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May 17, 2001
MOE staff recommends five ways to strengthen
ministry
MOE staff give their ideas to strengthen what is
currently a demoralized and under-resourced Ministry in a powerful new report
that OPSEU has submitted to the Walkerton Inquiry.
The report, Renewing the Ministry of the
Environment, describes a ministry severely stripped of resources, moving
from crisis to crisis, and where the emphasis is on ‘counting what we do, not
doing what counts’.
The report is the result of six union-organized
workshops held across the province in February and March where ministry staff
shared their vision of how the Ministry should operate.
Ministry staff repeatedly observed that no
agency, body or ministry other than the MOE is better able to lead and take
responsibility for the protection of Ontario’s water resources now and in the
future. They identified as one of the ministry’s key strengths its dedicated,
experienced and knowledgeable staff.
Staff want to build on the ministry’s strengths
and fix its weaknesses with these five recommendations:
- Hire enough staff to do the job.
- Enhance the expertise of those already working
there.
- Give staff the practical and legislative tools
to do the job.
- Be proactive and use ministry staff expertise
in policy and planning.
- Put money into a solid infrastructure for
Ontario’s drinking water.
The 42-page report (plus appendices) quotes MOE
staff extensively and anonymously. Many thanks to the hard-working MOE project
team who directed the project and to all MOE staff who contributed to the
report, either through the workshops, surveys or interviews with the report’s
writers.
The report is available at: http://www.opseu.org/walkerton/RenewMOErept.pdf
and http://www.walkertoninquiry.com/part2info/partieswithstanding/index.html
For a summary of its highlights, go to: http://www.opseu.org/news/Press2001/may142001.htm
Inquiry highlights
The Inquiry has been hearing testimony in the
last four weeks on the issue of whether government policies contributed to the
tragedy in Walkerton. OPSEU lawyers have been at the hearings, cross-examining
all witnesses. The following are some key points that have been raised at the
Inquiry. Dates and page numbers refer to the date the witness testified and the
page number of the Inquiry transcript:
On morale after the cuts
Jim Merritt, former ADM, Operations Division,
MOE, April 12, p. 110-111
"Well the morale, I think, could be
characterized as low. …The staff who remained with the Ministry had a lot of
concerns for the colleagues that were now leaving. There was a lot of
uncertainty about the process they were going through…So a number of staff
didn’t know whether they had in fact survived with the Ministry or whether
they would be next. I think there was a fair degree of uncertainty of how they
were going to deliver work in programs with fewer people around the
office."
On staff expertise
Richard Dicerni, former Deputy Minister of the
Environment, May 14, p. 78-79, 148.
"….people had made this [working at the
Ministry of Environment and Energy] a full long-term career, dare I say,
vocation."
"…I was very impressed and perhaps that’s
because I’m not an engineer, perhaps it’s because I am not a scientist, and
I’m not a biologist. But I respected my colleagues a great deal and was quite
impressed by how they went about their jobs…."
On management’s view of the cuts
July 21, 1995 memo from Sheila Willis, ADM of
Operations Division to Richard Dicerni, DM, raised during Robert Shaw’s
testimony, April 23, p. 50, 54:
"The changes we are suggesting are not
without environmental risk and legal exposure".
"The constraints as envisioned in the option
packages will seriously and significantly impair our ability to meet our
statutory obligations".
On the cuts to Operations Division
Robert Shaw, Regional Director, Central Region,
MOE, April 23, p. 170
"The cutbacks certainly had diminished the
capability of the Division [Operations Division], in terms of proactive work…The
reason that occurred was reactive work normally takes precedence over proactive
work and therefore because we can’t reduce reactive work…the time available
for preplanned work gets eroded away. This has been a problem we have
experienced for years and …the reduction in staffing in district office[s] has
heightened that difficulty."
On the cuts to the labs and privatization of
routine water testing
Goff Jenkins, Drinking Water Scientist, MOE, May
10, 2001, p. 298-299
"It severely hampered the ability of the
remaining professionals [in the Ministry] to do their job".
Jenkins was asked whether the layoffs and the
privatization significantly compromised the MOE’s ability to protect the
public interest in safe drinking water:
"In my opinion, it definitely compromised,
whether or not significantly I don’t know, but yes, in my opinion it did
compromise the Ministry’s abilities."
On the loss of scientific expertise
Nancy Johnson, former Investigators officer,
Sudbury, MOE, April 24, p.179
"I worked down the hall from a man who led
the research for acid rain…[that] reclaimed the lakes of Sudbury that were
previously dead…He was at the ministry, I think, for 25 years and he received
a layoff notice."
On enforcement
Gord Robertons, Investigations Officer, Sarnia,
MOE, April 24, p. 185
"The value of enforcement seemed to be
minimized. ...it wasn’t that important any more. And we were starting to hear
buzz words such as stakeholders and clients, which made me gag because as far as
I was concerned…I had defendants, I had victims, and I had witnesses, that’s
what my job was…"
There was also evidence heard at the Inquiry that
there were cuts to enforcement staff, namely junior investigators, contrary to
what the Ministry has been saying.
On communications
Julian Wieder, Acting Program Manager,
Investigation and Enforcement Branch, MOE, April 24, p. 168-169
"…we used to do press releases for every
charge that was laid…After the government changed, it [the press release]
would still go to Communications branch, but then [it] would go up to the
Minister’s office and my understanding is it then went over to the Premier’s
office for approval. That process…created quite a long delay, and by the time
it had received approval, it was no longer in use and therefore not picked up
[by] the various media."
On reports of adverse test results to health
units following lab privatization
Internal Ministry of Health memo of July 22,
1997, from Dr. Chuck Le Ber to his ADM, from Dr. Le Ber’s testimony, May 8, p.
313
"The concern is that there is no legal
requirement in MOEE legislation for reporting of adverse drinking water test
results from municipal water treatment plant owners/operators to the local
Medical Officer of Health for investigation. In my view, this is a serious
oversight."
Other testimony
Dr. Bern Schnyder, Director of the MOE’s Lab
Services Branch, testified May 7 that the MOE got out of routine water testing
for municipalities far more quickly than had originally been anticipated.
Management were required to speed up their implementation from a two to three
year period to a matter of months. Municipalities were given two months notice
in 1996 to find a private sector laboratory to do their water tests.
Ministry of Health officials testified May 7 and
8 that evidence came to light in 1996 and ‘97 that private labs weren’t
providing local health units with notices of adverse drinking water test
results. Jim Wilson, the Health Minister at the time, wrote to then Environment
Minister Norm Sterling, outlining the MOH’s concerns in August 1997. Sterling
replied in November 1997 that he was referring the issue to the Drinking Water
Co-ordinating Committee, an MOH-MOE committee. The Committee made a
recommendation in June 1998 which the MOE did not implement.
There was also testimony last week that the
development of the new drinking water regulation was something that had been
sputtering along for years at the MOE. Following Walkerton, the regulation was
drafted in a few months. All of a sudden, there was the political will to do it.
Throughout the testimony, OPSEU counsel have
brought forward issues of concern to MOE staff. We believe our involvement has
been crucial in highlighting the negative effect of the cuts on the MOE.
Environment funding falls short
The announcement of a $25 million increase in
funding for the Ministry of the Environment falls short of what is needed.
Ontario Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced
the new money in the provincial budget May 9.
The ministry explains that $18 of the $25 million
will be used as follows:
- $6 million for Operation Clean Water
- $5 million for SWAT (Soil Water Air Team)
- $4 million for initiatives coming from the Val
Gibbons report
- $3 million for brown fields clean up
The ministry says the remaining $7 million is for
priorities to be announced in the future.
$25 million is only a quarter of what’s needed
according to figures released by the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law
and Policy. CIELAP analyzed Environment Minister
Elizabeth Witmer’s May 2 announcement and estimated $100 million would be
needed to fulfill the commitments she outlined in it.
OPSEU President Leah Casselman called Finance
Minister Flaherty’s statement that his government has increased MOE funding by
51 per cent since 1997 "the height of cynicism".
The truth, she said, is that the government is
restoring some of the funding that it cut, but the funding level is still $43
million less than it was when the Conservatives were elected in 1995.
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.
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