It's official - Ontario's air and water monitoring suck

NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSIONER OF ONTARIO

************************* Undervalued water, weak air quality monitoring among environmental commissioner's current concerns

QUEEN'S PARK, ON - (October 21) - "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," stated Ontario's Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller as he released his 2007/08 annual report Getting to K(No)w at Queens's Park this morning.

With a central function of monitoring provincial ministries' compliance with the Environmental Bill of Rights, the commissioner is uniquely positioned to comment on the adequacy of environmentally significant legislation and its implementation.

The 07/08 report examines new regulations for the financing of 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 this 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 (EA) process.

Referencing a section of the report entitled "EA: A Vision Lost," Miller stated that "Ontario's EA process is broken, we have lost the old vision of the EA, and a new vision is urgently needed."

In addition to suggestions for reforms he also advanced the concept of "sustainability assessments."

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 07/08 report (Part 3) is the review of a sample of the 1,616 decision notices posted to the environmental registry by Ontario ministries.

Some of the items considered were the Canadian-Ontario agreement respecting the Great Lakes basin ecosystem (COA), water taking charge regulation, fisheries protocols undermined by crippling cutbacks, burning of used oil in space heaters, and the Ministry of Transportation environmental standards project.

Commissioner Miller noted that it is not all bad news.

"I am pleased to report an increase in resources for the Ministries of Environment and Natural Resources that followed my 'Doing Less With Less' special report in April 2007," he noted.

However, his praise was tempered by a sobering reminder: "While short-term progress has been made, we still have a long way to go in rebuilding the capacities of these ministries if they are to properly deliver the level of service Ontarians need and deserve."

The following documents are available on the ECO website:

- 2007-08 Annual Report and Supplement, Getting to K(No)w - Commissioner's Introductory Remarks to the Legislature - Backgrounder: Ontario's Undervalued Water - Backgrounder: Fostering a False Sense of Security - Backgrounder: Biodiversity in Crisis - Backgrounder: Getting to NO: Why is it important?

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