Bill C-30 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) Committee on Feb. 13th, 2007

[Stephen Samis]

Yes.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Agreed?

[Dr. Oxana Latycheva]

Yes, agreed.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Dr. MacKinnon.

[Dr. Barbara MacKinnon]

Yes, certainly. The bill itself didn't specify too many details about indoor air quality, but certainly it's pointed in the right direction.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Thank you very much.

In fact, I'm going to go off a bit. Dr. MacKinnon, you mentioned you believe the implementation of Kyoto was a very high priority on your list, or at least you thought it would be appropriate to push it forward. Is this the position of your association as well?

[Dr. Barbara MacKinnon]

Obviously we're equally concerned about air pollution and climate change. And previously I discussed a bit about the integration, of how importantly they interact. So not only do we want to improve air quality, but just as general citizens we know of the threat of climate change, even outside of air pollution issues. So it is important to us.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I understand. But is it the policy of your organization?

[Dr. Barbara MacKinnon]

Yes.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Okay.

Now, does your organization also endorse the sending of billions of dollars to overseas developing countries to meet our Kyoto targets?

[Dr. Barbara MacKinnon]

I won't comment on the number. Our position is that we would prefer to see emission reductions at home because they reduce air pollutants locally for our own citizens. And as a secondary measure, I understand you can achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions around the world and still have an equal impact on climate change. If we were to do it by buying credits and it reduces climate change, that's a good thing.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Okay. But you understand that right now countries that emit 70% of the world's greenhouse gases do not have targets under Kyoto and therefore are not bound by anything we do in Canada.

[Dr. Barbara MacKinnon]

I'm not familiar with the 70% number.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Most experts we've heard and even the leader of the Liberal Party agree we cannot meet our Kyoto targets without sending billions of dollars overseas in clean development mechanisms. Were you aware of that?

[Dr. Barbara MacKinnon]

I know that's some people's perception, yes.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Have you or your organization costed out what it would cost to meet our Kyoto objectives?

[Dr. Barbara MacKinnon]

No.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

So the information you gave us is your opinion that we should be able to meet it, even though it's not been costed out?

[Dr. Barbara MacKinnon]

But we're very much aware of other people who have done other analyses. We have not. But we're aware of other people's analyses, like Ralph Torrie of Torrie Smith and Associates, and they've done fairly good cost accounting of how Canada could meet those emission reductions.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

If I'm correct, I think those were done several years ago, and they also included the necessity of having to use the clean development mechanism to send billions of dollars overseas. Is that fair to say?

[Dr. Barbara MacKinnon]

I'm not familiar with that level of detail in it.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I understand. Thank you very much for those questions.

I discovered as well in my research that 10.3% of women, for instance, in 1998 suffered from respiratory diseases; children ages 0 to 4, 12.4%. And I know you've mentioned some of these figures before. In fact, 80% of Canadians live in cities, and it increases the risk of death 15% to 17% if you live in a city.

Is that fair to say? Are these accurate numbers I'm quoting? I've received them from Human Activity and the Environment: The Condition of Our Air, put out by Statistics Canada, and also from The Potential Years of Life Lost indicator, which is also put out by Statistics Canada. Do those numbers sound accurate?

[Dr. Oxana Latycheva]

Yes, they sound accurate. The number we have is estimated from 6% to 10%.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

This step forward with clean air and dealing not just with greenhouse gases but also with air pollutants in such a striking manner is a very important initiative by this government, is it not?

[Dr. Oxana Latycheva]

Yes, it's very important.