Traffic Congestion and the Pollution it Creates is Affecting Air Quality

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According to the Toronto Environmental Office, vehicles are responsible for 35% of all greenhouse gases (GHG) produced in Toronto (City of Toronto, 2011), and the Clean Air Partnership estimates that idling in the GTHA wastes 90 million litres of fuel each year (ibid), which further justifies the need to combat gridlock and traffic congestion with effective government policies.
Air is a transboundary problem therefore no one jurisdiction, whether it is a municipality, province, country or continent, can completely control the air in which its residents breathe in. In addition, each have their own authority to uphold air quality for its residents but cannot control the air pollution coming in from neighbouring provinces and countries. Under the Constitution of Canada, provinces have jurisdictional control over air, which is considered a natural resource. The provinces have the power to delegate this responsibility to the different municipalities and regional governments but the municipal governments have very limited powers in making substantial changes to things like transboundary pollution. When looking at the GTHA, the air pollution and traffic congestion problems in the city of Toronto are caused not only from its own residents but also from commuters in neighbouring municipalities and regions like the City of Hamilton in the west and Durham Region in the east.
Seeing as how environmental problems are not always localized, Hay (1994) makes an important point about the need for inter-state measures (p. 221-222). The author also argues that the state is the major factor preventing a response to crisis (p. 217-218), or in this case, a serious issue with congestion and gridlock air pollution, therefore the residents need to infl...

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...the_TTC/Commission_reports_and_information/Commission_meetings/2013/March_27/Reports/New_Business_Fine_fo.pdf
Ludwig, D., Hilborn, R., & Walters, C. (1993). Uncertainty, Resource Exploitation, and
Conservation: Lessons from History. Ecological Applications, 3(4), 547-549.
Ministry of Transportation. (2013). Electric Vehicle Incentive and Charging Incentive
Programs. Retrieved from http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/dandv/ vehicle/electric/electric-vehicles.shtml Moloney, P. (2010, April 26). A minute’s idle could cost you $125. The Star.
Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2010/04/
26/a_minutes_idle_could_cost_you_125.html
Toronto Region Board of Trade. (2013). A Green Light to Moving the Toronto
Region: Paying for Public Transportation Expansion. Retrieved from http://letsbreakthegridlock.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/
discussion_paper_march15.pdf

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