Once again, a review of the Ontario government's annual plans shows that the environment is "missing - inaction".

Missing Values 2000, the latest review of the government's Ministry Business Plans, concludes that nine of the thirteen ministries responsible for protecting the environment have once again failed to give adequate consideration to their environmental values in their annual business plans.

Fourteen ministries are required by the Environmental Bill of Rights to develop Statements of Environmental Values and to consider them in all decisions that might significantly affect the environment.  The review of the latest ministry business plans shows that the ministry routinely overlook environmental concerns in their major planning decisions. 

Among the 62 failures in government planning identified in the report are:

Ministry of the Environment
failed to meet the Year 2000 target for solid waste reduction;
changed the target for solid waste to a per capita goal with no fixed date;
removed all support programs for waste reduction and waste management. 

Ministry of Health and Long Term Care
  fails to recognize environmental causes of major health problems such as cancer and asthma;
  with a budget 140 times the size of the Ministry of Environment, no funds are identified for environment-health links.

Transportation
devotes over 90% of its budget to cars and highways;
provides no direct support for public transit, rail, or trip reduction;
is a major contributor to smog, climate change and urban sprawl.

Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
does not protect prime farmland;
promotes food biotechnology without adequate assessment of environmental, ethical, economic and health concerns;
does not mention organic agriculture and natural food distribution systems. 

Ministry of Natural Resources
seeks to enshrine "heritage hunting and fishing rights" through a poorly defined Heritage Hunting and Fishing Act;
poor attention to performance measures for ecosystem health

Ministry of Northern Development and Mines
supports mineral exploration and development in protected areas without a strong commitment to protect the ecological integrity;
commits only to replace an equal size (not quality) of protected lands.   

The study was conducted by the Ontario Centre for Sustainability in response to the government's public consultation on its plans. It was released at the September 27 meeting of the Conservation Council

The plans are posted on the Management Board site in PDF format.

From the source to the tap and back again...  what will it take to protect Ontario's water resources and guarantee safe drinking water?

The Conservation Council and Pollution Probe are jointly sponsoring a workshop on November 6 to look at new ideas and solutions for drinking water.

Issues to be covered include:

• Operation Clean Water
• A Safe Drinking Water Act
• planning for source protection
• infrastructure needs
• water pricing
• water conservation

The workshop is one part education, and one part public consultation. Groups are invited to contribute their perspective on the issue with a short presentation and a statement to be included in the workshop proceedings.

For more information, see the workshop information page.

Last issue, we reported that Environment Minister Anderson had responded to the Conservation Council's concerns over the narrow scope of the Royal Society's Expert Panel on The Future of Food Biotechnology.

The CCO has since received two other letters.

The first, from Conrad G. Brunk and Brian E. Ellis, Co-Chairs of the Expert Panel, acknowledges our submission and promises to send us a copy of the final report.

The second, from the Hon. Allan Rock, Minister of Health, in which he, like Anderson, refers to both the Expert Panel and the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee (CBAC) as the sources of advice to the federal government on food biotechnology.

"The CBAC", Rock says, "will advise the federal government on issues related to the scientific, ethical, social, economic, regulatory, environmental, and health aspects of biotechnology. The CBAC will work to raise the public's awareness of the regulatory process and provide an ongoing forum for the public to voice their views." 

The CBAC web site shows that indeed an open e-forum is being planned.  To register, follow the links on the CBAC home page, or go to http://cbac.gc.ca/english/forum/

Also, the CBAC is expected to  launch a public consultation process on food biotechnology shortly, with another process on patenting due to be held next spring. 

See also:
	the CCO Publications page for copies of the Minister's letter and the CCO's comments on the Royal Society's Expert Panel.
	the Royal Society of Canada