I am very pleased to be here for Clean Air Day to help launch the Sustainable Transportation Campaign. This is Transport Canada's second year working with the Canadian Urban Transit Association on this initiative. The choices we make, every single day, about how to get around, have a huge impact on our cities, the air we breathe and our quality of life. Transportation contributes to air, water and soil pollution. It is one of the largest sources of smog in our cities and it is the single largest source of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions about one quarter of the total.
Transportation has a huge impact on our use of land.
It affects wildlife habitat. And carbon fuels are a non-renewable resource. Thanks to new technology, we now have more options than ever before to make our transportation system more environmentally friendly innovations like fuel cells and cars that use a combination of gas and electricity. But to build a truly sustainable system, we have to be willing to change our behaviour especially how we travel in urban areas. The Government of Canada is taking action to make our transportation system more environmentally friendly.