by David Morris
According to Gordon
Miller, Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, the people of this province have
some big decisions to make regarding the future of rural Ontario. What do they
want the rural landscape of southern Ontario to look like? Do they care if its
forests, wetlands and farmland are preserved and protected for future generations?
If so, what are they willing to pay rural landowners to perform these functions?
In his presentation to the Annual Conference of the OCPA, Mr. Miller made it clear
that he believes that rural landscape does need to be protected. His vision is
that all Ontarions treat the land with respect in their living, working and recreation
so that a healthy ecosystem is preserved for future generations. He also believes
that landowners shouldn’t be expected to do it alone. Society as a whole
should help pay the costs.
Mr. Miller was appointed Environmental Commissioner in January of 2000. (Ontario
is the only province to have such an officer.) Like the Provincial Auditor, the
Environmental Commissioner is an officer of the Legislature, not the government,
and reports to the Legislature. It is his job to monitor the activities of thirteen
ministries of the Government of Ontario and comment on their performance in relation
to the terms of the Environmental Bill of Rights. In effect, he is Ontario's environmental
watchdog. Miller was, however, emphatic in pointing out that he is not a "Toronto
environmentalist". A resident of North Bay, he describes himself as one who
knows what it means to be close to the land. "I'm a northerner who shoots
and eats Canada geese and white-tailed deer," he said.
In his presentation, Mr. Miller shared his thoughts about the environmental challenges
facing Ontario agriculture. Not surprisingly, his first concern was water, and
the public health and ecological dangers posed by water contamination from nutrients
and bacteria. "Our streams are carrying a high nutrient load, and it's profoundly
affecting biological communities downstream,” he said. Boil-water orders
are common and beaches are routinely closed each summer because of high bacterial
counts. And now, the public has its eye on agriculture as being the cause. “The
tragedy at Walkerton profoundly changed people's perceptions of their water supplies
and the effect of agriculture on them,” he said. "Walkerton has forever
tied, in people's minds, water quality with what is done on the land."
The Environmental Commissioner acknowledged that the Walkerton inquiry did not
attach blame to the farmer closest to the problem well. Nevertheless, Miller warned
that because the public now has made the connection between farming and water
quality, agricultural practices will come under increasing scrutiny. He cautioned
farmers to take this public concern very seriously, noting that under the federal
Fisheries Act, any citizen can lay a charge against an individual or business
that is damaging fish habitat. The Fisheries Act actually includes an incentive
for people to lay charges. When there is a conviction, the person who laid the
charge can claim half of any fines that are levied.
Mr. Miller suggested that water quality problems are likely to get worse before
they get better, because the pressure to increase the nutrient load on our soils
is growing. While he is concerned by the trend toward ever-larger livestock operations,
he also noted that Ontario’s cities are also looking to farmland as a place
to spread the sewage sludge from a rapidly growing urban population. He cautioned,
“We don't really know how many nutrients our soils can handle without adding
to water quality problems.”
The Environmental Commissioner believes that water quantity is also becoming a
significant issue. The population of Ontario is growing, its industries are expanding,
livestock operations are getting larger, and so on. And because of global warming,
our summers are getting hotter, thereby increasing the demand for water. Already,
the average per capita consumption of water in Ontario is approaching 1000 litres
per day. In many areas, we’re using ground water faster than it can be replaced
- on an annual basis, each person uses as much water as would infiltrate into
18 acres of land.
Despite the improvements made over the past 20 or 30 years, Mr. Miller believes
that we are still falling behind environmentally in Ontario.
He acknowledged that agriculture isn't the only contributor to water quality problems,
but believes that it is the major source. He quoted an American report stating
that "agriculture runoff is causing the majority of our remaining water quality
problems."
However, rather than waste time and energy trying to allocate blame for water
pollution, Miller called for a common effort by industry and community to get
it stopped and turn things around. “This is society’s problem too, and
society must help bear the cost.”
He said that it is not that we don’t know what to do. “We have the solutions.
The solutions are well laid out in the Environmental Farm Plan. We have the formula
to do it right. We just need the courage. And the sooner we start, the better
we will leave the land for our children and grandchildren.”
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