This
document is available in Adobe Acrobat Format 15.21KB
June 25, 2001
Premier Harris and former environment ministers testify
this week
Premier Mike Harris will answer questions about
his government’s policies, including the massive staffing cuts at the
environment ministry in 1996 and 1997, at the Walkerton Inquiry on Friday.
Former Environment Ministers Brenda Elliot and Norm Sterling will testify
Tuesday and Wednesday.
Also testifying this week are the former and
current chief Medical Officers of Health for Ontario.
Commissioner Dennis O’Connor explained his
reasons for calling Harris to testify in a statement. O’Connor said that the
Inquiry has heard evidence that while some decisions were made at the Ministry
level, other crucial decisions were made at the "highest level of the
Government, by the cabinet, and apparently originated within the Central
Agencies and the Premier’s office."
OPSEU’s lawyers will be at the Inquiry, as they
have been throughout this section of the hearings. They are ready to
cross-examine the Premier and the former ministers.
The Inquiry has been hearing evidence since March
on the issue of whether the government’s policies contributed to the events in
Walkerton of May, 2000, when the town’s drinking water was contaminated with
E. coli, resulting in the deaths of seven people.
The key questions for Harris to answer
Evidence heard to date at the Inquiry indicates
that the Harris government moved quickly after it was elected in June, 1995, to
make major budget and staffing cuts at the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MOEE).
(Environment was split off from Energy in October, 1997, when it became simply
the Ministry of the Environment.) The government also moved quickly to privatize
the testing of routine drinking water samples, work that had previously been
done by the MOEE labs.
Following up on the evidence, there are three key
questions for Harris to answer:
- Why did his government proceed with its
massive cuts to the MOEE, when it was warned that they could lead to an
increased risk to human health and the environment?
- Why didn’t the government tell the public
about the potential increased risk?
- Why didn’t the government follow the advice
it was given and put the necessary regulatory safeguards in place when it
privatized the testing of routine drinking water samples?
Highlights of the evidence heard to date at the Inquiry
- The MOEE’s budget was slashed by 40 per cent
in 1996 and 20 per cent in 1997.
- Up to 900 staff were laid off.
- The MOEE’s confidential business plan of
January, 1996, approved by Cabinet in February, 1996, warned that "the
risk to human health and the environment may increase as a result of
improper illegal actions, which are neither detected nor controlled through
Orders and prosecutions as a result of decreased compliance and enforcement
activities." The business plan was one of at least eight internal
government documents entered into evidence at the Inquiry that warned the
government about the consequences of the cuts.
- The confidential January, 1996, business plan,
included a marketing and communications plan that listed as a key message:
"While the Ministry will become leaner and more efficient, there will
be no compromise on environmental protection." The Inquiry has heard
that this plan was drafted by Ministry staff, staff from the Minister’s
office, and staff from the Cabinet Office and the Premier’s Office.
- The MOEE’s public business plan of May,
1996, did not include the reference to risks outlined in the confidential
business plan. It listed as a key ministry strategy: "Without lowering
the current high level of environmental protection in Ontario, these reforms
will remove barriers that do not protect the environment and get in the way
of job-creating economic activity and growth."
- The privatization of routine drinking water
testing for municipalities was implemented in two months in 1996, as opposed
to the two to three year implementation period the ministry originally
advised. The municipalities were notified May 15, 1996, that the MOEE would
no longer do the testing, effective July 13, 1996. The privatization of the
testing resulted in the closure of the regional MOEE labs in Kingston,
London and Thunder Bay later in 1996.
- Despite much internal discussion on the
subject, the MOEE did not make it a mandatory requirement that only
accredited labs do the drinking water testing.
- Then Environment Minister, Norm Sterling, did
not follow the advice he received in 1997 from successive Health Ministers
Jim Wilson and Elizabeth Witmer to put into law that private labs
immediately report adverse drinking water test results to local health
units.
How to get in touch with us
To get on our e-mail list or talk to us about the
Inquiry, contact Megan Park at 1-800-268-7376 ext. 207 or mpark@opseu.org.
Check regularly www.opseu.org/walkerton/index.htm
and the Walkerton Inquiry website at www.walkertoninquiry.com.
Original authorized for distribution by Leah
Casselman, president.
Return to Walkerton
Inquiry Index Page
