Apr 192010
As did many of you, by November 27, 2009, we provided a detailed response to the proponent’s environmental screening report.
On April 1, 2010, the proponent provided a reply (consisting of a main reply, plus a sound and vibration reply) to our response.
The proponent’s reply provided a useful answer to only one of our 69 questions. The remainder repeated statements we already questioned, answered questions we did not ask, was evasive, non-committal, and basically said, “let’s just get started and hope it all works out”.
As a result, on April 19, 2010 we sent this letter to the Ministry of the Environment.
The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario is contacted regularly by individuals and groups frustrated by their EA misadventures. It would not be too forceful to say that Ontario’s EA process is broken. This ought to concern not only academics and environmentalists, but also the business community, the development-oriented ministries and everyday Ontarians hoping to see their province move forward on a sustainable path. We have lost the old vision for EA; a new vision is urgently needed.