Experts Call for Public Vigilance on Environment
TORONTO - Top Canadian and international experts, meeting today in Toronto, said it’s crucial that the public make known their views on government actions that affect the environment. They were participating in a symposium sponsored by the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Eva Ligeti, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR), the groundbreaking legislation that gives Ontario residents the right to participate in government decisions about the environment.
“The government is responsible for protecting the environment, but it’s clear the public need to be involved to make sure that decisions reflect the environmental values of the people of Ontario,” said Commissioner Ligeti. “The EBR makes the government more accountable, but as far as the environment of this province is concerned, we still have a long way to go.”
Keynote speaker, Barry Commoner, one of the leaders of the modern environmental movement, called the EBR “a truly historic document.” Commoner,who has spent 50 years fighting for the environment, said that “environmental degradation is a largely incurable disease — that‘s why it has to be prevented.”
The day-long symposium, Public Participation and the Environment: 5 Years of the Environmental Bill of Rights in Ontario, brought together representatives from Ontario’s key industries, national and international environmental organizations, the legal profession, the Ontario and federal governments, and academia. Participants include: Brian Emmett, Canada’s first Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development; Robert Martin, the outspoken Ombudsman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Janine Ferretti, Canadian representative on NAFTA’s Commission for Environmental Cooperation; Ruth Grier, who championed the EBR when she was Ontario Minister of the Environment; and Paul Muldoon, Executive Director of the Canadian Environmental Law Association.
The symposium looked at the history and effectiveness of the EBR in Ontario, experiences in other places around the world, and at the future of public participation in government decision-making.
The EBR, passed in 1994, grants Ontario residents the right to comment on proposals for Acts, regulations and policies about the environment, which are posted on the Environmental Registry, an Internet web site. The EBR requires that the 13 Ontario government ministries prescribed under the legislation develop a Statement of Environmental Values (SEV), which must be considered whenever an environmentally significant decision is made in a ministry. Environmental Commissioner Eva Ligeti monitors compliance by the ministries with the EBR and submits an annual report to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly on her findings.
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