.

      And we also need to be sure that we're screening children early on. There is another study that I will just quote from which is looking at the role of early inter­ven­tion services; before age three, you need to test kids for their blood-lead level and then intervene.

      And what they found was that children exposed to lead who received early inter­ven­tion services before age 36 months did significantly better in English language arts tests than children who didn't receive these services, that children who received services were 14 and 16 per cent more likely to meet test-bank standards in math and English language arts. This was a study done in New York, in the state of New York. But it shows the importance of not only identifying these children but also of early inter­ven­tion.

      With those few comments, Mr. Speaker, I will sit down. Thank you for this op­por­tun­ity so we can have a vote.