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April 30, 2007
Keeping up on healthy living
Editorial -
www.thebarrieexaminer.com
How
healthy is the natural environment in Ontario?
Are we able to anticipate and thus prevent
damage to it? According to Gord Miller, the
environmental commissioner, the answer to the
first question is "We have no idea." As a
consequence, the answer to the second is a stark
"No."
Miller has released a report on the province's
capacity to steward both its natural holdings -
parks, lakes and forests - and its human-made
infrastructure, such as drinking-water wells and
sewage-treatment plants.
His study says the province is headed for
environmental chaos because it hasn't properly
funded or staffed two key government
departments: the Ministry of the Environment
(MOE) and the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR).
"Our present course," Miller said, "puts our
ecosystems, our biodiversity, our health and
parts of our economy at serious risk of
deterioration and catastrophic events."
Miller's study shows
a steady decrease in resources directed to the
two ministries from 1992 to 2006. The NDP
government, the Tories and the Liberals were
equally indifferent to the environment.
As a result, the MOE's buying power in 2006-07
was 34-per-cent lower than in 1992-93. At the
MNR, purchasing power diminished 18 per cent.
To cope, the MOE downloaded tasks such as noise,
dust and odour controls to municipalities that
lacked expertise to act; it also now relies on
an antiquated list of waste-disposal sites and
can no longer effectively regulate or monitor
landfills. Meanwhile, at the MNR, it has all but
stopped buying properties of ecological
importance - even though that's part of its
mandate. It's also barely able to monitor fish
populations and now possess only a "limited
capacity to monitor even high priority species
such as moose, black bear and white-tailed
deer."
Even in the area of drinking water, things are
fouled up. "As of early 2007, MOE does not have
staff dedicated to investigating private
drinking water well construction, repair or
abandonment operations on an ongoing basis,"
Miller writes.
All the while, environmental responsibilities
have expanded. Ontario has more parks than in
1992, and there are more industrial activities
to approve, reject or monitor.
Where is provincial tax money going, if not to
the environment? Almost 41 per cent of Ontario's
2006-07 operating budget was suctioned up by
public health care. About one per cent of the
province's operating budget goes into the
ministries overseeing our environment.
Even if you're a proponent of government health
care, you might conclude, as Miller does, that
these spending proportions are bizarre.
A clean environment is essential to good health,
he properly points out.
"Our emergency wards clog with children having
asthma attacks. But the solution isn't just more
emergency wards; it includes giving MOE the
resources to make the air cleaner."
He's right. Meaningful spending to preserve the
natural environment is a tough sell because it
means thinking long term, whereas backed-up
clinics constitute an immediate, sharp crisis.
In an election year, it's likely little will be
done to meet Miller's challenge. He's simply
pointing out the price of ignoring it.
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