Fourth Annual Smog Report Card:
City/County Receive 18 "F"s, 9 "D"s, 1"C", and 2 "C+"s

Windsor, Ontario - The Citizens Environment Alliance (CEA) has published its Fourth Annual Smog Report Card. The Report Card will be available on the CEA website later this week CEA_2003_Smog_Action_Report_Card.pdf

"We are concerned with the insufficient effort of the City of Windsor and the County of Essex to accomplish the tasks that are outlined in their Air Quality Action Plan. The plan remains fundamentally weak primarily due to the lack of an implementation strategy with targets, timetables and resources to improve our air quality," stated Derek Coronado, Research and Policy Coordinator for the CEA.

The report card notes some minor improvements and actions that the new councils should continue to build upon, including:

• the adoption of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' Partners for Climate Protection Programme;
• Transit Windsor's free smog day bus service and bike rack programmes;
• the expansion of on-road bike lanes and cycling education efforts;
• area municipalities should continue to pressure the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) to improve its Air Quality Index and demand that the MOE re-invest in its monitoring and enforcement efforts.

Important additions to this year's report card include the human health and economic impacts of air pollution in Essex County. Best estimates show that 73 people will die prematurely as a result of poor air quality in Essex County in 2003.

"We know that our smog problems are worsening. The implications for the environment and human health are obvious. It is past time to aggressively implement actions that will lessen our impact on the environment and improve our air quality," said Coronado.

For more information contact:

Derek Coronado
Research and Policy Coordinator,
Citizens Environment Alliance
(519) 973-1116