U.S. ahead of Canada in tackling air pollution: activists

Written By: Anonymous
Date: 2005-11-10 10:34:00
<a href="/article/213447905-us-ahead-of-canada-in-tackling-air-pollution-activists">Article Link</a>

"There is evidence that U.S. facilities are outperforming Canadian facilities," said Paul Muldoon, with the Canadian Environmental Law Association, a partner with Pollution Watch.

The organization compared the output of the same chemicals from the same type of facilities in the two countries to reach that conclusion, he said.

Ottawa fails to follow through on its environmental promises and Canadians fail to hold it accountable, says the group.

...

<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/10/12/pollution_canada051012.html">http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/10/12/pollution_canada051012.html</a>

[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on November 10, 2005]

Is the "base pollution level" the same? Is there a level playing ground? To know this would be more important than knowing the true percentage.

Just as 1.8% salary reduction is quite different from a 45% reduction in total benefits to a CEO of a major corporation.

Either way it don't make us look good. I would assume the base level would be about ten times higher, since they are ten times the size.

It was a look at a certain set of chemicals, which can make a difference based on industry and so on.

No matter how you look at it, it isn't good though. Forget about the US numbers and consider that we only managed to improve by 1.8%. Does that sound like the result of a country that is trying very hard?

“AMERICANS can always be relied upon to do the right thing,” Winston Churchill once said. “But only after they have exhausted every other alternative.”

So canadians can NEVER be counted on to do the right thing?:)

Not with our current government and their policies!

---
"A person who walks in someone elses footprints leaves no footprints." Chinese Proverb

So canadians can NEVER be counted on to do the right thing?:)

Depends if you can count to one or not.

Boy, you just can't give the devil his due, eh?

Canadian nationalists = self-righteous hatemongers

Canada's federal government (mostly Liberal) is VERY GOOD at TALKING about things. But where has it every actually cut a cheque towards DOING something about it?

And yes, I AM foisting the responsibility directly on the shoulders of governmet, and am NOT taking any responsibility for myself, except watching what I purchase, and dutifully following recycling guidelines, because it is government that sets (in this case refuses to set) ironclad rules for industry.

---
RickW

I know that the use of environmental labels often give a certain agenda creditability with the public, that is why they use them. I tend to be a skeptic. I would ask the question: Who is Pollution Watch and what is their agenda before I accept their data at face value?

Is this the same Pollution Watch that was set up to market the health and hygiene products for certain multi-national corporations?

> So canadians can NEVER be counted on to do the right thing?:)

No...

Because they know it's all America's fault, anyway.

(Oh, wait - what was the subject title, again?!)

KYOTO! KYOTO!

You are being unilateralist! (Don’t worry, no one else who signed it has done jack shit about living up to their pledge.)

Does this mean it was the Canadians that caused the hurricanes?????

Seal clubbing and this? What next? Clear cutting old-growth forests and allowing Irving oil to dump hundreds of tons of hazardous waste into the Bay of Fundy?

Environmental enforcement is PROVINCIAL jurisdiction, which is why jack squat is getting done. The feds control the purse strings, most provinces are barely hanging onto their 'deficit free' budgets (in some cases not). If provinces 'enforced' these Kyoto provisions, these companies would be GONE and there would be massive unemployment (even moreso).

These are canadian decisions of course, but the US doesn't get off scot free, as has been noted elsewhere Canada is the mostly highly 'foreign owned' economy in the industrial world. With NAFTA provisions on one side, and divided political environment, and provincial jurisdictions on the other, the feds are hamstrung. Once again it is the 'system' that fosters inactivity. We pretty much KNOW where the pollution comes from - massive cars in the cities thanks to urban sprawl and lack of investment in public transit, industrial pollution thanks to lax environmental controls, coal use, thanks to lack of investment in renewables, and farms, thanks to lax environmental controls and little investment.

Much of the 'industrial pollution' is for energy and products going south. The US is essentially now a 'service' economy, which is what canada is becoming except for a few choice industries, which explains the drop. Compared to the eighties I'd expect their pollution output has dropped considerably because at the state level there are serious incentives in renewables, and because the US doesn't actually PRODUCE anything anymore.

I would like to take issue with this. The provinces have jurisdiction over what happens within their borders. As soon as things cross borders, they fall within federal jurisdiction. In addition, there are a number of regulatory things that affect the environment that fall within federal jurisdiction. An example of he latter is the regulatory approval for pesticides, which is regulated through an agency of Health Canada (the Pesticide Management Regulatory Agency). 
 
There is nothing in Canada (at any level of government) that equals the force (or the effectiveness) of the US Clean Air Act. There is no question that there is no agency in Canada (again at any level of government) that has the effectiveness of the US Environmental Protection Agency. 
 
Governments in Canada, at all levels, are very good at talking the talk, but remaining inactive on any issue that relates to the environment. 
 
As for foreign controlled firms being the cause of environmental damage, this is simply an excuse to blame pollution on people other than ourselves. If you buy into the notion that pollution is related to energy use, then the major sources of pollutants are operators of motor vehicles (i.e. individual Canadians) and the energy industries. According to Statistics Canada, “electricity and heat generation and the fossil fuel production industries combined, accounted for just over one-quarter of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions.” (see <a href="http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/041027/d041027a.htm">http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/041027/d041027a.htm</a>). 
 
Thus, in addition to the behaviour of individual Canadians, it is the reliance on fossil fuel generators by the Ontario government and the oil industry in the west that is responsible for pollution. I do not see any of the “have” provinces doing anything substantive to do anything about it. 
 
It is always easy to blame others for our problems, but when it comes to the environment, we are guilty as charged.