#BREAKING: has released five reports on the state of the environment under Doug Ford, and they're absolutely blistering.
Full reports at the link, some highlights in the thread below. #onpoli
auditor.on.ca
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The first report has strong language: AG Bonnie Lysyk finds the province has "deliberately ignored" the public's right to be consulted on environmental decisions, consistently for three years. She specifically points to the ministries of the environment and municipal affairs.
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The second report: Lysyk finds that the province has spent millions to manage hazardous waste spills — but it's billing taxpayers, not the companies that pollute. Of 73,000 spills from 2011 to 2020, the gov pursued $$ for just 3. Unrecovered costs are in the tens of millions.
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Third report: Ontario is set to run out of landfill space in 11 to 14 years. This is largely because 98 per cent of businesses and institutions aren't required to recycle. Steps the government has taken to date won't fix this, the AG finds.
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Fourth report: Ontario is "failing" and "doing little" to protect species at risk. Since 2009, the # of development approvals for projects harming species at risk has gone up by an eye-popping 6,000 per cent. Yes, you read that right.
The # of species at risk is up 22 per cent.
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Last but not least: the government is leaving the public in the dark on the environment by failing to release crucial (and required!) reports. This has been an issue for 20 years, the AG's office found.
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We'll have more on these reports and the Ford government's response at in the next day or so — we're taking some time to digest these hefty documents and get expert analysis. Stay tuned.
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Oh, there's bonus content! The AG also released follow-ups on last year's enviro audits.
The gov has "initiated work" to update its climate plan, the AG says, but this would result in emissions reductions of 3.2 MT — 14.2 MT less than what the plan says
auditor.on.ca/en/content/ann
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That being said, the AG notes that the Ontario government has been working on implementing many of her recommendations from last year's audit of the climate plan. 36 per cent fully implemented, 17 per cent in progress, little to no progress on 44 per cent
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Adding this here to complete the thread — here's the story with a detailed look at what the audits found:
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After reading all 489 pages of @OntarioAuditor's reports on the state of the environment under Doug Ford, here (AT LONG LAST) are my big takeaways for @thenarwhalca.
It's a long one, but we think the details of this are important. Hope you agree! #onpoli
thenarwhal.ca/ontario-enviro
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