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"The Government of Canada's Environmental Plan"
Speaking notes
by the Honourable Michael D. Chong,
President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada,
Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and,
Minister of Sport
Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
Thornhill, Ontario
November 09, 2006
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I would like to thank the organizers of this event for having invited me. It is a great honour to serve as a minister from the Greater Toronto Area in Canada’s new government, a region which contributes so much to our country,
Tonight, I would like to speak about two issues that are important to me - and to all of us – the challenge of our changing communities and the air that we breathe.
In many ways, the Canada we know today would be unrecognizable to previous generations. According to the 1921 census, only 49 percent of Canadians lived in urban areas. By comparison, the 2001 census tells us that number is now 80 percent and growing. Rapid economic growth in urban centres is transforming our landscapes and our lifestyles with mixed results.
My trips from Toronto’s Pearson Airport to my riding of Wellington-Halton Hills in the north-west part of the GTA take me through a microcosm of this Canadian reality. I see the dynamism of Canada’s largest city and the fast-paced growth of its suburbs. I see the transformation of farming and rural communities, once part of Ontario’s agricultural heartland, into expanding subdivisions.
Some of these subdivisions were expanding into the Oak Ridges Moraine: a treasure trove of streams, woodlands, wetlands, kettle lakes, and kettle bogs containing a wide diversity of wildlife – an increasing rarity in southern Ontario.
I know that the Conservation Foundation of Greater Toronto and the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust work very hard to conserve and to reclaim as much of the land as possible for future generations.
The passing of the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act by the former Progressive Conservative government and the support for it by the current Liberal government of Premier McGuinty will go a long way in helping you achieve your goals.
I’m sure more can be done, and with your efforts it will be.
But as I think about areas such as the Oak Ridges Moraine, the challenges it poses and the opportunities it offers within the context of our changing communities, I know I am not alone.
For example, we all know the inextricable relationship between the environment and the health of our communities.
Decades of research show that watershed regenerative areas, carbon sinks created by agricultural and wilderness areas, and a whole host of other natural processes that take place in non-urban areas, are vital to clean air, clean water and clean habitat.
Thinking about this always leads me back to the same questions:
To make progress for the future, to build a better society, could we build our communities in a way that is environmentally sustainable?
Could governments move more quickly to protect ecologically and environmentally sensitive areas?
Could more densely populated areas improve people’s quality of life by allowing them to be closer to their workplace thereby increasing their leisure time?
These questions come to me as I make my own commute, but the answers to these questions must wait for another day and another discussion. For now, I will leave you to think about what those answers might be.
Another environmental issue that is important to me, and is top of mind among Canadians, is the air we breathe.
Recently, I was reading a stack of press clippings on the environment. I have to admit the coverage was not very positive. Critics were quoted as saying the federal government’s plan for the environment “could just …be a great waste of money,” and that it lacked specifics and was “weak, vague, and pathetic.”
However, the articles were not about any environmental plan we released, nor were they from 2006. They were from 1990, and they were in response to the release of Brian Mulroney’s Green Plan.
At the time, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney received a lot of criticism and not a lot of credit for his Green Plan, yet he did more for the environment in this country than any other Prime Minister before him. His achievements were recognized this past spring when he was awarded the title of Canada’s Greenest Prime Minister by some of the very groups that had criticised him in the past. The secret to his success? Brian Mulroney brought in concrete measures to clean up the environment and by this he achieved real success.
And that is what Prime Minister Harper has done by introducing the Clean Air Act. Like the early days of Mulroney’s Green Plan, there has been a lot of misinformation about
our plans to clean up the environment. I’d like to take this opportunity to correct some misconceptions and explain our plan to you.
Our Clean Air Act is a progressive and historic piece of legislation that will clean up our environment by reducing
both greenhouse gases and air pollution. Our Clean Air Act is a sweeping and comprehensive piece of legislation that takes a fundamentally different - and better – approach from that of the previous government.
The first difference?
We are taking action to reduce both air pollution and greenhouse gases. The previous government’s plan was focused
only on greenhouse gases and completely ignored air pollution … or what we more often call smog. In the GTA, as you all know with the dozens of smog alerts we experience every year, smog is one of the biggest threats to our environment and to the health of our citizens. It is simply unacceptable that we have to tell citizens not to go outside on a summer afternoon because of the poor air quality.
Any credible environmental agenda must address this issue and that is exactly what the Clean Air Act will do.
The second difference?
We are going to put in place mandatory regulation that will require mandatory reductions in air pollution and greenhouse gases. The previous government’s plan was based on voluntary compliance and voluntary reductions to greenhouse gases and greenhouse gases
only. Our plan is mandatory; theirs was voluntary.
The third difference?
Our plan will regulate all sectors of the Canadian economy. The auto sector, manufacturing, the chemical industry, the oil and gas sector -
all sectors will face tough, mandatory regulations – even weed-whackers, leaf-blowers and lawnmowers!
The regulation of things like lawnmowers may seem trivial, but the fact is that your lawnmower produces as many smog-causing pollutants in one hour as a car on the 5-hour drive from Toronto to Ottawa.
Let me tell you a few other things about our environmental plan.
The majority of attention has been focussed on our long term target to reduce greenhouse gases between 45-65% by 2050. However, our plan is not simply about targets in 2050; it also includes
short term targets to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases. These short term targets will come into force by the end of 2010, only 4 short years from now. Companies will have to move immediately to make the necessary changes to ensure full compliance by the end of 2010. Officials with the Government of Canada are working hard to finalize these targets and we hope to announce them in the coming months.
Those companies that fail to comply with these new regulations and targets will be fined and such fines will be paid directly into an environmental damages fund. This fund will be used by the government of Canada to invest in research and development for environmental technologies.
Our Government’s approach is based on the recognition that its first responsibility is to the Canadian people – their health and their environment. We will make investments that will improve the environment here in Canada.
I also want to clarify our Government’s position on the Kyoto Protocol. Canada is a signatory to Kyoto and will
remain a signatory. We believe that climate change is a real and serious global environmental problem. We believe in the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol. And as you know, these objectives call for Canada’s emissions to be 6%
below 1990 levels by 2012.
However, under the previous government emissions actually rose – to 35 % above
Canada’s Kyoto targets. Now, our government is faced with the impossible task of reducing current emissions by 35% by 2012. Clearly that is not possible without putting the Canadian economy into tailspin.
And our government refuses to use billions of taxpayer dollars to purchase international climate change credits as a means of meeting that target. We also refuse to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and smog. Instead, we will require industry to bear the cost of compliance, not Canadian taxpayers.
Clearly the previous government’s plan on the environment was not working and that is why we have our new plan – the Clean Air Act, an act that will deliver real results.
The Clean Air Act is a progressive piece of legislation that marks a fundamental shift from the approach of the previous government. Our plan will reduce greenhouse gases
and air pollution, will bring into force mandatory regulation, and will regulate all sectors of the Canadian economy.
As for Kyoto, we remain as signatories, we believe that climate change is a major environmental issue, we are committed to the objectives of the protocol, and we will work constructively to expand its global reach.
So this is what our Government is doing and together we will move forward on the environment.
I firmly believe that our individual actions are the constituent parts of progress. You are here today because you believe that there is progress to be made. Across this country groups like yours are looking after their own backyards.
You, they, and we are together building a stronger, cleaner, more prosperous Canada.
Thank you.
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