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April 25, 2007
Cuts could lead to
catastrophe; Erosion of funding to ministries
risks health, ecosystem - report
By Gord Young / CP - http://www.nugget.ca
A scathing report released
Tuesday by Ontario's environmental watchdog has
confirmed what many Northern Ontario residents
already know - more than a decade of cutbacks
has crippled the provincial ministry responsible
for fish and wildlife.
Environment Commissioner Gord Miller's findings
that the Ministry of Natural Resources has seen
its responsibilities increase since the early
'90s, while its budget has been slashed,
supports the long-standing complaints of
unionized workers and other groups who have for
years cried foul over inadequate funding.
Miller, whose report has been submitted to the
legislature, warned a gradual but steady erosion
of funding, staffing and expertise at both the
ministries of Natural Resources and the
Environment has left people's health and the
province's ecosystem at serious risk for
"catastrophic events."
"At a time of unprecedented public concern for
the health of the planet, Ontarians may find it
hard to believe that these two ministries are
today struggling with fewer resources than in
the early 1990s, but that is unfortunately the
case," said Miller. "These declines have
occurred under governments formed by all major
political parties in Ontario."
Both the ministries are no
longer capable of conducting regular inspections
of facilities that spew pollutants into the air
and water, said Miller. Nor are they ensuring
the most "basic public service" - that raw or
inadequately treated sewage doesn't pollute
Ontario's water, he said.
Miller added funding in
Ontario falls well behind provinces like British
Columbia and Alberta.
Dave Fluri, environmental campaigns officer for
the Ontario Public Services Employees Union and
a local MNR biologist on leave of absence, said
the union welcomes Miller's report, hoping it
will focus debate and bring public attention to
what has been an ongoing issue for its members.
"In our office, we've lost technicians,
conservation officers, clerical staff and
others. The front door has been locked and
people phoning the office are now greeted by an
automated system . . . This ministry needs an
immediate cash injection," said Fluri, who
estimated the MNR's North Bay district office is
now operating with about half the staff it had
in 1992.
MNR workers in North Bay
were among those in several Northern communities
to stage bake sales last year to draw attention
to the funding issue, claiming they wanted to
raise money to fill enforcement vehicles with
gasoline because operating expenses for
conservation officers had been slashed.
Those concerns were shared by the Ontario
Federation of Anglers and Hunters, which also
spoke out.
In his report, Miller noted there are about 20
per cent fewer conservation officers in the
field than there were 14 years ago, and some
remaining officers have been shifted to
centralized regional offices, requiring longer
travel time to reach the resources they are
expected to protect.
He also points out that the MNR's current budget
is about 18 per cent lower than it was in 1992.
Gaye Smith, chairman of the Temagami Stewardship
Council, said his group has seen first-hand the
decline of the MNR and has even provided it with
funding in the past for crucial studies such as
annual creel surveys.
"They've been gutted," said Smith, suggesting
the ministry no longer has the resources needed
to do its job.
He said it's unacceptable enforcement officers
aren't in the field because they don't have
enough money to put gasoline in their trucks and
that members of the public require an
appointment and can't simply walk into a
ministry office. Smith recognized the cuts began
long ago, but said he's disappointed in the
provincial Liberals for not recognizing the
value of having a strong Ministry of Natural
Resources.
Ontario's New Democrats, meanwhile, called
Miller's report a "stinging rebuke to the
McGuinty Liberals.
"The environment commissioner has confirmed what
Northerners have been saying for a long time.
Dalton McGuinty is letting down working families
by under-staffing and under-resourcing the
Ministry of Natural Resources," said NDP natural
resources critic Gilles Bisson. "We don't have
enough people on the job. They don't have the
tools they need to fulfil their
responsibilities, and at the end of the day,
it's our resource-based communities that are
suffering."
Miller's report, titled Doing Less with Less,
indicates the environment ministry now spends
$22 per capita, down from $39 in 1992 and that
spending at the MNR has fallen to $49 per capita
last year from $72 in 1992.
"This is far too little to get the job done,"
Miller told a news conference in Sudbury.
Since the Walkerton water tragedy - which saw
seven people die and thousands fall ill after
the southern Ontario town's water supply became
contaminated with E. coli in May 2000 - Miller
said the environment ministry has bolstered its
drinking water inspection.
But with an 18 per cent decline in the
ministry's budget over the last decade, Miller
said that improvement has come at the expense of
other programs.
"Where did that money come from?" he asked.
"What is being denied or constrained in other
program sectors besides water? That is where the
real problems exist."
The environment ministry only inspects up to
four per cent of polluting facilities to ensure
they are complying with the law and cutbacks
mean the ministry can't even ensure raw sewage
isn't contaminating Ontario's water, he said.
It's time the province saw the connection
between people's health and environmental
inspection, Miller said.
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