For Immediate Release
January 15, 2007

Environment Worse Under McGuinty Liberals
Air Quality Report Shows Smog Worse Than Ever

(Toronto, ON) – The McGuinty Liberals have broken a major promise on the environment, which has gotten worse on their watch, Laurie Scott, PC Environment Critic, said today.

“Dalton McGuinty’s inaction on the environment is hurting the health of hardworking Ontarians,” said Scott. “The government’s own Air Quality Report, which they kept quiet and under cover until the parliamentary session ended, shows that 2005 was an awful year of the environment. There were the most smog advisories ever, including one smog episode that lasted eight days.”

The report listed a number of major areas of concern, including increased smog advisories, earliest ozone alert ever (in April), the smoggiest month of June on record ever in the province, and all monitored sites exceeding the ozone Canada Wide Standard.

“The McGuinty Liberals dithering and broken promises on the province’s coal plants have made the environment worse. They should have cleaned up these coal plants as the previous government had planned but instead their inaction has put the health of Ontarians at risk,” Scott said.

“While the McGuinty Liberals continue to attack rural Ontario, they are allowing millions and millions of litres of sewage water to pour into our lakes. The McGuinty Liberals promised to ‘clean the air’ but all we have seen is yet another broken promise. This is once again showing the McGuinty Liberals as nothing more than paper environmentalists,” said Scott.

“They continue saying and doing anything to get elected, are hopelessly avoiding their responsibilities. As a result, Ontarians are worse off under this government.”

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For Further Information Contact:
Laurie Scott, MPP
416-325-2008