The environmental approval program, according to the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario, is, “…not effectively managing the risks to the environment and human health from polluting activities.”
The annual report was tabled in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario on November 30, 2016. The report, which is two volumes with more than 800 pages, has “only” 40 pages focused on Environmental Approvals in Ontario.
As related to the Environmental Approvals, the report provides the following:
- A significant number of emitters may be operating without proper environmental approval. This includes as many as 12,000 “emitters” that may not be in the Ministry’s database.
- Over 200,000 approvals issued more than 15 years ago have not been updated to meet current environmental standards. Some of the potential deficiencies, according to the report, may include proper training of staff and lack of “well-maintained equipment.”
- The Ministry’s monitoring efforts are not sufficient to prevent and detect emitters that violate regulatory requirements and therefore pose a risk to the environment and human health. The report states that a majority of the permit holders have never been inspected.
- Penalties levied by the Ministry often did not deter repeat offenders. The report states that one-third of those who had violations had multiple violations.
“Recommendations” to the MOECC
The following are among the many recommendations (under 12 headings) the Auditor General offers the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC):
- Setting expiry dates on certain permits
- Assessing the risks associated with permits that were issued prior to 2000
- Proactively identifying those who may be operating without permits
- Establishing a “clear progressive penalty policy” for repeat offenders
- Ensuring that financial liability insurance is sufficient (the example provided to substantiate this need is the Northstar TCE contamination in Cambridge, ON, and Northstar’s subsequent bankruptcy)
- Establishing appropriate registration and application fees
Changes in Environmental Permitting
As pointed out in the report, there are four Canadian provinces where environmental approvals have an expiration (British Columbia, New Brunswick, Alberta, and the Yukon). Personally, I can also tell you from my work in the US, most of the State permitting programs I worked on had permit expirations ranging from one to five years.
The Ontario MOECC has stated that they are, “Evaluating the benefits and costs of setting expiry dates on Environmental Compliance Approvals for high-risk emitters…” What results from their evaluation may be the subject of a future blog.
So can we expect change? Yes… not necessarily because of this report from the Auditor General, but because it involves environmental permitting. And we’ve come to know that permitting is constantly changing. It’s one of the reasons we’ve continued to provide our monthly 10-Second Environmental Compliance Check Ups.
Here is a link to Section 3.05 Environmental Approvals from the Auditor General’s report.
If you have questions about environmental permitting, please feel free to contact me (cpare@dragun.com) at 519-979-7300, ext 114.