Section 8: Environmental protection efforts
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Protecting ecosystems
In 2011, 9.8% of Canada's land and freshwater areas were protected (Table 8.1). The share of area protected varied from 2.7% in Prince Edward Island to 14.4% in British Columbia.
The distribution of protected land relative to Canada's 15 broad terrestrial ecozones is presented in Chart 8.1.
In northern ecozones, where population densities are lower and where economic activities are isolated, percentages of protected area tend to be higher. The Arctic Cordillera had the highest proportion of protected land in 2009, at 24% and had only 0.6 persons per 100 km2. Canada's most densely populated ecozone, the Mixed Wood Plains (15,522 people per 100 km2), had the lowest proportion of land protected at just under 2% (Chart 8.1).
Globally, Canada ranked 111th out of 201 countries reporting proportions of their land territory protected in 2008.Venezuela had proportionately more protected land area than any other country in the world, reporting 71.3% of its area protected. 1 Of the countries depicted in Table 8.2, Brazil protected the greatest proportion of its area at 29.6%, while the United States followed closely at 27.1%.
Managing solid wastes
Solid wastes are produced by nearly every kind of business or household activity, from large scale manufacturing processes to simple day-to-day living. Waste can either be disposed—buried in landfills or incinerated or recycled or composted. Recycling can reduce the demand for energy and new resources by re-using materials that have already been brought into the economy (for example, aluminum, glass, plastics and food).
In 2008, Canadians sent 777 kg of waste per capita for disposal on average, representing a rise of 1.1% over 2002. Another 254 kg of waste per capita were diverted from landfill or incineration, representing a 20.1 % increase in per capita diversion rates over 2002 (Table 8.3).
In 2008, Nova Scotia had the lowest per capita disposal at 378 kg, followed by British Columbia (641 kg) and New Brunswick (642 kg). Alberta had the highest quantity of waste disposed per person (1,122 kg).
Nova Scotia also had the highest waste diversion rate in 2008, with 45.0% of waste diverted from landfill or incineration. New Brunswick and British Columbia followed with 35.8% and 34.9% of waste diverted respectively.
Waste diversion and recycling activities have been on the rise in Canada. Nationally, diversion rates rose from 21.6% in 2002 to 24.7% in 2008 (Table 8.3). A wide variety of materials were diverted from landfills and incinerators in 2008 (Chart 8.2). In total, approximately 8.5 million tonnes of materials were diverted, with organic materials representing 28.8% of the total, followed by cardboard (16.5%), newsprint (13.4%) and mixed paper (11.0%).
Spending to control industrial impacts
Businesses spent $9.1 billion in 2008 to protect the environment, up 5.3% from 2006 (Table 8.4). The Oil and Gas Extraction industry spent close to $2.9 billion, or 31.7%, of the total expenditure, followed by the Electric Power Generation and Transmission industry ($1.3 billion or 14.2%) and the Primary Metals industry ($1.2 billion or 12.9%).
Looking at the same data by province shows that the bulk of environmental protection expenditures occurred in Alberta (34.3% of total), most of it in the Oil and Gas Extraction industry. Ontario and Quebec followed with 23.8% and 15.9% of total expenditures respectively, mainly in the Electric Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution; Primary Metals; and Other Manufacturing industries.
Capital investments by industry in pollution prevention, abatement and control 2 totalled $2.6 billion in 2008, or 69% of total capital expenditures on environmental protection. The majority of these capital investments were targeted at reducing air pollutants. Almost $1.4 billion was invested in abatement and control of air pollution, while expenditures on air pollution prevention totalled $422.2 million (Tables 8.5 and 8.6).
The largest investments for air pollution abatement and control were made by the Oil and Gas Extraction industry ($711.4 million) followed by the Primary Metals Manufacturing industry ($272.9 million).
Among industry groups, the Electric Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution industry reported the highest capital expenditures targeted at pollution prevention ($276.3 million), with just over half of this directed towards the on-site containment of solid and liquid waste.
Households actions to protect the environment
Winters in Canada are generally long and cold, with the heating season lasting up to nine or ten months in some parts of the country. Lowering indoor air temperatures at certain times of the day is one way households reduce their energy consumption and heating expenses. More than nine out of ten (91%) Canadian households reported having a thermostat in their dwelling in 2009 (Table 8.7). Forty-nine percent of these households had programmable thermostats. Regardless of the type of thermostat, 61% of households with thermostats lowered the temperature while they slept during the winter. Households in Prince Edward Island were most likely to turn the temperature down (66%), while those in Manitoba and New Brunswick were the least likely (58%).
Lowering the temperature at night was much more prevalent in households with a programmable thermostat that had been programmed (74%) than in households with a non-programmable thermostat or a programmable thermostat that was not programmed (53%).
Among those households that had programmed their programmable thermostats, those in Saskatchewan were most likely to have programmed them to lower the temperature when the household was asleep (82%), while those in Nova Scotia were the least likely (57%) to have done so. For non-programmable thermostats and programmable thermostats that were not programmed, households in Nova Scotia were most likely to have lowered the temperature when asleep (64%) while those in Ontario were least likely (46%) to have done so.
Another way households protect the environment is by employing water conservation practices around the home. Low-flow shower heads use up to 70% less water than standard shower heads and can save approximately 15% on the cost of heating water. In 2009, 63% of Canadian households reported they had a low-flow shower head. Households in New Brunswick (67%) were most likely to have had a low-flow shower head while those in Manitoba (49%) were least likely to have had one (Table 8.8).
The volume of water a toilet uses per flush can be reduced either through design, as in a low-volume toilet, or by adding a brick or weighted plastic bottle to reduce the amount of water in the toilet tank. New low-volume toilets typically use less than 6 litres of water per flush, compared to older toilets that can use more than twice that amount.
Forty-two percent of Canadian households reported that they had a low-volume toilet in 2009 (Table 8.8). Provincially, 48% of households in Ontario reported having one of these toilets, while those in Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island reported the fewest low-volume toilets (30% and 31% respectively).
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