Canadians have gotten a little bit greener over the past 12 years, especially where governments passed laws to force behaviour changes, a newly released survey suggests.

But in other areas, consumers are acting just as they did in 1994, says a Statistics Canada report released Wednesday.

More than half of Canadians drive to work alone in the warmer months, and more than 10 per cent of households had three or more vehicles in 2006.

The proportion of Canadians who have adopted compact fluorescent light bulbs, low-volume toilets and programmable thermostats was up sharply in 2006, compared with 1994.

But only a few more Canadians are composting and a few less using chemical pesticides on their gardens, the report said.

And in one key area — transportation — no comparisons are possible  because Statistics Canada changed its methodology between the two surveys, said Bruce Mitchell, manager of environmental surveys.

In two areas where there were big changes — garden pesticide use in Quebec and composting in the Atlantic region — governments compelled greener behaviour.

Nationally, chemical pesticide use fell an insignificant two percentage points between the two surveys. But in Quebec, "where strict regulations on pesticide use were imposed in recent years, the proportion [using pesticides] plunged from 30 per cent to 15 per cent," the survey said.

As for composting, while there was a slight national increase, the gain was "especially large" in the Atlantic provinces, "some of which prohibit the disposal of organic materials in landfills or incinerators."

By the numbers, the proportion of Canadians who took green actions in 2006, compared with 1994, was:

• Used fluorescent bulbs – 59 per cent compared with 19 per cent.
• Used water-conserving showerheads – 60 per cent compared with 42 per cent.
• Used water-saving toilets – 41 per cent compared with 15 per cent.
• Used programmable thermostats – 42 per cent compared with 16 per cent.
• Used pesticides on lawn or garden – 29 per cent compared with 31 per cent.
• Composted – 27 per cent compared with 23 per cent.  

Consumers confused

The survey suggests that people are baffled when dealing with wastes that require special processes. For example, nearly 30 per cent of households had leftover paint to deal with, but two out of five of those households — more than 10 per cent of the total population — were holding on to the paint "and did not know what to do with it."

A third of  people with old electronics didn't know what to do with them.
And people are still throwing electronics and unwanted medications into the garbage, rather than taking the products to special depots or returning them to suppliers.

Most drive alone to work

Passenger transportation accounts for about 12 per cent of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions and efforts to improve efficiency are a high-profile part of the global warming debate.

Canadians usually drive to work, alone in their vehicles, the report said. In the warmer months, about 57 per cent of people who work outside the home drive to their jobs, rising to 65 per cent as temperatures fall.

There is more transit use in bigger centres, but driving is still the dominant form of commuting.

Time seems to be a factor; almost two-thirds of transit users spent 30 minutes or more to get to work, while only a quarter of drivers took that long, Statistics Canada said.

While there are no comparable 1994 figures, the 2006 transport data will provide a baseline for future comparisons, Mitchell said.

Among other 2006 transportation results:

• About 83 per cent of households had at least one vehicle.
• More than 10 per cent had three or more vehicles.
• About three in five households drove 20,000 kilometres or less a year.
• One in eight drove more than 40,000 kilometres.

Bottled water popular

Almost 30 per cent of households chose bottled water, but that jumped to more than 40 per cent in two southern Ontario cities, the Kitchener and  St. Catharines-Niagara areas.

And almost half the households on a municipal water system treated the water in some way. "This was a slightly higher proportion than those who had a non-municipal source," the agency said.

 Among households drawing water from sources other than the municipality — for example, from  a well — 85 per cent of those who had their water tested found it was free of contaminants.