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Avis d’objection à la décision de réévaluation RDV2017-01 sur le Glyphosate
The document challenges the PMRA's re-evaluation of glyphosate, claiming it relies heavily on outdated, confidential industry data while ignoring recent peer-reviewed literature and the exponential increase in glyphosate-based herbicide (GBH) use. It highlights significant gaps in the assessment of toxicological dangers, occupational risks, and food and water contamination, specifically citing concerns over carcinogenicity and endocrine disruption. The authors argue that the PMRA's findings contradict the precautionary spirit of the Pest Control Products Act and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, calling for a suspension of the registration renewal and a transparent, independent re-evaluation of full herbicide formulations rather than just the active ingredient.
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Document type: Statement
Green Offices Toolkit
The Green Offices Toolkit offers a comprehensive framework for Canadian health care providers to implement sustainable office practices. It outlines a phased approach to 'greening' a clinic, starting with the establishment of a 'Green Team' and the definition of a vision and mission. The document provides specific technical advice on reducing energy and water consumption, managing toxic substances like mercury and pharmaceuticals, and minimizing waste through recycling and composting. It also emphasizes the role of physicians as community leaders who can influence patient health and environmental behavior through education and by modeling sustainable lifestyles.
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Document type: Guide
Climate Change Health Impacts across Canada
The document outlines how climate change increases health risks in Canada, including heat-related illness, respiratory diseases, and mental health issues, while detailing specific regional threats from the North to British Columbia.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Climate Change Solutions with Immediate Health Benefits
The document outlines how climate mitigation strategies in Canada—such as phasing out coal, reducing building energy use, transitioning transportation, and shifting to plant-based diets—can simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve health outcomes by reducing air pollution and obesity.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Factsheet: Engaging in Climate Change Solutions as Health Professionals
The document outlines how health professionals can act as trusted messengers to educate the public on climate-related health risks, engage peers through academic and professional channels, and influence policy-makers. It emphasizes focusing on climate policies that offer immediate health co-benefits and healthcare savings, while encouraging institutional changes such as fossil fuel divestment in universities and professional associations. The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) supports these efforts through regional volunteer committees in British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, and Ontario.
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Document type: Fact sheet
POLLUTING EDUCATION
The document serves as a resource guide for the Canadian education system to counter the influence of corporate interests in climate curricula. It categorizes a wide array of vetted materials across themes such as climate science, Indigenous perspectives, civic engagement, and climate justice. Additionally, it lists advocacy networks, including For Our Kids and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, which work to remove industry-sponsored materials from schools.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Application for Inquiry into the Canadian Gas Association´s false and misleading representations about natural gas
The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) and other applicants argue that the Canadian Gas Association (CGA) has engaged in greenwashing by marketing natural gas as a clean and affordable energy source. The document asserts that natural gas has a lifecycle climate impact comparable to coal, causes significant indoor and outdoor pollution, and is less affordable than heat pumps, especially as carbon pricing increases. The applicants request a Competition Bureau inquiry, a public retraction of the claims, and a $10 million fine.
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Document type: Report
Atrazine: Banned in Europe, Common in Canada
The document examines the risks associated with atrazine, a herbicide common in Canadian corn fields but banned in the European Union since 2003. It highlights the chemical's high leaching potential and frequent contamination of surface and groundwater, particularly in corn-growing regions of Québec. The briefing details atrazine's role as an endocrine disruptor, linking it to reproductive toxicity in animals—such as the feminization of frogs—and various reproductive health issues in humans, though it notes a lack of consensus on its carcinogenicity. It further discusses the synergistic toxicity of atrazine when mixed with other pesticides and critiques the Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency's (PMRA) limited scope in its risk reviews. Finally, it suggests that corn yields can be maintained through integrated pest management and mechanical weeding, supporting the call for a national ban.
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Document type: Briefing
Document d’information : l’atrazine, interdit en Europe, répandu au Canada
The document examines the use and impact of atrazine in Canada and globally, highlighting its role as a significant environmental and health risk despite declining sales in Quebec. It details the chemical's persistence in surface and groundwater, its classification as an endocrine disruptor by several governments, and its toxic effects on wildlife, particularly amphibians. The text also discusses the lack of consensus on human carcinogenicity, the risks associated with pesticide 'cocktails', and the legal challenges surrounding its regulation in North America, ultimately advocating for a ban based on the European example.
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Document type: Fact sheet
INTERBASIN WATER TRANSFERS AFTER NAFTA
The report warns that NAFTA and the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) treat water as a commodity, potentially preventing Canada from restricting large-scale water exports to the U.S. and Mexico. It details massive proposed projects like NAWAPA and the GRAND Canal, and identifies trends—such as the rise of water marketing and the impacts of global warming—that increase the likelihood of these transfers. The authors recommend forming a North American Water Task Force and pursuing legal frameworks that prioritize ecological and indigenous values over economic ones.
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Document type: Report
ASSESSING PROGRESS ON CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN CANADA
The document argues that Canada currently lacks a formalized national system for monitoring and evaluating climate adaptation, with most existing efforts focused on policy implementation (outputs) rather than actual resilience gains (outcomes). It proposes a framework based on four building blocks—context, content, operationalization, and communication—and outlines nine best practices. These include legislating a federal mandate, integrating Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and combining quantitative indicators with qualitative methods to better understand how adaptation actions reduce vulnerability.
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Document type: Research paper
Beyond Sustainability: The Power of Indigenous Healthy Energy Homes
The report examines how substandard housing in Indigenous communities in Canada contributes to poor health outcomes and energy poverty. It proposes 'Healthy Energy Homes' as a holistic solution to reduce healthcare costs, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and improve affordability. The authors argue that overcoming current governance and funding barriers requires a national, Indigenous-led approach to housing.
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Document type: Report
BARRIERS TO INNOVATION IN THE CANADIAN ELECTRICITY SECTOR AND AVAILABLE POLICY RESPONSES
The document identifies systemic barriers to decarbonizing Canada's electricity grid, including misaligned utility mandates, vested interests, siloed planning, and market access restrictions. It recommends implementing system-wide decarbonization mandates, technology-neutral Clean Electricity Standards, and performance-based regulation to incentivize innovation. The paper also emphasizes the need for improved interprovincial transmission and larger grid-balancing regions to integrate variable renewable energy.
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Document type: Research paper
Enabling broader decarbonization through Energy Systems Integration
The document argues that while Canada has made progress in decarbonizing power supply, achieving net-zero requires Energy Systems Integration (ESI)—the coordination of energy systems across multiple pathways and scales. It examines five key ESI technologies (electric vehicles, heat pumps, demand response, distributed generation, and hydrogen) and finds that Canadian policy is currently too siloed, relying on voluntary 'soft' incentives rather than systemic market reforms or mandatory legislation. The author highlights significant gaps in information, governance, and implementation, suggesting that a holistic, pan-system approach to modelling and planning is essential to avoid sub-optimal infrastructure lock-in.
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Document type: Research paper
Improving integration and coordination of provincially-managed electricity systems in Canada
The paper analyzes the diverse structures of Canadian provincial electricity markets, noting that a lack of coordination creates economic inefficiencies and hinders the integration of renewable energy. It identifies six primary challenges to integration, including constitutional jurisdictions and vested interests in price differentials. To address these, the author proposes four strategies: enhancing bilateral projects, adopting a bottom-up Nordic-style collaborative model, utilizing the Canadian Free Trade Agreement, or implementing a federal healthcare-type framework of shared principles.
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Document type: Research paper
Technical pathways to aligning Canadian electricity systems with net zero goals
The document identifies a stark divide in Canada's electricity sector between low-emitting provinces (B.C., Manitoba, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Ontario) and fossil fuel-based provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia). To achieve net zero, the author proposes five integrated pathways: expanding variable renewable energy, implementing clean firm supply, enhancing interprovincial transmission, increasing demand flexibility, and deploying energy storage. While wind and solar are now the lowest-cost energy sources, their integration requires complementary resources to manage intermittency and seasonal variation, particularly in Canada's high-latitude environment.
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Document type: Research paper
THE HEALTH COSTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
The report identifies ground-level ozone, heat waves, and Lyme disease as significant health threats in Canada, with ozone-related societal costs potentially reaching $250 billion per year by the end of the century. It emphasizes that climate change will exacerbate existing health inequities driven by poverty and racism, and warns that current federal funding for health adaptation is inadequate, representing only about 0.3 per cent of total federal climate change program funding.
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Document type: Executive summary
Managing environmental risks of mining critical minerals in Canada
The report identifies three critical environmental challenges for Canada's mining sector: inadequate mine closure and reclamation, the risk of tailings dam failures, and the cumulative impact of infrastructure on biodiversity. It highlights a legacy of abandoned mines and the 'bankruptcy loophole' that allows companies to avoid cleanup costs. The document compares various Voluntary Sustainability Initiatives (VSIs) and regulatory frameworks, noting Quebec's leadership in financial assurance and British Columbia's Cumulative Effects Framework. It argues that mitigating these risks is a precondition for securing the community support and investor confidence necessary to scale up critical mineral production for the clean energy transition.
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Document type: Report
Climate Change, Critical Minerals, and Indigenous Engagement with Regulatory Processes
The report examines the historical and current state of Indigenous engagement in Canada's resource sector, focusing on the transition to clean energy and critical minerals. It argues that while regulatory frameworks like the Impact Assessment Act have improved since the colonial era, they remain too complex, costly, and onerous, often failing to adequately recognize Indigenous sovereignty. Through case studies in Quebec, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Yukon, and British Columbia, the document illustrates the spectrum of engagement from successful modern treaties and equity partnerships to ongoing conflicts over land title. The authors recommend a shift toward Indigenous-led evaluation and approval processes, the formal acceptance of Indigenous laws, and increased capacity support for communities to ensure the energy transition is equitable and grounded in free, prior, and informed consent.
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Document type: Report
ELECTRICITY AFFORDABILITY AND EQUITY IN CANADA’S ENERGY TRANSITION
The report finds that while electrification will increase electricity use, total energy spending for Canadian households is expected to decline. However, the costs of expanding electricity infrastructure may fall regressively, disproportionately impacting lower-income households. The authors analyze rate-design changes and government funding mechanisms as tools to improve equity, concluding that means-tested fixed charges and progressive tax-based funding can insulate vulnerable populations from rising costs.
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Document type: Research paper