Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
The Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News is the newsletter of the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund, published five times per year. The News is intended to provide a forum for the free exchange of ideas among citizens and organizations working to protect aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes Basin.
Volume 14, Number 4 • Fall 2006
Lake Ontario
Basin Update
Streamlining Democracy: Queen’s Park Takes a Vacation
By Krystyn Tully, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper
Environmental
issues were
front-page news
this summer.
Energy woes,
waste diversion
(aka, garbage),
and sewage
overflows are
affecting each of
us. And even though the legislature has
just wrapped up for the summer, we may
see the Government of Ontario make
some of its most important environmental
decisions in the coming months.
Perhaps most alarming is the concerted
effort to streamline major Ontario
environmental assessments. These kinds
of changes are hailed by the Toronto Star,
which accuses opponents of landfills and
incinerators of trying to,“block them using
the environmental assessment process for
political, rather than scientific, reasons.”
While business-like rhetoric that promotes
efficiencies, science, and expertise might
sound good in the press, it rings hollow in
communities who are faced with massive
environmental projects such as energy
plants, mine sites, and landfills.
In early June, the Minister of Environment
reassured Ontarians that all new nuclear
plants will undergo a full federal environmental
assessment. The problem is,
according to most environmental lawyers,
a nuclear plant also requires a
provincial environmental assessment, a
different and equally important legal
process. This is an especially important
check, given the Government of Canada's
stake in the nuclear industry.
Waste issues like landfills, incineration,
and alternative fuels are also top-of-mind
in many Ontario communities.
Unfortunately, decisions are being made
on a case-by-case basis, without connecting
to a broader provincial strategy.
For example, York and Durham are set to
launch a new incineration program that
could provide the fuel pellets for a cement
kiln in Bath, Ontario. In the case of an
alternative fuels project, the studies are all
paid for and conducted by the company
itself, without independent verification by
the province. Both the York/Durham and
the Alternative Fuels Project public study
periods will continue over the course of
the summer.
Accountability for infrastructure is also
being downloaded to municipalities, the
same institutions that are responsible
for paying for upgrades and maintenance.
As a result, many communities are seeing
little investment in aging pipes and
municipalities are ignoring the voluntary
environmental standards meant to
eliminate leaky combined sewer systems.
“Taking steps to address source water
protection without fixing the pipes
through which the water flows, is futile.
Our new clean water is still traveling
through old and corroding pipes to our
homes. Our wastewater is still flowing
through aging pipes that allow sewage to
pollute our lakes and rivers,” wrote one
spokesperson from the sewer and water
main construction industry.
Ironically, as the government dances around these important decisions, the
public is left only with the weakest environmental process. We get
notification through the Environmental Registry, but announcements are
often cryptic and information easily slips through the cracks. We get
environmental assessments, but only those led by the proponents of a
project. We get “Town Halls” but no hearings where experts testify under
oath and can be questioned by citizens.
When we try to “streamline” democracy, we’re left with shoddy processes
that truly are confusing and, as a result, slow. And that is what's costly.
People can get involved in the federal environmental assessment process
(www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca to see what's active) or the provincial permitting
process (www.ene.gov.on.ca, click “Environmental Registry”).
For more information:
Krystyn Tully, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper
245 Queen's Quay West
Toronto, ONT M5J 2K9
PH: (416) 861-1237
E-mail: krystyn@waterkeeper.ca
Website:www.waterkeeper.ca
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