A History of Air Quality Management

A brief history of air pollution management in Canada is provided in this chapter. Whether the issue be acid rain, ground level ozone, particulate matter, air toxics, or emergency releases of air pollutants, Canada has traditionally built a management approach on: strong science; a desire to move in a similar direction to our southern friends, the U.S.A.; connections to the rest of the world; all delivered by a cadre of world class scientists feeding their results to decision makers. Beyond the research and modelling that has explained some of the complexities of chemical behavior in the atmosphere, it is clear that Canada’s management systems would not be as effective as they have been without a strong federal/provincial commitment to monitoring emissions and air quality as well as a balanced approach among governments, non-governmental organizations, private industry and academia to model, analyze and make sense of the observations. Canada’s unique approach has been led by a number of exceptional people over the years and their contributions have kept Canada in the forefront of the scientific understanding and bridging the gap into regulation needed for effective air quality management.