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April 22, 2009
B.C. the greenest, P.E.I. the brownest: Earth Day report card
VICTORIA – British Columbia is the greenest province in Canada while Prince Edward Island is the brownest, says a nationwide report set for release on Earth Day.
The first ever Green Provincial Report Card issued by the independent Corporate Knights group looked at 10 environmental categories, including greenhouse gases, green energy, water use, biodiversity and car dependency.
B.C. received a score of 69 per cent, good for a C+, while Ontario came in second at 67 per cent. The Northwest Territories was the only other region to receive the C+ designation, finishing at 66 per cent.
B.C. was tops when it came to green jobs, green buildings, organic food and energy efficiency, said Corporate Knights editor-in-chief Toby Heaps.
"Our hope is that this clear presentation of provincial eco-performance will be seized upon by leaders across Canada looking to ramp up their region's eco-resiliency," he said.
Although the report's authors claim their methodology did adjust for size of population and economy, Prince Edward Island came in dead last with a grade of F and a score of 32 per cent.
The province lagged behind due to what the survey's authors called its poor energy efficiency, high car dependency, extreme paucity of protected land, and a dearth of certified green buildings.
"The ability to seize green economic opportunities will be the fundamental driver for which societies rise and fall in the 21st century," Heaps said.
One spot above P.E.I. was Newfoundland-Labrador, which scored 38 per cent. New Brunswick came in just ahead at 40 per cent.
Manitoba and Quebec were the other two provinces to register grades of F.
When it comes to the latter, the authors said that result may be in contrast to the clean image often associated with La Belle Province.
"While Quebec's abundance of large hydro dams powered it to the pinnacle of carbon efficiency per unit of economic output, in the areas of biodiversity, water use, and sustainable forestry management, Alberta scored twice as high as Quebec," Heaps said.
Alberta picked up a grade of C- and a score of 55 per cent, just behind Nunavut, which came in at 56 per cent. The Yukon also registered a C-, scoring 57 per cent.
Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan both registered grades of D.
The report said research was conducted through a combination of online research and informal expert interviews, with the majority of data being collected from Government of Canada websites and reports.
