Environmental responsibility is the new normal

Environmental responsibility is not a choice; it is a necessity. This is the new normal.

We – as government, as business-people, and as individuals - must work to protect the quality of the natural environment to fashion an Ontario where human health, recreation, commerce and industry are sustained by clean air, water and land.

While we are all in this together, it is incumbent on governments to lead by setting clear policies, standards, and rules to protect the environment and to encourage conservation activities. But more than that, along with monitoring the environment and enforcing these rules, we must look for innovative approaches to complement regulations. This includes building partnerships with communities, industries and organizations to find flexible, practical, cost effective ways to strengthen environmental protection and conservation efforts.

Clearly there is also a role for individuals to play, through both regulations and incentives for environmentally responsible behaviour – such as more efficient vehicles, technologies and appliances, and homes that use energy more efficiently and are constructed with environmentally friendly building materials.

Together we must tackle all aspects of the environmental challenge - air pollution and greenhouse gases, conserving green spaces for future generations, protecting our water supply and reducing toxic contaminants while maintaining the flexibility to find the best ways of achieving our shared goals.

Recently, Gord Miller, Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner, published his 2005-06 annual report with the title, Neglecting Our Obligations. While other jurisdictions work to brace for the new environmental realities, Ontario continues to fall behind. After four years of relative government inaction on the environment, save heavy-handed penalty based spills legislation, it’s time to step up!

It’s time for a plan that is both realistic and ambitious - starting with immediate action to stop greenhouse gas emissions and pollution from getting worse, and then implementing a long-term strategy to make Ontario an environmental leader. This strategy must include a real commitment to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) created in Ontario by setting strong short- and long-term GHG targets.

Government must also make GHG reductions a priority for industry, using the tax system to provide incentives for investments in energy efficiency. In the meantime individuals should be supported to contribute to the solution by offering consumer incentives to reduce GHG emissions, including rebates on buying more efficient vehicles, technologies and appliances (and scrapping the old ones).

Also key will be government commitment to build a clean energy system using a mixture of co-generation, renewable energy sources and nuclear power. This must go hand-in-hand with initiatives to immediately clean up Ontario’s coal-fired power plants – starting with Nanticoke - and to look at how we can use latest technologies such as gasification and carbon sequestration to reduce emissions. In the last four years, we have seen a regime that continues to set new dates for coal-closure while wasting valuable time that could be used to build on the emission-reduction, clean-air technology initiatives started by the last government.

It’s time to cool the hot-air rhetoric coming out of Queens Park and begin initiating real emission control that will have lasting effect on smog causing pollutants.

Clearly, a healthy natural environment is vital to the well-being of our families and to the province’s ability to attract investment and jobs.

Again, it’s time we step up, to get it right to achieve the cleaner environment Ontario needs today – and that our children deserve tomorrow.