- Canada ranked 28th out of the 29 OECD Nations in an environmental comparison based on 25 environmental indicators, according to the Eco-Research Chair of Environmental Law and Policy.
- The latest OECD report on Canada criticized Canada’s environmental performance citing:
- its voluntary pollution reduction programs as ineffective,
- its failure to develop a solid plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,
- its generous subsidies to resource companies, and
- its budget cuts that have prevented enforcement of existing environmental laws and regulations.
- We lose one square kilometre of wilderness every hour to industrial activities and urban and rural development. Development in wilderness areas is accelerating, rapidly foreclosing opportunities to protect crucial wildlife habitat and rare ecosystems. Virtually every existing national park is under severe stress.
- According to the Government of Canada, air pollution kills 16,000 Canadians prematurely each year and results in hundreds of thousands of incidents of illness, costing the economy billions of dollars.
- There are at least 10,000 abandoned toxic sites across Canada, 5,000 of which are on federal lands according to the Auditor General’s Office.
- Toxic exposure has likely contributed to a 25% increase in childhood cancer over the past 25 years, according to the Canadian Institute of Child Health.
- Ontario issued 246 boil-water advisories in the nine months following the deaths of seven people in the Walkerton water disaster.1 In May 2001, boil-water advisories were reported in 250 Newfoundland communities, and 220 British Columbia communities.2
- It has been 10 years since Canada signed international conventions at the Rio Earth Summit, and with Rio+10 in Spring 2002, this is the last chance Canada has to invest in programs to meet these international obligations and announce environmental achievements in the international arena.
