For Immediate Release:
June 10, 2005

Barrett points to lost opportunities for smog reduction

….Canadian Environment Week, the toll we are taking on our environment and the toll that it can take on us….

Queens Park - As much of Ontario suffers under a week of smog advisories, “government has fiddled while the problem grows,” according to MPP Toby Barrett.

The Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant representative stood in the legislature yesterday to recognize Canadian Environment Week and underline government missed opportunities for smog reduction.

“While this government tries to figure out when a closure deadline is actually a deadline, the government has missed the opportunity to put in place real smog reduction initiatives,” stated Barrett. “Smog can be fixed; smog should be fixed, technology is available - and it's in use right now - to cut 99% of particulate matter, 96% of NOx, 92% of SOx from fossil fuel generators.”

The previous Tory government paved the way for investment into fossil fuel smog reduction with a $250 million investment into Selective Catalytic Reduction Units at the Nanticoke and Lambton coal fired electricity plants.

While Energy Minister Dwight Duncan insists the Liberal deadline to close down coal fire generators is 2007, musings from other Liberal MPP’s – most recently Sarnia-Lambton’s Caroline Di Cocco – have suggested that coal “may be needed anyway after 2007 … if we don’t have the kilowatts.”

Barrett went on to highlight the fact that, while it is vital to do all we can, even if everyone does their part half our smog is still coming from the States where fossil fuel use is abundant.

“I join in the call to spare the air and leave the car behind in favour of public transit or a bicycle - I myself walked to work this morning,” Barrett revealed. “Even if every one of us across Ontario took those steps, we would still face the 50% smog problem billowing in from the United States, and I don't see that changing any time soon.”
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For more information please contact MPP Toby Barrett at: 519-428-0446, 905-765-8413 or
1-800-903-8629