Ontario 2024 Pollution and Poverty Mapping

In 2024, CELA undertook a mapping project funded by The Dragonfly Fund. The maps – which can be seen below – provide information to impacted communities on their exposure to air pollution.

CELA mapped the location of polluting facilities across Ontario and identified some Indigenous and low-income communities with high toxic air releases. The maps show how these communities are disproportionately and unfairly exposed to pollution; they lay out the geography of environmental injustice in Ontario.

What Story Does the Data Tell Us About Air Pollution?

There is much we can discover through examining pollution data collected by the Canadian government. Each year, many facilities submit reports on selected pollutants they release into the air and this information is made public through the National Pollution Registry Inventory (NPRI). There are, however, important limitations on the scope and value of the data.

CELA researchers aggregated 2020 data from the National Pollution Registry Inventory to find total releases to air per pollutant and reporting facility. They then overlaid this information with information from Statistics Canada for low income measures and found that certain communities are facing higher levels of carcinogens and criteria air pollutants.

Why does CELA undertake this project and others like it?

We are a legal aid clinic dedicated to environmental equity, justice and health. CELA provides free legal services relating to environmental justice in Ontario, including representing low-income and vulnerable or disadvantaged communities in litigation. CELA also works on environmental legal education and reform initiatives.

South-West Ontario

Across Canada there are over 7000 facilities required by law to submit annual reports on air pollution emissions. In Ontario there are about 340 facilities reporting on carcinogens while over 700 facilities report on toxic substances designated as Criteria Air Contaminants (CACs).

Each of these facilities submits reports each year to Environment and Climate Change Canada. The emissions of toxic substances affects air quality that may impact the health of the humans and other species.

On the above map of South-West Ontario, you can see that areas such as Hamilton, Windsor, and Sarnia have the larger circles around them, indicating that there are higher volumes of air releases for CAC's from the reporting facilties in these areas. It also shows that the facilities in these areas are releasing, in the case of orange circles, a large amount of criteria air pollutants. The smaller red circles indicate the release of carcinogens. Here are some of the steps of CELA’s methodology. They took the raw data from NPRI and sorted it by different city centres to create tables showing each city’s pollution loads. They employed a cartographer to map the data so you can see the story for your area.

Each circle represents a different facility. Larger circles mean there is a greater load.

By aggregating, merging, and combining the NPRI data with Statistic Canada data on vulnerable populations, researchers found First Nations communities and communities with lower income levels were subject to higher environmental loads of carcinogens and criteria air pollutants than in other areas. This is one of the stories behind the figures, presented here in layered maps which you can download and examine yourself.

Where you have many facilities together, you will see more circles close to each other. The concern is that there is a greater reduction in the community’s air quality in these cases. This will need further review, as we want to understand the extent of potential impacts on the health of members of the community both based on the individual toxic substance as well as its impacts when they are present as a group.

Community Impact Maps

The following maps can be seen downloaded as PDF files. Click on the button below each image to download that map file.

The maps have built in layers that can be turned on and off. These include:

Geographic layers, such as cities, towns, lakes, rivers, and First Nations reserves.
Information about carcinogens and criteria air contaminants, including emitting facility name, pollution in kgs, number of chemicals, and NPRI identification number.
Percentage of the population meeting the Low-Income Measure, with levels about 10% being highlighted in shades of blue.
Visible minorities as a percentage of the population.

Layers may not be visible in your browser. Open the PDF file in an Adobe program to manipulate the layers. In most programs, the layer button is a small icon on the left side of the screen. For assistance with accessing the maps, reach out to info@cela.ca

Carcinogens and Criteria Air Contaminants

Reported Health Effects

Toxic substances, compounds, or chemicals listed as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.

Some of the most frequently emitted CACs by reporting facilities are:

Sulphur dioxide
Carbon monoxide
Nitrogen oxides
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
Total particulate matter (TPM)

LIMITATIONS
on Pollution Data from
Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory

All pollutants (particularly all pollutants considered carcinogens) are not reported under Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI)
Does not address all sources of chemicals such as mobile sources, (cars, trucks, off road vehicles), agricultural activities or natural sources such as forest fires,
Does not include all facilities that release carcinogens and CACs ‐ only those that meet reporting requirements under the NPRI (generally 10 tonnes of chemical manufactured, processed or otherwise used),
Does not generally include facilities with less than 10 employees,
NPRI data provide annual summaries,
Does not always represent measurements of releases and transfers—they may be estimates derived using a variety of methods,
Does not describe the ultimate environmental fate of chemical substances,
Does not indicate risks from substances released or transferred by reporting facilities,
Does not identify exposures of human or wildlife populations to substances released or transferred by reporting facilities, and
Does not indicate the amount of chemicals allowed to be released under permits, licenses or agreements.

For more information about the methodology used in producing the maps, reach out to info@cela.ca

Ontario 2024 Pollution and Poverty Mapping

What Story Does the Data Tell Us About Air Pollution?

Why does CELA undertake this project and others like it?

South-West Ontario

Community Impact Maps

Ontario North

Ontario South West

Ontario South East

Brampton

Cornwall

Guelph

Hamilton

Kirkland Lake

Kitchener-Waterloo

London

Mississauga

Oakville-Burlington

Oshawa-Bowmanville

Pembroke-Petawawa

Pickering-Ajax-Whitby

Sarnia

Sault Ste. Marie

Sudbury

Thunder Bay

Timmins

Toronto East

Toronto West

Trenton-Belleville

Vaughan

Windsor

Carcinogens and Criteria Air Contaminants

Reported Health Effects

LIMITATIONS
on Pollution Data from
Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory

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Ontario 2024 Pollution and Poverty Mapping

What Story Does the Data Tell Us About Air Pollution?

Why does CELA undertake this project and others like it?

South-West Ontario

Community Impact Maps

Carcinogens and Criteria Air Contaminants

Reported Health Effects

LIMITATIONS on Pollution Data from Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory

LIMITATIONS
on Pollution Data from
Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory