McGuinty Is ‘Defanging’ Ontario’s Most Fearless and Effective Watchdogs

By Doug Draper

A few years ago, when Ontario’s environmental commissioner Gord Miller appeared as a keynote speaker at an annual fundraising dinner for the Mel Swart Lake Gibson Conservation Park in the Thorold community of Niagara, Ontario, he proved once again what a fearless voice he was for environmental protection and this province’s people.

Ontario government is pulling plug on Gord Miller's stint as province's top environmental watchdog

 During the course of his speech, he made several references to a lack of priority and resources the Liberal government of Premier Dalton McGuinty was devoting to a host of environmental issues from energy conservation to the protection of our land and water resources. At one point, he went so far as to say that the budget for the province’s Ministry of Natural Resources had been cut so much, its field officers could hardly afford fuel for their trucks. All the while Miller (also a former Ontario Ministry of Environment scientist) was saying these things, Jim Bradley, a St. Catharines MPP and a minister in McGuinty’s cabinet, was sitting there at the head table taking all this in.

When I approached Bradley later, he didn’t give an impression that he minded Miller’s criticism so much and even suggested that he had some respect for the man. But that was a few years ago and still some time away from a 2011 provincial election in which McGuinty, by all accounts, plans to run in and win a third term as premier.

With that election looming ever nearer, we learned late this February that McGuinty and his gang have decided to let their contracts with Miller and with an equally fearless public watchdog – Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin – expire at the end of this March. 

How sad for Ontarians at large, and how convenient for a government that would probably only lose more public trust from the kinds of questions and scrutiny these two public servants never hesitated to offer.

The Toronto Star (a newspaper with a tradition of supporting Liberal governments, by the way) broke the story this February 24 with lines that read: “The Liberal government is poised to defang two of its toughest watchdogs. …. With mere weeks life in five-year terms that expire March 31, both Marin and Miller, who have repeatedly made headlines with criticisms of Premier Dalton McGuinty’s administration, have not been asked to stay, sources say. ….. McGuinty confirmed (February 24) the government is looking for new blood in the environment and ombudsman roles. ….”

“At some point,” McGuinty was quoted saying, “you’ve got to make a change.”

Not that either of these public servants are that old or have been there longer than, let’s say, Jim Bradley, whose been a career politician for going on 40 years now and who, some may argue, hardly has any of the snap, crackle and pop he had when he was an environment minister in the former Liberal administration of David Peterson more than two decades ago.

But what does that matter to McGuinty when Bradley plays the good soldier and these two individuals – Miller and Marin – are cranking out report cards on the government that hardly match up with the propaganda coming out of the government’s spin doctors. Of particular interest to Niagara residents, Marin was expected to come out with a report any time now on complaints filed by people in this region that the provincially appointed members of a Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) overseeing hospitals and other health care operations did little to consult the public before approving a ‘Hospital Improvement Plan for Niagara.

This plan – infamously known to many Niagarians as “the HIP” – has so far led to the closing of emergency rooms at hospitals in Fort Erie and Port Colborne, and is recommending the elimination of maternity and other services at other Niagara hospital sites.

Whether Marin’s report on the LHIN’s conduct with respect to health planning in Niagara will now ever see the light of day remains to be seen.

As a long-time journalist in this region and province, one of the things I think we should all find worrisome about the possible departure of these two watchdogs is that in recent years, with the mainstream media no longer investing the resources it once did to scrutinizing the performance of our governments, Miller and Marin were two of the only individuals left doing that job.

Back when I was covering environment issues full-time for a daily newspaper in Niagara two and three decades ago, there were a number of newspapers in the province that had full-time environment reporters, and we were always, questioning our governments on environment matters. These days, you almost have to wait until Miller to come out with a report for the media to do a story.

And now he and Marin – two public servants that were worth whatever we were paying them – are almost gone.

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In the meantime, Niagara At Large will leave you with what may be one of Gord Miller’s last media releases as Ontario’s environmental commissioner, released this February.

Ontario’s Biodiversity Crisis: Time for Action – Gord Miller, February 8, 2010

Plants, animals, and other organisms are going extinct at a rate of about 1,000 times higher than what could normally be expected.

There are seven species that once lived in Ontario that have become globally extinct in modern times. Another 12 species were once in Ontario and are no longer found here. We also have almost 200 species that are still here, but their survival is in jeopardy.

It is an alarming trend that these numbers increase year after year. Human impacts on the natural world are responsible for this crisis. The most significant threats are habitat loss, climate change, invasive species, over-harvesting, and pollution.

This unprecedented loss of species is the most visible part of what scientists call the biodiversity crisis.

Biodiversity is inextricably linked to the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soils we depend upon for our food, and the lands upon which we depend for our natural resources. It’s about our rivers and lakes, our woodlots and forests, wetlands and prairies, and even the songbirds in our backyards.

January marks the start of the International Year of Biodiversity. The United Nations General Assembly chose the year 2010 to raise understanding globally, to assess what has been done by governments, and to chart a new way forward. We can be proud that Canada was the first industrialized country to become a signatory of the international Convention on Biological Diversity after the Rio summit in 1992. Almost every country on Earth has formally pledged its support for this international effort. These countries jointly set the goal for themselves “to achieve a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss” by 2010.

Unfortunately, this goal will not be met by any country, according to the United Nations. A renewed effort is unequivocally needed.

Two important events in 2010 represent opportunities for the Ontario government to make biodiversity a priority. In June, our province will be the host for the summit of G8 countries in Huntsville and the loss of biodiversity has clear consequences for our global economy. Then in October, the world will meet in Nagoya, Japan to set targets and detail the necessary steps to halt biodiversity loss.

We are not without our own successes. Species such as the peregrine falcon and the bald eagle have slowly rebounded in Ontario. However, such tangible accomplishments seem to be the exception rather than the rule. The Ontario government started down the right path in 2005 by creating a five-year biodiversity strategy.

Other advances have been made, including putting in place better laws for protecting our provincial parks and species at risk. These initiatives have the potential to make a difference but they must be matched by the political will to make conservation a priority.

A key barrier for the Ontario government has been the failure to make biodiversity conservation an explicit responsibility of all government ministries in all their activities that have an impact the natural environment, whether they oversee highway planning, municipal growth, mining or agriculture. Instead, concern for biodiversity often remains compartmentalized within the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Simply put, it gets lost within the government bureaucracy. Action on biodiversity must be integrated across the Ontario government as a whole. In a way, it’s not much different than the challenges of tackling climate change. Dealing with globally significant environmental issues must explicitly be seen by politicians and the public as a government-wide responsibility of the most serious urgency.

“Does this better or worsen biodiversity?” That’s the question that we all must ask from now on. It should be asked when debating a new law or even when figuring out if the location of a new subdivision is appropriate. We have to ask this kind of question – and have it treated seriously – if we’re sincere about joining the international community to halt the loss of biodiversity in the years ahead.

At a minimum, we should at least be making our own measured decisions about Ontario’s biodiversity with the best possible information. At this stage, I would argue that results are what count. We need much more than promises or rhetoric. The consequences of failing to properly address the biodiversity crisis are clear.

After the passage of the Green Energy and Green Economy Act in 2009, the ECO will produce an annual report on progress of activities in Ontario to reduce the use or make more efficient use of electricity, natural gas, propane, oil and transportation fuels. This will include:

· Describing results of initiatives to reduce or make more efficient use of the prescribed fuels

· Describing progress in meeting government-established targets for the prescribed fuels

· Identifying barriers to implementation of conservation and efficiency of the prescribed fuels, including those found in Ontario, federal and municipal legislation, regulations and policies, as well as local by-laws

Starting in spring 2010, we will be inviting your submissions about successful energy conservation initiatives that you know about, or barriers to energy conservation that you have experienced. Watch this space!

(Just a final note from the publisher of Niagara At Large to underscore the point that Miller may not be around for your submissions.)