FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 19, 2006

Toronto, October 19, 2006: Canada's new Clean Air Act will be responsible for another 4,500 Torontonians dying prematurely due to smog over the next three years, says Dr. Franz Hartmann, the Toronto Environmental Alliance's (TEA) energy campaigner.

"All that the Prime Minister has promised is three more years of talk. The Prime Minister is no different than a lifeguard who does nothing while people drown in front of him," says Dr. Hartmann.

The Clean Air Act promises 3 years of consultations before any new regulations are brought in to limit smog producing chemicals.

Last week, TEA released its annual smog report and gave the City a C-. "Canada's new government makes the City of Toronto look like environmental heroes," says Dr. Bob Fugere, TEA's Executive Director. "While the City of Toronto is not moving fast enough to clean the air in Toronto, Canada's "new" government is actually making matters worse."

There have already been over a decade of federal government consultations about how to deal with air pollution and climate change. To date, nothing has come of these consultations that have actually cleaned the air.

The Clean Air Act is also a strike against dealing with climate change. "Canadians -and the world- need the federal government to put firm caps on greenhouse gas emissions from Canada's largest polluters. What the Clean Air Act promises, after three years of consultation, are 'intensity based targets' that do little to stop growing greenhouse gas emissions," said Dr. Hartmann.

"Torontonians should be very upset with this Act," said Dr. Fugere. "Our federal government has used smoke and mirrors to pretend they are acting on smog and climate change when the reality is that they are doing absolutely nothing. The mandatory caps on large polluters that they are so proud of are almost the same as industry is already doing."
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For more information, please contact:
Dr. Franz Hartmann, Energy Campaigner, TEA cell: 416-606-8881