The Need for Immediate Action –
Canada's New Clean Air Regulatory Agenda

Canadians are concerned about the quality of the air they breathe and their changing environment. Harmful air emissions continue to affect our health, our environment, our economy as well as our quality of life. That is why we are taking immediate action on reducing air pollution and greenhouse gases.

Furthermore, Canada is lagging behind other countries: air quality in Canada has worsened over the past decade. In fact, according to an OECD study Canada ranks near the bottom of all OECD countries in term of per capita emissions of smog-causing pollutants. Canada's New Government is committed to taking action and achieving real environmental results after over a decade of inaction.

This is why, within months of taking office, this government invested in tax credits and new funding to increase public transit ridership and rallied all governments behind the goal of reaching 5% renewable content in motor fuels by 2010. This is also why we are acting quickly to prevent air emissions of mercury from scrapped cars and to ban harmful chemicals found in stain repellants and flame retardants.

That same commitment to effective action has convinced Canada's New Government that a new approach to air quality and climate change is needed.

The previous Government relied heavily on voluntary approaches that have not achieved results. The need for action is evident from the growing incidence of respiratory illnesses over the past decade, and was confirmed in numerous recent reports (such as from the Ontario Medical Association, and the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development).

Previously, air pollutants and greenhouse gases were treated separately despite the fact that they often come from the same sources. Comprehensive standards on air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions will provide certainty to industry to allow the greatest use of technology to make the investments needed to reduce both.

Canada's Clean Air Act would provide for stronger authorities to regulate air pollutants and greenhouse gases. It would also increase accountability through enhanced monitoring, reporting and enforcement.

Timeline for action

Tabling Canada's Clean Air Act

The first step is tabling Canada's Clean Air Act. Canada's Clean Air Act would strengthen the legislative basis for taking action on reducing air pollution and greenhouse gases. It would contain three key elements:

1. The Act would create a new Clean Air Part in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA) to strengthen the government's ability to take action to reduce air emissions. It would authorize the government to regulate indoor and outdoor air pollutants and greenhouse gases, and require the Ministers of the Environment and Health to establish national air quality objectives, as well as to monitor and report publicly on their attainment. It would also amend CEPA to enable the government to regulate the blending of fuels and their components. This would be an important step towards achieving a 5% renewable fuel content by 2010.
   
   
2. It would amend the Motor Vehicle Fuel Consumption Standards Act to modernize the Government of Canada's authority to regulate new motor vehicle fuel efficiency. Setting mandatory fuel consumption standards would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles purchased in Canada.
   
   
3. And it would expand authorities under the Energy Efficiency Act to allow the government to set energy efficiency standards and labelling requirements for a wider range of consumer and commercial products. Achieving the same comfort and convenience for less energy is one of the most sensible and effective ways to reduce emissions and save money.

Immediate Action

The Act and Notice of Intent to Regulate would commit to establishing short, medium and long-term industrial air pollution targets. The Government of Canada would consult and propose regulations for:

1. Emissions from Industry

• Consultations would start immediately with stakeholders on the key elements of integrated air pollutant and greenhouse gas regulations.
• Development of the overall regulatory framework for key industrial sectors including fossil-fuel fired electricity generation, upstream oil and gas, downstream petroleum, base metal smelters, iron and steel, cement, forest products, and chemicals production.

Short-term (2010-2015)

• For air pollutants: the Government intends to adopt a target-setting approach based on fixed caps.
• For greenhouse gases: the Government intends to adopt a target-setting approach based on emissions intensity, one that will yield a better outcome for the Canadian environment than under the plan previously proposed on July 16, 2005 and show real progress on the environment here in Canada.

Medium-term (2020-2025)

• For air pollutants: the Government will continue to employ a fixed cap approach to target-setting.
• For greenhouse gases: the Government will build upon the emissions intensity approach with intensity targets that are ambitious enough to lead to absolute reductions in emissions and thus support the establishment of a fixed cap on emissions during this period.

Long-term (2050)

• For air pollutants: the Government will continue to employ a fixed cap approach to target-setting.
• For greenhouse gases: the Government commits to achieve an absolute reduction in greenhouse gas emissions between 45 and 65% from 2003 levels by 2050, and will ask the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) for advice on the specific target to be selected and scenarios for how the target could be achieved.

Consultations on the regulatory framework for industrial emissions will include consideration of the compliance options that should be available to industry. One option that will be examined will be a mechanism whereby companies, and potentially governments, could contribute to a technology investment fund that would support the development of transformative technologies for emissions reduction, such as CO₂ sequestration.

In addition, in the coming weeks and months, the government will introduce new regulations, for implementation as early as 2007, pursuant to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 to address air pollutants from certain products and vehicles:

2. Emissions from On-Road and Off-Road Vehicles and Engines

• Final regulations to further reduce air pollutant emissions from on-road motorcycles;
• Amendments to existing regulations further reducing air pollutant emissions from off-road diesel engines and equipment (e.g., those used in construction, mining, forestry, agriculture);
• New regulations to reduce air pollutant emissions from marine spark-ignition engines and off-road recreational vehicles (e.g., outboards, personal watercraft, snowmobiles, ATVs);
• New regulations requiring on-board diagnostics systems for on-road heavy duty engines (e.g., heavy trucks, buses); and
• New regulations to reduce air pollutant emissions from off-road large spark-ignition engines (e.g., forklifts).

3. Emissions from Consumer and Commercial Products

• Regulations limiting Volatile Organic Compound (VOC)¹ content in: architectural, industrial and maintenance coatings; consumer products; and automobile refinishing coatings (together, paints, cosmetics and cleaning products account for about 18% of VOC emissions in Canada).
• Regulations to reduce VOC emissions from other consumer and commercial products, including regulations limiting VOC content in additional products such as portable fuel containers; and new strategies and instruments for reducing VOC emissions from printing, aerospace and automotive manufacturing sectors.
• New regulations under the Energy Efficiency Act will set new performance requirements for various consumer and commercial products. Over time, the set of planned new regulations will address about 20 currently unregulated products such as commercial clothes washers and boilers, and will tighten requirements for 10 products such as residential dishwashers and dehumidifiers.

The Government intends to develop measures for improving indoor air quality.

4. Indoor air

• A new guideline on radon that will be the basis for a national radon strategy.

Moving Forward

• Development and implementation of sector-specific regulations for air pollutants and greenhouse gases for the above-mentioned key industrial sectors. The government plans to have emissions regulations finalized by 2010 for those sectors, and the necessary tools to monitor and enforce compliance.
• Expansion of the number of consumer and commercial products covered by air pollution regulations.
• Additional measures to improve indoor air quality including identification and stricter regulation of a wider range of products that have negative impacts on indoor air quality.
• Regulations on fuel consumption of road motor vehicles under the Motor Vehicle Fuel Consumption Standards Act that will build on the voluntary commitment the auto industry made collectively in 2005 that calls for a reduction of 5.3MT of GHGs by 2010, through ongoing improvements in fuel consumption performance.
• Minimum energy performance standards for 20 additional products and an increase in the stringency of the standards for 10 currently regulated products. These regulations will address 80% of the energy used in the home and 88% of the energy used in commercial settings.

¹ VOC are chemicals that, once released in the atmosphere, react with sunlight and produce ground-level ozone, which is associated with increased rates of lung cancer, cardiovascular problems and other serious illnesses.