Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - November 2003
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Why we no longer lead in environmental innovation
By Rui De Carvalho,
M.Eng., P.Eng.,
President,
R.J. Burnside & Associates
Over the course of the current
twelve months we will be
ushering in new governments
and new leaders at the
municipal, provincial and federal levels.
Let’s hope that this will also bring
us new leadership and vision in many
critical areas and especially in the
environment. It is not that we don’t
already have ample legislation and regulation.
In fact most countries in the
world, even those at a much different
level of development have plenty of
legislation that make profound statements
on the protection of human
health and of the environment. What is
normally lacking in these countries is
regulatory frameworks to appropriately
administer and reinforce legislation.
In Canada we are most fortunate in
that we do have both the legislation
and, for the most part, the corresponding
regulatory framework. After the
tragic wake up call of the Walkerton
drinking water tragedy, as most municipalities
will attest to, at present, the
most noticeable component of that regulatory
framework in Ontario, is
enforcement.
Years ago, smaller municipalities
looked to their Ministry of the
Environment District Offices for guidance
and direction on any number of
issues; today no one will dare make
that call, because it will be difficult to
find someone and before you know it,
investigators will be at the door.
There certainly is no need for government
to duplicate the type of technical
expertise that is already available
from the private sector. Government
does, however, need to make available
the resources to provide the necessary
and appropriate expertise at the
provincial Ministries of the Environment
and at Environment Canada to
ensure that there is a consistent and
accurate interpretation of environmental
regulation. Moreover, there is a
need to support the development of
leadership of the type that existed in
years past, and of a sustainable technical
capacity that will interface with the
private sector, special interest groups
and legislators to ensure that we as a
country are at the forefront of innovation
in the environment.
The failure of our leaders to take
these measures will result in a regressive,
looking back approach at what
went wrong. The agenda of those special
interest groups, with the most
resources to retain the best lawyers, will dominate, because of the lack of a
strong and technically-sound voice.
The downloading of the administration
of critical environmental regulations
to lower tier government agencies
such as some conservation authorities
and municipalities, that lack both the
resources and visionary leadership,
will result not only in bad decisions,
but also a greater frequency in engaging
legal-based mechanisms, such as
the Ontario Municipal Board and environmental
tribunals, for the resolution
of disagreements. It would be interesting
to determine not only the costs to
society but also the adverse impacts on
the environment that result from continuing
to do business in this manner.
The trucking of Toronto’s garbage to
Michigan has to be one of the better
examples of the bad decisions that are
being made.
Those of us who have been around
for a few years know that the pendulum
does swing. The last cycle, which
actually started well over a decade ago,
was particularly bad and has had some
very undesirable results. We are no
longer leading in environmental innovation
but we are rather, just trying to
keep up.
Let’s hope that we have learned
from some of our mistakes and that
environmental leadership and vision
once again become a priority and that
the need for a look back will be only
that which will contribute to the
improvement of our future.
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