The transportation sector is Canada’s second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions at 23 per cent.<\/p>\n
If the federal government caves to automakers\u2019 pressure to cancel the electric vehicle sales mandate, there will be significant negative impacts to Canadians\u2019 health, medical professionals and researchers warn.<\/p>\n
The federal policy \u2014 which requires hybrids and EVs to make up 20 per cent of sales in 2026 and 100 per cent by 2035 \u2014 will save Canada more than $90 billion and 11,000 premature deaths over the next 25 years, according to analysis by The Atmospheric Fund, a Toronto-based non-profit focused on climate change and air pollution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are devastating the future generation,\u201d said registered nurse Doris Grinspun in an interview with Canada\u2019s National Observer. And as if the death toll of pollution wasn\u2019t enough, she said, hospitalizations also impose significant costs on already strained health-care systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the EV availability standard has been communicated from the beginning as a climate policy, we think it’s equally, if not more compelling as a health policy,\u201d said Bryan Purcell, the vice-president of policy and programs for The Atmospheric Fund.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at these kind of numbers of avoided deaths that can be achieved and other health benefits, I think it could purely justify the policy on health grounds, even if we didn’t have a climate crisis on our hands,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Climate change and health are inextricably linked. Gas- and diesel-powered vehicles release harmful pollutants into the air, including planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas is a main driver of climate change and as the planet warms, wildfires become more frequent and severe, often blanketing vast swaths of land in acrid smoke while pollen and other allergens become more prevalent.<\/p>\n
Air pollution is undeniably bad for humans: long-term exposure increases the risk of developing all manner of conditions, including lung diseases, heart disease and cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Health Canada warns exposure to traffic-related air pollution (from vehicle exhaust, tire and brake wear and tear and other particles) leads to the development and worsening of asthma symptoms in children, lung cancer in adults and premature deaths. It also likely causes childhood leukemia and cardiovascular diseases.<\/p>\n
Some people \u2014 including children, pregnant women, people with pre-existing conditions and seniors \u2014 are more vulnerable to air pollution and communities located near major roads or industrial areas are more likely to be Indigenous, racialized or poorer, said Grinspun.<\/p>\n
Take asthma, for example.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to have it when I was a kid, it feels like you’re dying to the child and to the parents,\u201d Grinspun said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Compared to lung cancer, a respiratory disease like asthma may sound less serious, but it is still devastating to human health and puts a huge burden on Canada\u2019s health-care systems, said Grinspun, who is CEO of the Registered Nurses\u2019 Association of Ontario.<\/p>\n
Asthma causes an estimated 300 deaths and 80,000 emergency room visits each year, according to advocacy group Asthma Canada\u2019s 2024 report. Asthma Canada estimates this disease alone will cost the Canadian economy $4.2 billion by 2033. Unless countries, including Canada, take major steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions and phase out fossil fuels, climate change will keep accelerating and with it air pollution and the associated negative health impacts and loss of life.<\/p>\n
The Atmospheric Fund\u2019s analysis only examined the impacts of reduced air pollution from gas vehicles in Canada\u2019s two major corridors: southwestern British Columbia and the Windsor-Quebec City Corridor. The estimated $90-plus billion savings and 11,000 avoided premature deaths would be even higher if applied across the whole country, explained Purcell.<\/p>\n
Automakers lobbying the federal government say they cannot meet the targets in the Electric Vehicle Availability Standard, pointing to the ongoing trade war with the United States and dip in EV sales in early 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cPutting seat belts in cars was opposed by every North American automaker as a regulation and they used the same kinds of arguments they’re using today,\u201d Purcell said. Arguments that it should be up to consumer choice were also part of the seat belt and airbags conversation, he noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, governments decided that that wasn’t the case, that actually there was a role for public policy to protect the public interest and public safety and we really see this regulation very similarly,\u201d Purcell said.<\/p>\n
The dip in EV sales coincided with the federal government ending its $5,000 EV rebate program. At the same time, Quebec \u2014 a major player in the EV market \u2014 paused its rebate program when funds ran dry, causing a dip in sales, Purcell added.<\/p>\n
In June, federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin said the government was working to bring back some type of EV rebate but what exactly that will look like is still unknown.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany other parts of the country, including Ontario, saw modest increases in sales or flat sales,\u201d Purcell said, indicating the slowdown in the first quarter of 2025 is likely associated with the changes to those rebate programs.<\/p>\n
The transportation sector is Canada\u2019s second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions at 23 per cent, trailing the oil and gas sector at 30 per cent of national emissions. More than half the transport sector\u2019s emissions are from passenger cars and trucks. Passenger buses, trains and other transit make up a comparatively tiny share even though aviation emissions are included in the same category.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The transportation sector is Canada’s second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions at 23 per cent. If the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-48355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}