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Ontario Hansard - 05-April2007

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION


Mr. Peter Tabuns (Toronto-Danforth): My question is for the Minister of the Environment. Minister, yesterday the Environmental Review Tribunal threw cold water on your incineration agenda. It has given concerned citizens the green light to appeal the approvals given under your watch to Lafarge Canada to burn tires in Bath. The tribunal found that this incinerator is potentially hazardous to public health and the environment, and that's exactly-exactly-what community and environmental experts have been telling you for months.

The Speaker (Hon. Michael A. Brown): We need the member for Oxford and the Attorney General to sit down.

Mr. Tabuns: Why did you let the interests of a multinational company trump protecting Ontario families and the environment?

Hon. Laurel C. Broten (Minister of the Environment): As my friend knows well, the matter is now obviously before the Environmental Review Tribunal, and it would be inappropriate for me to comment on that specific matter.

My number one priority as Minister of the Environment is to ensure the health and safety of Ontarians. We are guided by a public discourse and guided by good science. The hearing before the Environmental Review Tribunal will provide another opportunity for the community to come together to bring that good science forward, and I look forward to the matter being before the ERT so that we can all move forward, being guided by the best science that's available.


Mr. Tabuns: The minister talks about protecting public safety, but she did not require Lafarge Canada's tire incinerator to undergo an environmental assessment. She forced the citizens to put out money and time to protect themselves. Two weeks ago, you changed the rules so you could fast-track incineration in this province so people could get around the environmental assessment process. The decision that was handed down by the Environmental Review Tribunal yesterday signals that these projects must be scrutinized, that those claims that they're safe are spin and not substance.

Minister, when can Ontarians count on you to actually start protecting the air they breathe from incineration?


Hon. Ms. Broten: I know my friend wants to play politics with many diverse issues, put them in a pot. I know that you have an absolute unwillingness to examine any type of new technology. That's why the rules have been put forth: 14 mandatory steps, many opportunities for public consultation. Those are the issues that we talked about last June when we said we would help get to a faster yes or a faster no and make sure that the environmental assessment process did protect Ontarians.

The matter now before the Environmental Review Tribunal is with respect to a certificate of approval, and I know that you know that those matters are very distinct. But in all of those issues, the guiding principle is to be guided by good science, to have public consultation, to meet with the community-which I have done in all of these instances-and to make sure that together as a jurisdiction we progress into the 21st century making sure that every citizen in Ontario is protected, and that's what I'm committed to doing.

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