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8.0 Monitoring performance and measuring progress

The 1998 Smog Plan said…

To co-ordinate activities, enhance communications and track progress, a management system will be put in place for Ontario's Smog Plan. It will include a framework for monitoring performance and measuring progress. [It] will identify the ways in which performance and progress can be measured (measures of health, ambient air quality, emissions reductions, process targets, etc.) and the level of detail needed.

It is of paramount importance to the success of the Anti-Smog Action Plan that the Plan's partners are able to accurately and objectively mea-sure and credibly report on progress in emission reductions. The task of developing performance indicators for measuring and reporting on success was assigned to the Performance Monitoring and Reporting Work Group, which reports to the ASAP Operating Committee. The work group is a multi-stakeholder group with representatives from the private sector, non-government organizations and the federal and provincial governments.

The work group prepared A Draft Progress Report by the Performance Monitoring and Reporting Work Group under the Ontario Smog Plan, May 1998, proposing a number of performance indicators for scientifically sound, reputable and quantifiable measurement tools to track, measure or otherwise assess:

• domestic emissions of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, the primary ozone-producing precursors;
• domestic emissions of inhalable and respirable particulates (IP/RP), a major component of smog;
• the transboundary transport of smog, ground-level ozone and their precursors from the United States into Ontario;
• the human health and environmental effects of ground-level ozone and smog in Ontario;
• the degree of broad involvement of public and private sector participation in the Plan; and,
• ultimately, any reduction in the incidence of ground-level ozone concentrations that exceed provincial air quality criteria.

The intent of performance indicators is to show objectively over the years how air quality in Ontario has been affected and improved by various actions taken by the signatories of the Anti-Smog Action Plan.

Process for identifying

A number of criteria were used to screen the potential list of indicators: Indicators should be necessary scientifically valid, interpreted in terms of a desired outcome, readily available at a reasonable cost, timely, integrative and broadly applicable.

After this progress report by the Performance Monitoring and Reporting Work Group is adopted by the Operating Committee, the work group expects that each sectoral and issue-based work group will track appropriate performance indicators as part of the development and implementation of their reduction plans.

If you are having difficulty accessing a document, please contact the Ministry of the Environment at picemail@ene.gov.on.ca or phone the ministry's Public Information Centre at 1- 800-565-4923, in Toronto 416-325-4000 or by mail to the Ministry of the Environment, Public Information Centre, 135 St. Clair Ave. West, 1st Floor, Toronto, ON. M4V 1P5.

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