Quebec environmental watchdog urges province to adopt 'right to repair' law

Quebec's environmental watchdog, the Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE), is urging the province to adopt a so-called "right to repair" law that would force manufacturers to make products that are easier for consumers to fix on their own.

Such a law would empower consumers to repair everything from toasters to barbecues to smartphones themselves, without having to pay an arm and a leg for manufacturers to repair them — or simply trashing the objects in frustration.

Jean-Philippe Roy knows well what kind of satisfaction fixing something can bring.

He's one of the founders of Mon Atelier, a repair café in Montreal's Villeray district that offers workshops and support for people hoping to repair their own household objects.

"We don't realize how much, when we repair an object, we have an incredible dopamine discharge of happiness," Roy told CBC in an interview.

"You can't imagine the number of high fives that happen here, the cries of joy. It's incredible how cool it is when you press a power button and you've managed to repair something," he said.

Roy said the café has a success rate of about 80 per cent in repairing objects clients bring in, and he said a right-to-repair law would probably help increase that number.

The BAPE report said such a law would also help reduce the amount of waste in Quebec's overflowing landfills.

'Once it stops functioning, it goes in the garbage'

In the report released this week on the state of waste disposal and landfill in Quebec, the BAPE found the province was nowhere close to meeting its waste-reduction targets, and that "enshrining by regulation the right to repair" is essential to getting things back on track.

"Some products on the market right now are not serviceable, even by a repair shop," BAPE commissioner Pierre Renaud said Tuesday at a news conference.

"Once it stops functioning, it goes in the garbage. And we think that to reduce the amount of these products that go to the garbage, we need to have ways to keep it repairable and serviceable," Renaud added.

Patrick Cigana, a senior advisor on sustainable development at Polytechnique Montréal, said it's not just about keeping objects out of landfill.

"I think the most important effect of us being able to repair our stuff is the fact that we don't have to build new ones all the time," Cigana told CBC.

"We reduce the consumption of natural resources, we reduce the consumption of energy that comes with manufacturing, and that's where the focus has to be," he said.

Cigana said the environment wins but so does the consumer.

"You know, instead of buying a new $250 coffee maker, well, maybe it's just a 59-cent resistor that blew and you can you can just order online and replace it," Cigana said.

Resistance from industry softening

Cigana said manufacturers have traditionally been resistant to right-to-repair legislation, but that may be changing.

"Historically, what we've seen is that they've been against it. Farming equipment companies, or smart phone companies, electronics manufacturers have fought against it," Cigana said.

Quebec's Manufacturers and Exporters Association refused to comment for this story, saying it didn't have enough information about the proposed law.

But last year, tech giant Apple introduced a right-to-repair policy, and while it may have some shortcomings, proponents of the right to repair say it was a big step forward.

"There is a strong, ongoing movement toward corporate social responsibility — toward more than just greenwashing. So I think the time is right now to to move strongly in that direction," Cigana said.

Quebec legislation stalled

Quebec actually already has a 'right to repair' bill made to measure.

Independent MNA Guy Ouellette introduced a private member's bill in 2019, drafted with help from law students at the University of Sherbrooke.

Bill 197 would amend the Consumer Protection Act to "fight planned obsolescence and assert the right to repair goods."

The bill would require all household appliances sold in Quebec to have a label indicating a sustainability rating — basically a degree of difficulty for repair.

France adopted and implemented such a system last year.

The bill would also ensure that "replacement parts, tools and repair services" are available at a reasonable price and that manufacturers cannot have exclusive jurisdiction over repairs. It would introduce a minimum $10,000 fine for companies that engage in planned obsolescence.

The bill received unanimous support from all parties in the National Assembly and was adopted in principle last April. But since then it seems to have stalled. The next legislative step would be for Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette to send the bill to a National Assembly committee for detailed study. But since April nothing has happened.

Ouellette told CBC in an interview Tuesday that he had spoken briefly to the justice minister last fall about advancing the bill, but nothing came of it.

"It seems there's no serious desire to tackle this problem," Ouellette said.

A spokesperson for Jolin-Barrette, Élisabeth Gosselin, told CBC in an email that the government's reflection on the bill is continuing and that this is "an issue to which the government is sensitive."

Roy from the Mon Atelier repair café said such a law could be the little push that people need to embrace being handy.

"I think there are a lot more things that can be repaired than we think. It's just a reflex that we don't have," Roy said.

"If a law was there to help us develop it, I can only be in favour of that," he added.