Air Pollution

Access to Environmental Information and Reporting Project

February 2007

Recently the Toronto Public Health conducted a review of environmental reporting and public access to information about Toronto communities. This is based on Ontario’s Environmental Bill of Rights on the Right to Know and to Comment.

Considering that close to 40,000 companies fail to report extensively and they do only if they exceed 10 tonnes of pollutants per year, this project may be considered a good first step. However, making information available to the public is only a minute part of the benefit, as long-term goals have not been established nor were they clarified at the stakeholders’ meeting.

Information alone promotes awareness, but it neither prevents nor improves environmental performance, unless mandatory regulations and obligatory targets are established and enforced.

To date, information and voluntary measures for industry, have been proven futile and ineffective. Industry’s campaigns of denial, disclosure of information on pollutants and lobbying all levels of government, have succeeded in combating any action toward sustainability and the elimination of carcinogenic chemicals and toxics.

Thus, accessibility of information without measures for Prevention, does not translate to Health Protection.

[A proposal to that effect, was submitted last year to the Minister of Health.]