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For the first time, the Sault gets smogged

Sault Ste. Marie experienced its first official day of smog this week, Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty told the Ontario Legislature on Wednesday. Premier Ernie Eves responded that the source of most air pollution is south of the border.
McGuinty

Sault Ste. Marie experienced its first official day of smog this week, Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty told the Ontario Legislature on Wednesday.

Premier Ernie Eves responded that the source of most air pollution is south of the border.

"If you shut down every plant in Ontario tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock, you would still have over 90% of the pollution in Windsor, Sault Ste Marie and Sarnia from our great American neighbours to the south," the premier said.

"Do you think there's some kind of invisible shield up and down the middle of the Detroit River?"

The following is a full transcript of the exchange:

Mr Dalton McGuinty (Leader of the Opposition):

Premier, the people of Sault Ste Marie came of age in a sad way in the Mike Harris-Ernie Eves Ontario.

Yesterday they recorded their first smog day ever and they had it in October.

That's just another in a long line of records that your government has broken when it comes to polluting our air.

We had a record number of smog days this year --

Interjection.

Mr McGuinty:

Apparently smog is a matter of some humour and levity to the members of the cabinet.

The fact that it's killing 1,900 Ontarians prematurely, that it's sending 13,000 people to emergency rooms --

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon Gary Carr):

Take a seat. The member for Brampton Centre, come to order right now.

Interjections.

The Speaker:

The leader of the official opposition had the floor.

Mr McGuinty:

Premier, if it's at all possible, I want to get your position on the Kyoto accord.

You're for it one day; you're against it the next; you're straddling it in between.

One day it's going to create jobs; the other day it's going to cost us jobs.

I just want to know, are you on Ralph Klein's side or are you on the side of Ontario families and Ontario Liberals, who are strong supporters of the Kyoto accord?

Hon Ernie Eves (Premier, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs):

These would be the same strong supporters who are supporting Paul Martin, I suppose.

I don't know where you stand on that, but I see that Paul Martin is now saying exactly what I've been saying for six months, which is very simple: surely the federal government must have a very specific plan as to how it's going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, comply with the Kyoto accord and not cost 450,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector.

They've had five years to think about it.

They've had two years since the Prime Minister of this country verbally said he was going to sign on.

Most Premiers across this country are saying what I've been saying for six months: let's sit down and have a very specific plan to reduce greenhouse gases --

Interjections.

The Speaker:

The premier take his seat, please. I apologize for cutting the Premier off on the most important part.

The member from Hamilton East, this is your last warning.

We're not going to continue with you yelling across like this.

We can't keep getting up and down.

Again, I apologize to the Premier for cutting that part off.

Supplementary.

Mr McGuinty:

The Premier's idea of strong leadership when it comes to reducing greenhouse gases and cleaning up Ontario air may be to wait for somebody at the federal level to produce some kind of plan so that we might make things better here for Ontarians, but that is not our definition of leadership.

We put forward a plan that will take us three quarters of the way to satisfying this province's responsibilities under the Kyoto accord.

We've got a plan to clean up our electricity generation, a plan to clean up our gasoline, a plan to bring back conservation into Ontario.

All those things will take us three quarters of the way to satisfying Ontario's responsibilities under the Kyoto accord.

How much longer are you going to wait for somebody at the federal level to do something about cleaning up Ontario air when we've got a plan right in front of you today?

Hon Mr Eves:

If the leader of the official opposition is standing in this House today saying that any pollution that occurs in Sault Ste Marie occurs only on the Ontario-Canadian side of the border -- his seatmate is from Windsor, Ontario.

If you shut down every plant in Ontario tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock, you would still have over 90% of the pollution in Windsor, Sault Ste Marie and Sarnia from our great American neighbours to the south.

Do you think there's some kind of invisible shield up and down the middle of the Detroit River?

I can't believe the leader of the official opposition actually thinks that if we eliminated every source of emission of any kind, we stopped every car, every factory -- all came to a grinding halt at his bequest tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock -- that we would not still have over 90% of the smog in those border communities that we have today.

Interjections.

The Speaker:

OK, that's enough.

Starting now we're throwing people out.

If you want to keep yapping, you're going to be the first one to go.

While we're at it, we're putting the Minister of the Environment on last warning, and the member from Sudbury is on his last warning as well, and we've got Hamilton East and the minister.

That's right.

If you want to continue on, you will be out of here.

The next person who says a word is going to be the next one out.

All the members of the cabinet who are laughing: do you want to take me up on this?

Be my guest and say something and you'll be out for the day.

We're not going to continue on like this.

We had our fun in the beginning.

Now we start throwing people out -- and if it's just me and the pages left, so be it -- starting right now.

It is now, I believe, looking at the table, the final supplementary.

Mr McGuinty:

It's pretty obvious we have a do-nothing Premier in charge today in Ontario.

This is a Premier who has raised vacillation to a high art.

This is a Premier who says, "So what if 1,900 die prematurely every year as a result of breathing bad air. So what if there are 13,000 who have to go to emergency rooms. So what if the rate of asthma for kids in Ontario has quadrupled in the last 20 years. So what if it costs taxpayers over a billion dollars annually."

Interjections.

The Speaker:

Take a seat.

We don't need any of that, because I could have thrown half of your members out too.

I will make the decisions in here.

The heat is up today and I would ask all members -- we've got people sitting in the gallery.

Half of them are shaking their heads at the performance going on here.

Half of you should sit in this seat for a little bit of time and watch the goings on and see what you look like yelling at each other: duly elected representatives of the province of Ontario and you're screaming at each other like a bunch of eight-year-olds. I can't believe it.

The leader of the official opposition for his final supplementary.

To read the conclusion of this exchange, please click here.


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David Helwig

About the Author: David Helwig

David Helwig's journalism career spans seven decades beginning in the 1960s. His work has been recognized with national and international awards.
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