If some of you across Niagara heard the news this June 26th that Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper has chosen Elizabeth Dowdeswell to serve as Ontario’s next Lieutenant Governor, you may be thinking; ‘Hmm. Didn’t she make the odd mark in this region?’ And you would be right.
Elizabeth Dowdeswell, a former Envronment Canada bureaucrat who joined in overseeing Niagara River cleanup programs, named Ontario’s new Lieutenant Governor
Once upon a time, back in the late 1980s, if you were around then and were actively interested in pollution issues affecting the Niagara River and Great Lakes, Elizabeth Dowdeswell, already a seasoned government bureaucrat in other fields, had been elevated under the then Conservative government of Brian Mulroney to serve as a senior administrator for Environment Canada’s Onario region office.
Among her duties – and this is where her connecton to the Niagara region came in – was to partner with Ontario and U.S. bureaucrats in overseeing progress on a Canada/U.S. agreement to reduce toxic pollution in the Niagara River.
And this is where one story about Dowdeswell by this reporter, who was covering environmental issues for The St. Catharines Standard at the time comes in.
One sunny weekday afternoon, it was Dowdeswell’s turn to host a meeting of the binational group on the Ontario side of the river and she did so in one of the main dining rooms of a restaurant in Queenston Heights park, with a large picture windows overlooking the lower Niagara River.
In her opening remarks at the meeting, while Canadian and U.S. environment officials were seated at a big round table, thumbing through reports of data on concentrations of dioxin and other chemical poisons concentrated in fish and sediment in the Niagara River, Dowdeswell begain her opening remarks by telling the others, and I paraphrase here; ‘I hope the view outside the window doesn’t distract our attention from the matter at hand.’
It was a Dr. Strangelove-like moment that was called into question immediately by Margherita Howe, the late environmentalist and leader of a citizen group called Operation Clean from Niagara-on-the-Lake, who said loud enough for many of us in the gallery to hear; ‘Oh My God! They should spend the next half hour doing nothing but stare out that window. That river is what they are supposed to be here for.’
In fairness to Dowdeswell, who always came across as a very intelligent person, it may have been one of those lines she wished she didn’t use the moment after she spoke it. And it didn’t help that she and other senior administrators were following marching orders from Ottawa that involved the breaking down of Environment Canada’s research and surveillance programs for the Great Lakes at the time (a process that shifted into overdrive under the current Harper government, by the way.)
Interestingly enough, Dowdeswell did go on to participate in a report of sicentists a few years ago that warned about the environmental impacts of Harper’s coveted Alberta tar sands operations. To find out more about that, visit a Toronto Star story, posted on Dowdeswell this June 2th by clicking on http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2014/06/26/stephen_harper_picks_environmentalist_as_new_ontario_lieutenantgovernor.html .
Now posted below is the Prime Minister’s media release on Dowdeswell’s appointment as Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor. Then share your thoughts below.
Ottawa, Ontario, 26 June 2014
Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced the appointment of Elizabeth Dowdeswell, O.C., as Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.
Ms. Dowdeswell has had a number of successful careers in public policy, the energy industry, education and the public service. She is currently the President and CEO of the Council of Canadian Academies. Prior to that, Ms. Dowdeswell was the founding President and CEO of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto, the Under Secretary General of the United Nations, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, and Executive Director of UN-Habitat. She has also occupied senior positions within Environment Canada, federal Treasury Board Secretariat and the Government of Saskatchewan.
Ms. Dowdeswell is an internationally-recognized executive who is actively involved in community service aimed at promoting a healthy environment, sustainable energy and development, and a better quality of education both at home and abroad. She is chair of the board of directors of the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, a member of the board of directors of Grand Challenges Canada, a member of the Standing Advisory Group on Technical Assistance and Cooperation of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a Life Member of the International Water Academy, and a member of both Women in Nature and the Canadian Pugwash Group. She serves on the board of the new Alberta Energy Regulator and the corporate social responsibility boards of Dow Chemical International and Barrick Gold.
For her dedicated service, Ms. Dowdeswell has received widespread recognition, including being appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada (2012), receiving the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012), being named a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (2012), being named a Fellow of the Argentine Academy of Environmental Sciences (2008), and receiving multiple honorary degrees from several Canadian colleges and universities.
This appointment is the culmination of a process undertaken by the Advisory Committee on Vice-Regal Appointments.
Lieutenant Governors are appointed by His Excellency the Governor General on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. They serve five-year terms, during which they act as their provinces’ vice-regal representatives.
Prime Minister Harper also took the opportunity to thank the Honourable David Onley for his dedicated service as Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, which began on September 5, 2007.
Quote
“Ms. Dowdeswell has a wealth of expertise in education and public service, and has dedicated herself to the betterment of her community, province, and country. She has been a tireless proponent of the environment and sustainable development in Ontario and across the country. Her impressive skill set and vast domestic and international experience are exceptionally well-suited to promoting Ontario’s future, and I am confident that she will bring a fresh and dynamic perspective to the position.” – Prime Minister Stephen Harper
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)
Niagara At Large 
This is the same Elizabeth Dowdswell who told a gathering of those examining the Federal government’s next 300 year phased plans for deep geologic disposal of high level nuclear fuel waste not to worry, as all the science necessary for a new nuclear plan was already in place and that the general public only had a Fred Flintstone lack of ( hence anti) nuclear knowledge. Her sources of information were scientists from the just-closed AECL Whiteshell research facility, where over $600 million was wasted on developing the original unsuccessful concept.
As a representative for a broad-based provincial group at the 1998 Seaborn panel hearing on that proposal, slated for deep burial under the precambrian Shield of northern Ontario, I noted in our brief that the Seaborn panelists, a Scientific Review group, the Royal Society of Geographers and others had identified 127 problems that needed fixing; one Whiteshell safety study was done by a post grad student and was not peer reviewed; the public had a “grave sense of unease” about the process ( as usual jobs were offered to first Nations and other northerners where plans were afoot to site the nuclear dump); and the deep geologic proposal would have to stay safe for many thousands of years as the extremely long lasting and dangerous radioactivity decayed.
The Panel agreed and told AECL to go back to the drawing board, fix the flaws, prepare for a much better consultation with northerners, and appoint an independent panel at arms length from the nuclear industry to oversee a completely new process. Instead the nuclear waste producers were allotted the job of caring for the waste and Elizabeth Dowdswell was appointed CEO head of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization.
Almost all of the members of this group, including Ms. Dowdswell, had strong pro nuclear connections . Therefore it is my personal view that while many of Ms Dowdswell’s pre and post NWMO bonefides are impeccable , I consider her work in support of nuclear power, and her disregard of the cautions of the Seaborn panel’ lengthy and independent review report, as well as her disdain of those of the public , she called Fred Flintstones, who were in opposition, completely unacceptable.
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