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Backgrounder

February 17, 2006

ONTARIO’S ACTIONS TO ALLEVIATE DOMESTIC SMOG-CAUSING AIR POLLUTION

Ontario has taken dramatic action to reduce the air pollution emissions that originate within its own boundaries.

• The provincial government has committed to the goal of closing all of Ontario’s coal-fired electricity generators by 2009 and replacing them with cleaner, greener energy sources.
• The province has recently entered into agreements to purchase power from 19 new renewable energy projects, including three waterpower projects, three landfill gas and biogas projects and 13 wind farms. To date, the province has contracted for a total of 1,370 megawatts of clean, renewable energy – enough to power 350,000 homes.
• In 2005, the government introduced new and updated air standards for a total of 40 pollutants, to protect Ontario communities from the impacts of air pollution. This was the largest update in standards in over 25 years.
• The McGuinty government also implemented the Industry Emission Reduction Plan, which establishes new emissions caps for industrial pollution sources in Ontario starting in 2006 and becoming even stricter in 2007, 2010 and 2015.
• Between 1999 and 2003, the Drive Clean program helped reduce smog-causing vehicle emissions in Southern Ontario by a total of 81 kilotonnes (89,500 U.S. tons).
• Ontario is providing a tax exemption of 14.7 and 14.3 cents per litre for ethanol and biodiesel, respectively. Beginning in January 2007, all gasoline sold in Ontario must contain an average of at least five per cent ethanol.
• Over a five year period beginning in 2004, the province will invest a dedicated portion of the provincial gas tax – amounting to more than $1 billion – in public transit. And the government’s five-year infrastructure investment plan, ReNew Ontario, commits the province to more than $3.1 billion over five years in direct provincial transit funding.

These measures have helped the province reduce its annual emissions of smog-causing pollutants by almost one million tonnes (1.1 million U.S. tons) since 1990, even as its population and economy grew significantly during that period.

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Contacts:
Anne O’Hagan Minister’s Office 416-325-5809	John Steele Communications Branch 416-314-6666