“The Ontario public needs and deserves to be confident that our environmental protection systems are actually doing the job – but there are clearly areas of weakness,” said Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller when he released his annual report here Oct. 21.
The commissioner’s report examines new regulations for financing municipal water systems, a new but insufficient fee for commercial water uses, and a water-taking application by a large water bottler that produced an unprecedented response from citizens concerned about their water resources.
“As Ontario’s water resources come under increasing stress, our policies still seriously undervalue water and don’t reflect its critical importance to the ecosystem, the economy, and our quality of life,” warned Miller.
The report is critical of that shortcoming, and the need for better public consultation on many important environmental issues. “It’s essential for the public to participate fully in decisions that have such profound implications for our environment and our economy,” said Miller. “Every day, I hear from communities that are not satisfied with the way they are being consulted about decisions that affect them. For example, proposals for quarries, landfills, energy projects, and large-scale water uses have been met with growing public frustration.”
The report provides an in-depth analysis of the environmental assessment process. Referencing a section of the report entitled EA: A Vision Lost, Miller said “Ontario’s EA process is broken, we have lost the old vision of the EA, and a new vision is urgently needed.”
Also critiqued is Ontario’s urban air quality monitoring and reporting. “Ontarians aren’t getting the true story about air quality at street level because current monitoring sites are located well away from traffic and other pollution sources,” Miller said.
Other topics examined include Ontario’s progress on mitigating and adapting to climate change, protecting biodiversity, Greening of the Ontario government, the importance of mammalian predators in effective wildlife management and conservation, reforms to Brownfield legislation, and changes in household hazardous waste management.
A substantial section of the report (part 3) is the review of a sample of the 1,616 decision notices posted to the Environmental registry by Ontario ministries.
Supporting documents and background on the report are available on the ECO website at www.eco.on.ca.
