In a letter submitted today to the federal Parliamentary Committee responsible for reviewing Bill C-30 - the proposed Clean Air Act - a group of eight environmental organizations are calling for the Committee to begin consideration of the Bill immediately.
The group also offered its support and expertise to the process to ensure that parliamentarians who are considering the Bill have all the necessary information they feel they need to make the Clean Air Act as effective as possible. A package of recommendations has been developed in collaboration with the Climate Action Network (CAN).
Arguing that Canada needs aggressive action to protect the environment and fight climate change, the group says it is in the best interest of Canadians to get the machinery of Parliament moving so that the government can incorporate improvements into the Bill. The centerpiece of the government's announcements on the environment, the proposed Clean Air Act has widely been recognized as an inadequate response to the challenges of climate change and air pollution.
In a joint statement, the environmental groups state, "We believe that all parties understand the need for urgent action on climate change and clean air. We are asking the committee to devote their full attention to quickly improving the proposed Act. We expect that the Committee can amend Bill C-30 within a time period on the order of four weeks, so a strong Act can be implemented as soon as possible."
The letter submitted to the Parliamentary Committee was signed by eight organizations (Pembina Institute, WWF-Canada, Sierra Legal, Nature Canada, ´Equiterre, Greenpeace, Pollution Probe and Environmental Defence).
A copy of the recommendations can be downloaded here.
Mike Russill
President and CEO, WWF-Canada
416-484-7707
Julie Gelfand
President, Nature Canada
613-562-3447 ext. 231
Ken Ogilvie
Executive Director, Pollution Probe
416-926-1907 ext. 231
Rick Smith
Executive Director, Environmental Defense
416-670-9521
Bruce Cox
Executive Director, Greenpeace Canada
416-419-7341
Hugh Wilkins
Sierra Legal
416-368-7533 ext. 34
Matthew Bramley
Director, Climate Change, Pembina Institute
819-483-6288 ext. 26
Amélie Ferland
Media relations officer, Equiterre
514-522-2000 ext. 234