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Ontario
establishes
Smart Growth Regional Panels |
The provincial government has taken
the next step in its "Made in Ontario" approach to smart
growth by establishing regional panels to advise the minister on
growth management. Two of the
four panels have been announced. For the Greater Toronto
Area, there are two environmentalists on the 19-member
panel: Debbe Crandall from Save the Oak Ridges Moraine, and
Jim Faught from the Federation of Ontario Naturalists. No
environmentalists were appointed to the Northwestern panel which
will have creating jobs and more opportunities for youth
as its top priorities.
Details on the panels can be found
on the Ontario Smart
Growth website.
More Trouble on the Moraine...
The Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act was passed in
December. It was billed as an example of the Province's
commitment to Smart Growth. Only now there are rumours of a
development deal that will allow housing on sensitive lands in
Richmond Hill. Stay tuned to our Oak
Ridges Moraine page for updates!
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The
Five Year Review
of the Provincial
Planning Policy Statement |
Stay tuned for a report on the
consultation process around the Provincial Policy Statement under
the Planning Act. Over 250 comments were received and the
Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing is drafting a report.
The summary of the consultation
process will be published on the PPS
Review website.
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Planning
in the Dark:
MMAH admits it has no data on farmland |
Last issue, we reported on the
Conservation Council's request to the Minister of Municipal
Affairs and Housing for data on land use trends over the past five
years
This data is essential, we said,
for a meaningful five year review of the Provincial Policy
Statement under the Planning Act.
In his response, dated September 5, 2001, Minister Hodgson
says:
As part of the five year
review initiative, the province is developing performance
indicators and reviewing information sources related to
provincial land use planning interests. Since
the indicators are still being developed, I regret that we
cannot provide you with the information requested in the time
frame you suggest.
Our calls to other ministries
confirm that the government has not been keeping any statistics on
the loss of farmland to urban development.
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New
Action on
Hazardous Waste |
The Ministry of the Environment has
announced a new plan to manage hazardous waste.
- Pre-treatment standards,
to require all waste meet treatment standards prior to
disposal
- Destruction of PCBs, to
eliminate the 99,000 tonnes of PCB wastes in storage at 1,000 sites throughout Ontario.
- Harmonizing the PCB waste definition with the federal definition
- Phasing out all hospital incinerators
- New biomedical waste definition,
to cover the requirements for treating the 10,000 tonnes of biomedical waste generated
annually in Ontario;
- Annual registration and cost-recovery fees,
to require hazardous waste generators to register on an annual
basis (as opposed to once-only)
Included in the plan are three new
proposed regulations to:
- phase out existing hospital incinerators, a major source of mercury emissions and one of the province's largest emitters of dioxins and furans;
- set requirements for the handling, transportation and treatment of biomedical waste; and
- require the destruction of 99,000 tonnes of PCBs currently in storage.
Details can be found on the
ministry website page Strengthening
Ontario's Hazardous Waste Framework.
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Ministry
of Transportation
forgets its Environmental Values |
The Ministry of Transportation is
seeking public and stakeholder comments on its vision of a
"smart growth" transportation strategy.
The ministry has produced four
regional discussion papers: Strategic Transportation Directions.
The papers, the ministry says, "are based on extensive
research and include relevant factors such as smart growth
principles, infrastructure decisions and announcements,
transportation studies conducted by MTO and other pertinent
information".
There are four key themes: fiscal
management, economic development, safety and user needs, and
environmental quality. Under environmental quality, the
ministry lists two objectives:
- Support Smart Growth principles
related to land use;
- promote a balanced
transportation system that reduces energy consumption and
vehicle emissions.
The Smart Growth principles, quoted
by the ministry, are
- promoting choices for travel
within and between communities
- Continuing to be able to move
people and goods efficiently
- Reducing gridlock in parts of
the province experiencing high population and employment
growth
- developing integrated
transportation networks that promote access and economic
activities
This is a far weaker set of
principles than the ones found in the Ministry's Statement of
Environmental Values (SEV), a guiding document that strangely
receives no mention in the discussion papers.
In it SEV, the Ministry of
Transportation commits to:
- reduce transportation-related
air emissions.
- reduce transportation-related
discharges of contaminants to water.
- improve salt management
practices and to minimize releases to the environment.
- promote the efficient and
prudent use of water in its activities.
- conserve and preserve lands
whenever possible and practical.
- protect natural habitats
whenever possible and practical.
- promote an integrated
transportation system and the use of public transportation and
other alternative forms, including non-motorized
transportation options in Ontario.
- consider energy efficiency when
planning transportation systems.
- research and develop
environmentally-compatible transportation technologies and
methods
- encourage the reduction, reuse
and recycling of materials in all facets of its business.
- be conscious of the energy
efficiency of ministry buildings and transportation fleet.
- give preferred status to
environmentally friendly products and processes.
These commitments are not evident
in the current strategic directions of the ministry.
| Ministry
of Transportation |
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| Related
Information |
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The
Select Committee on Alternative Fuel Sources |
The provincial government's Select Committee
on Alternative Fuel Sources has wrapped up hearings on
its interim report and will be preparing its final report to the
Legislature.
The CCO's Executive Director, Chris
Winter, gave a presentation to the committee, outlining an
integrated strategic approach and stressing the need for economic
instruments to close the gap between conventional and green
sources of energy.
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