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Did You Know?
B.C. is the first province in Canada to pilot a new Air Quality Health Index. Public testing started in 2005 and now involves communities provincewide. The Index will provide information on local air quality, along with tips for reducing air pollution and its health risks. The Index received the Excellence in Health Promotion Award from the BC Medical Association in 2007. For more information, go to
www.airplaytoday.org.
Airshed Planning – Partership in Action
Partnerships are crucial to airshed planning and can take many different shapes and
forms from place to place. For example, in developing its plan, Quesnel used a single
roundtable of stakeholders drawn from local and provincial government, industry,
health agencies and environmental and community groups.
In the Bulkley Valley-Lakes District, which covers a much larger area, a more complex
partnership was struck, including one regional and four community working groups
reporting to a multi-stakeholder committee. For more on airshed planning, go to
www.env.gov.bc.ca/pac/airquality.htm.
Action #23: Make airshed planning part of community planning. The provincial
government is developing a new Smart Planning initiative to support local governments in
their ongoing efforts to plan for clean, sustainable, livable communities. The new initiative
will bring together issues that are often dealt with separately, and their attendant funding
programs, to promote a comprehensive approach to planning that simultaneously addresses
energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and local air quality. The $15 million initiative
will be implemented over five years and includes funding dedicated to communities.
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