00:00The scrap metal industry is under siege from within. Thieves are aggressively targeting national infrastructure, stripping away valuable copper and
00:09forcing the local scrap metal trade into a crisis of survival. Desperate to protect thousands of legitimate jobs, the Scrap
00:17Iron Dealers Association held an emergency meeting.
00:20The verdict, unanimous. The industry must police itself before the government steps in to shut it down, says TTC the
00:28President, Alan Ferguson.
00:30We decided that the main problems that we have in, we will deal with it. Because when the government in
00:422022 gave us legislation to govern our industry, it had rules and it had penalty. And it was all about
00:54enforcement. That is why we have the problem that we have in here today.
01:00TTC is requesting an urgent meeting with the ministers of trade and homeland security. Etched in the plan, an unusual
01:08proposal. If the state lacks resources to properly monitor scrapyards, the association will foot the bill for specialized police details
01:16and contract scrap inspectors pending the green light from the government to root out illegal operators.
01:23We will volunteer to pay police to work with us or if they want the police to work with us.
01:30It doesn't matter for us. We decided that if we had to pay to enforce the law, we will do
01:37it.
01:38Because as an organization, we have to be responsible because we have thousands and thousands of people working in this
01:45industry.
01:46But the strategy does not stop at enforcement. To drain the financial incentives driving the theft, TTC the plans to
01:54execute an aggressive regulatory overhaul. Effective immediately, a strict price cap is being placed on copper.
02:01And any individual attempting to sell large quantities of metal must produce verified purchase receipts.
02:08They will have to prove to us. They will have to prove to us. And not just prove it with
02:13receipts. We will need to confirm it with from the company or whoever they purchase it from.
02:20Because we need to do us all we could do to stop this theft that's taking place.
02:25So you will be able to come into our yard with copper without proof that you buy it or where
02:31you get it from.
02:32The agreed price cap, $20 per pound. Furthermore, cash transactions are being heavily restricted. To create an unerasable paper trail
02:42for law enforcement, any transaction valued over $2,000 will now be paid strictly via bank check.
02:49Sometimes if it's $20,000, $40,000, $50,000, they only will be able to get $2,000 cash because
02:57we want to have a trace of where the money is going and all these sort of things.
03:01A van collector dividing the copper among several yards to rake in the cash is operating on free terrain at
03:08this time.
03:09But Ferguson says the implementation of a license being mandatory to sell would be a mitigating mechanism.
03:16That is one of our major, major thing that we're going to discuss with the ministry actually, that we need
03:22to get license for these van men and it must be in a swift time.
03:26The association says its steam can be in action by next week.
03:30Ferguson admits that dishonest operators have exploited the regulatory loopholes for years.
03:36The hope now is that with stricter enforcement and attached penalties, including license revocation, the copper cartel would be forced
03:45into a chokehold.
03:46Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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