By Leah Casselman
Toronto Star, p. A49
December 26, 2000
As a result of the Walkerton tragedy, there is a growing public consensus
that the regulatory and enforcement role of Ontario’s Ministry of Environment
is crucial to ensure safe drinking water.
Among many other necessary reforms, we have to ensure that waterworks
operators, like Stan and Frank Koebel, are properly trained and monitored. How
do we do that? The Ministry of Environment must be revitalized so that it can
fully do the job that the people of Ontario expect it to do to protect our air,
land and water. The renewal of the ministry cannot be left to the Conservative
government alone.
The Harris government’s stated commitment to "tougher standards"
will be meaningless without enforcement and monitoring. But can we trust the
provincial government to rebuild Ontario’s decimated environment ministry?
After years of Tory cuts, front-line ministry staff certainly don’t.
The current government has shown a penchant for privatization, downloading
and contracting out essential public services for private profit. The Harris
Tories have shown much less enthusiasm for structuring ministries so that they
are able to do the jobs the public relies on them to do. Staffing has been cut,
programs have been gutted and managerial direction has been lacking. Public
servants have neither the mandate nor the morale to do the job they so
desperately want to do.
Rebuilding Ontario’s Ministry of Environment is a crucial task and it
should be done properly. Part of the mandate of the Walkerton Inquiry should be
to advise how it should be done. In February, the inquiry will start to look at
"the effect, if any, of government policies, practices and
procedures." At the same time, the commission will examine such topics as
the machinery of government and organizational behaviour including "why do
good people do bad things?"
There will be an important public debate about how the government should
work. This should not be left to the current provincial government or to the
union that represents Ontario’s public servants. This is a debate in which we
should all participate.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union, representing Ontario’s public
service workers, has three starter suggestions:
First, the environment ministry should be staffed so that it can actually
deliver what it promises. There is no point in tighter rules and enforcement
without the people to do the follow-up. Government work does not get done by
some remote ministry monolith. It gets done by a public servant actually
visiting a small municipal water works and going through its operations with a
fine tooth comb.
Second, the public and the government should be able to rely on public
servants to fearlessly point out weaknesses in water systems and dangers to
public health. Our willingness to do this has been much damaged under the
current government. Many ministry staff are afraid to speak out about real
problems they see, for fear of reprisal from higher-ups, especially from a
government that has taken a "hear no evil" approach to the
environment.
Third, the government should listen and act on input from those who know
about and care about safe water. Overworked front-line workers are battered but
they still care deeply about their work and their ministry. Concerned
environmental groups care, too, and so do many citizens. Safe water is everybody’s
responsibility.
Saying that the Ontario Ministry of Environment should be rebuilt is only the
beginning of the discussion. OPSEU will be participating and the public should,
too. The future of our water supply depends on it.
