The Mayor’s Task Force on Air Quality Improvement has a new Chair, Dr. Howard Brunt. The Vice President and Provost for the University of Northern B.C. says he worked closely with the former Chair (Dr. Charles Jago) and is looking forward to moving ahead with the project. Dr. Jago resigned from the post earlier this year because his schedule had become too heavy.

“I have heard loud and clear that people don’t want more research, but we will have to do a bit of background first before we can move forward “ says Brunt. He is hoping the committee can connect with some of the experts in the field of air quality for consultation. He is also hoping to check into what other communities, with similar challenges, have done.

“I don’t want to re-invent the wheel” says Brunt who says he wants to learn from the successes of other jurisdictions to see if there are practices or policies which might be adaptable to the Prince George situation.

Dr. Brunt is hopeful some of the results from Dr. Peter Jackson’s research will help identify the sources of pollution, in particular, fine particulate, or PM 2.5. Some results from that research study are expected to be ready as early as the spring of 2007.

Brunt’s first task will be to see if the other people on the task force are still interested in continuing on with this work. It has been some time since the task force was struck. He is hopeful those individuals will stay on, as they represent a good cross section of the Prince George community.

While he plans to have the final report with recommendations to Council in November of 2007, he says people need to know there is no quick fix “There is no magic bullet, no magic wand to suddenly make things better,” says Brunt. He recognizes there may need to be changes in bylaws, more public education, more bylaw enforcement, but he wants to present recommendations that will produce action. “I have produced a lot of reports and the last thing I want is to create a report that will just collect dust.”

He says he is taking on the challenge because he wants to make a contribution to the community. Brunt can’t promise that the final recommendations will be adopted or that his task force will have all the answers, he does however say this “We will give it the best shot we can.”