moved that Bill C-579, An Act to reduce the effects of urban heat islands on the health of Canadians, be read the second time and referred to a committee.
Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise today to speak to my bill, Bill C-579, An Act to reduce the effects of urban heat islands on the health of Canadians. To begin, let me explain what a heat island is.
The term “heat island” refers to an urban area that is hotter than the surrounding areas. In urban environments, the infrastructure tends to absorb large amounts of solar radiation during summer heat waves and release it in the form of heat, thus creating heat islands. In the most serious cases, temperature differences can reach 12 degrees Celsius at night.
I would like to make my colleagues aware of the public health risk that this represents. To do that I will simply tell my colleagues how I became interested in this growing problem. I will explain how health professionals in my riding, Honoré-Mercier, brought this to my attention; how we drafted the bill in response to the needs expressed by the community; how the work was done in collaboration with organizations that are already committed to finding tangible solutions in urban communities; and how for the past few months, we have been receiving a wave of support for this bill, which everyone sees as a simple, yet fundamental contribution by the federal government.
I sincerely believe that when members of the House find out about the impact of heat islands on Canadians' health, they will not hesitate to support my bill. That is what I hope.
I would like to give hon. members a bit of background. On May 7, 2011, in the days following the May 2 election, I attended an event in Pointe-de-l'Île. It was a meeting with the mayor of Rivière-des-Prairies and public health officers from the health and social services centres, better known as the CSSS. This issue spoke to me. They started talking about heat islands. I learned that Honoré-Mercier has one of the largest heat islands in Quebec during heatwaves. I want to emphasize that point.
At home in eastern Montreal, it was the worrisome number of asthmatic children that first alerted the public health authority. In searching for the cause of these health problems the health authority discovered the scope of the adverse effect of high temperatures on people who live in areas that become heat islands during heat waves. This phenomenon's adverse effect on health has an impact on all Canadians who live in cities because high temperatures increase pollution. We know that more than 80% of Canadians live in urban centres. That is reason enough to address the problem. We might also say that dealing with health problems will result in significant savings for the provinces.
We can add to that list those who live in the most densely populated urban areas, areas filled with concrete buildings and paved parking lots. It is often seniors or the poorest and least mobile individuals who cluster around local services. The most vulnerable Canadians are therefore the first to feel the negative impacts of heat islands. We are talking about seniors, children and pregnant women. Members will therefore understand my haste in asking the government to take stronger action on this issue.
I would like to give my colleagues a brief overview of the research that my team and I have done since I became aware of this issue in order to help them understand the symptoms associated with the urban heat island effect. As I said, a heat island is an urban area where the air and ground temperatures are higher than in surrounding areas. This is usually a difference of about 5°C or 6°C, but it can reach up to 12°C at its worst. If we think about a summer day in Montreal when it is 35°C, the humidity can bring this up to 37°C; an extra five degrees can therefore make a big difference.
I am thinking here about neighbourhoods where residents experience sweltering heat. Imagine the effect on their health. Heat islands occur in densely populated urban areas—as I already mentioned—and in areas where the ground is covered in concrete. The asphalt absorbs the heat and prevents any water from infiltrating the soil. It is therefore useless to water the asphalt. As I already mentioned, this promotes smog. More smog is produced because of the heat, and so, in the end, everyone is affected.
Let me now give you a specific scenario. Imagine we are in the middle of a heat wave. Your car is not working, and people are saying, on the radio, that you should go to a shopping centre, where you can cool off thanks to the air conditioning. So you end up walking to the shopping centre and you cross the parking lot, all the while pushing the baby's stroller. It is hot. You feel terrible. You finally get there, but you are tired. The baby is even more tired because he cannot express his discomfort. You finally step into the cool, comfortable shopping centre. Imagine now that you have taken off your shoes and are walking barefoot on the asphalt. How many seconds could you stand the heat without crying out?
As I said earlier, this material soaks up heat during the day, then releases it at night. Indeed, if you open a window, the air will still be warm. This adds to the continuous impact of the phenomenon. Furthermore, people living in these urban areas tend to use more air conditioning, which in turn makes the surrounding air warmer. This makes things worse for their neighbours without air conditioning. As is often the case, this vicious circle affects the most vulnerable—seniors, children, those who are sick— who cannot escape this oppressive heat and are left to suffer.
During the day, the only refuges are shopping malls, since they offer a cool environment. However, once the malls close, people return to their apartments, which are so hot that they can make people sick. It is even worse for small children or anyone with heart problems or blood pressure issues.
I truly believe that this is definitely a health issue. Montreal's public health department said that on hot days, the mortality rate was on average 20% higher for people living in heat islands.
Health Canada has found that 8,000 deaths between 1979 and 2003 were caused exclusively by exposure to high or extreme heat. In Europe, 70,000 people died during the 2003 heat wave. We all saw this on TV.
Many people suffer in silence. The symptoms are weakness; fatigue; cramps; heart failure; breathing difficulties; and aggravation of chronic, cardiovascular, neurological or renal diseases.
There are some solutions. If people who are already sick or on medication are not careful to keep themselves hydrated on hot days, they are putting their lives at risk. When I learned that most seniors living alone suffered more than they had to, since they didn't know how the environment could affect their health, I decided that this was unacceptable. People all over suffer as well.
What happens in the riding of Honoré-Mercier also goes on in Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto and many other Canadian cities. That is why I gave specific documents to some of my colleagues. I was pleased to be able to share with them information on heat islands.
I introduced this bill because I am calling on Health Canada to establish a national strategy to reduce the effects of urban heat islands, in consultation with the Minister of the Environment, provincial ministers, health representatives and municipal representatives.
I believe it is important to draw from the experiences of communities and the private industry, which have already committed to fighting the effects of heat islands by tackling the sources of the problem.
There are companies in Canada that have figured out how to make white roads. On a plane to Edmonton, I met a company president who told me that he had imported technology from Europe to do it here in Canada, which would create jobs. The best argument I can offer the House in favour of this bill is that solutions exist.
The purpose of this bill is to raise awareness among decision-makers and individuals, but it also offers hope. My hope is that this bill will help harmonize measures at the national level. Some provinces and municipalities have made a little progress, but if we all work together to solve the problem, I believe the health care savings will be huge, we will create jobs, and we will have the quality of life we deserve.
We have to carry out positive experiments in a community so that they can benefit all Canadians. Inspiring solutions exist, and all community stakeholders can get involved, including companies that are thinking more about the impact of their infrastructure on air quality, municipalities that are trying to green their urban environments and regulate the use of certain materials in building construction and renovation, provincial governments that are figuring out how to locate and measure heat islands, and, of course, organizations involved in raising public awareness and greening problematic urban areas. Everyone needs to get involved in combating the negative effects of heat islands. The federal government must do its part too.
The bill does not provide all the solutions. I propose that we go looking for those solutions together. I need the help of all the members from all parties represented in the House. I need to raise awareness. I can provide some information to help my colleagues who represent ridings dealing with the issue of heat islands. I believe that nationwide collaboration on this type of strategy would maximize the efforts of the communities fighting the harm caused by heat islands on the health of Canadians.
We need to remember one thing: other countries are looking to Canada. We can play a leadership role. Canada can be a country like those that are already addressing the issue, including Germany. Many other countries and large cities in the world have already developed strategies to prevent the problem. Germany's building code and federal nature conservation legislation require municipalities to support sustainable development and protect natural landscapes. In the United States, the federal government provides the states with financial and technical assistance to implement urban forestry plans and encourage research on the role of the canopy as a means of mitigating the effects of urban heat islands. Chicago, Illinois, is a leader in the United States for its green roofing projects. Over the past century, the temperature in Tokyo has increased five times faster than the global average. To fight the effects of urban heat islands, Tokyo requires all new buildings to cover at least 20% of the roof area with vegetation.
We have good reason to take action to protect the health of Canadians. We can do more. I urge my colleagues to support this bill. Together, we can do better.