The object of this brief note is an environmental issue. It concerns the anti-pollution policy and the means to improve air and water quality in Canada.
Indeed, this problem touches the entire Canadian population. Here, there is no discrimination concerning class, gender or race: everyone is concerned by the quality of their environment. Undoubtedly, the problem of pollution does affect the society and the individuals. It has a bad impact on their daily life and their quality of living. In the short term, pollution is synonymous with small inconveniences that everybody has already experienced such as respiratory problems. But it can also be more serious: for example asthmatic people can die because of pollution. Air pollution is responsible for 5900 deaths every year in Canada.
[...] But it is time for Canada to get involved in the pollution problem. The country is not forced to follow the US trend, it could be one of the leaders of a new international movement in favour of sustainable development, a notion emphasised by Stat Can. Moreover, Canada has already showed how significant the environment was for it by implementing several measures at the national level. In 1999, there was the Canadian Environment Protection Act to prevent pollution. Of course, it would be too long to describe all these measures but we can focus on the two main ones: the Clean Air agenda and the Clear Water one. [...]
[...] Background Many policies have already been implemented in the domain of pollution, air and water quality. At the international level, the Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987 in our own country in order to solve the problem of the hole in the ozone layer. More recently and with a wider impact, the Kyoto Protocol (1997) was signed. It aims at taking measures in order to face the global warming, notably to control the greenhouse gas emissions. At that point, Canada agreed to reduce its emissions of 6 percent. [...]
[...] This would be synonymous with advertising and good images for these enterprises and this could incite people to use more the public transports. Of course this option is not revolutionary and would probably have a high cost but the nodality tool has already proved its efficiency. The third option would consist in a set of action. Canada is known to be very active in the domain of the anti-pollution so if we would really need to implement a new policy in this field, it would definitely be a policy of coordination. [...]
[...] The third option, which consists in coordination and improvement of the existing policies, even if it is not very revolutionary, has the advantage to combine action and values, without taking too many risks. This policy is the balance between the two others: it is less brutal than the first but more active than the second. And in a way, it combines the advantages of both: the message stays clear and the expected efficiency is high. Currently and according to the situation, this is the best policy that Canada could implement. [...]
[...] That is why the state has to be strong and strict in its policy. The future of the country cannot be a question of short-term interest. More than ever, politicians have to take support on the definition of national or public interest and not be influenced by the industry. Of course, it cannot afford to lose the support of the industry but it has to show a certain degree of determination. The measures that are going to be implemented cannot be subjected to negotiation. [...]
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