Ontario’s proposal to “streamline” environmental permissions is a thinly veiled attempt to further privatize and/or abolish what should be public services.
Citizens are justifiably suspicious of practitioners, no matter how well trained or credentialed, who are hired by firms to give opinions and advice. It’s only common sense that hired experts will tell the person hiring them what they want to hear, if they want to get re-hired or paid for their work.
Instead of outsourcing advice previously supplied by public servants, the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks should increase its workforce.
If we need faster approvals, we should replace the staff who have been cut by this government’s many public service layoffs, and fill positions frozen five years ago by the hiring freeze imposed by this government.
Our environment is too precious, and already too threatened, to take the chance that purchased advice or no advice at all is good enough for stormwater management, hazardous waste transportation and management systems, construction site dewatering, aggregate operations, etc.
Especially here in Waterloo Region, where 80% of our drinking water comes from groundwater, we can’t take the risks.
That’s why I’m sending my comments on ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-6951 to permissions.modernization@ontario.ca. Please join me.
Kae Elgie
88 Fountain Street, Waterloo ON N2L 3N1
519-635-8951
