Program Summary

The concept of ARET was developed in the early 1990's by a group of senior industry representatives and key Environmental Non-Government Organizations (ENGOs) known as the New Directions Group (NDG). In September 1991 the federal Environment Minister received their recommendation and lent his support to the proposed initiative. This group then became known as the ARET Stakeholder committee. The committee included representatives from industry, professional associations, and provincial and federal levels of government. Also invited were representatives from health and environmental groups, and from organized labour.

The ARET Stakeholder committee assembled a sub-committee to develop a list of priority substances for the program. The sub-committee was tasked with evaluating and prioritizing a list of over 2000 substances, using as its basis an inventory of substances found in the Great Lakes basin. Substances were scored based on available toxicity, persistence and bioaccumulation data. The result was a list of 117 toxic substances slated for elimination or reduction. This list included 30 that persist in the environment and may accumulate in living organisms.

In 1994 the ARET Stakeholder Committee issued the ARET challenge to Canadian industry to voluntarily reduce or eliminate their releases of ARET substances by the year 2000.

The ARET Goal

Long term goal:

• Virtual elimination of releases of 30 persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic substances
• Reduction of another 87 toxic substances to levels insufficient to cause harm

Short-term goal (by the year 2000):

• Reduce persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic substance emissions by 90 percent
• Reduce all other toxic substance emissions by 50 percent

For its time, ARET was a leading-edge initiative. In the early 90's, the concept of voluntary measures was uncharted territory in Canada, and when ARET was first developed no model existed for such a program. A primary objective of the initiative, from a government perspective, was to stimulate early action on toxic substances, without having a full-blown risk assessment under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act ("Evaluation of ARET" - Environment Canada, April 2000). ARET represented a significant step forward by Canadians to prevent and control pollution, and its accomplishments were acknowledged by the Ministers of Environment, Health and Industry in the Environmental Leaders 3 ARET progress report:

"The organizations that participate in the Accelerated Reduction and Elimination of Toxics Program are taking action to reduce pollution in our air, land and water so that Canadians can continue to lead healthy lives"

The ARET challenge proved to be very successful. By the year 2000 ARET succeeded in attracting participation from 8 major industry sectors, 171 companies and government organizations, and 318 individual facilities. Collectively these participants achieved a total reduction in releases to the environment of almost 28,000 tonnes of toxic substances, when releases in the last year of the program are compared to the base year levels of those releases. Over the entire course of the program, more than 70,000 tonnes of ARET substances were prevented from being released into the Canadian environment. If you would like to read more about the ARET program check out the ARET reports page.