2006 Progress Report >

Comment on the 2006 Progress Report under the Air Quality Agreement

The International Joint Commission seeks your views on the progress report under the Canada-United States Air Quality Agreement, which was put in place by the two countries in 1991 as an instrument to address shared concerns regarding transboundary air pollution.

Your comments on the Progress Report would be appreciated by March 31, 2007.

Background

Article VIII of the Agreement provides for a bilateral Air Quality Committee to, among other things, prepare biennial progress reports. Article IX charges the International Joint Commission with responsibility for gathering public comments about each progress report, submitting to the governments a synthesis and a record of the views expressed, and releasing that synthesis to the public at large.

2006 Progress Report

The 2006 Progress Report was released in November and is the eighth prepared by the Air Quality Committee. It highlights actions undertaken by Canada and the United States over the past two years to address transboundary air pollution within the context of the Agreement – namely, acid rain and ground-level ozone.

This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of the Air Quality Agreement. Accordingly, the 2006 Progress Report includes the third five-year comprehensive review of the Agreement and also responds to several issues deferred from previous reviews in 1996 and 2002.

As the 2006 Progress Report states, the comments gathered by the Commission will assist the Air Quality Committee in implementing the Agreement and preparing the next report in 2008. It also notes that the five-year comprehensive review addresses public comments on the 2004 Progress Report submitted by the Commission.

The Progress Report is available online at one of two web sites:

Environment Canada:
http://www.ec.gc.ca/cleanair-airpur/
Pollution_Issues/Transboundary_Air/Canada_-United_States_Air_Quality_Agreement-WS83930AC3-1_En.htm

United States Environmental Protection Agency:
http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/progsregs/usca/
docs/2006report.pdf

Privacy

Written public comments will become part of a public record that may be posted on the IJC's website or otherwise made available to the public. The IJC requests that people who submit comments provide contact information so that the IJC can inform them of the outcome of the process.

To protect the privacy of any person submitting comment, the IJC will remove the following identifying information from the incoming communication before making the comment available to the public: email address, street address, post office box, zip code, postal code, telephone number and fax number.

The following identifying information will remain part of the record that is made available to the public: name, organizational affiliation, city, and state/province.

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