FURTHER TO THE M.O.E.'s IMPOTENCE

Three days ago, here in the Advocate I mentioned that the Ontario Ministry of the Environment consumes the mouse's share of our provincial budget, to wit .3 %. That is approximately 1/3 of a penny of every dollar spent by our provincial government goes to the M.O.E.. This figure was first given out publicly at CPAC by Steve Martindale of the M.O.E. Whereas Steve is sometimes on the receiving end of appropriate citizen criticism; nevertheless occasionally he regales CPAC with a pearl of wisdom such as this one.

I have since gone on-line after googling the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (ECO). I was looking for the 2010/2011 Annual Report. Pages 81-84 are very interesting as the ECO, Mr. Gord Miller takes the province to task for their lack of funding for the M.O.E.. Table 5.1.1 shows us the two heavyweight Ministrys are Health and Education. The two smallest (financially) Ministrys are Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and the M.O.E. is dead last. "For the fiscal year ending march 31, 2011, the Ontario government's total planned operating budget was approximastely $119 billion , a 72 per cent increase since 1992/1993. During that same period...M.O.E's budget dropped by 45 per cent (in 2009 constant dollars).".

"Figure 5.1.3 shows that in 1992/1993, MOE had its highest operating budget, $692.3 million. It then declined sharply, levelled off, improved for a few years, and then declined abruptly in 2006/2007 to $292.8 million. Since then, it has slowly improved. Still, in 2010/2011, MOE's planned operating budget is $379.3 million, 45 per cent less than in 1992/1993 (in 2009 constant dollars).".

All these facts, figures and statistics make something very clear to me. We are spending nearly $45 billion per year on Health care and $21 billion on Education while spending $379 million on the Environment. I submit that there is a correlation here. Less money on the Environment will directly impact higher our Health care costs and clearly we are wasting $ billions on Education as neither our citizens or politicians seem smart enough to figure out this corelation.