It’s a tough time in the world, with so many challenges facing us as we dive into a short federal election. As we face critical decisions about our collective future, the evidence is clear: the triple planetary crises of pollution, biodiversity loss and climate change are causing measurable harm to human health across the country. As physicians, we witness these impacts firsthand in our clinics and hospitals, and we at CAPE believe the intersection of health, environment, and justice represents the most pressing challenge of our time.
Environmental harms disproportionately affect vulnerable populations – children, elders, disabled people, pregnant people, low-income communities, and Indigenous, Black, and racialized communities. This is not merely an environmental issue; it is a health crisis and a matter of justice.
The economic costs are also substantial. The environmental crisis is costing billions of dollars in health care costs, adaptation and repair of infrastructure, and lost economic activity due to missed days and less productivity at work.
Five Essential Actions for All Political Parties
As physicians concerned about the health of people in Canada, we call on candidates from all political parties running in the federal election to commit to these five critical actions:
1. Preserve and expand the health benefits and avoided health care costs resulting from current and proposed environmental regulations. We cannot afford to move backwards.
A number of current and proposed environmental regulations protect human health with substantial economic savings. These include the Clean Electricity Regulations (CER), new and proposed methane regulations, and the Oil and Gas Emissions Cap.
Each of these regulations translates into real health benefits for people across Canada. For example, a cap in line with Canada’s economy-wide emissions reduction target would avoid approximately 4,860 premature deaths in Canada and deliver an economic benefit of $45 billion—equivalent to building 37 new hospitals.
The CER is expected to reduce GHGs by 181 million tonnes from 2024 to 2050—roughly equivalent to taking 39.3 million cars off the road for a year in Canada (there are roughly 25 million cars registered in Canada). The CER would also cut exposure to air quality pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, particulate matter, and mercury, and result in health benefits ranging from five to eight billion dollars through 2050.
2. Implement and strengthen the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA)
The top causes of death for people in Canada include cancers, heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, asthma and more. Evidence suggests exposure to pollutants on the CEPA list of Toxic Substances increases the risk of these diseases. Robust implementation of new requirements—including the new Right to a Healthy Environment and regulations to address hazardous chemicals—are crucial, and further updates to the Act are necessary for health and to advance a just and healthy environment for all. This includes the introduction of a second CEPA modernization bill to address air pollution, match international practices for hazardous chemical labelling in consumer products, and expand citizen enforcement provisions.
3. Establish a permanent, high-level Office of Environmental Justice
The National Strategy Respecting Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice Act requires the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to develop a strategy to advance environmental justice and assess, prevent, and address environmental racism.
An Office of Environmental Justice will ensure sustained institutional capacity and profile to implement the new strategy, and serve as a hub for research, resources, and community partnerships. Implementation of this strategy is necessary to protect communities who disproportionately face elevated disease rates associated with exposures to tar sands tailing ponds, air pollution, fracking, PCBs, plastics and more.
4. Prevent greenwashing, ban fossil fuel advertising, and halt all new fossil fuel infrastructure
Fossil fuels drive the climate crisis, which already affects the health of people in Canada through heat waves, food insecurity, evacuations from disasters, respiratory problems from wildfire smoke, increased infectious diseases from pests, disruptions to healthcare infrastructure and services and more.
Health Canada research shows that air pollution from burning fossil fuels is one of the leading causes of premature mortality in Canada. It is directly linked to 34,000 premature deaths in Canada per year, and over 8 million globally according to recent research conducted at Harvard. According to Health Canada, the social and economic consequences of illness and death associated with air pollution total $120 billion per year.
Fossil fuel ads are designed to delay the transition away from polluting products to safer and cleaner energy sources, for example by normalizing fossil fuel use or greenwashing companies’ efforts to tackle the climate emergency. Much like stopping tobacco advertising, the federal government needs to put an end to false and misleading information, which will save lives and protect our environment.
We must also avoid building new fossil fuel infrastructure. Creating any new fossil fuel infrastructure will send us down the wrong path, not to mention its health impacts on those who live locally, and upstream near extraction sites that feed these projects with fossil fuels.
5. Strengthen and enforce Polluter Pays legislation to protect taxpayers and hold companies financially responsible for the costs of the environmental and health harms caused by their products and activities, including a fund to pay for damages from the climate crisis.
While the ‘polluter pays’ principle is embedded in various environmental laws, companies are still not fully held to account for the direct harms to the health and wellbeing of people across Canada at the scale required to compensate for those harms.
A Matter of Health, Justice, and Economic Sense
Environmental justice is not possible without Indigenous partnership and reconciliation. Indigenous sovereignty and free, prior and informed consent must be guiding principles in the implementation of these recommendations.
Human and environmental health is not partisan, and these recommendations are not on partisan issues. They represent sound policy based on medical evidence and independent analysis. Taking action on these five priorities would improve health outcomes, address injustice, and make life more affordable for all people in Canada.
The health impacts of environmental degradation are not theoretical – they are measurable in increased hospital admissions, diseases and illnesses, medication usage, lost work days, and premature deaths. The economic costs of inaction far exceed the investments required to address these challenges.
As physicians, we call on all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, to recognize the fundamental connection between environmental health and human health. We urge voters to consider these issues when casting their ballots.
The health of people in Canada and the health of our environment are inseparable. The next government must act decisively on these interconnected crises of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. Our health depends on it.