Environment and Climate Change Canada keeps a national inventory of pollutants, information it gets by asking businesses to share details of what they release into the atmosphere. This has led to viral social media posts claiming the federal government is regulating wood-fired ovens that make pizza and bagels. This is false. The ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥ Pollutant Release Inventory, a branch of Environment Canada, does not set emission reduction targets, but promotes awareness of pollution in communities across Canada through annual reporting.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre , formerly known as Twitter, on July 11 claiming "Justin Trudeau's wacko Environment Minister wants to crack down on wood-fired ovens that bring us delicious Montreal bagels."
It's a claim he first made back in , sharing a Montreal Gazette about the ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥ Pollutant Release Inventory.
Days later, he held a repeating the claim, saying "Prime Minister Trudeau and his federal agency have launched an outright crusade against pizza ovens. They started in Montreal but we know they will get out here to Vancouver."
Rating: False
A day after Poilievre's January press conference, Environment and Climate Change Canada denied that there would be a crackdown on wood-fired ovens.
"There have been no ECCC in-person inspections of wood-fired pizza and bagel shops. ECCC also does not regulate wood smoke from these small businesses," it on X.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault also , saying Poilievre is "searching for environment conspiracy theories."
Poilievre's office responded to a request for comment from ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥late Friday, again pointing to the Montreal Gazette as proof of a planned "crackdown" on wood-fired ovens in restaurants and bakeries, and saying the Liberal government backed down after "significant backlash" from ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥s.
Gathering information
Environment Canada told ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥this week that the (NPRI) gathered data last winter between Dec. 19, 2023 to Jan. 15, 2024 by contacting targeted facilities through email or phone "to collect information on their business practices and operations."
This was to determine if the NPRI reporting thresholds would be met.
"Emission factors were used with facility activity data to quantify particulate matter (PM) emissions," spokesperson Samantha Bayard said.
"We would like to clarify that there have been no ECCC in-person inspections of wood-fired pizza and bagel shops. Also, ECCC does not regulate wood smoke from these small businesses."
Based on the responses received and subsequent analysis, Bayard said, the results indicated "that it was unlikely that these facilities released enough PM emissions to trigger the NPRI reporting requirements."
There are no further compliance activities planned at this time, Environment Canada said.
No records of bagel shops being regulated by the federal government
In January, Global News that it had contacted many bagel shops and pizzerias with wood-fired ovens in Montreal.
Their report said just one bagel shop that responded said they had been contacted by the federal government – and said they had only received an email.
Furthermore, no members of the Association Restauration Quebec had reported being contacted by the federal government, Global News .
Sources
The claim can be found on X () and ()
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Note to readers: This story was updated on July 29, 2024 to include a response to a request for comment from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's office, received after publication.
