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April 25, 2007
Miller's report opens eyes
Editorial - http://www.nugget.ca
It
comes as no surprise to Northern Ontario
residents the ministries of Natural Resources
and the Environment have been cut well beyond
the bone. They have been gutted and lack the
resources to properly carry out their mandates
that have consistently widened.
Provincial Environment Commissioner Gord Miller,
a former MoE employee in North Bay, released a
scathing report Tuesday to the Ontario
legislature that stated cuts by three successive
governments since the early 1990s is
jeopardizing the health of Ontario residents
because these ministries lack funding, staffing
and expertise.
He
stated they are "faltering" in core functions
such as inspection, compliance, enforcement and
monitoring.
As concern for the environment grows with
threats such as climate-change and water quality
topping the list, it's dangerous for the
province to continue to gut these ministries, or
at least not increase their resources.
It was the current government that lambasted the
Conservatives for Environment Ministry cutbacks
and blamed them for the events in Walkerton,
where seven people died and thousands of others
became sick after drinking E. coli-tainted
water.
Despite that tragedy, little has been done to
get the ministry back on its feet.
The MNR has been an easy target for
belt-tightening as well. Conservation officers'
trucks sit parked at various times of the year
because there's no budget money for gasoline.
The ministry is now more of a reactionary force
than one preventing poaching.
Recently, Nipissing First Nation criticized the
local MNR office for not pulling its weight in
fisheries management on Lake Nipissing.
Miller said budgets in both ministries have
declined significantly since 1992.
He also said there are far too few regular
inspections of facilities that discharge
pollutants into the air and water, neglected
provincial parks, inadequate monitoring of
wildlife and sport fisheries and "weak oversight
of municipal sewage infrastructure."
After three governments, why is there no
accountability?
Miller's report should open the public's eyes to
serious shortfalls in the maintenance of these
critical agencies.
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