Reports & Guides

Our Latest Report Report: Media Backgrounder: Grow The Greenbelt About The Report: Backgrounder on why the province needs to expand protection of vulnerable water supplies in the Greater Golden Horseshoe Region. Download the report (English) (Adobe Reader is required… Read Now > Reports & Guides By Issue Our work is based on research, science, and a strong understanding…

Memo to Metrolinx: Ditch the gas plant and go solar

This is a guest blog by Jamie Kirkpatrick, Program Manager for Blue Green Canada an alliance between Canadian labour unions, environmental, and civil society organizations that believe a sustainable economy must provide good jobs and protect the environment, not one or the other. The Eglinton Crosstown LRT could be emissions free but not if a…

Refining and
Manufacturing

Two of Canada’s biggest plastic producers have plants in Sarnia, ON: Imperial Oil and Nova Chemicals.

Total implosion in the tar sands

Last week, French energy giant Total, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, announced that it has withdrawn from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) because of a “misalignment” between the organization’s public positions and those expressed in Total’s climate ambition statement announced in May. Total attributes this unprecedented move to concerns…

Unnecessary flame retardants in your home may harm developing brains

A new study from researchers at Simon Fraser University (SFU) offers additional evidence that exposure to PBDE flame retardants is associated with lower intelligence and hyperactivity in children. Last summer Environmental Defence tested the umbilical cord blood of three newborns from the GTA for traces of toxic chemicals like mercury and flame retardants (chemicals that…

Have Your Say on the Canadian Environmental Protection Act

Special Update Blog by Elaine MacDonald, Ecojustice and Maggie MacDonald, Environmental Defence Have Your Say on the Canadian Environmental Protection Act When it comes to protecting human health and the environment from toxic pollution, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA 1999) is a crucial piece of legislation. But much has changed since the Act was…

Still Digging: G20 Governments Continue to Finance the Climate Crisis

About The Report: Since the Paris Agreement was made, G20 countries have acted directly counter to it by providing at least USD 77 billion a year in finance for oil, gas, and coal projects through their international public finance institutions. The report finds that Canada has the 2nd highest public finance for fossil fuels in…

Putting the Brakes on Turtle Loss in Ontario

Ontario is home to eight native species of freshwater turtles – the biggest species variety and greatest density of turtles in Canada.  Unfortunately for our turtles, Ontario is also home to the highest density of roadways. Turtles are semi-aquatic meaning that they spend time in water and on land. They spend the winters “hibernating” at…