Thank you.
It's quite striking that Canada is one of the few industrialized nations in the world that do not have legally binding and enforceable ambient air quality standards. The U.S. has had them for more than 50 years, and they've contributed greatly to improvements in air quality in the United States.
I think it's also important for this committee to recognize that Health Canada estimates that air pollution kills over 15,000 Canadians each year, causes millions of asthma symptom days and tens of millions of acute respiratory symptom days, and inflicts over $120 billion in socio-economic costs on the Canadian economy.
Air pollution is a major problem for Canada. It was recommended by the committee back in 2017 that Canada develop legally binding ambient air quality standards. That hasn't happened since then, and it's not in the current bill.
I did note a submission by a coalition of environmental organizations, which I thought was quite creative. It said that the implementation strategy should be amended to include a requirement for action when air quality standards are being exceeded.