September is such a great time; you can still wear sandals, but it’s getting cool enough that you can start to think straight.  Only problem is, everyone else is starting to think straight too, and is busily gumming up your fall calendar with meetings, seminars and workshops.  Amidst all that busyness, how do you manage to stick to your own priorities – how can you influence or actually help set the environmental policy agenda?

Try submitting an Application under the Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR).  Together with a modest investment of time and thought, it may help you leverage the kind of environmental improvements that you know are needed.  If you have strong arguments and evidence that an Ontario environmental law or policy ought to be changed, or that an environmental law has been broken, then you already have the raw materials for submitting an Application.

The application form is user-friendly; you can access the forms for reviews and investigations and our user guide, The EBR and You, here on our website. You don’t need a lawyer or a petition; just one co-applicant.  Submit the completed form to our office; we act as the clearing-house for EBR Applications and promptly pass them on to the appropriate Ontario ministries.  Ministries then have a legislated timeline of 60 days to consider your application and respond.  Ministries may agree to review or investigate the issues you raise – or not.   Regardless, I will comment on the matter; either in my next Annual Report or in its Supplement, and I review how ministries handled your request.  Often, my comments illustrate the larger environmental context, and sometimes I will recommend that ministries take stronger action.  Sometimes the nudge of the EBR Application is enough on its own to get policy wheels churning, as in this case on rehabilitation of sand and gravel pits, or in this case on integrating climate change adaptation into stormwater management.  Sometimes the combined scrutiny of my Annual Report and the public spotlight help to illuminate why things are stuck and where traction is needed, as in this case on bike lanes in Toronto.

Applications under the EBR serve as important ground-truthing mechanisms for both our office and the ministries, highlighting issues that really matter to the public, and often spurring further research.  Applicants often support their arguments with an impressive level of technical knowledge and thoughtful insight, and can show admirable passion and tenacity in the face of frustrating situations. To get a flavor for the range of topics that applicants have submitted, you can browse some of the Applications for Review and Applications for Investigation featured in my recent Annual Reports.

I really like the EBR Applications tool.  I like the fact that it sets deadlines for ministry responses, and that it assures confidentiality for applicants.  At the same time, applicants are free to go public with their applications, and many have done so over the years, with news releases or website publication.  I’m also impressed with the diverse range of people who have submitted Applications over the years, including village residents, scientists, townships, environmental groups, First Nations groups, waste haulers, mayors and Members of Provincial Parliament.

And here’s a final very practical tip; try to submit your next Application to our office by mid-November 2011.  That way, your issue will have a better chance of being processed by the ministries in time to be included in my fall 2012 Annual Report, or its Supplement.  Why not make an EBR Application the focus of your own autumn agenda for change?