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Remarks for:

The Honourable Laurel Broten
Minister of the Environment

Shared Air Summit 2006
Closing Remarks

June 26, 2006

(Check against delivery)

It’s been a real honour to share the stage today with Premier McGuinty, Senator Kerry, Minister Béchard, Dr. Bondar and all of our panel members.  I want to thank Senator Brian Frosh (Maryland), Representatives Chris Kolb (Michigan) and Karen May (Illinois) for joining us.

I also want to thank Dr. Ted Boadway for his continuing commitment to tackling threats to air quality. 

This morning we heard the Premier speak of our generation’s responsibility to the future — of our profound and inescapable duty to those who will inherit our earth.  We owe it to them to act decisively.  To fail them would be wrong.

Our government is passionate about protecting the environment.

We are passionate about protecting the health of Ontarians.

And we are gravely concerned that the air we breathe, the air we should be able to depend on ─ instead causes the premature death of thousands of Ontarians every year and puts tens of thousands more in hospital.

Notre gouvernement est déterminé à protéger l’environnement.

Nous sommes résolus à protéger la santé des Ontariens et des Ontariennes.

Et nous sommes très inquiets du fait que l’air que nous respirons et sur lequel nous devrions pouvoir compter hors de tout doute ─ est au lieu de cela la source de milliers de décès prématurés et de dizaines de milliers d’hospitalisations chaque année en Ontario.

Who are these nameless, faceless people?

They are our mothers, our fathers, our children, our friends and neighbours. And they are suffering from breathing dirty air.

As a mother of two baby boys, I share the concerns of a great many parents.

Will my boys be able to play outside in the summer months?

Will they be among the thousands of children who develop asthma or allergies as a direct result of air pollution?

As Sarah Renner put it so well, whose future is at stake?

Our challenge reaches far beyond this province. It’s a challenge for the whole world – and just to reassure Senator Kerry, we are not a Flat-Earth government.

We are moving towards the cleaner environment and better future that we all want ─ and which I firmly believe is our moral responsibility to leave to the next generation.

Ontario will not back down.

We will fulfill our commitments on cleaning up the environment.

We will lead the country on this critical issue.

Before I entered politics, I was involved at the grassroots level in the fight to close Lakeview Generating Station.

Two weeks ago there was cause to celebrate. Together with my twin sons and even my dog Howard … I went down to the end of my street and watched as the “four-sisters” smokestacks of Lakeview were demolished.

It was a great feeling to see all that I had fought for, for so many years, finally become reality.

Certainly, it is disappointing to all of us that we are unable to close the province’s four remaining coal plants as quickly as we would like.

But we are moving forward.

And the day will come when we burn no more dirty coal in this province.

Ontario is doing its part.  We are prepared to lead an aggressive charge within this country on climate change.

I’m thrilled to know Mr. Béchard will be shoulder to shoulder with us because the reality is that no one jurisdiction can climb this mountain alone.

Our government is working together and creating ties with like-minded jurisdictions and people.

It was interesting to listen to Minister Béchard speak, because he never referred to the environment without also referring to our health.  We completely agree that the issues are inseparable, and we’re taking that message outside our borders.
 
I look forward to continued cooperation with our U.S. partners here today, and with every jurisdiction with which we share a common airshed.

I also want to say how much I value our partnership with the people and organizations that work so hard on behalf of clean air and a healthy environment right here at home.

We are on the same page.

Today’s summit has helped us all “pop out new ideas” as Dr. Bondar described it.  She challenged us to discover new perspectives, find different ways to approach problems.

We know that we have the creativity and ability to discover new ways to reduce greenhouse gases and the harmful emissions that cause smog; and to clean the air we share.

The path we choose right now has the potential to make a great difference.

Fifty years ago there was lead in our gasoline, CFCs in our air, and DDT in our water. 

Yet people came together then as we are doing today, said this is unacceptable to our health and environment.

And they made a difference.

Just imagine where we can be fifty years from now. 

We can have economies based on clean and renewable fuels, on zero-emission transportation, on energy-efficient homes and businesses.

We can live in cities that have never seen the dark haze of smog.

Aren’t we all prepared to do all that we need to do to reach this cleaner, greener future?

Of course we are.

Dr. Bondar spoke of the need for leadership with passion … for a vision of the future … and the determination to make decisions.

We may not all have the chance to see the beauty of the whole Earth at once the way Dr. Bondar has.  But we all have the chance to look at our piece of this world and remember what we value so dearly about it.

All of our efforts and all of our fates are interwoven.  Today, the choice to act is no longer a luxury, but it is also not yet time to throw in the towel and give up in despair.  Today, action is our obligation, to ourselves, to our neighbours and to our children.

Thank you.

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