Conclusion

The 2006 indicator results provide evidence of increased pressure on Canada’s environmental sustainability, the health and well-being of Canadians, and the potential consequences for our long-term economic performance. The trends for air quality and greenhouse gas emissions are pointing to greater threats to human health and the planet’s climate, while the water quality results show that guidelines are being exceeded, at least occasionally, at many of the selected monitoring sites across the country.

Linking the indicators and connecting them to other socio-economic and environmental information can guide policy decisions that better address economic performance, quality of life and environmental sustainability. A key consideration is the socio-economic costs of pollution. For example, Health Canada has estimated, based on data from eight cities, that 5900 premature deaths each year in these cities are attributable to air pollution (Judek et al. 2004). Economists have also tried to estimate the social costs of poor health due to air pollution in Canada. A monetary estimate of these impacts, including health care costs, lost productivity, and pain and suffering, runs to the billions of dollars annually (Chestnut et al. 1999)

Of course, there are also direct costs associated with reducing greenhouse gas emissions and water and air pollution. Canadian companies have substantially increased their spending to protect the environment with investments by primary and manufacturing industries reaching $6.8 billion in 2002, a 24% increase over expenditures in 2000. Much of this increase resulted from responses to new environmental regulations and industry’s effort to reduce air emissions such as greenhouse gases.

What’s next?

Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicator reports are produced annually, based on a continually improving set of indicators, with increasingly robust analyses to track the changes in water quality, air quality and GHG emissions in Canada. Future reports will benefit from new surveys, enhanced monitoring capabilities, new scientific knowledge and guidelines, and improved data management and analytical methods.

This year’s report has set the indicators in a socio-economic context.  However, more work is needed to complete the transition from reporting these indicator results separately to reporting them as a set that is integrated with other information on the environment, measures of economic performance and indices of social progress. The long-term goal is improved decision-making that fully accounts for environmental sustainability.

Where can I get more information?

This publication highlights key findings from the Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators 2006 report. The full report provides more detail on each indicator and the links among them. It is available electronically on the Government of Canada website on Sustaining the Environment and Resources for Canadians (www.environmentandresources.ca) and the Statistics Canada website (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/). These sites also contain background information on each of the indicators – the science, the data, the methods and the limitations.